3. Read, and try what thou readest; take nothing upon trust, but all upon trial, 1 John iv. 1, as those noble Bereans did, Acts xvii. 10, 11. You will try and tell, and weigh gold, though it be handed to you by your fathers; and so should you all those heavenly truths that are handed to you by your spiritual fathers. I hope upon trial you will find nothing, but what will hold weight in the balance of the sanctuary; and though all be not gold that glisters, yet I judge that you will find nothing here to glister, that will not be found upon trial to be true gold. 4. Read and do, read and practice what you read, or else all your reading will do you no good. He that hath a good book in his hand, but not a lesson of it in his heart, or life, is like that ass that carries rich burdens, and feeds upon thistles. In divine account, a man knows no more than he doth. Profession without practice, will but make a man twice told a child of darkness. To speak well, is to sound like a cymbal; but to do well, is to act like an angel. He that practiseth what he reads and understands, God will help him to understand what he understands not, John vii. 16, 17. Psal. cxix. 98, 99, 100. 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 practice, will in the end prove the mightiest man in scripture. 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 hear the apostles writings, and yet live in drunkenness; they follow Christ, and yet disobey Christ; they profess a holy law, and yet do lead impure lives. 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 conversations they reproach our works; they cry up our labours in their discourses, and yet they cry them down in their practices. Yet I hope better things of you, into whose hands this treatise shall fall. The Samaritan woman, John iv. 7. did not fill her pitcher with water, that she might talk of it, but that she might use it; and Rachel did not desire the mandrakes to hold in her hand, Gen. xxx. 15. but that she might thereby be the more apt to bring forth. The application is easy. But, 5. Read and apply. Reading is but the drawing of the bow, application is the hitting of the mark. The choicest truths will no farther prophet you, than they are applied by you; you had as good not read, as not apply what you read. No man attains to health Seneca had rather be sick than idle and do nothing, by reading of Galen, or by knowing Hippocrates's 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 pro fit so little, is, because they do not apply and bring home what they read to their own souls, But, 6. 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 certainly men would gain much more than they do, by reading good mens works, if they would but pray more over what they read. Ah Christians! 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 upthus: So let me live, so let me die, And when you are in the mount for yourselves, bear him upon you hearts, who is willing to spend and be spent for your sakes, for your souls, 2 Cor. xii. 15. O pray for me, Ó 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 always 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 peoples 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 souls servant in our dearest Lord, THOMAS BROOKS. THE MUTE CHRISTIAN UNDER THE SMARTING ROD. PSAL. XXXIX. 9. I was dumb, I opened not my mouth, because thou didst it. NOT OT 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; A 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 signifies to be mute, tongue-tied, or dumb*; the He * Some read it thus, I should have been dumb, and not bave opened my mouth, according to my first resolution, ver. 1, 2. |