Ecclesiastes 12:11

The words of the wise [are] as goads, and as nails fastened [by] the masters of assemblies, [which] are given from one shepherd.

Ver. 11. The words of the wise are like goads.] To rouse up men's drowsy and drossy spirits; to drive them, as the eagle doth her young ones with her talons, out of the nest of carnal security; to awaken them out of the snare of the devil, who hath cast many into such a dead lethargy, such a dedolent disposition, that, like Dionysius the Heracleot, they can hardly feel sharpest goads, or needles thrust into their fat hearts - "fat as grease." Psa 119:70 St Peter so preached that his hearers were "pricked at heart." Act 2:37 St Stephen so galled his adversaries that they were "cut to the heart." Act 7:54 And before them both, how barely and boldly dealt John Baptist and our Saviour Christ with those enemies of all righteousness, the Pharisees, qui toties puncti ac repuncti, nunquam tamen ad resipiscentiam compuncti, as one saith of them (who like those bears in Pliny, or asses of Tuscany, that have fed on hemlock), were so stupified that no sharp words would work upon them or take impression in their hearts, so brawny were their breasts, so horny their heart strings!

And as nails.] Such as shepherds fastened their tents to the ground with. Jael drove one of these tent nails through Sisera's temples, and laid his body as it were listening what was become of the soul. Jdg 4:21 Now, as nails driven into pales do fasten them to their rails, so the godly and grave sentences of teachers - those "masters of assemblies" - do pierce into men's hearts, to unite them unto God by faith, and one to another in love. Our exhortations truly should be strong and well pointed, not only to wound as arrows, but to stick by the people as forked arrows, that they may prove, as those of Joash, "the arrows of the Lord's deliverance." And surely it were to be wished, in these unsettled and giddy times especially, that people would suffer such words of exhortation, as, like goads, might prick them on to pious practice, and, like nails, might fix their wild conceits, that they might be steadfast and immoveable, stablished in the truth, and not whiffied about with every wind of doctrine. But we can look for no better, so long as they have so mean an esteem of the ministers, those "masters of the assemblies" (whose office it is to congregate the people, and to preside in the congregations), which are given from one shepherd, the arch-shepherd 1Pe 2:25 of his sheep, Jesus Christ, who in the days of his solemn inauguration into his kingdom, "gave these gifts unto men" - viz., "some to be apostles, some evangelists, some pastors, some teachers," &c. Eph 4:11 What a mouth of blasphemy then opens that schismatical pamphleteer, a that makes this precious gift of Christ to his spouse, this sacred and tremendous function of the ministry, to be as mere an imposture, as very a mystery of iniquity, as arrant a fraud as the Papacy itself!

a The Compas. Samarit.