(1.) As the word and ministry is called 'the salt,' Luke xiv. 34. Now the power of salt is to season, to make sweet, to relish, to consume the superfluous humours, to preserve, and keep long. So the word hath the power of salt to eat out the corruptions, and to preserve the soul to make it relish God. The souls of men, without divine truths accompanying them, they are, to speak with reverence, but carrion souls and dead souls, ever stinking in the nostrils of God ; howsoever they bear it out in the world to be godly persons, yet if they have not souls sanctified by divine truths, thej^ ha\e but rotten hearts, and are good for nothing.
(2.) The dispensing of it is compared to 'the arm of God.' Isa. liii. 1, * To whom is the arm of the Lord revealed ? ' Now a man's power is in his arm. The ordinance is not only ' the finger of God,' but ' the arm of God' to pull men out of Satan's kingdom and their wicked courses, by shew- ing them the vengeance of God, and better things than the world can, or Satan can. The word, the power of the Spirit accompanying it, is the arm of God 'made bare,' as the word signifieth in the original." God revealeth and maketh bare his arm in the ministry when he puUeth men out of Satan's kingdom and their wicked courses.
(3.) And so likewise the truth of God in the dispensation of it is the 'sword of the Sjnrit,' Eph. vi. 7, and cuts on both sides. It is no leaden dagger, as the papists blasphemously term it (/). It hath a force in it to cut as it goeth, and they shall feel it one day that will not feel it now; and therefore it is compared, together with the Spirit, ' to wind,' which hath a mighty power to carry and transport things, John iii. 8.
(4.) And the ministers of God's holy truths, in regard of the efiicacy of the ministry, have excellent terms. They are,
[1.] ' Stars,' because they give light. Rev. i. 16.
[2.] They are ' ambassadors,' as they have commission from God, Luke ix. 2.
[3.] They are, in regard of the excellency of the truth, ' angels,' Rev. ii. 1.
[4.] They are, in respect of the necessity of God's people, ' saviours.' So were Moses and Joshua.
God saveth by the ministry ordinarily those whom he doth save ; so that there is a power and efficacy of power in the ministry, as appears by the terms by which it is set out.
(5.) Again, God is able to give efficacy to whatsoever he will. As he giveth power to every creature according to its own natural working, so he
*■ In margin here — ' (1/1732 Nigletah (sic) from Galali manifestatus fuil ; de reve-
T T : •
latione absconditorum proprie dicitur.' — Amos iii. 7. — G.
868 COMMENTARY ON
giveth power to tliosc things that have institution from him. He is ahlc to do it, to make them effectual for the end for which he hath appointed them, for he is the supreme power himself. All power is resident in him as the head ; and therefore he furnisheth and clothcth this ordinance of hie with a power.
(6.) The word is compared to ' seed,' Mat. xiii. 3, seq. Now, in seed there is a power to put forth itself, to grow and hrced seed like itself, and it will hreak through clods till it comes to its ripeness and maturity. Ho there is a power in the word. When it is so in the helievcr's heart, it will bring forth a disposition like itself, as seed doth. As it is a holy word and a pure word, it will make the heart that receiveth it suitable. Therefore James* calleth it the ' engrafted word,' James i. 4, comparing divine truths to a syancef engrafted into a plant, that turns the juice of the plant into its own nature. So when the word is engrafted, it altercth the heart, that the inward man doth relish of divine things, thinketh in power of what he heareth, and speaks in power of what he heareth, and undcrstandeth, and workcth, and doth in power of what he knoweth ; so that divine truth is like a syancef engrafted into the heart. Therefore there is a power, and an excellency of power in it, not only in truth itself, but in the dispensa- tion of it. God setteth not up an ordinance but he giveth a blessing upon it. There is an excellency of power as a power. Is there not a power and excellency of power to level mountains and to fill up valleys ? It fillctli the valleys. Poor dejected souls are filled with comfort. Is there not power and excellency of power to make a camel to go through a needle's eye ? That is, to strip a man of self-conceitedness of his own worth, so far that being a camel, a swelling person before, he shall now be humble and low in his own sight. It is difficult as for a camel, so for a cable too (m). There needeth much extenuation to make a cable to go through a needle's eye, and much to humble a Christian ; and is not this an excellent power ? Sure it is. Therefore there is a power, and an excellency of power.