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3 lines
2.4 KiB
HTML
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<p>See here, I. The misery of the people that want a settled ministry: <i>Where there is no vision</i>, no prophet to expound the law, no priest or Levite to teach the good knowledge of the Lord, no means of grace, the word of the Lord is scarce, there is <i>no open vision</i> (<a class="bibleref" title="1Sam.3.1" href="/passage/?search=1Sam.3.1">1 Sam. 3:1</a>), where it is so <i>the people perish</i>; the word has many significations, any of which will apply here. 1. <i>The people are made naked</i>, stripped of their ornaments and so exposed to shame, stripped of their armour and so exposed to danger. How bare does a place look without Bibles and ministers, and what an easy prey is it to the enemy of souls! 2. <i>The people rebel</i>, not only against God, but against their prince; good preaching would make people good subjects, but, for want of it, they are turbulent and factious, and <i>despise dominions</i>, because they know no better. 3. <i>The people are idle</i>, or <i>they play</i>, as the scholars are apt to do when the master is absent; they do nothing to any good purpose, but stand all the day idle, and sporting in the market-place, for want of instruction what to do and how to do it. 4. <i>They are scattered as sheep having no shepherd</i>, for want of the masters of assemblies to call them and keep them together, <a class="bibleref" title="Mark.6.34" href="/passage/?search=Mark.6.34">Mark 6:34</a>. They are scattered from God and their duty by apostasies, from one another by divisions; God is provoked to scatter them by his judgments, <a class="bibleref" title="2Chr.15.3,2Chr.15.5" href="/passage/?search=2Chr.15.3,2Chr.15.5"><span class="bibleref" title="2Chr.15.3">2 Chron. 15:3</span>, <span class="bibleref" title="2Chr.15.5">5</span></a>. 5. <i>They perish</i>; they are <i>destroyed for lack of knowledge</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="Hos.4.6" href="/passage/?search=Hos.4.6">Hos. 4:6</a>. See what reason we have to be thankful to God for the plenty of <i>open vision</i> which we enjoy.</p>
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<p class="tab-1">II. The felicity of a people that have not only a settled, but a successful ministry among them, the people that hear and <i>keep the law</i>, among whom religion is uppermost; <i>happy</i> are such a people and every particular person among them. It is not having the law, but obeying it, and living up to it, that will entitle us to blessedness.</p>
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