I fervently bow my knees to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you may always be like-minded;
that you may ever wait reverently for the coming and opening of the word of life, and attend upon it in your ministry and service, that you may serve God in his Spirit. And be it little, or be it much, it is well; for much is not too much, and the least is enough, if from the motion of God’s Spirit; and without it, verily, never so little is too much, because to no profit.
For it is the Spirit of the Lord immediately, or through the ministry of his servants, that teacheth his people to profit; and to be sure, so far as we take him along with us in our services, so far we are profitable, and no further. For if it be the Lord that must work all things in us for our salvation, much more is it the Lord that must work in us for the conversion of others. If therefore it was once a cross to us to speak, though the Lord required it at our hands, let it never be so to be silent, when he does not.
It is one of the most dreadful sayings in the book of God, “That he that adds to the words of the prophecy of this book, God will add to him the plagues written in this book.” To keep back the counsel of God, is as terrible; “For he that takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life.” And truly, it has great caution in it, to those that use the name of the Lord, to be well assured the Lord speaks; that they may not be found of the number of those that add to the words of the testimony of prophecy, which the Lord giveth them to bear; nor yet to mince or diminish the same, both being so very offensive to God.
Wherefore, Brethren, let us be careful, neither to out-go our guide, nor yet loiter behind him; since he that makes haste may miss his way, and he that stays
behind lose his guide. For even those that have received the word of the Lord, had need wait for wisdom, that they may see how to divide the word aright: which plainly implieth, that it is possible for one that hath received the word of the Lord, to miss in the dividing and application of it; which must come from an impatiency of spirit, and a self-working, which makes an unsound and dangerous mixture, and will hardly beget a right-minded living people to God.
I am earnest in this, above all other considerations, as to brethren in the ministry, (well knowing how much it concerns the present and future state and preservation of the church of Christ Jesus, that has been gathered and built up by a living and powerful ministry,) that the ministry be held, preserved, and continued in the manifestations, motions, and supplies of the same life and power, from time to time.
And wherever it is observed, that any do minister more from gifts and parts, than life and power, though they have an enlightened and doctrinal understanding, let them in time be advised and admonished for their preservation, because insensibly such will come to depend upon a self-sufficiency; to forsake Christ the living Fountain, and hew out unto themselves cisterns, that will hold no living waters: and, by degrees, such will come to draw others from waiting upon the gift of God in themselves, and to feel it in others, in order to their strength and refreshment, to wait upon them, and to turn from God to man again, and so make shipwreck of the faith once delivered to the saints, and of a good conscience towards God: which are only kept by that divine gift of life that begat the one, and awakened and sanctified the other in the beginning.
Nor is it enough, that we have known the divine
gift, and in it have reached to the spirits in prison, and been the instruments of the convincing of others of the way of God, if we keep not as low and poor in ourselves, and as depending upon the Lord, as ever: since no memory, no repetitions of former openings, revelations, or enjoyments, will bring a soul to God, or afford bread to the hungry, or water to the thirsty, unless life go with what we say, and that must be waited for.