230 ON DIFFICULTIES IN SCRIPTURE. I grantthat the first and grand design of their studies and public labours should be to preach the gospelof thegrace of God and reconciliation by Jesus Christ, and to make the necessary articles of faith and practice plain to the meanest soul: But a minister is also required to converse not only with those scriptures which will make himwise to final salvation, but with those also which may thoroughly furnish him to every good word and work; 2 'l'im. iii. 15 -17. that he may know how to speak a word in season to every weary soul, and to draw consciences out of perplexity whichare vexed with scruples of less impor- tant things ; to instruct them in the mind andwill of Christ about the methods of his worship, and the order of his church, to shery them the pattern and fashion of the house of God, and all tho ordinances, and the forms and the laws thereof : And that is a part of his duty, at proper seasons, in some of his publicminis- trations ; for he roust conceal nothing of the counsel of God from them, that may be useful or profitable to men : The methods of his worship, and institutions of his gospel, should be treasured up in his heart ; and upon proper occasions, of private visit and conference, the lips of the priest should make it appear that they keep knorèledge, that the law may be sought at his mouth, for ho 'is the messenger ofthe Lordof hosts ; Mal. ii. 7. Not that every man is bound to pay an implicit faith and blindobedience to the opinions and dictates of his bishop or presbyter. This is popish slavery wheresoever it is practised, and popish tyranny where it is commanded ; But christians ought to givedue attention to the advice and counsel of such as are set over them in the Lord ; FJeb. xiii, 17. 1 Cor. xvi. 15, 16. Such as are solemnly devoted to the ministry of the gospel, and have addicted themselves to the study and search of the scriptures, and arechosen by the people tobe their teachers, and set apart for that office in the way they best approve; and so far as their advice is conformable;to the written word, they are to receive it as from some of the messengers of' Christ. We may humbly suppose a fourth design which God had in his eye when the sacred penmen wrote so tnany verses of holy scripture, which God knew were so difficult to be inter- preted ; and that is, that no christian might, put the bible out of his own hands, or neglect to read and meditate and study the word of Cod ; and that together with their reading they might constantly implore the presence of the Spirit, the enlightenea and the comforter, to lead them into all truth. It is the duty of every man, so, far as his capacity and opportunities of life will admit, to study the holy scriptures himself, and to seewith his own eyes what he moat believe, and what he must practise. We-should imitate the example of the nobleBerens ; Acts xvii. 11, who searched the scriptures with diligence, and brought
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