ave found truth there, and learned it, no, except you have
found life there, you have found nothing, you have missed the treasure. If
you would profit by the Scriptures, you must bring both your understanding
and your affections to them, and depart not till they both return full. If
you bring your understanding to seek the truth, you may find truth, but
not truly, you may find it, but you are not found of it. You may lead
truth captive, and enclose it in a prison of your mind, and encompass it
about with a guard of corrupt affections, that it shall have no issue, no
outgoing to the rest of your souls and ways, and no influence on them. You
may "know the truth," but you are not "known of it," nor brought into
captivity to the obedience of it. The treasure that is hid in the
Scriptures is Jesus Christ, whose entire and perfect name is, "Way, Truth,
and Life." He is a living truth and true life, therefore Christ is the
adequate object of the soul, commensurable to all its faculties. He has
truth in him to satisfy the mind, and has life and goodness in him to
satiate the heart, therefore if thou wouldest find Jesus Christ, bring thy
whole soul to seek him, as Paul expresseth it. He is true and faithful,
and "worthy of all acceptation," then bring thy judgment to find the light
of truth, and thy affections to embrace the life of goodness that is in
him. Now, as much as ye find of him, so much have ye profited in the
Scriptures. If you find commands there which you cannot obey, search
again, and you may find strength under that command. Dig a little deeper,
and you shall find Jesus the end of an impossible command. And when you
have found him, you have found life and strength to obey, and you have
found a propitiation and sacrifice for transgressing and not obeying. If
you find curses in it, search again, and you shall find Jesus Christ under
that, "made a curse for us," you shall find him "the end of the law for
righteousness to every one that believes." When you know all the letter of
the Scripture, yet you must search into the spirit of it, that it may be
imprinted into your spirits. All you know does you no good but as it is
received in love, unless your souls become a "living epistle," and the
word without be written on the heart, you have found nothing. As for you
that cannot read the Scriptures, if it be possible, take that pains to
learn to read them. O if you knew what they contain, and whom they bear
witness of, you wo