John Rogers on Neglect of the Bible

In the 1620s Puritan John Rogers gave a lecture on the neglect of the Bible to some 500 listeners. John Howe reports, on what he heard of that great lecture, in the following words:

He personates God to the people, telling them, "Well, I have trusted you so long with my Bible...it lies in such houses all covered with dust and cobwebs; you care not to listen to it. Do you use my Bible so? Well, you shall have my Bible no longer." And he takes up the Bible from his cushion, and seemed as if he were going away with it and carrying it from them, but immediately turns again and personates the people to God, falls down on his knees, cries and pleads most earnestly. "Lord, whatever thou dost to us, take not thy Bible from us; kill our children, burn our houses, destroy our goods, only spare us thy Bible, take not away thy Bible". And then he personates God again to the people: "Say you so? Well I will try you a while longer; and here is my Bible for you, I will see how you will use it, whether you will love it more...observe it more...practice it more, and live more according to it.

May we treasure God's word more than we do!