This being the testimony and example the man of God before mentioned was sent to declare and leave amongst us, and we having embraced the same as the merciful visitation of God to us, the word of exhortation at this time is, that we continue to be found in the way of this testimony with all zeal and integrity, and so much the more, by how much the day draweth near. And first, as to you, my beloved and much honoured brethren in Christ, that are in the exercise of the ministry: Oh, feel Life in your ministry! Let Life be your commission, your well-spring and treasury on all such occasions, else, you will know, there can be no begetting to God, since nothing can quicken or make people alive to God, but the Life of God: and it must be a ministry in and from Life, that enlivens any people to God. We have seen the fruit of all other ministries, by the few that are turned from the evil of their ways. It is not our parts or memory, the repetition of former openings in our own will and time, that will do God’s work. A dry, doctrinal ministry, however sound in words, can reach but the ear, and is but a dream at the best. There is another soundness, that is soundest of all, viz., Christ the power of God. This is the key of David, that opens and none shuts, and shuts, and none can open; as the oil to the lamp, and the soul to the body, so is that to the best of words: which made Christ to say, “My words they are spirit, and they are life;” that is, they are from life and therefore they make you alive, that receive them. If the disciples that had lived with Jesus were to stay at Jerusalem till they received it, so must we wait to receive before we minister, if we will turn people from darkness to light, and from Satan’s power to God. 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, ever 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 farther. For if it be the Lord that must work all things in us, and for our own 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.