that practiseth what he reads and understands, God will help him to understand what he understands not. There is no fear of knowing too much, though there is much fear in practising too little ; the most doing man shall be the most knowing man ; the mightiest man in prac- tice will in the end prove the mightiest man in Scripture, John vii. 16, 17, Ps. cxix. 98-100. Theory is the guide of practice, and practice is the life of theory. Salvian relates how the heathen did reproach some Christians, who by their lewd lives made the gospel of Christ to be a reproach. ' Where,' said they, ' is that good law which they do believe? Where are those rules of godliness which they do learn ? They read the holy gospel, and yet are unclean ; they read the apostles' writings, and yet live in drunkenness ; they follow Christ, and yet dis- obey Christ ; they profess a holy law, and yet do lead impure lives.'1 Ah ! how may many preachers take up sad complaints against many readers in these days ! They read our works, and yet in their lives they deny our works ; they praise our works, and yet in their conver- sations they reproach our works ; they cry up our labours in their dis- courses, and yet they cry them down in their practices : yet I hope better things of you into whose hands this treatise shall fall.2 The Samaritan woman did not fill her pitcher with water, that she might talk of it, but that she might use it, John iv. 7 ; and Rachel did not desire the mandrakes to hold in her hand, but that she might thereby be the more apt to bring forth, Gen. xxx. 15. The application is easy. But,
Fifthly, Read and apply. Reading is but the drawing of the bow, application is the hitting of the white.3 The choicest truths will no further profit you than they are applied by you ; you were as good not to read, as not to apply what you read.4 No man attains to health by reading of Galen, or knowing Hippocrates, his aphorisms, but by the practical application of them ; all the reading in the world will never make for the health of your souls except you apply what you read. The true reason why many read so much and profit so little is, because they do not apply and bring home what thev read to their own souls. But,
Sixthly, and lastly, Read and pray. He that makes not conscience of praying over what he reads, will find little sweetness or profit in his reading. No man makes such earnings of his reading, as he that prays over what he reads. Luther professeth that he profited more in the knowledge of the Scriptures by prayer, in a short space, than by study in a longer. As John by weeping got the sealed book open, so cer- tainly men would gain much more than they do by reading good men's works, if they would but pray more over what they read.5 Ah, Chris- tians ! pray before you read, and pray after you read, that all may be blessed and sanctified to you ; when you have done reading, usually close up thus ; —
So let me live, so let me die, That 1 may live eternally.
1 Salvianus de G. D. 1. iv.
■ Seneca had rather he sick, than idle and do nothing. [Epist. lvi. — G]
1 The ' centre-mark.' — G.
4 The plaster will not heal if it he not applied.
'■J Prayer is porta cccli, clavis paradisi.
EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 293
And when you are in the mount for yourselves, bear him upon your hearts, who is willing to 'spend and be spent ' for your sakes, for your souls, 2 Cor. xii. 15. Oh ! pray for me, that I may more and more be under the rich influences and glorious pourings out of the Spirit ; that I may ' be an able minister of the New Testament, not of the letter, but of the Spirit,' 2 Cor. iii 6 ; that I may always find an everlasting spring and an overflowing fountain within me, which may alway make me faithful, constant, and abundant in the work of the Lord ; and that I may live daily under those inward teachings of the Spirit, that may enable me to speak from the heart to the heart, from the conscience to the conscience, and from experience to experience ; that I may be a 'burning and a shining light,' that everlasting arms may be still under me ; that whilst I live, I may be serviceable to his glory and his people's good ; that no discouragements may discourage me in my work ; and that when my work is done, I may give up my account with joy and not with grief. I shall follow these poor labours with my weak prayers, that they may contribute much to your internal and eternal welfare, and so rest,
Your soul's servant in our dearest Lord,
THE MUTE CHRISTIAN UNDER THE SMARTING ROD.
/ vjcls dumb, I opened not my mouth ; because thou didst it. — Ps. XXXIX. 9.
Not to trouble you with a tedious preface, wherein usually is a flood of words, and but a drop of matter,
This psalm consists of two parts, the first exegetical or narrative, the second eutical1 or precative.2 1. Narration and prayer take up the whole. In the former, you have the prophet's disease discovered ; and in the latter, the remedy applied. My text falls in the latter part, where you have the way of David's cure, or the means by which his soul was reduced to a still and quiet temper. I shall give a little light into the words, and then come to the point that I intend to stand upon.
'I was dumb.' The Hebrew word *fi»^>N3 from cha signifies to be mute, tongue-tied, or dumb. The Hebrew word signifies also to bind, as well as to be mute and dumb, because they that are dumb are as it were tongue-tied ; they have their lips stitched and bound up. Ah ! the sight of God's hand in the afflictions that was upon him, makes him lay a law of silence upon his heart and tongue.3
' I opened not my mouth, because thou didst it.' He looks through all secondary causes to the first cause, and is silent : he sees a hand of God in all, and so sits mute and quiet. The sight of God in an affliction is of an irresistible efficacy to silence the heart, and to stop the mouth of a gracious man. In the words you may observe three things :
1. The person speaking, and that is, David ; David a king, David a saint, David 'a man after God's own heart,' David a Christian ; ami here we are to look upon David, not as a king, but as a Christian, as a man whose heart was right with God.
2. The action and carriage of David under the hand of God, in these words, ' I was dumb, and opened not my mouth.'
3. The reason of this humble and sweet carriage of his, in these words, ' because thou didst it.' The proposition is this :
1 Sic : and have collated all the editions. Qu. — from the old theological term ethos irifos), by which the writer reveals his own disposition ? — G. [Or, Qu. ' Euchical'? — Ed.]
3 Some read it thus: ' I should have been dumb, and not have opened my mouth,' according to my first resolution, ver. 1, 2.
PS. XXXIX. 9.] THE MUTE CHRISTIAN. 295
JDoct. That it is the great duty and concernment of gracious souls to be mute and silent under the greatest afflictions, the saddest provi- dences, and sharpest trials that they meet with in this world.