Heavenly merchandiseHeavenly merchandize

4. Consider also that if you now buy, you shall then have something to live on, when others must starve: how soon a Famine of the Truth (that worst of famines) may come upon us, we do not know; there was a time when God threatened it to the people of Israel, Amos 8. 21. behold the days come, faith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the Land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord: and there is great reason why a people should be afraid of it, there where fullness hath begotten loathing, and plenty hath produced carelessness: where men have put greatest slights upon these best things, and grown weary of them: and if such a time doth come, it will be known who husbanded the harvest, who took the opportunity of the market time to buy provision, and furnish themselves against […] time of need; then Truth (how low soever it is now esteemed) will be of worth, the vision will be precious, and men shall seek or it in vain, as the Prophet follows it in ⟨p. 147⟩verse 12. They shall wander from Sea to Sea, and from the North even to the East, and they shall run to and fro to seek the Word of the Lord, and shall not find it. When the Merchant hath trust up his fardels and is gone, it is then no time for any to buy of him, they that did it not in the proper season, must now suffer the want whatever it be. But when it is so, that all trading is ceased, and every market is shut up, then that happy soul that had the wisdom and grace to get Truth his own, in the season wherein it was to be had, and hath laid it up in his heart as a precious treasure, shall have the comfort of it indeed. The Truth that is only deposited in the public store of Ordinances, and set to sale in them, may be taken away from us, the market may be stopped, the doors of Gods House may be shut up: but he that hath gotten the Truth locked up in the secret cabinet of his soul, can never be robbed of it, nor yet be hindered from using and improving it for his spiritual refreshing and comfort; in the darkest hours of oppression; take therefore your opportunity, and whilst you may, secure this, and you shall be happy. This may suffice for the first branch of the Exhortation; a few words to the second shall shut up this discourse.

4. Consider also that if you now buy, you shall then have something to live on, when others must starve: how soon a Famine of the Truth (that worst of famines) may come upon us, we do not know; there was a time when God threatned it to the people of Israel, Amos 8. 21. behold the days come, faith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the Land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord: and there is great reason why a people should be afraid of it, there where fulness hath begotten loathing, and plenty hath produced carelesness: where men have put greatest slights upon these best things, and grown weary of them: and if such a time doth come, it will be known who husbanded the harvest, who took the opportunity of the market time to buy provision, and furnish themselves against time of need; then Truth (how low soever it is now esteemed) will be of worth, the vision will be precious, and men shall seek or it in vain, as the Prophet follows it in