9 And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey.



Ver. 9. Give me the little book] Let preachers ply the throne of grace, if ever they will preach to purpose. Bene orasse, est bene studuisse, said Luther. Three things make a preacher, reading, prayer, and temptation. He that will understand God’s riddles must plough with this heifer, the Spirit, which is not given but to them that ask it.



And eat it up] By reading and meditation; ministers must so devour and digest the Holy Scriptures, that as good scribes they may draw out new and old for the use of the Church upon all occasions. Jacobus de Voragine was so called, quod esset veluti vorago bibliorum, because he as it were devoured the Bible. (Alsted. Chron.) So Petrus Comestor for the same reason. Joannes Gatius, a Sicilian, was so well versed in the Scriptures, and so great a divine, that he once said, Si libri sacri perirent, se per Dei gratiam restiturum, That if the Bible were lost out of the world, he could restore it: Some think that Ezra did so after the Babylonish captivity, but I cannot think so. (Vide Pareum in Gen. Proleg.)