THE
REFORMED PASTOR;
THE DUTY OF PERSONAL LABORS
THE SOULS OF MEN.
BY REV. RICHARD BAXTER,
11
REVISED AND ABRIDGED
BY REV. WILLIAM BROYVX, M.B- ob EDINBURGH.
WITH AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY, BY REV. DANIEL WILSON, D. D.
BISHOP OF CALCUTTA.
REVISED FR03I THE THIRD GLASGOW EDITION.
PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY,
150 NASSAU-STREET, NEW YORK.
.X
Exchange
Augustana College Llbyi
Sept. 28 1934
5
NOTICE OF THE PRESENT EDITION.
The work of Baxter, " The Reformed Pastor/' has been long known and cherished by ministers of the various evangeli- cal denominations, as among the most inspiriting, solemn, and glowing works ever written on the duties and responsibilities of their office. Many of them have found its perusal affecting their own souls and their ministrations, much as they might suppose the coal flaming from God's own altars did the lips of the prophet. And although more immediately addressed to pas- tors, the lessons of the volume may, in their measure, be applied to all Christians upon whom God has bestowed the opportunity and means of influencing others.
Its author indeed wrote for a state of things which does not present itself in our own country, nor did it long continue in Britain. The Christian teacher had, when Baxter was settled at Kidderminster, the official and exclusive oversight of all the souls within a certain district \ and they expected, and had been trained to receive him as coming with the authority of the state as well as the church, in his pastoral visits to their households. The catechism in which he questioned them was a recognized part of each child's education in the ordinary school. The sep- aration of the church from the control and patronage of a civil establishment ) the independent action of several denominations within the same local boundaries, each enlisting its voluntary supporters ; and the absence of religious instruction from many of our common schools, create here another shape of society than that for which Baxter planned and toiled.
Our Sabbath-schools and Bible-classes have also risen up, to occupy within the Christian church some of that field of influ- ence which was covered by Baxter's labors, and afford some of that religious instruction which he contemplated. Among the
4 PREFATORY NOTICE.
various modes by which our minds may be brought into close intercourse with souls around us, every Christian must deter- mine for himself, prayerfully and deliberately, which, in his cir- cumstances, will best answer the end. Baxter certainly did not intend to insist upon any one stereotyped form of effort, to the exclusion of all others * his object was to bring the truth to bear upon the conscience, in connection with home visitation. As a former editor has said, the author must have meant by catechizing, " not only hearing persons repeat a form of words containing the grand and common principles of religion, but proposing to them77 other " familiar questions,57 and personally conferring with them on the truths of the Bible, in every way adapted to their benefit.
Since the work was originally written, it has been altered and abridged, in the several editions through which it has passed. " A very good abridgment/7 says Orme in his Life and Times of Baxter, "was executed many years ago by the late Rev. Samuel Palmer, the circulation of which has been very extensive. A much improved revision and abridgment of the work by the Rev. Dr. Brown of Edinburgh, with an admirable introductory essay by the Rev. Daniel Wilson, (now bishop of Calcutta.) has been recently published by Collins of Glasgow. Both the abridgment and the essay are in all respects worthy of Baxter, and deserv- ing of the widest diffusion.77
The present edition has been revised and somewhat abridged from that of Dr. Brown. Some passages which derived their meaning from the peculiar state of the church in which Baxter labored have been omitted, and some which were applicable only to Great Britain and the times when the author lived have been modified, while their spirit has been carefully preserved. Quotations in foreign languages have been translated, or where the sense allowed, altogether dropped; and where, as in two or three instances, there has been an omission of a few lines containing incidental allusions to points in controversy between evangelical denominations, the fact is indicated by asterisks which supply their place.
It should be further stated, that an aged friend, who desires to withhold his name, has . contributed the sum of five hundred dollars to stereotype and perpetuate this work.
DR. BROWN'S PREFACE. 8
PREFACE BY THE EDITOR, DR. BROWN.
Of the excellence of this work it is scarcely possible to speak in too high terms. It is not a directory relative to the various parts of the ministerial office, and in this respect it may, by some, be considered as defective; but for powerful, pathetic, pungent, heart-piercing address, Ave know of no work on the pastoral office to be compared with it. Could we suppose it to be read by an angel, or by some other being possessed of an unfallen nature, the argumentation and expostulations of our author would be felt to be altogether irresistible: and hard must be the heart of that minister who can read it without being moved, melted, and overwhelmed — hard must be his heart, if he be not roused to greater faithfulness, diligence, and activ- ity in winning souls to Christ. It is a work worthy of being printed in letters of gold • it deserves, at least, to be engraven on the heart of every minister.
But with all its excellences, c,'The Reformed Pastor," as originally published by our author, labors under considerable defects, especially as regards its usefulness in the present day. With respect to his works in general, he makes the following candid, yet just acknowledgment. " Concerning almost all my writings, I must confess that my own judgment is, that fewer, well studied and polished, had been better ■ but the reader who can safely censure the books, is not fit to censure the author, unless he had been upon the place, and acquainted with all the occasions and circumstances. Indeed, for the i Saints' Rest/' I had four months' vacancy to write it, though in the midst of con- tinual languishing and medicine : but for the rest, I wrote them in the crowd of all my other employments, which would allow me no great leisure for polishing and exactness, or any orna- ment; so that I scarce ever wrote one sheet twice over, nor staved to make any blots or interlinings, but was fain to let it go as it was first conceived. And when my own desire was, rather to stay upon one thing long than run over many, some sudden occasion or other extorted almost all my writings from me: and the apprehension of present usefulness or necessity prevailed against all other motives."*
* Baxter's Narrative of his Life and Times, p. 124.
6 DR. BROWN'S PREFACE.
" The Reformed Pastor*7 appears to have been written under the unfavorable circumstances here alluded to — amidst disease and languishment — and to have been hurried to the press, with- out that revision and correction which were of so much impor- tance to its permanent usefulness. The arrangement is far from logical : the same topics, and even the same heads of discourse, are repeated in different parts of the work. It is interlarded, according to the fashion of the age, with numerous Latin quo- tations from the fathers and other writers : and the controversies and history of the day are the subject of frequent reference, and sometimes of lengthened discussion. To this it may be added, that the language, though powerful and impressive, is often remarkably careless and inaccurate.
With the view of remedying these defects of the original work, the B,ev. Samuel Palmer of Hackney published, in 1766, an abridgment of it ; but though it was scarcely possible to pre- sent the work in any form, without furnishing most powerful and most impressive appeals to the consciences of ministers, we apprehend he essentially failed in presenting it in that form which was desirable. We would, in fact, greatly prefer the work in its original form, with all its faults, to the abridgment of it by Palmer : if the latter was freed from many of its de- fects, it also lost much of its excellence. We may often, with advantage, throw out extraneous matter from the writings of Baxter, but abridgment destroys their spirit • their energy and pathos are enervated and evaporated by it. Besides, Mr. Palmer lias moulded the work into an entirely new form; and though his general arrangement may, in some respects, be more logical than our author's, yet, in other respects, it is no improvement, The arrangement of the original is much more natural and easy ; and there is in it a fulness and richness of illustration, which we in vain look for in the abridgment.
The work which is now presented to the public is not, strictly speaking, an abridgment. Though considerably less than the original, it has been reduced in size chiefly by the omission of extraneous and controversial matter, which, however useful it might be when the work was originally published, is totally inapplicable to the circumstances of the present age. In some instances I have also changed the order of the particulars; but
DR. BROWN'S PREFACE. 7
Hie cliief transposition which I have made, is of the "Motives to the Oversight of the Flock/'' which our author placed in his Application, but which I have introduced in that part of the discourse to which they refer, just as we have " Motives to the Oversight of Ourselves," in the preceding part of the treatise. Some of the particulars which he has under the head of motives, I have introduced in other parts of the body of the discourse, to which they appeared more naturally to belong. But though I have used some freedom in the way of transposition, I have been anxious not to sacrifice the force and fulness of our author's illustrations to mere logical arrangement. Many of the same topics, for instance, are still retained in the Application, which had occurred in the body of the discourse, and are there touched with a master's hand, but which would have lost much of their pathos and energy, had I separated them from that particular connection in which they stand, and introduced them in a differ- ent part of the work. I have also corrected the language of our author; but I have been solicitous not to modernize it. Though to adopt the phraseology and forms of speech employed by the writers of that age, would be a piece of silly affectation in an author of the present day, yet there is something simple, vener- able, and impressive in it, as used by the writers themselves.
While, however, I have made these changes on the original, I trust that I have not injured, but improved the work ; that the spirit of its great author is so much preserved, that those who are most familiar with his writings would scarcely have been sensible of the alterations I have made, had I not stated them in this place.
Having long been anxious to present to the public an edition of " The Reformed Pastor," I began to prepare it a considerable time ago; and having offered it to the present publisher, he informed me that the Rev. Daniel Wilson of London had pre- viously agreed to write an introductory essay to that work. In this arrangement I feel peculiar pleasure, as I have no doubt his recommendation will introduce it to the notice of many, by whom otherwise it might have remained unknown.
Before I conclude, I cannot help suggesting to the friends of religion, that they could not perhaps do more good at less expense, than by presenting copies of this work to the ministers
8 DR. BROWN'S PREFACE.
of Christ throughout the country. There is no class of the com- munity on whom the prosperity of the church of Christ so much depends as on its ministers. If their zeal and activity languish, the interests of religion are likely to languish in proportion ) while on the other hand, whatever is calculated to stimulate their zeal and activity, is likely to promote, in a proportional degree, the interests of religion. They are the chief instruments through whom good is to be effected in any country. How im- portant, then, must it be to stir them up to holy zeal and activity in the cause of the Redeemer ! A tract given to a poor man may be the means of his conversion ; but a work such as this, presented to a minister, may, through his increased faithfulness and energy, prove the conversion of multitudes. Ministers themselves are not perhaps sufficiently disposed to purchase works of this kind : they are more ready to purchase books which will assist them, than such as will stimulate them in their work. If, therefore, any plan could be devised for present- ing a copy of it to every minister of the various denominations throughout the country, what incalculable good might be effect- ed ! There are many individuals to whom it would be no great burden to purchase twenty or even fifty copies of such a work as this, and to send it to ministers in different parts of the country ; or several individuals might unite together for this purpose. I can scarcely conceive any way in which they could be more useful.
To the different missionary societies I trust I may be allowed to make a similar suggestion. To furnish every missionary, or at least every missionary station, with a copy of " The Reformed Pastor," would, I doubt not, be a powerful means of promoting the grand object of Christian missions. Sure I am of this, there is no work so much calculated to stimulate a missionary to holy zeal and activity in his important labors.
WILLIAM BROWN. Edinburgh, ^Iarch 12, 1829.
C 0 N T E N T S .
Introductory Essay, "by Rev. Daniel Wilson. D. D.. Bishop of Calcutta. • 13
Dedication, by Baxter, 71
Introduction, 81
PART I. THE OVERSIGHT OF OURSELVES.
CHAPTER I.
THE NATURE OF THIS OVERSIGHT. I. See that the work of grace be thoroughly wrought in your own soul. • 59 II. See that your graces are in rigorous and lively exercise, 100
III. See that your example contradict not your doctrine. ■ ■ ■ ■ 103
IV. See that you lire not in those sins against which you preach in others. 10S V. See that you he not destitute of the cualnications necessary for your
work,--' ■ ' 'l09
CHAPTER II.
THE MOTIVES TO THIS OVERSIGHT.
1. You hare a heaven to win or lose as well as other men. 114
II You have a depraved nature as well as others. ■ • ■ 116
III. Y'ou are exposed to greater temptations than others. ■ • 117
IV. Y'ou have many eyes upon you, and there will be many to observe
your falls, 119
V. Tom sins will have more heinous aggravations than other men's,- ■ 130 VI. Such important works as ours require greater grac e t: an other men's, 122
VII. The honor of Christ lieth more on you than on other men. 123
"VIII. The success of your labors materially depends on your taking heed
to yourselves. 125
PART II.
THE OVERSIGHT OF THE FLOCK. CHAPTER I.
THE NATURE OF THIS OVERSIGHT.
Tnis over- s ; to all the flock, 135
I. "We must labor for the conversion of the unconverted, 144
H. We must sire advice to inquirers who are under convictions of sin, • 147
1*
10 CONTENTS.
III. We must study to build up those who are already partakers of divine
grace, 152
IV. "We must exercise a careful oversight of families, 156
Y. "We must be diligent in visiting the sick, 159
VI. We must be faithful in the reproof and admonition of offenders, • • • • 162
VII. We must not neglect the exercise of church discipline, 162
CHAPTER II.
THE MANNER OF THIS OVERSIGHT.
The ministerial work must be carried on,
I. Purely for God, and the salvation of souls, 171
II. Diligently and laboriously, 172
III. Prudently and orderly, 172
IV. Insisting chiefly on the greatest and most necessary things, 173
V. With plainness and simplicity, 175
VI. With humility, 176
VII. With a mixture of severity and mildness, 177
VIII. With affection and seriousness and zeal, 178
IX. With tender love to our people, 178
X. With patience, 180
XI. With reverence, 181
XII. With spirituality, 181
XIII. With earnest desires and expectations of success, 182
XIV. Under a deep sense of our own insufficiency, and of our dependence
on Christ, 184
XV. In uni ty with other ministers, 185
CHAPTER III.
THE MOTIVES TO THIS OVERSIGHT.
I. From the relation in which we stand to the flock : We are overseers, • 187 II. From the efficient cause of this relation : The Holy Grhost, 194
III. From the dignity of the object which is intrusted to our care : The
church of G-od, 195
IV. From the price paid for the church : Which he hath purchased with
his blood, 196
PART III.
APPLICATION. CHAPTER I.
THE USE OF HUMILIATION.
I. On account of our pride, 204
II. Our not seriously, unreservedly, and laboriously laying out ourselves in
our work, 217
CONTENTS. 11
1. By negligent studies. 217
2. By dull, drowsy preaching, 218
3. By not helping destitute congregations, 222
III. Our prevailing regard to our worldly interests, in opposition to the
interests of Christ, 222
1. By temporizing, 222
2. By worldly business, 224
3. By barrenness in works of charity, 225
IV. Our undervaluing the unity and peace of the churches, 239
V. Our neglect of church discipline, 237
CHAPTER II.
THE DUTY OF PERSONAL CATECHIZING AND INSTRUCT- ING PARTICULARLY RECOMMENDED.
Section I. Motives to this duty, 249
Article I. Motives from the benefits of the work, 249
1. It will be a most hopeful means of the conversion of sinners, 250
2. It will essentially promote the edification of saints, 253
3. It will make our public preaching better understood by our people, • 254
4. It will make us more familiar with them, and assist us in winning
their affections, 254
5. It will make us better acquainted with their spiritual state, and
enable us better to watch over them, 255
6. It will assist us in reference to their publicly professing Christ- • ■ • 255
7. It will show men the true nature of the ministerial office. 256
8. It will show our people the nature of their duty to their ministers. ■ 25S
9. It will impart more correct views of the Christian ministry, and so
may procure further help, 261
10. It will exceedingly facilitate the ministerial work in succeeding
generations, 264
11. It will conduce to the better ordering of families, and the better
spending of the Lord's day, 265
12. It will preserve many ministers from idleness and misspending
their time, 265
13. It will contribute to subdue our own corruptions, and to exercise
our own graces, 266
14. It will withdraw' both ourselves and our people from vain contro-
versies, and the lesser matters of religion, 266
15. It will probably extend over the whole country, ■ • 267
16. It is likely to be a work which will not stop with those who are
engaged in it, 268
17. The weight and excellency of the duty recommended, 269
Article II. Motives from the difficulties of the work, 272
1. Difficulties in ourselves, 273
2. Difficulties in our people, 274
Article III. Motives from the necessity of the work, 276
1. It is necessary for the glory of Ood, 276
12 CONTENTS.
2. It is necessary to the welfare of our people, 279
3. It is necessary to our own welfare, 282
Article IY. Application of these motives, • 283
Section II. Objections to this duty, 299
Section III. Directions for this duty, 322
Article I. Directions for bringing our people to submit to this course
of instruction, 323
1. Conduct yourselves in the general course of your life and ministry
so as to convince them of your ability and sincerity, and love to them, • 324
2. Convince them of the benefit and necessity of this exercise, 326
3. Supply every family in your congregation, whether rich or poor, with
books, 328
4. Deal gently with them, and remove every kind of discouragement, • 330
5. Expostulate with such as are neglectful, 330
A-rticle II. Directions for prosecuting the exercise with success, 331
1. Address a few words to them in general, to mollify their minds, and
to remove all offence, 332
2. Take them one by one, and deal with each of them apart, 333
3. Take an account of what each of them has learned, 335
4. Try by further questions how far they understand what they have
learned, 336
5. "When you have tried their knowledge, proceed next to instruct them
yourselves, • 338
6 If they are grossly ignorant, or appear to be unconverted, make
some prudent inquiry into their state, 341
7. Endeavor to impress their heart with a sense of their deplorable con-
dition, 345
8. Conclude with an exhortation to them to believe in Christ, and to
the diligent use of external means of grace, 347
9. At dismissing them, mollify their minds by a few words deprecating
any thing like offence, and endeavor to engage the masters of families to carry on the work you have begun, 350
10. Keep a list of your people in a book, with notes of their character
and necessities. 351
11. Through the whole course of the exercise, see that the manner as
well as the matter be suited to the end, 351
12. If Ood enable you, extend your charity to those of the poorer sort,
before they part from you, 354
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY,
BY REV. DANIEL WILSON, D.D.
BISHOP OF CALCUTTA.
The name of Baxter is too well known, to re- quire any thing to be said by way of introduction to such a work as the following. It is one of the best of his invaluable practical treatises. In the whole compass of divinity there is scarcely any thing supe- rior to it, in close, pathetic appeals to the conscience of the minister of Christ, upon the primary duties of his office. The main object is, to press the necessity of his bringing home the truths of the gospel to every individual of his flock, by affectionate instruction. Some account of the work will be found in the pref- ace to the present edition, from the pen of the ex- cellent writer who has, with extraordinary success, prepared it for the public eye. The treatise is now adapted for the clergy of every confession. The pass- ing controversies, the digressions, the long Latin quo- tations, the local matters, are omitted; but all that is native and vigorous, all that is spiritual and holy, all that is of general use, and belongs to every age, is retained and placed in a better light. A few phrases and sentiments, indeed, will still be found, which par- take of Baxter's particular character, or arise from his habits of thinking on controverted matters. These are inseparable from human infirmity; and he is un-
14 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
worthy the name of a Christian, who can allow such trifling considerations to lessen the full effect of the general truths of the work on his own heart and con- science. The writer of these lines rejoices, for his own part, to bear his testimony to the high value of this powerful book. It is peculiarly gratifying to him, as an Episcopal clergyman, to introduce the maniy and eloquent pages of this great non-conform- ist divine. The ministers of every church should desire to have their errors boldly exposed, and the standard of the apostolic and primitive ages placed full before their eyes. Till we can bear this, we are not likely to see any considerable revival of religion amonsf us. To be firm in our own conviction of duty, and act consistently with our vows to our sev- eral divisions of Christ's church, is, indeed, a para- mount obligation. But to rise above the mere details of a particular discipline, and enter into the high and spiritual designs of the ministry generally, as found- ed on the authority, and governed by the Spirit, and dedicated to the glory of Christ, is the only method of really promoting our several interests. We best advance the prosperity of our various bodies, when we seek the honor of our great Master and the salvation of souls, and make our ecclesiastical platforms en- tirely subservient to these high ends.
To the ministers, then, of all churches, and espe- cially the Protestant churches of Europe and Amer- ica, the writer now ventures to appeal. Wherever, indeed, the name of Christ is preached, in every part of the world, by the clergy of every confession, there would he direct his voice. Being called on to recom-
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 15
mend " The Reformed Pastor " by some introductory observations, he would endeavor to make it the occa- sion of exciting the most pungent grief, and the most entire reformation ; and would thus urge his brother ministers to follow up, in the present day, what Bax- ter began among his contemporaries nearly two cen- turies since. What is done in one period, must be repeated in another; every age needs to be stirred up afresh. Baxter was preceded, and has been followed by writers on the same argument. Gildas and Sal- vian,^ the names on his original title-page, were two distinguished writers, who, in the fifth and sixth cen- turies, alarmed a careless church by the thunders of their denunciations. Immediately before our author's own time, Herbert delineated his " Country Parson" with a tenderness and skill peculiar to himself.t Sixty years afterwards, the mild and persuasive ex- hortations of the " Pastoral Care " were addressed, by Bishop Burnet, to the whole body of the English clergy 4 But for much more than a century since that time, no first-rate book on this subject has ap- peared. The publisher of the present edition has therefore done well in bringing forward this incom- parable treatise of Baxter, in his series of " Select Christian Authors" — this is to make the energy and pathos of the seventeenth century bear on the feeble Christianity of the nineteenth.
Such is the opportunity on which the writer of
* The first title of Baxters ••'Reformed Pastor," was •*Gildas Salvianus."
t Herbert's " Country Parson" was first published in 1632. X Burnet's "Pastoral Care" — a work in every one's hand.
16 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
these introductory pages seizes, for addressing his appeal to his honored brethren of every name, and more especially to the clergy of his own church, with the view of carrying on Baxter's great design, and reviving the power of true religion among them. May he open his heart in all simplicity. May he at least, after thirty or forty years' observation, suggest to his younger brethren something which may tend, under the blessing of God, to promote a return to primitive zeal and love among the clergy. May he be permitted to admonish and rouse his own con- science, while he attempts to excite others. And 0, blessed Spirit of Christ, descend thou upon the writer and the readers of these pages. Vouchsafe success. Fulfil thy gracious office, as the Comforter of the church, by touching our hearts, and reviving thy work effectually among us. Let thy ministers be open to thy reproofs, and "hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches."
In the first place, then, your attention, honored and beloved brethren in Christ, shall be directed to some topics of humiliation; in the next, to some grounds of hope ; and lastly, to several points of duty, as subser- vient to a revival of pure Christianity among us.
I. In the first place, permit me to ask, Have we not great cause for humiliation before our God, when we look back on our ministry ? This is the first topic. If Baxter had occasion to lament the worldly-mind- edness, the party spirit, the time-serving, the coward- ice, the neglect of individual catechizing, the pride, formality, and lukewarmness of the ministers of his
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY 17
own day, and in his own order; have we not cause to lament these, and the like evils, among ourselves ? Look, brethren, into the apostolical epistles, and read the remonstrances and reproofs which were required in the first age, and say if they are not even more necessary now. Call to mind the state of the seven churches of Asia, at the close of the inspired canon ; weigh every sentence of our Lord's rebukes; and say whether we are not now in the condition of those churches — whether the Laodicean lukewarmness, es- pecially, has not crept over us. Reflect only on the corruption of our nature ; the artifices of Satan, as illustrated by the whole stream of ecclesiastical his- tory ; and the uniform operation of long external peace upon the purity of the faith ; and say whether, from the necessary course of things, we are not in danger of a declining state in a day like the present.
But let us come to facts. Let us look back to our first entrance, each of us, upon the sacred ministry, and examine what were our motives. Were we duly sensible of the importance of the office ? Had we any competent understanding of the doctrine of Christ? Did we feel as we ought the value of souls? Alas, how many of us rushed into the vineyard without any of the viewTs and feelings most essentially required. And those of us who hope we were moved, in some measure, by the Holy Spirit, how faint was our love to Christ; howT narrow the limits of our knowledge and faith and zeal; how imperfect our devotedness of heart to the one object, the salvation of souls.
And since wTe have been in the sacred office, what have we been about? How have our hearts been
18 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
towards our Saviour ? How have we studied our Bibles ? How have we persevered in the spirit of prayer? How have we watched against the world? How have we sought to overcome the wicked one ? How have we honored the Holy Ghost ? How have we glorified Christ our Lord ? What have we done with our time, our talents, our opportunities, our in- fluence, our various means of doing good to ourselves and others ? I do not speak of infirmities and smaller errors merely, from which none are exempt, nor of the effects of momentary temptations ; but I speak of the strain and course of our ministry, of our charac- ter and spirit. 0 what cause have we for the deepest humiliation before our God !
But let us enter yet further into details, that thus our hearts may be filled with godly compunction.
1. What has been the state of our hearts during the course of our ministry ? Have there been no de- clines there ? Have we been advancing in love to Christ, in humiliation, in prayer, in communion with God, in devotional study of the Bible, in self-exami- nation ? Have we been "growing in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ?" Have we been uin the love of God?" Have we felt as the ministers of Christ? Alas, brethren, if one may speak for another, we have too much departed in heart from the Lord. There has often been a mortal coldness, a decay in the springs of life. The source of all our failures has been in a spiritual tor- por and indifference as to Christ and salvation, and the divine life within ourselves. We have sunk too much into the creature, into selfishness, into human
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 19
wisdom, into the world. God has not had our hearts. We have not loved our Lord Jesus Christ in fervor and sincerity. Hence our other evils.
2. What have been the style and character of our public preaching? Has it been, in the full sense of the terms, evangelical, close, affectionate, appropriate, searching ? Have we preached " Jesus Christ, and him crucified?" Have we pleaded with souls? Have wre aimed simply, intensely at their salvation ? Have we followed the model of the holy apostles ? Have we been "instant in season, out of season?" Have we been earnest, affectionate, importunate with our hearers ? On all these points, G-od knows what sins we have been committing. Grod knows how we have "preached ourselves, instead of Christ Jesus the Lord." God knows what tame, subordinate topics, what hu- man inventions, what commandments and opinions of men, have sometimes weakened and deformed our public ministry.
3. Our private diligence among the families and individual members of our flocks, what has it been ? This is the question which Baxter thought he had the greatest occasion to press in the year 1655 ; and is it not much more applicable in 1829 ? Have we been as shepherds among their flocks ? Have we looked after each individual sheep with an eager solicitude ? Have we denied ourselves, our own ease and pleasure and indulgence, in order to " go after Christ's sheep, scattered in this naughty world, that they might be saved in Christ for ever ?" "What do the streets and lanes of our cities testify concerning us ? What do the highways and hedges of our country parishes say
20 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
as to our fidelity and love to souls ? What do the houses and cottages and sick chambers of our con- gregations and neighborhoods speak ? Where have we been? What have we been doing? Has Christ our Master seen us following his footsteps, and " going about doing good ?" Brethren, we are verily faulty concerning this. We have been content with public discourses, and have net urged each soul to the con- cerns of salvation. We have not brought Christ and his offers, and placed them full before the view of each perishing sinner. We have not pressed these offers upon their acceptance with the frequency, the affec- tion, the importunity, which the case demanded.
4. But let us enter our studies, and remember all our sins in our private duties; in our preparation for our public work, in our prayers, in the devotional and close application of truth to our own consciences. 0, what do our libraries, and closets, and places of study and preparation say ? What has become of all those hours which we professed to spend in prayer before God, with the Bible in our hands, and our ministry in our hearts ? How much time have we frittered away in vain reading ; in the gratification of curios- ity; in pursuing " oppositions of science falsely so called;" in reading the last new book on divinity; in examining the last new criticism; in amusing our minds with the last review, the last piece of his- tory, the last philosophical dissertation? I speak not against any department of sound and manly know- ledge ; in its place, and to certain ministers at cer- tain times, each is indispensable. But have we kept these things in their places ? Have they not super-
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 21
seded other more immediate duties ? Has not our reading been too much governed by inclination, rather than conscience, and a sense of duty? And in the preparing of our sermons, alas, how cold, how formal have we often been. Prayer has been the last thing we have thought of, instead of being the first. "We have made dissertations, not sermons ; we have con- sulted commentators, not our Bibles ; we have been led by science, not by the heart ; and therefore have our discourses in public, and our instructions in pri- vate, been so tame, so lifeless, so uninteresting to the mass of our hearers, so little savoring of Christ, so little like the inspired example of St. Paul.
5. Suffer yet further the word of exhortation, brethren; and let us review our walk before men, our general carriage, our conduct in our families, our behavior in the sight of others, our arrangement of our days and hours, our diligence and perseverance in the several branches of our calling. Can we an- swer before Grod the questions arising from topics like these? Have we been " wholesome examples of Christ" to our people ? Have we been separate from the spirit, fashions, maxims of the world? Have we shown to our people " the more excellent way?" Have we lived, as well as preached the gospel of Christ ? Have we given an assurance to every one of sincerity in our doctrine by our habitual walk ? Has our " conversation been in heaven?" Have we led the way to others in heavenly-mindedness, humil- ity, self-denial, spiritual affections, superiority to the frowns and allurements of the world ? Have we been willing to bear reproach for Christ ? Have we
22 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
followed our crucified Saviour to his glory with, our cross upon our shoulders ? Blessed Jesus, thou know- est the guilt of thy ministers in this respect, above all others. We have been divines, we have been scholars, we have been disputants, we have been stu- dents ; we have been every thing but the holy, self- denying, laborious, consistent ministers of thy de- spised gospel. "We have been courting the world ; we have been trying to serve God and mammon ; we have loved the praise of men more than the praise of God. The state of our hearts has been cold ; our public preaching has been defective ; our duties among our flock, our studies, have been full of evil ; but our , walk before men, when compared with the spiritual- ity of thy holy example, and the standard of our pro- fession, has been worst of all. It is into this sewer and receptacle that all our secret corruptions have been flowing ; it is here they have been poured out. And now, in the review of these instances of our de- parture from thee, 0 our God, we would humble our- selves in an unaffected abasement of soul. But we would not stop here ; we would go on to confess be- fore thee the sad effects of these evils in the general condition of thy church.
6. For our humiliation, beloved brethren, will be far from complete, unless we look our whole state full in the face. Let us consider what have been the consequences of the above more private and personal evils. Let us look back, each of us, on our past his- tory. Let us remember those times of peculiar guilt and backsliding which have dishonored our God ; when Satan has come in like a flood ; when we have
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 23
shamefully yielded to temptation, disgraced our sacred profession, grieved and almost caused the Holy Spirit to forsake us, laid waste our consciences, and weak- ened the whole simplicity and energy of our subse- quent ministry. Why is it that things are at the low ebb with many of us, which wc have pointed out in the preceding pages ? Is it not because of some great sins, which, though known to few of our fellow-crea- tures, have been well known to our God and Sav- iour ? The dregs of an outraged piety can never suffice for the right discharge of the sacred office. If the writer may freely speak, he would put it to every minister's conscience, to say whether, in some cases, temptation and secret iniquity, peculiar depart- ures in heart from the Lord, and scenes in former years which memory too faithfully records, have not left the traces and associations of evil so strongly im- printed on the habits — have not corrupted so deeply the first principles of faith and love in the heart, as to mar and injure the simplicity of the soul, and pro- duce that weak, vacillating, inefficient ministry, of which our flocks have so Ions: had reason to com- plain? 0 that these wounds may be effectually healed by the application of the blood and Spirit of Christ ! 0 that a deep humiliation may bring us back to our God ! 0 that the rest of our ministry may be honored by the full measure of the divine grace and communications ! Backsliding and apos- tasy of heart, too often leading to open sin, are the offence of the present day.
7. Again, how much should we be abased before our God for the fearful errors and heresies which
24 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
have risen up in the spiritual church. This is an- other consequence of general lukewarmness. We speak not of occasional mistakes, of a greater or less degree of accuracy and clearness, but of open error and departure from the faith of Christ. On the one hand, how much has been written and preached to weaken the doctrine of the fall ; of the grace of Christ ; of the merciful will of our heavenly Father, as the first source of our salvation; of the " righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all, and upon all them that believe ;" of the operations of the Holy Spirit ; of the promises of persevering grace ; of the spirituality and extent of Christian obedience ; of the joy and delight of communion with God, and the anticipations of heaven. God knows how we have erred, many of us, in these respects. For ex- ample, on the one doctrine of regeneration, and the new creation by the Holy Spirit, how much error has infected the Protestant churches. Can we wonder that the Holy Spirit has withdrawn from us, when his gracious work has been explained away, denied, opposed by unscriptural statements on the nature and efficacy of the sacraments ? And have not many fatal misapprehensions and misstatements appeared, verging, on the other hand, towards Antinomian licen- tiousness, and the abuse of the grace of Christ? Have not frightful overstatements respecting the de- crees of God been made ? Have not omissions almost as fatal, of practical exhortations and direct appeals to the consciences of sinners, enervated the whole force of the gospel? Have not writings been pub- lished on prophecy, and the doctrine of assurance,
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 25
which directly lead to spiritual presumption? Have not errors appeared on the doctrine of pardon, and on the immediate blessedness of the believer after death? 0, brethren, humiliation before God indeed becomes us in such a time as this.
8. From these and similar evils, and from the state of mind from which they spring, have not bitter con- troversies, uncharitable disputes, heat, accusation, alienation of heart, a spirit of party, arisen in the church ? Does not even the world mark the animos- ity of our controversies? Do we not cause the ene- mies of the Lord to blaspheme ? Do we not harden the consciences of the ungodly ? Do we not prevent and defeat much of the success of the gospel ? 0 what a scene have our great religious societies pre- sented of late years. 0 how much of the spirit of party still lurks in our minds — that spirit within us ••which lusteth to envy," as the Scripture speaks.
Let each one, brethren, examine his own heart, his own circle, his own congregation and church, and see the various evils and corruptions which reign there, in these and similar respects. Let him yield to the deep conviction of conscience ; let him humble his soul in the dust before God, for his own share in these provocations, and for the share which others have borne in them. We never can expect a return of divine grace till our deep penitence give glory to God in confession and supplication. While we keep silence and justify ourselves, all stands still. When the floodgates of grief are thrown open, then, and not before, may we hope for the Lord to pour in the full tide of his Holy Spirit.
26 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
9. And remember, brethren, that our want of suc- cess in our ministrations is to be traced back to the same causes, and is a further call to contrition and humiliation in the sight of our God. We all com- plain of the little fruit which attends our labors. A dew of the divine grace falls, indeed, here and there ; but there is scarcely anywhere an abundant shower of blessing. A few are converted in our several par- ishes and neighborhoods, and we collect a little circle around us; and we should bless Grod for any the least measure of success ; but we seldom see any great sig- nals of divine power — a general awakening of souls — - a holy and overwhelming influence on ministers and people, which bears them above the world, and leads them to live and walk closely with God. The evan- gelical fisherman does not cast out a wide net and enclose a great multitude of fishes, and our converts do not, in general, go on consistently and steadily; they often turn aside — often decline — often "fall into temptation and a snare, and many foolish and hurt- ful lusts" — often divide into sects and parties.
And why is all this ? Because we have forsaken our God, grieved the Holy Spirit, and corrupted the gospel of Christ; because our own hearts and lives and prayers so little prepare for great success ; be- cause we expect so little, exercise so little faith in the divine power, and seldom if ever feel an eager and insatiable desire for the conversion of souls.
Now, the first step to a better state of things, is real and unaffected shame and confusion of face before God for our past negligence: "He that confesseth
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 27
and forsaketh his sins, shall have mercy." The re- markable confessions of Moses, Ezra, and Daniel; the striking humiliations of the prophets Isaiah, Jere- miah, and Ezekiel; the penitential psalms of the holy David; the whole strain of the Bible, both in the Old and the New Testament, direct us to this great duty. One day spent in fasting and prayer to Grod is worth a thousand days of complaint and lamentation before men. Believe me, brethren, it is not in a spirit of censoriousness or self-exaltation, that the most un- worthy of the Lord's servants thus addresses you. He must, alas, take his full share of guilt and sorrow in the general humiliation. But he speaks from love to souls ; from zeal for the glory of Christ ; from a deep conviction of duty on being called to write on this subject. He cannot, dare not, will not keep silence. He will call himself and others to that un- reserved and penetrating sense of sin and demerit which, by the grace and power of the Holy Spirit, may lead to penitence, to confession, to real and abid- ing amendment and reformation.
Let not our lay brethren misinterpret the strong language of humiliation here used. It is not of what are called open sins, notorious inconsistencies, gross vices, for the most part, that we speak ; but of those secret and hidden evils, which, under a virtuous and pious carriage, may yet be eating as doth a cancer into the life of spiritual religion and ministerial en- ergy. Nor is it of all ministers that we speak, nor of any ministers at all times, and in all respects; but it is of some at some times, and of all only as to some or more particulars. Do not, therefore, misapprehend
28 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
these pages. Do not pervert the design of them to corrupt purposes. Do not despise your ministers. Do not apply to individuals what belongs only to some of a general class. Remember, that it is partly in chastisement for your own sins as private Christians, that these evils have been permitted to spread. The corruption is general ; you must join in the general humiliation. You have not prayed for your ministers as you ought. You have not assisted them in their labors. You have not been docile and fruitful under their instructions. You have frowned on them, and put them in fear, when they were disposed to be most faithful. You have enticed and allured them into sin by your worldliness, your vanity, your lax example and spirit. The ministry, indeed, are called to the deepest humiliation; they are the first in the pro- cession of penitence, but the people must follow after them. They need to confess and lament their own sins, and those of their families. They must join with their pastors in seeking the Lord, and imploring his grace upon the whole church.
But to return. It is not to topics of humiliation that this address must be confined : we pass on to a more cheering part of our subject.
II. There are many grounds of hope in the pres- ent DAY WHICH MAY ENCOURAGE US IN OUR REFORMATION AND REPENTANCE.
I. God is at work. There is a movement in men's minds towards salvation. There are numerous events in providence concurring to aid the spiritual church. Satan, indeed, is raging; infidelity belches forth her
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 29
blasphemies ; opposition to truth increases in many quarters ; men's hearts are failing them for fear; the public press is an instrument of incalculable mischief in various ways, especially that part of it which is known by a name — itself a reproach to a Christian people — The Sunday Press. Still, God is at work. Mighty things seem to be preparing. Bishops and pastors and ministers and missionaries and catechists and schoolmasters and authors and translators are rising up in the churches. The power committed to our own Protestant country stretches over the greater divisions of the globe. The spirit of commerce and enterprise and discovery carries our vessels to every shore. Our foreign bishops and governors, for the most part, favor spiritual religion. The heathen and Mahommedan nations are moving, inquiring, rous- ing themselves from the slumber of ages. Popery is shaken to its base by the spirit of inquiry and the diffusion of the Scriptures, and of education. Such a time encourages the church to examine herself, and lie low before her God in dust and ashes ; to separate from what provokes the Lord, and prepare for his further blessings.
2. The machinery of religious dissemination is erected, and in operation ; and is ready to receive from the Lord, and extend to the utmost corners of the earth, the richest blessings, whenever he may be pleased to " cause his face to shine upon us, that we may be saved." Consider, beloved brethren, what preparation there has been made during the last thirty years, for the ultimate diffusion of the gospel. Whether it may seem fit to Almighty G od to use the
30 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
present societies chiefly in this work, we know not. The purifying process, however, through which many of them have passed, is far from being unfavorable to the hope of their final most enlarged success. When the members and leading conductors of all our insti- tutions are duly humbled, and led more feelingly and unreservedly to ascribe every measure of success to God alone ; when the din of applause and flattery is silenced, and there is room for God to be glorified, then may we hope that the present machinery will be filled and animated with the Holy Spirit, and car- ried on to the most blessed results. At all events, we may rejoice at the various plans which they are adopting for the diffusion of the gospel. What is the spread of education and knowledge among the lower orders of every part of the world, but the materials of divine knowledge and love, when Grod shall descend, as it were, and impregnate it with his grace? What is the public press, with its immense rapidity of pro- duction, but a servant waiting for the divine Master's orders ? What are the churches and other places for the worship of Almighty God, lately erected in our own country and in other lands, but temples ready to be filled with the divine glory? In our own national English establishment, recollect only the two hundred new churches, and the equal number of enlarged old ones, with their five or six hundred thousand new sit- tings— half of them for the poor — all subserving the glorious gospel of the blessed God. Remember, also,, the equal amount of accommodation in other classes of the Christian communities. Conceive of eleven or twelve hundred thousand additional hearers, as all
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 31
prepared for the faith and love of Christ, and then tell me how immense and rapid may be the result of the blessing. We know, indeed, that at present much positive evil exists, in the way in which education is conducted, the press employed, and new as well as old churches administered. But Hope looks upward to the God of all grace ; and Penitence abhors herself, and lies abased in the dust ; and humble and fervent Prayer addresses itself to the throne of mercy, for the needful gift of the Holy Spirit.
With regard to missions, what a machinery has been put together ; what preparations made ; what a conflict begun against the prince of darkness in his own dominions ; what a footing obtained in the centre of the heathen and Mahommedan lands, for planting the camp, and preparing the way, and bringing in the hosts of Messiah's armies. And does not the measure of success already obtained — the schools es- tablished in heathen countries — the churches found- ed— the converts made — the holy communion of saints established — the happy and triumphant deaths wit- nessed— the moralizing and humanizing effects of Christianity on uncivilized man, acknowledged by governors and statesmen — and the native teachers and missionaries raised up and sent forth among the heathen — do not these dawnings of grace foretell the bursting forth of the meridian day ? Is not this twi- light the herald and harbinger of the full rising of the Sun of righteousness ?
What, especially, does the movement among the ancient people of God, the success of the societies for the conversion of the Jews — the spirit of inquiry
32 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
awakened among that remarkable people— the seri- ous discussions going on — the converts made — the diffusion of the New Testament in Hebrew, and vari- ous other languages, among them — the education of their children — what is all this but machinery stand- ing ready for a divine hand to give it the full im- pulse ? And is not the conversion of the Jews con- nected inseparably with that of the Gentiles ? What will the fulness of the Jews be, but as life to a dead and unregenerate gentile world ?
3. But to pass from the hopes beaming upon the framework and instrumentality of religious exertions, what encouragement to a penitent return to God does the ivide dissemination of the holy Scriptures with- out human additions furnish. This is more than machinery — this is truth itself, and in the purest form, actually diffused. The honor thus put upon the revelation of Almighty God — the solemn and impressive reverence excited for the authoritative standard of truth — the separation of all the infirm and mingled productions of men from the pure and unmixed inspirations of the Holy Ghost — the direct means and source of divine instruction made accessi- ble to the whole human race — the best refutation given of all material errors and corruptions of the faith of Christ — the spring of consolation and joy opened widely to a sorrowful world — the peaceful interpreter of salvation speaking in its gentle tones to the miserable child of man in all nations — the foundation of civilization and morals and humanity laid in every country — the court of equity and ap- peal, as to religion, erected and thrown open to man-
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 33
kind — these are the things which God has done, by the Bible institutions scattered over the world. What a preparation is thus made insensibly for a return to the simple and commanding doctrines of a crucified Saviour, in every part of the visible church. As all corruption and controversy and separation sprung from a departure from the Bible, may we not hope that purity, peace, and unity of heart will, in due time, arise from a return to it ? And what an in- estimable and most abundant storehouse do these Bible institutions open for all other societies and agents for religious improvement — for schools, for missionaries, for infant churches, for converts, for travellers in every part of the world. Join to this noble and magnificent society the deep personal hu- miliation which our sins and provocations demand- unite with it supplications and prayers for the supply of the Holy Grhost — -and what is there, brethren, which we may not hope to receive from our gracious God and Saviour ? Let us, as the ministers of the sanctuary, begin with ourselves in a hearty and spiritual subjection of soul before the Lord, and there is nothing which we may not hope for in such a period as the present.
4. Nor is it a slight ground of further encourage- ment, that we live in a day when so many of the temptations of the great adversary have been already detected and laid bare by the growing experience oj the church. Nothing can be more important than a knowledge of his stratagems, as likely to be directed against a revival of religion. " We are not ignorant of his device," said the blessed apostle in the first
2*
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age. For eighteen centuries since has the spiritual church been learning to discover the arts of the subtle foe. Each age has varied as to the features of the combat. But the church has laid up the lessons which her Saviour has taught her, and pondered them in her heart. We are still, indeed, but babes in this warfare. We have still need to watch daily, to pray without ceasing. The seed of the woman has not yet crushed the poisonous head of the ser- pent. The deepest humility and self-distrust are essential to our safety. But each class of Satan's temptations which has spent itself and discovered its true character in former times, is so much of invalu- able experience laid up for those who now lead the Christian armies, under the great Captain of salva- tion. They are so many stratagems detected ; they are so many exhausted mines. These self-same arti- fices are not likely to be successful again, if we do but profit by past experience.
Persecution does not extinguish, but feed and en- large the church. This lesson we have been learning for eighteen hundred years ; and the Christian martyr and confessor is bold for the cause of God. Satan will work in vain on this ground, if we are firm in faith.
Departures from the Scripture, superstitions, the following the commandments of men, sap the faith of Christ. The lesson has been taught by twelve cen- turies of incredible apostasy: the church is on its guard.
Love, union, and enlightened benevolence strength- en the foundations of each particular church ; bigotry,
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 35
dissension, exclusion, and a proud, ambitious, domi- neering temper, divide and weaken it — every page of ecclesiastical history attests the truth. Satan cannot again triumph in this way as he has done.
Uniformity in opinion and external discipline, even in a single nation, is perhaps hopeless, consider- ing the infirmity of man ; but unity of heart on all essential points, with liberality and charity as to others, produces all the good consequences of such uniformity, besides many others peculiar to itself. The voice of universal experience has made this the persuasion of every considerate mind. Satan will surely be baffled here, in the present day, after hav- ing gained his point by it for a thousand years.
In like manner, as to great and fatal heresies. Can our spiritual adversary ever rouse again the combat of Arianism, and throw the whole church into confusion concerning it, while we bear in mind the controversies of the fourth and two following ages, and the scourge of Mahommedanism in the seventh? Could Apollinarius, or Yalentinus, or Nestorius, or Donatus, or Abelard make any way now, in the teeth of the records which have exhibited, for our warning, the tares which the enemy sowed by their means ? Can the Pelagian heresy be reinstated by any artifices, after the writings of St. Augustine?
And may we not add, dearest brethren, that errors of less moment than these — what we may rather call overstatements — either on the side of the divine de- crees, or the free agency of man, will not again be permitted to distract and alienate the hearts of Chris- tians, if we only call to mind the endless feuds and
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excesses which they occasioned, for more than two centuries after the Reformation ? Has the synod of Dort been described and delineated in vain? Can Satan again drive us off from the plain, solid, scrip- tural ground of the grace and power of Christ, into the thorny labyrinth of metaphysical subtleties?
And as to the too general spirit of the present age, scepticism, infidelity, and Socinianism, which follows so close upon their heels — can the great ad- versary make any way by these daring impieties, after the experience of the French philosophy and the German neologism for now nearly half a cen- tury?
Is it not, then, a source of hope for the future, that Satan has been so frequently defeated in his various schemes? Has not the Lord treasured up for us the remembrance of our former causes of failure, in order to put us upon our guard against the appearances of similar snares? Shall we not, do we not, profit by past observation? And is not this an encouragement to us to return to Grod, with ear- nest supplication, that he would " bruise Satan under our feet shortly?" Yes, beloved, upon us "the ends of the world are come." The gradual experience and admonitions of each preceding age will guide us, if we seek divine grace, amid the snares of the great adversary, whether he present himself as a roaring lion, or instil his poison as a serpent, or attempt to dazzle us with the robes of an angel of light.
5. Once more, may we not consider it as a most favorable circumstance in the present day, that prayer for the grace of the Holy Spirit has been most ear-
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. Z7
nestly and solemnly offered in almost every part of the universal church? During the last seven years, thousands and tens of thousands of prayers have been offered to the Father of mercies for the outpouring of grace. Courses of sermons have been delivered, friendly conferences have taken place, books and tracts have been published, the attention of indi- vidual Christians has been fixed on this one great blessing. Believers everywhere have met to plead, in the exercise of simple and steadfast faith, the ex- plicit promise, that " God will give his Holy Spirit to those that ask him." This has been done from the conviction which long experience has forced upon the minds of leading ministers. The wisdom gained by a knowledge of Satan's devices, has turned men's solicitude from controversies and dispute to prayer for the descent of the heavenly Dove, to brood upon the spiritual chaos, as he moved upon the face of the waters in the first creation. This duty of prayer has not, indeed, been carried to any thing like the fervor and perseverance which the immense urgency of the case demands; but still, so far as it has gone, it is the most hopeful of all indications — it bespeaks the revisiting of the churches by the blessed Saviour — it augurs times of greater grace — it prepares the heart to use all the means which may be proposed of dif- fusing Christianity with more simplicity and vigor — it teaches us to honor and magnify God in every instance of success — it enables us to direct aright the young affections of our converts. It is impossible to reflect upon the growing attention to the doctrine of the Holy Ghost, in every part of our own country,
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in the various churches of the continent, and in the rising and important nations of the new world, with- out blessing God, from the bottom of our hearts, for his goodness, and without anticipating a large and abundant shower of grace. This is, then, the very moment to approach our God with prostrate hearts. This is the very moment not to be confident, not to trust in present appearances, not to rely on man, or machinery, or the letter of the Bible, or past expe- rience, but to humble ourselves deeply before our God, and seek him with fasting and weeping and mourning.
6. And to this duty we are yet further encour- aged, by considering the revivals of religion vjhich are actually commencing. For, are there not suf- ficient indications of a powerful operation, already begun by the Spirit of God in the church, to inspire the warmest hopes as to the future? Are not the authentic accounts from our American brethren enough to warm the most fearful heart ? Is not our God awakening multitudes there to a concern for their salvation, by the instrumentality of truth ? Is not a cry raised for pardon and grace by numbers pricked to the heart for sin? Do not their holy, con- sistent walk, their sincere love to Christ, their activity in every good word and work, testify the reality as well as the Author of the change? And have not these revivals been granted in the path of duty, and by the use of means ; especially by, what is the subject of these pages, the arousing of ministers to humiliation, diligence, and zeal? Has not this awakened state of the minds of ministers led to a
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 39
new strain of preaching, a new fervor in proposing Christ in all his glory to a sinful world, a new bold- ness in applying truth with penetrating discrimina- tion to the consciences of each class of hearers? And is it not in this way that God has vouchsafed his peculiar grace ?
And, in our own country, what means this new anxiety about the holy ministry, this new attention to the state of our flocks, this new spirit of confession and humiliation, this new inquiry as to the best means of reviving primitive Christianity, and promoting a union of hearts among us, which has been gaining ground now for some time ? What means, above all, the particular season for fasting and prayer, fixed by large numbers for the ensuing day of the commemo- ration of our Saviour's passion? Can any signs be more full of hope than these?
Yes, dear friends, it is to no uninteresting duty that I would invite you and myself — it is to a duty called for by the mercies of Grod as much as by our own sins. Humiliation for the past, consideration of the best means of increasing our ministerial useful- ness for the future, are demanded of us as by a voice from heaven. "What had Richard Baxter, at the time when he lived, to encourage him in his address to the clergy, compared with what invites and impels us ? What was there in the close of the seventeenth century to animate in the attempt to convert the world, compared with what we see in the nineteenth ?
7. And this is the last topic of hope to which we may advert ; for the position of every thing in the church and the world, compared with the word of
40 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
prophecy, indicates expectation, the promise of new blessings, the accomplishment of all the glorious predictions of the divine mercy and grace. The times are assuredly drawing on. The fated aposta- sies have hung over the eastern and western nations for twelve centuries, with all that energy of spiritual delusion which the Scriptures describe. Divine proph- ecy, shining as a lamp in a dark place, concurs with the indications which we have already noticed in the church and in the world, to excite expectation, to animate to effort, to humble in confession of sin, and to lead to determined reformation of life and conduct in the ministers of religion. The times in which we are cast speak for themselves. All is movement All is big with expectation. All portends the divine judgments upon the wicked, and unwonted blessings upon the church. We live in no ordinary period. Unusual circumstances of encouragement demand unusual duties. If Grod is at work, if the machinery of religious dissemination is prepared, if the holy Scriptures are diffused, if the artifices of the great enemy are known, if the grace of the Holy Spirit has already begun to be implored, and revivals of religion to be granted, and if the whole aspect of the world is that of " fields white already to the harvest," then, surely, this is a time when "the priests, the minis- ters of Grod, should weep between the porch and the altar," and should afterwards address themselves to the peculiar duties of the new and important period at which they are arrived. For things are in sus- pense. Hope is not possession. The present appear- ances may die away and expire, after a transient
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 41
excitement. God may roll all back, if we do not heartily repent as a people.
III. Let us then consider, as the last general topic,
SOME POINTS OF DUTY, TENDING IMMEDIATELY TO PRO- MOTE A REVIVAL OF RELIGION AMONG THE MINISTERS OF THE SANCTUARY.
For we must begin with ourselves. A revival of Christianity must take its rise with the ministers of Christianity. The work must be first entered upon at home, in our own bosoms, before it can animate our sermons, and shine forth in our example, and make us a pattern to our flocks.
1. And therefore the first duty we would urge upon you, dear brethren, is a deeper and more fer- vent personal piety before God. Our ministry is as our heart is. No man rises much above the level of his own habitual godliness. Let us, then, each de- termine, by the grace of G-od, on a new course. Let us not be contented with our present low standard. Let us imbibe more of the grace of Christ, as the source of life and salvation. 0 let the few main ele- ments of truth be forcible, energetic, vivid, operative within us. The infinite evil and defilement of sin, the holiness of God, the value of the soul, the near approach of death, judgment, and eternity ; the free mercy and love of God in redemption ; the inestima- ble riches of Christ, in his deity, offices, grace ; the personality and work of the Holy Ghost ; the empti- ness of the world, the fulness and blessedness of heaven — these are primary, essential truths. All the parts of revelation are important, all its precepts are
42 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
important ; but the vivifying, nourishing, elevating points are these first simple ones — heaven and hell, Christ and salvation, the soul and eternity, absorb every thing. Let these points really fill our minds, possess our affections, sway our judgment, awaken our conscience, govern our conduct. Let these things be sought in the first place, be renewed upon the heart by much meditation and prayer daily, and be ever before our eyes and attention, as the great and most interesting of all concerns. Let the other parts of Christianity ba made to bear upon these. Let us constantly return, as it were, from all other religious studies and discoveries, to these first elements. Every thing is speculation, unless it be made to nourish the mighty matters between God and the soul. Let, then, prayer for the Holy Spirit, and the devout read- ing of the Bible, and the diligent examination of the heart, be all directed to the elevating of our personal piety, our personal contrition for sin, our personal faith and affiance upon Christ, our personal love to God our merciful Father, our personal watchfulness, humility, meekness, diligence, joy. Let spirituality and entire devotedness to God be at the foundation of our religious character. To be " spiritually mind- ed," to be " constrained by the love of Christ," this is religion. A life of dependence on the Holy Ghost — a walk with God — a crucifixion with Christ — a death to all creature-good, all creature-alliance, all creature- love — a life hidden and secreted with Christ in God — this is religion. 0 brethren, the writer of these lines speaks here with shame and sorrow. The source of all evil with himself, is a low state of personal relig-
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 48
ion. We may allege other things — and no doubt other things are not without their influence — but the main cause of our ministerial defects and unfaithful- ness is our own hearts. A revival must begin with ourselves, with our own souls. Our people will never rise up generally, even to our standard ; if, therefore, our own piety is weak, our own love cold, our own faith uncertain, our own devotedness to Christ par- tial, our own self-denial slight, our own impressions of eternity languid, our care for our. own souls faint, what can we expect our people's to be ? How can we preach and pray for a revival of religion generally throughout the church, unless it first appear in our- selves ?
2. Solemn seasons for fasting and prayer should be fixed in our several neighborhoods, parishes, and congregations, that God may be honored by ingenu- ous confession : that the divine Spirit may be pub- licly implored ; that the arm of man and the help of creatures may be renounced, and the power and grace of God invoked ; that pride and self and vanity and display and human gifts and agency may be laid in the dust, and God alone exalted. The anniversary of his ordination is a time which each one should seize for these holy purposes. * * If such seasons could indeed be employed by the church universal for this important purpose, unspeakable blessings might fol- low. The whole body of the faithful would then be prostrate in the dust before the God of mercy, pour- ing out their prayers for the grace of the Holy Spirit, and confessing their sins and the sins of their fathers. Never have any great revivals taken place without
44 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
special fasting and prayer. Humiliation is the very soul of religion. What a blessing would it be, if the bishops and pastors of the churches were led to take the foremost place in directing and encouraging such holy exercises. Our sins have been public; our peni- tence should be so likewise. Our provocations have been national ; so should be our sorrow. Our evils have flowed from a negligent and worldly state of mind in the ministers of Christ ; our repentance should begin in the same quarter.
3. Higher views of the true dignity and impor- tance of the Christian ministry is a further duty, which would naturally flow from increasing personal piety and genuine humiliation of heart. Notions of false dignity are, indeed, as common as they are per- nicious. Ambition, secular dominion, the " lording it over God's heritage," spiritual pride, are the gan- grene of the church. But a right conception of the unparalleled importance of the office of the Christian minister, as appointed by Christ himself, as the instru- ment of grace, as the ambassador of reconciliation, as the messenger of the Lord of hosts, the steward of the mysteries of God, the watchman and herald and leader of the army, and the shepherd of the flock of Christ — such a conception of the ministerial office is essential to any great revival of religion. There is no surer mark of spiritual decay than a low esteem of the sacred function. Contempt for God and salva- tion first appears in contempt for his appointed ser- vants and ministers. In the primitive church, the dignity of a pastor of the flock of God was considered to be so high, so responsible, so sacred, as to deter
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 45
men from coveting its more difficult and responsible appointments. Ambrose and Chrysostom and Augus- tine were almost compelled to assume the episcopal office. At the Reformation, again, the importance of the office of the ministry rose in the estimation of the awakened church. Its dignity of truth and grace put to flight the spurious glory of external pomp and appearances. Men acknowledged, in the unassuming and meek and devout leaders of the Reformation, the revival of the primitive, the true character and eleva- tion of the pastoral employment. Yes, brethren, we must abase ourselves, indeed, but we must magnify our office. "We must rise to the high and elevated character which it impresses upon the spiritual pastor. "We must no longer think it an ordinary matter, a thing of course, an affair which may be done at any time, a concern secondary to our ease, our indulgence, our scientific and literary pursuits — no ; it must take the lead of every thing. It must occupy all our care, all our time, all our diligence, all the best and most persevering efforts of our minds and affections — all our exertion and self-denial and study. The gospel is an unspeakable gift. It touches on eternity. It concerns both worlds. It involves the glory of God, the honor of Christ, the welfare of souls. It is found- ed in the unutterable agonies of the cross, and ceases not till it has brought the penitent sinner and landed him safely in heaven. The blessings we have to offer are the greatest ; the woe we have to denounce is the most fearful. Every thing connected with our office partakes of the incomprehensible importance of the gifts of the Saviour and the Holy Spirit. Till our
46 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
whole souls are filled with our sacred calling, ani- mated, elevated, absorbed — till we see nothing to be important, compared with our work — till nothing sat- isfies, or can satisfy us, but success in it — till we look on the affairs of human pursuit and human wis- dom and human power and human glory as the toys of children in the comparison — till we draw all our studies, all our affections, every faculty of our minds, and every member of our bodies to this one point — till the salvation of souls is the one thing we aim at, the one object of desire, the ruling passion of our souls, we can never expect a general revival of that religion which can only spring, under the blessing of God, from such principles and impressions.
4. Allied to this part of our duty, is a deeper con- sideration of the particular design of the Christian ministry — which is, to furnish a succession of men to expound and apply truth. This follows upon a high and exalted view of the importance of the office gen- erally. The especial design must be far better under- stood and acted upon than it is at present, if grace is to revisit, first the pastors, and then the flock. Dear brethren, is not the great end of the ministry to exhibit and enforce truth upon the hearts and con- sciences of men with all those means of living, feel- ing, powerful appeal, heartfelt seriousness, sympathy, alarm, invitation, promise, threatening, which are calculated to move a creature like man, and which God has appointed as the ordinary channel for con- veying the blessings of his grace ? The success is from God alone. "Whoever plants, whoever waters, it is he that gives the increase. But as our all- wise
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 17
and gracious God has condescended to use the instru- mentality of man in dealing with man, in awakening man, in converting man, it is of the last importance for us to rise up to the special design of this dispen- sation. If G-od uses man, he uses the understanding, the affections, the conscience of man, to work upon the understanding, the affections, the conscience of his fellow-men. The minister is a living organ and instrument and herald of truth. The minister is to give life, as it were, to the book, to the written reve- lation, to the forgotten or perverted record. The ministry, in its addresses and appeals to men, is the prophetical voice continued, the apostolical doctrine continued, the life of Christ continued, the discourses of our Lord continued, the miracles continued, the warnings, the invitations, the promises, the whole doctrine continued, inspired with new life, and exhib- ited in their first vi^or.
The gospel, indeed, is left us in the Scriptures ; but its success is dependent on the Holy Spirit and a holy ministry — the divine Spirit within, the sacred word without ; the Holy Spirit effectually to secure the heart, to apply and render operative the truth of Christ, to glorify him before men, justify his office, fulfil his promises, accomplish his designs — the min- istry of the word, instrumentally, to address the un- derstanding and heart, to divide truth to each class of persons, to vindicate it from perversions, to raise it from neglect and indifference, to present it as the means by which the Spirit is pleased to work* Sub- ordinate, therefore, is all this living and oral teach- ing— in itself utterly feeble and inefficient ; but in its
48 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
place, of incalculable moment. It is the link between the written word and man's salvation. To preach aright, is not to discuss coldly a topic, is not to in- dulge in metaphysical statements, is not to court human applause, is not to move the passions by earthly eloquence — it is a much higher thing : it is to give a tongue to prophets and apostles, it is to speak as the blessed Saviour and St. Paul spoke, it is to make truth intelligible, forcible, triumphant; it is to clear away from the Bible false glosses, and present it in its native purity, and clothe it with, all the attri- butes of a living instructor ; it is to give to the writ- ten doctrine the tenderness and pathos, the authority and force, with which it was first clothed by the inspired authors. Silence the ministry, and the Bible is misunderstood, perverted, closed — legends of saints, commandments of men, superstition usurp its place ; or else vapid reasonings of philosophers, and abortions of human wisdom, falsely so called. Silence the min- istry— but what am I saying? I appeal, brethren, to your own experience and observation — what has brought on the lukewarmness, from which we are none of us sufficiently aroused? What has made the garden of the Lord a desert? What has, in many places, well-nigh extinguished Christianity ? Is it not the unscriptural, the heartless preaching, which has mocked the miseries of man, and betrayed the cause of God ? And where, then, is a revival to show itself, if not in a new strain of pulpit instruction ? Who are first to reform, if not the ministers of the sanctuary ? And in what are they to amend their ways, if not in the preaching of the word ? 0, be-
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 49
loved brethren, if our God revisit us, we shall have other sermons than have been too often heard in these latter ages. We shall have our Chrysostoms, our Austins, our Luthers, our Latimers, our Baxters revived among us. A fashionable essay will pass for nothing ; a reputable discourse will no longer be the standard; the Bible will no longer be deserted for the ethics of heathenism, or the refinements and fastid- iousness of an enervated gospel — but the ministry will represent and urge truth in its pristine simpli- city upon the hearts of men ; the Saviour will again be known in all his glory ; the Bible will be studied in the light of the Spirit, its true meaning seized, its great designs understood ; the state of man acknow- ledged and felt ; the errors of human corruption re- futed, the subterfuges of the human heart exposed ; and truth brought home irresistibly to the conscience. Things will no longer be left in the mere letter of Scripture, but taken out from the record, clothed with living feelings, cleared from essential error, and ap- plied boldly and affectionately to the cases of men. The state of our national Protestant churches has been a portent — our sermons are an evasion — our doctrine a form — our views of the whole essential design of a living instrumentality in the church low and inefficient. May (rod awaken our consciences, brethren, to a due consideration of these things, and to an immediate return to this part of our duty.
5. But this topic naturally leads on to what Bax- ter, in the following work, most insists on — the ne- cessity of individual instruction, bringing home truth to the cases of each member of our congregation and
50 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
flock in private — the discharge, in a word, of the pas- toral duties. For what have we been doing as min- isters ? Lamentably as we have failed in a general estimate of the vast importance of our office, and in a view of its especial design, we have failed as lam- entably in all those parts of it which regard personal inspection and vigilance over our flocks. We have confined ourselves to preaching, to ecclesiastical du- ties, to occasional visits to the sick, to the adminis- tration of the sacraments, to the external and secular relation in which we stand to our parishes ; but what have we done in personal care and direction, in affec- tionate catechetical conferences, in going from house to house, in visiting every family and individual in our districts, in becoming acquainted with the char- acter, the wants, the state of heart, the habits, the attendance on public worship, the observation of the Sabbath, the instruction of children and servants, the family devotions of each house? And yet, all this ought to have been done, and must be done, if a gen- eral revival of religion is to be expected. Nothing short of this can come up to the ends of our calling, or fulfil the commands of God, or accomplish the will of the Holy Ghost, or satisfy that system of means which the Saviour has established in his church. For the public ministry is not sufficient, not adequate to the urgency of the case. In a crowded con^re°-a- tion, numbers do not understand, do not give atten- tion, do not apply. It is when we come to them in private and individually, and with all the influence which affection and character and official station give, that we touch the conscience. And consider, breth-
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 51
ren, how many there are, in every neighborhood, who never come to the public church — consider the masses of people in our larger towns, who must be sought out by the minister of grace — consider the numbers who are detained at home by illness and infirmity, or by the bad arrangement of family concerns — consider that almost every victim of gross vice or scepticism is withdrawn from your sermons — consider, in short, that in your churches you collect only the better sort of people, those in whom some good habits, some pa- rental care, some force of conscience operates ; but that those who most need your instruction, lie hid in the retirement and insensibility which can only be reached by direct and personal inquiry. National schools, Sunday-schools, local schools, infant-schools do much ; but these only prepare the young for the very instruction and care which we are now enforc- ing. Every family who will receive you — and almost all will — should be visited, and that at least every year, if possible. On the details of these duties, the following work will be an admirable guide. Baxter was himself a pattern in these respects,
The immediate good effects of such labor will be incalculable. You will be able to apply and set home your public sermons to the conscience of each person. You will induce them to attend church with more constancy and more interest, as expecting to be visit- ed afterwards. A congregation assembled to hear the minister who sees them all in private, is a family under the eye of a father — there is a quickness, a mutual sympathy, an interest, which nothing else can awaken. Then the minister thus acquires knowledge
52 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
of the human heart rapidly ; collects materials — the best materials — for his sermons ; learns simplicity in his style ; is enabled to divide and apportion out the word of truth with more discrimination, and nour- ishes his own heart and his personal religion — his private studies and meditations are made more fruit- ful, more devotional. While he is engaged in com- posing and preaching, he is giving out to others ; but while he is occupied with familiar conferences, he is taking in for himself: the first is the pump, exhaust- ing the reservoir ; the second is the native spring, drinking in supplies from its parent earth. One half hour's practical study of the human heart in persona] visits, gives an impulse to ten hours speculative med- itation from books and authors.
It is in this way, also, that agents and teachers from among our people will be found out, and ani- mated and directed in labor. If we are at work ourselves, others will rise up to work with us. Lay- agency is of incalculable moment. A minister can- not undertake every thing himself; he must not frit- ter away his time, he must not widen too much his field of personal effort — he must concentrate, he must influence, he must be the centre to a hundred hands and minds moving around him. This is more espe- cially the case in populous places, where the actual efforts of any one or two ministers would be lost in detail, and his public instructions would be hasty and undigested effusions, if he attempted individual instruction. Wisdom, therefore, must be exercised. Others must be set to work, and a machinery be erected, of which he takes only the general guidance.
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 53
Cases also occur, in which the department of a min- ister's duty may be writing books, directing public societies, travelling in order to animate others — each must judge for himself before God : there must be secretaries and speakers and visitors of our great re- ligious societies, as well as pastors of particular flocks. But these considerations only increase the importance of the great body of ministers giving their whole souls to the particular inspection of their people, partly by themselves, and partly by the agency of others. No- thing will so immediately tend to a revival of grace, and the real power of Christianity. Nothing will promote personal religion so much in our own hearts. Nothing will promote more the spirit of prayer. No- thing will more quicken and aid in the practical understanding of the holy Scriptures. Nothing will more rouse us to the redemption of time. Nothing will more separate and sever the heart from the vani- ties of the world, the calls of human folly, the imper- tinence of visiting, the corruptions of pleasure. No- thing will more tend to sound and solid success in our ministry. Our estimate of what constitutes a real blessing will rise. Our excessive reliance on mere preaching will be moderated. Our hasty conclusions of good being done, because people will crowd to a popular sermon, will listen to an intellectual and manly discussion, will be moved by fervid appeals, .will yield to the affection of a preacher's manner, will assume an orthodox profession, entertain minis- ters at their table, admire and defend them in pri- vate, follow many parts of their advice, subscribe to societies at their suggestion, and range themselves on
54 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
their side — hasty conclusions, from such equivocal marks, will be corrected. We shall estimate success by solid conversion, by a change of heart and char- acter, by the love of Christ, by a regard to eternal things, by the crucifixion of the old man, and a con- sistent obedience to the will of God. These effects have the stamp of heaven. And when the Holy Spirit begins extensively to grant these to us, a revi- val of religion is begun, and all the highest ends of the ministry are accomplished. And this can only be expected, as our views of the importance of our office, our apprehension of its especial design, and our follow- ing of it out into personal and affectionate applica- tion, lead us to the full use of that system of means to which our divine Lord has promised a blessing.
6. But, in the next place, a conscientious adher- ence to the doctrine of the Holy Ghost, as contained in the whole body of the Scriptures, must accom- pany the above directions, or all will fail. 'Nothing sanctifies and saves but truth. The Holy Bible is the only storehouse of religious doctrine. An im- plicit and silent submission of the whole soul of a minister to the revealed will of the eternal and in- comprehensible God, is indispensable to any enlarged success. Inspired men, speaking as they were moved by the Holy Ghost — handing down to a lost world all the revelation which infinite "Wisdom saw needful and best, and in the manner and form which was most suitable to the designs of God and the state of man — delivering to the church unmixed and abso- lutely pure truth, without any defect, any omission, any superfluity, any exaggeration, any mistake —
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 05
leaving us the standard of all doctrine, the rule of all practice, the example of all holiness — such is the Bible, the interpretation of which, and the applica- tion to the cases of men, is left as a solemn trust with the stewards of Christ's mysteries. Brethren, a re- vival of religion must spring from a revival of the authority of the Bible, a revival of the unlimited sov- ereignty of the inspired book, in overruling all the errors of men, in swaying every heart, in governing and curbing every imagination, in deciding every con- troversy, in being itself the element and matter of all our instructions in public and private. The divine medicine must not be adulterated and weakened by the admixtures of man, or our maladies will never be cured. The cup of salvation must not be corrupted with "the wine of Sodom, and the grapes of Gromor- rah," or the wounds of men will remain unhealed. "We must return to our Bibles. "When the language and terms of this blessed book are perverted by here- sies, we must draw up, indeed, forms of belief; when truth is calumniated, we must publish our confessions of faith ; and when schism and division abound, we must have public models of doctrine and discipline, for the guidance of pastors and people ; but these are not the Bible : by these we express our solemn opin- ion in brief, upon particular points of truth, and pro- tect the flock from the incursion of hirelings and false teachers ; but the filling up of these outlines is to be taken from the Bible — we are to preach and expound, not the fallible summaries of man, but the infallible word of Grod.
And in doing this, three things are of the last
56 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
importance. We must, first, seize the main com- manding' truths of Scripture, as the apostles, in the •concluding and finishing part of revelation, have summed them up. In every work, consisting of so many parts, this would be necessary ; but in the Bible, the inspired penmen have not left it in doubt, but have told us that Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God, is the centre and corner-stone of rev- elation. The glory of Christ, then, and the work of that Holy Spirit whom he has left with us as his representative, and the great Teacher of the church — these are the governing points, around which all other truths are arranged, and to which they are subordi- nate. If the minister does not seize this command- ing discovery, in vain will he languish about other matters. If he once be brought, by personal contri- tion and faith, to receive Christ Jesus the Lord, and to rejoice in him, he will soon find that he is possessed of the key to all the Bible, that he has discovered the pearl of unknown price, that he is enriched with unsearchable treasures of wisdom and knowledge. This doctrine of Christ, however, is not the mere rep- etition of the term Christ ; it embraces, of course, all those truths which prepare the hearts of men for receiving him, and which teach them how to walk in him, and adorn his gospel. This doctrine joins on upon the fall and corruption of man, and the infinite evil of sin ; it immediately holds by the person and operations of the Holy Ghost ; it leads the experi- enced Christian to refer every blessing to the choice, and merciful will of God his heavenly Father. But still, the prominent figure in our representations of
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 57
Christianity, must be Christ himself, in all his attri* butes and grace. A revived Christianity is a revived exhibition of the glorious person of Christ.
But in connection with this main discovery, it is most important, secondly, to give their due place to all the other truths, even to the most slight and appar- ently inconsiderable ones, which the same inspired records contain. Not a verse in the Bible but has its weight. All the history, all the devotional parts, all the prophecies, all the biographies, all the examples, all the moral maxims, all the precepts demand, and will amply repay, our attention. Things are stated, not abstractly, but in life and action, and as they are to be applied to practice. The Bible is not a theo- retical, speculative system ; it is a system embodied, personified, exhibited, softened down, moulded to ac- tual life and experience. We shall make the greatest mistakes, if we take out the main doctrines of reve- lation, and then presume to fashion, expound, apply them after our own notions. No ; we must gather our manner of teaching Christ, the subordinate doctrines dependent upon him, the way of avoiding errors, the spirit and purpose for which he is to be preached, the different dispensations and various degrees of light which have attended his doctrine as the appointed Messiah and Saviour, the method of addressing the consciences of men which patriarchs and prophets and apostles adopted — in short, we must gather all our knowledge from the Bible. Our ministry must, in all its parts, be the Bible expounded, amplified, applied. The greatest success of the pastor is uni- formly found where there is most of God and least of
3*
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man. Even the simplest principles of natural relig- ion, the plainest moral maxims, the mere institutes of judicial legislation, the slightest ceremony, the very enumeration of genealogies, have some bene- ficial effect.
Add a third observation, brethren. Let us beware of human passion mingling with our expositions of the main doctrines of Scripture, and with the subor- dinate topics vjhich arise from them. Human passion will mingle ; but let us beware. Let us overstate nothing; let us not exaggerate, magnify, strain mat- ters; let "the word of Christ dwell in us richly in all wisdom." It is heat and controversy which inflame and divide the church. Wide differences of judgment must exist on a multitude of points gathered by the feeble reason of man from the holy Scriptures. But these are of little moment, if the commanding doc- trines, and the true spirit of Christianity are chiefly enforced, and if minor points are not dogmatically and fiercely urged.
Dear brethren, let the Bible be our religion, our rule, our standard — the Bible in all its parts — the Bible in its unutterable mysteries — the Bible in every subordinate statement — the Bible, softly and gra- ciously yielded to, and imprinted on, a spirit of wis- dom and meekness. When this is done, surely our God will descend upon us ; the Spirit of grace will glorify his own truth ; and the elements of the con- version of the world, accumulated in the diffusion of Bibles and missionaries and teachers, will be ready to burst into life and efficacy at the divine command. Let the holy Saviour, the Holy Spirit, the holy Scrip-
ftfTRQDUCTOE,* ESSAY. 59
lares, be our motto and rallying- word in all we un- dertake or hope for.
7. A decided superiority to the icorld and all sec- tilar considerations, is another point of duty essential to any hopes of a revival of religion. We live in a day of external peace. We live in a time of much evangelical profession. The gospel is in a certain way fashionable. Our danger, therefore, lies peculiarly on the side of the world, of ease, indulgence, pride, con- formity to the opinion of others ; display in dress, in furniture, in houses ; a life of external propriety, without much self-denial or spirituality. We must, then, maintain a decided superiority to all secular considerations, if we would fulfil the duties already suggested, and glorify Christ. We must despise the frowns, and shun the smiles, and avoid the maxims, and dread the benumbing influence of the world. We must be well aware of the surprising tendency there is in every human heart to lukewarmness, to the love of praise, to secular importance, and the gratification of the flesh. We are walking as upon enchanted ground. There is a stream and course of this pres- ent world flowing forwards in every age, and swollen with human concupiscence and the arts of Satan, which is ever ready to carry us away. No man can keep his standing without constant prayer and watchfulness. And all these dangers are augmented, in a time of toleration and peace, and when many faithful and enlightened bishops and pastors give a currency to truth. In such a day, Satan's whole force is directed to seduce and to flatter. In such a day, ambition, love of power, sordid covetousness, the lord-
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ing it over God's heritage, the complacency of a pub- lic situation, the secret delight in considering our works, our congregations, our parishes, our influence, steal upon the heart unperceived. The world in all its forms is in direct hostility with the spiritual church. " Filthy lucre" is again and again condemned by St. Paul, as the especial snare of the clergy. Pride, and dominion over the faith of the people, is again and again held forth by him for our warning.
In two ways is all the mischief of the world in- creased tenfold. It seduces under the guise of laiv- ful things. It assumes the garb of prudence and foresight. It hides itself under the mask of benev- olence. It appears as the management of our con- cerns, the living on terms of friendly intercourse, the relaxation and cheerful society which our severer studies demand, the attention to our friends and patrons, the care of our health, the seizing of oppor- tunities for doing good and removing prejudice. Thus, under the semblance of what is lawful, minis- ters step over the boundary, verge towards doubtful indulgences, and compromise their character, their influence, their usefulness. Thus they abridge their time, and weaken their inclination for solid study, the visits to the poor, and the duties of devotion; and thus, still further declines from God are brought on.
For another peculiar danger of the world arises from its debauching the understanding, and Massing the decisions of the judgment. The maxims which appeared to us the most clear, become doubtful. The practices which we loudly condemned, are tolerated, excused, defended. The marks of a lukewarm spirit
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 61
which we had laid up in our hearts, are no longer conclusive. The interpretation which we put on the scriptural definition of the world, and the scriptural danger arising from it, slips out of our memory. The resolutions wre made in early life appear harsh and impracticable. We are now of opinion that this and that thing is lawful ; we now judge such and such practices expedient; we now conclude and resolve, that there is no harm in this and the other indul- gence. Thus Satan gains a footing in the heart ; earthly things obtain possession, Christ and his doc- trine are enfeebled, the pity we once felt for souls has lost its tone, our self-denial is gone, and we are like salt which has lost its savor. Brethren, let us awake to our danger ere it be too late. Let us shake ourselves from the slumbers of a worldly state. Let us dread the magical enchantment of earthly objects. Let us take heed, and beware of covetousness and surfeiting and the pleasures of this life. If a revival of religion is our object and our desire, we must begin at home ; we must cultivate a spiritual, a re- tired, a heavenly religion. Never can we call our people to leave that world to which we are looking back ourselves.
But we must not further extend these suggestions.
If, dear brethren, these things are as we have been describing them; if the causes of humiliation are such as we have stated ; if the grounds of hope and encouragement are so cheering ; if the duties which should be earnestly attended to are so numer- ous and important ; then, may the writer be permit-
62 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
ted to address, in conclusion, several classes of his brethren in the sacred ministry ?
1. Are any readers of these pages astonished at the general topics which have been enforced? Does the whole thing appear to you new, extravagant, un- necessary? Do you look on the whole complexion and color of the statement as unnatural? Then examine, we entreat you, whether this does not arise from your own wrong state of heart. Perhaps you have never felt your sins, as an individual penitent, personally accountable to God. Perhaps you have never once wept over them in deep contrition. Per- haps you have never seen the spiritual glory of Christ, as the incarnate Saviour, sacrificing himself on the cross for your redemption. Perhaps you have never known what prayer and meditation and communion with Grod, and love to Christ, and hatred of sin, and the denial of self, and the joy of pardon mean. The consequence is, you have had no care of the souls committed to your charge — you have never taught them their need of salvation — you have never shown them a Redeemer — you have never held out to them the Holy Spirit, as the Author of life and grace : and how can topics such as these we have been discuss- ing be intelligible to you? Strange would it be, if you did not start at them. You are not merely in need of being aroused to greater diligence, you want to be quickened from a death in trespasses and sins. Awake, then, dear friend, to your awful state. An unconverted minister is dragging all the souls of his people with him to perdition. He is a blind leader of the blind. He is building up the sinner in his
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 63
rebellion, his self-righteousness, his negligence. 0 repent, then, and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance. We speak not to you of a revival of religion among others; we deal with you for your own salvation. "We plead with you for the sheep, scattered and wandering, and having no shepherd. We adjure you by the vows of your ordination, by the blood of Christ, by the grace of the good Spirit of God, by the value of souls, by the unutterable importance of eternity, to awake and turn to God.
2. You say you are moral ', diligent, anxious for the good of your parish. But is this all ? So may a magistrate be — so a statesman — so a landlord. But you are called to be the minister of Christ. You are called to spiritual duties. You are called to bring men to salvation, to expound the doctrine of grace, to prepare a lost world for heaven. And does a little common morality, such as Seneca or Epictetus might have taught; or some general benevolence, gathered from the unavoidable improvements introduced into society by the Christian spirit, serve to discharge these high and peculiar obligations? It is not of morality, but of Christianity, that you are the minis- ter. It is not of benevolence, but of salvation, that you are the herald. Mere decency, mere kindness of heart, mere common uprightness, in a minister of the gospel, is treachery to the peculiar trust reposed in him. Nothing can be indifferent which he does. He is the instrument and cause of the condemnation of his people, unless he is positively employing all his powers for their salvation. A pilot that allows his
64 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
vessel to dash upon the rocks, is guilty of the conse- quences of the shipwreck.
3. But you are not merely an ordinary decent minister, living a quiet and benevolent life ; you tell me you are active, studious, fond of literature, dili- gent in reading works of science, the patron of the arts, the author of criticisms and poems and disser- tations; but is all this the appropriate work of a minister of religion? Consider, dear reader, can any thing be more opposed to the simple character of a herald of Christ, than a mere taste for elegant litera- ture, the mere labor of a scientific student, the mere ardor of the philosopher or a historian ? Was it for this you undertook the care of souls ? Is it for this you desert your closet, your sick chambers, your private devotional duties ? Believe it, the pride of human knowledge indisposes more to the humbling truths and precepts of the Christian ministry than almost any other passion. The soul is barren, the heart is filled with vanity, the habits are worldly. A literary spirit in a minister of Christ is direct rebellion against the first claims of his high office. The spirit of the servant of God is not literature, but piety ; not vanity and conceit, but lowliness of heart ; not idle curiosity, but sound and solid knowledge ; not philosophy, but the Bible ; not the pursuit of natural discoveries, but the care of souls, the glory of Christ, the progress of the gospel ; not science, but salvation.
4. But objections may be advanced to the state- ments of this essay, by the theological inquirer ivho has made divinity his study, who has examined
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 65
fathers and commentators, who has weighed opposite arguments and systems of religion, and has imbibed the strongest prejudices against the principal state- ments which have been advanced. He understands not what revival of piety can be necessary in such circumstances as ours in this country. He objects to this ardor, this overstatement, as he terms it, on the subject of spiritual religion. He condemns it as feverish ; he imputes it to a spirit of party ; he charges it with enthusiasm; he complains of it as impractica- ble and intolerant; he dismisses it with a name of reproach.
To such general insinuations the plain answer is, that the holy Scriptures speak most decidedly, and in every part, the language we have been holding. Every page of the Bible demands the whole heart of man. Every epistle of St. Paul is far more exalted in doctrine and spirituality than any statement we can make. The very last accusation brought by the Saviour against a fallen church, was that of luke- warmness — the being " neither cold nor hot." Let the objector read over again his Bible ; let him pray for the guidance and illumination of the Holy Spirit ; let him enter upon religion as a practical matter be- tween Grod and his own soul, and he will soon form a totally different judgment from that which he now entertains. Lay aside only, beloved reader, all preju- dices of every kind ; lay aside the opinions of divines and disputants; lay aside the censure and applause of a mistaken world, and enter upon the question of religion as before the divine Saviour, and you will soon find that the very doctrines you reject are the
66 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
centre-point of revelation — the element of salvation — the means of pardon and grace to man. Oh the power which our wicked hearts give to the idlest excuses and prejudices on the subject of the gospel. The very language and objections you bring forward are a proof of the need of that revival of Christianity for which we plead. The external orthodoxy of the present day evaporates all the life of the divine doc- trine, leaves man to his natural powers, fills him with pride and self-conceit, is content with a dead faith and a worldly life, neglects the care of souls, and builds up a proud self-righteousness on the foun- dation of human merit. This lukewarm temper is an enemy to spiritual religion, and to the revival of it, because such topics condemn the lukewarmness of the age as the greatest provocation that can be offered to God. Oh, if it should please the Almighty Saviour to revive his work among the clergy, the very first effect would be the detection of the evils of this disputatious, self-confident, worldly spirit. "We appeal to this Saviour to defend the cause of his own truth. We appeal to this Saviour to testify to his real gospel, by making it the means of conversion in men. We appeal to this Saviour to support us in our earnest endeavors to maintain his cause in a gainsaying age, to grant us his Spirit, and to make every opponent a happy partaker of the grace which he has previously condemned.
5. But are there not many young and well-dis- posed ministers who may take up these pages, and may sincerely desire to act upon the advice given, and who yet may need some further encouragement ?
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 67
They are pressed with difficulties. They are discoun- tenanced. They are impeded. They are in their own minds far from being strongly built up in the faith of Christ. To such interesting persons we would say3 Go on, young friends, in simplicity and prayer. Keep your hearts with all diligence. If you are sin- cere, and persevere in the use of means, (rod will assuredly guide you into all truth. "If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine." The weakest Christian shall overcome, through the might of his glorious Captain. Study your Bible. Act on what you know. Be much in prayer. Ask advice in great difficulties, from pious and judicious friends. Read the lives of eminently holy ministers and mis- sionaries.# Despair of nothing in a good cause. Go much among the sick and dying. Compare what you see and feel with the holy Scriptures. Fear not the face of man. Your difficulties and discourage- ments wrill lessen. " The path of the just is as the shining light, which shine th more and more unto the perfect day."
6. Remember, finally, dear brethren, for with this admonition I will conclude, that Satan, our great adversary, will peculiarly resist all attempts at a revival of Christianity. It is death to his kingdom. A cold orthodoxy he can bear with. A literary spirit
* As those of Gilpin, Hooker, Leighton. the two Henrys. Halyburton. Doddridge. Brainerd. Schwartz. Martyn. Fletcher. Scott. Richmond. To these lives we would add, as hooks of great importance, Cecil's Remains, and Qnesnel on the New Testament, which should never be out of the hands of a young minister. In Mr. Gilly's Horse-catecheticse are some valuable thoughts.
68 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
he can turn to his own purposes. A merely decent, benevolent person, with the name of a clergyman, he retains safely in his power. But to arouse a careless age, to sound the trumpet among the teachers of religion, to call on them to awake from spiritual tor- por, and then arouse their people — this kindles all the wrath of the wicked one.
Yes, beloved brethren, we must calculate on the bitterest hostility, and the most subtle artifices of Satan, as we proceed in our holy course. But be not deterred. " Greater is He that is for us, than he that is in the world." Let us repose in the might of the Captain of our salvation. Let us draw close the bonds of mutual love. Let us be prepared to ascribe all the glory to Him who hath done all things for us; and we need not fear discomfiture. The power of Christ will rest upon us — the tie of united affections will bring us near to each other for aid and succor — the high aim of the glory of Grod will engage all the divine attributes in our behalf. "We do not trust in ourselves — we do not seek any selfish object — we do not desire our own praise. We are, indeed, but unprofitable servants, even after we have done all. To Him, therefore, who hath loved us, be all the honor and majesty ascribed — in his name let us go forth, making mention of his righteousness, even of his only — and in him let us be united in the bond of charity and love. In this spirit, and with these ends, a revival of Christianity, first among the clergy of all our churches, and then among the laity, may be humbly hoped for. All the topics of humilia- tion, if duly felt, will inspire confidence of this great
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result — all the sources of hope, from the circum- stances of the times, will fall into the same general feeling — while every duty which we have pointed out, directly tends to the same result. The strength of Christ for the combat with Satan — the temple of love for the efforts of the church — the glory of Gtod for the ultimate end of all, form a combination which will conduct to the greatest results, for they agree and are identified with the very song which angels chanted at the birth of the Saviour: " Glory to Grod in the highest, and on earth peace, good-will toward
men."
D. W Islington, March, 1829.
DEDICATION.
BY BAXTER.
TO MY REVEREND AND DEARLY BELOVED BRETHREN, THE FAITHFUL MINISTERS OF CHRIST, IN BRITAIN AND IRELAND GRACE AND PEACE IN JESUS CHRIST BE INCREASED.
Reverend Brethren — The subject of this treatise so nearly concerneth yourselves, and the churches committed to your care, that it emboldeneth me to this address, notwithstanding the imperfections in the manner of handling it, and the consciousness of my great unworthiness to be your monitor.
Before I come to my principal errand, I shall give you an account of the reasons of the following work, and of the freedom of speech I have used, which to some may be displeasing.
When the Lord had awakened his ministers in this county, (Worcestershire,) and some neighboring parts, to a sense of their duty in the work of cate- chizing, and private instruction of all in their par- ishes who would not obstinately refuse their help, and when they had subscribed an agreement, con- taining their resolutions for the future performance of it, they judged it unmeet to enter upon the work
72 DEDICATION.
without a solemn humbling of their souls before the Lord, for their long neglect of so great and necessary a duty ; and therefore they agreed to meet together at Worcester, December 4, 1655, and there to join in humiliation and in earnest prayer to Grod for the par- don of our neglects, and for his special assistance in the work which we had undertaken, and for the suc- cess of it with the people whom we had engaged to instruct ; at which time, among others, I was desired by them to preach. In compliance with their wishes, I prepared the following discourse ; which, though it proved longer than could be delivered in one or two sermons, yet I intended to have entered upon it at that time, and to have delivered that which was most pertinent to the occasion, and to have reserved the rest to another season. But before the meeting, by the increase of my ordinary pain and weakness, I was disabled from going thither ; to recompense which unwilling omission, I easily yielded to the request of divers of the brethren, forthwith to publish the things which I had prepared, that they might read that which they could not hear.
If it should be objected, that I should not have spoken so plainly and sharply against the sins of the ministry, or that I should not have published it to the view of the world; or, at least, that I should have done it in another tongue, and not in the ears of the vulgar ; especially at such a time, when enthusiasts and papists are endeavoring to bring the ministry into contempt, and the people are too prone to heark- en to their suggestions, I confess I thought the objec- tion very considerable ; but that it prevailed not to
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alter my resolution, is to be ascribed, among others, te the following reasons:
1. It was a purposed solemn humiliation that we had agreed on, and that this was intended for. And how should we be humbled without a plain confes- sion of our sin ?
2. It was principally our own sins that the con- fession did concern ; and who can be offended with us for confessing our own sins, and taking the blame and shame to ourselves, which our consciences told us we ought to do ?
3. When the sin is open in the sight of the world, it is in vain to attempt to hide it : and when the sin is public, the confession should also be public. If the ministers of England had sinned only in Latin, I would have made shift to have admonished them in Latin, or else have said nothing to them. But if they will sin in English, they must hear of it in English. Unpardoned sin will never let us rest or prosper, though we be at ever so much care and cost to cover it : our sin will surely find us out, though we find not it out. The work of confession is purposely to make known our sin, and freely to take the shame to ourselves: and if "he that confesseth and forsak- eth his sins shall have mercy," no wonder if ;,'he that covereth them shall not prosper.*' If we be so tender of ourselves, and so loath to confess. God will be the less tender of us, and he will indite our confessions for us. He will either force our consciences to con- fession, or his judgments shall proclaim our iniquities to the world.
4. Many who have undertaken the work of the
Ref. Pastor. 4
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ministry, do so obstinately proceed in self-seeking, negligence, pride, and other sins, that it is become our necessary duty to admonish them. If we saw that such would reform without reproof, we would gladly forbear the publishing of their faults. But when reproofs themselves prove so ineffectual that they are more offended at the reproof than at the sin, and had rather that we should cease reproving than that themselves should cease sinning, I think it is time to sharpen the remedy. For what else should we do ? To give up our brethren as incurable were cruelty, as long as there are further means to be used. We must not hate them, but plainly rebuke them, and not suffer sin upon them. To bear with the vices of the ministers, is to promote the ruin of the church ; for what speedier way is there for the depraving and undoing of the people, than the de- pravity of their guides ? And how can we more effectually promote a reformation, than by endeavor- ing to reform the leaders of the church ? For my part, I have done as I would be done by ; and it is for the safety of the church, and in tender love to the brethren whom I venture to reprehend — -not to make them contemptible and odious, but to heal the evils that would make them so.
But especially, because our faithful endeavors are of so great necessity to the welfare of the church, and the saving of men's souls, that it will not consist with a love to either, to be negligent ourselves, or silently to connive at negligence in others. If thou- sands of you were in a leaking ship, and those that should pump out the water, and stop the leaks, should
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be sporting or asleep, or even but favoring themselves in their labors, to the hazarding of you all, would you not awaken them to their work, and call on them to labor as for your lives? And if you used some sharp- ness and importunity with the slothful, would you think that man was in his wits who would take it ill of you, and accuse you of pride, self-conceitedness, or unmannerliness, to presume to talk so saucily to your fellow-workmen, or that should tell you that you wrong them by diminishing their reputation — would you not say, " The work must be done, or we are all dead men. Is the ship ready to sink, and do you talk of reputation? or had you rather hazard yourself and us, than hear of your sloth-fulness ?"
This is our case, brethren. The work of God must needs be done. Souls must not perish while you mind your worldly business or worldly pleasure, and take your ease, or quarrel with your brethren. Nor must we be silent while men are hastened by you to perdition, and the church brought into immi- nent danger, for fear of seeming too uncivil and un- mannerly with you, or displeasing your impatient souls. Would you be but as impatient with your sins as with our reproofs, you should hear no more from us, but we should be all agreed. But neither God nor good men will let you alone in such sins. Yet, if you had betaken yourselves to another calling, and would sin to yourselves only, and would perish alone, we should not have so much necessity of mo- lesting you as we now have ; but if you will enter into the office of the ministry, which is for the neces- sary preservation of us all, so that, by letting you
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alone in your sin, we must give up the church to loss and hazard, blame us not, if we talk to you more freely than you would have us do. If your own body were sick, and you will despise the remedy, or if your own house were on fire, and you will be singing or quarrelling in the streets, I could possibly bear it, and let you alone — which yet, in charity, I should not easily do — but if you will undertake to be the physician of a hospital, or to a whole town that is infected with the plague, or will undertake to quench all the fires that shall be kindled in the town, there is no bearing with your remissness, how much soever it may displease you : take it as you will, you must be told of it ; and if that will not serve, you must be told of it still more plainly ; and if that will not serve, if you be rejected as well as reprehended, you may thank yourselves. I speak all this to none but the guilty.
Thus I have given you those reasons which forced me to publish, in plain English, so much of the sins of the ministry as in the following treatise I have done. x\nd I suppose the more penitent and humble any are, and the more desirous of the true reforma- tion of the church, the more easily and fully will they approve such free confessions and reprehensions. But I find it will be impossible to avoid offending those who are at once guilty and impenitent ; for there is no way of avoiding this, but by our silence, or their patience : and silent we cannot be, because of Grod's commands ; and patient they cannot be, because of their guilt and impenitence. But plain dealers will always be approved in the end ; and the time is at
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hand when you will confess that they were your best friends.
But my principal business is yet behind. I must now take the boldness, brethren, to become your monitor concerning some of the necessary duties of which I have spoken in the ensuing discourse. If any of you should charge me with arrogance or im- modesty for this attempt, as if hereby I accused you of negligence, or judged myself sufficient to admonish you, I entreat your candid interpretation of my bold- ness, assuring you that I obey not the counsel of my flesh herein, but displease myself as much as some of you ; and would rather have the ease and peace of silence, if it were consistent with my duty and the church's good. But it is the mere necessity of the souls of men, and my desire of their salvation and the prosperity of the church, which forceth me to this arrogance and immodesty, if so it must be called. For who that hath a tongue can be silent, when it is for the honor of God, the welfare of his church, and the everlasting happiness of so many souls ?
The first and chief point which I have to propose to you, is this : Whether it be not the unquestionable duty of the generality of ministers throughout the country to set themselves presently to the work of instructing individually, all that are committed to their care, who will be persuaded to submit thereto ? I need not here stand to prove it, having sufficiently done this in the following discourse. Can you think that holy wisdom will gainsay it ? Will zeal for God — will delight in his service, or Iovp- to the souls men, gainsay it ?
78 DEDICATION.
That people must be taught the principles of religion, and matters of greatest necessity to salva- tion, is past doubt among us.
That they must be taught it in the most edifying, advantageous way, I hope we are agreed.
That personal conference and examination and instruction hath many excellent advantages for their good, is no less beyond dispute.
That personal instruction is recommended to us by Scripture, and by the practice of the servants of Christ, and approved by the godly of all ages, is, so far as I can find, without contradiction.
It is past doubt, that we should perform this great duty to all the people, or as many as we can ; for our love and care of their souls must extend to all. If there are five hundred or a thousand ignorant people in your parish or congregation, it is a poor discharge of your duty, now and then to speak to a few of them, and to let the rest alone in their ignorance, if you are able to afford them help.
It is no less certain, that so great a work as this is should take up a considerable part of our time. And it is equally certain, that all duties should be done in order, as far as possible, and therefore, should have their appointed times. And if we are agreed to practise according to these commonly acknowledged truths, we need not differ upon any doubtful circum- stances.
I do now, in the behalf of Christ, and for the sake of his church and the immortal souls of men, beseech all the faithful ministers of Christ, that they will pres- ently and effectually engage in this work. Combine
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for the unanimous performance of it, that it may more easily procure the submission of your people. I must confess, I find, by some experience, that this is the work that, through the grace of Grod, must reform indeed ; that must expel our common prevail- ing ignorance ; that must bow the stubborn hearts of sinners ; that must answer their vain objections, and take off their prejudices ; that must reconcile their hearts to faithful ministers, and help forward the success of our public preaching ; and make true godliness a commoner thing than it has hitherto been.
I find that we never took the best course for de- molishing the kingdom of darkness till now. I won- der at myself, how I was kept off from so clear and excellent a duty so long. But the case was with me as I suppose it is with others. I was long convinced of it, but my apprehensions of the difficulties were too great, and my apprehensions of the duty too small, and so I was long hindered from the perform- ance of it. I imagined the people would scorn it, and none but a few who had least need would sub- mit to it, and I thought my strength would never go through with it, having so great burdens on me before ; and thus I long delayed it, which I beseech the Lord of mercy to forgive. "Whereas, upon trial, I find the difficulties almost nothing — save only through my extraordinary bodily weakness — to that which I imagined ; and I find the benefits and com- forts of the work to be such, that I would not wish that I had forborne it for all the riches in the world. We spend Monday and Tuesday, from morning almost
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to night, in the work, taking about fifteen or sixteen families in a week, that we may go through the par- ish, in which there are upwards of eight hundred families, in a year ; and I cannot say yet, that one family hath refused to come to me, and only a few persons excused themselves and shifted it off. And I find more outward signs of success with most that do come, than from all my public preaching to them. If you say, It is not so in most places; I answer, I wish that the blame of this may not lie with our- selves. If, however, some refuse your help, that will not excuse you for not affording it to them that would accept of it. If you ask me, what course I take for order and expedition, I may here mention, that, at the delivery of the catechisms, I take a cata- logue of all the persons of understanding in the parish, and the clerk goeth a week before, to every family, to tell them what day to come, and at what hour — one family at eight o'clock, the next at nine, and the next at ten, etc. — and I am forced by the number, to deal with a whole family at once ; but ordinarily, I admit not any of another family to be present.
Brethren, do I now invite you to this work with- out the authority of God, without the consent of all antiquity, without the consent of the reformed divines, or without the conviction of your own consciences ? See what the Westminster Assembly speak occasion- ally, in the Directory, about the visitation of the sick : "It is the duty of the minister, not only to teach the people committed to his charge in public, but pri- vately ; and particularly to admonish, exhort, reprove,
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and comfort them upon all seasonable occasions, so far as his time, strength, and personal safety will permit. He is to admonish them in time of health to prepare for death. And for that purpose, they are often to confer with their minister about the estate of their souls," etc. B,ead this over again and consider it. Hearken to God, if you would have peace with Clod. Hearken to conscience, if you would have peace of conscience. I am resolved to deal plainly with you, though I should displease you. It is an unlikely thing that there should be a heart sincerely devoted to God in the breast of that man who, after advertisements and exhortations, will not resolve on so clear and important a duty. I cannot conceive that he who hath one spark of saving grace, and so hath that love to Grod, and delight in his service, which is in all the sanctified, could possibly be drawn to oppose or refuse such a work as this ; except under the power of such a temptation as Peter was when he denied Christ, or when he dissuaded him from suffering, and heard a half excommunication, " Get thee behind me, Satan : thou art an offence unto me ; for thou savorest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men." You have put your hand to the plough ; you are doubly devoted to him as Chris- tians, and as pastors ; and dare you, after this, draw back, and refuse his work ? You see the work of reformation at a stand ; and you are engaged by many obligations to promote it : and dare you now neglect the means by which it must be done ? Will you show your faces in a Christian congregation, as
ministers of the gospel, and pray for a reformation,
4#
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and for the conversion and salvation of your hearers, and for the prosperity of the church ; and when you have done, refuse to use the means by which all this must be accomplished ?
I know carnal wTit will never want words and show of reason to gainsay that truth and duty which it abhors. It is easier now to cavil against duty than to perform it ; but wait the end, before you pass your final judgment. Can you make yourselves believe that you shall have a comfortable review of these neglects, or make a comfortable account of them to God? I dare prognosticate, from the knowledge of the nature of grace, that all godly ministers will make conscience of this duty, and address them- selves to it, except those who, by some extraordinary accident, are disabled, or who are under such temp- tations as aforesaid. I do not hopelessly persuade you to it, but take it for granted that it will be done. And if any lazy, or jealous, of malicious hypocrites do cavil against it, or hold off, the rest will not do so ; but they will take the opportunity, and not resist the warnings of the Lord. And God will uncase the hypocrites ere long, and make them know, to their sorrow, what it was to trifle with him. Woe to them, when they must account for the blood of souls ! The reasons which satisfied them here against duty, will not then satisfy them against duty ; but will be manifested to have been the effects of their folly, and to have proceeded radically from their corrupted wills, and carnal interest. Nor will their consciences own those reasons at a dying hour, which now they seem to own. Then they shall feel to their sorrow,
DEDICATION. S3
that there is not that comfort to be had for a de- parting soul, in the review of such neglected duty, as there is to them that have wholly devoted them- selves to the service of the Lord, i" am sure my arguments for this duty ivill appear strongest at the last, when they shall be vieived at the hour of death, at the day of judgment, and especially in the light of eternity.
And now, brethren, I earnestly beseech you, in the name of Grod, and for the sake of your people's souls, that you will not slightly slubber over this work, but do it vigorously, and with all your might ; and make it your great and serious business. Much judgment is required for the managing of it. Study, therefore, beforehand, how to do it, as you study your sermons. I remember how earnest I was with some of the last parliament, that they would settle cate- chists in our assemblies ; but truly I am not sorry that it took not effect, unless for a few of the larger congregations. For I perceive that all the life of the work, under Grod, doth lie in the prudent effectual management of it, in searching men's hearts, and setting home the truth to their consciences ; and the ablest minister is weak enough for this, and few of inferior parts would be found competent. For I fear nothing more, than that many ministers who preach well, will be found but imperfectly qualified for this work, especially to manage it with old, ignorant, dead-hearted sinners. And indeed, if the ministers be not reverenced by the people, they will rather slight them, and contest with them, than humbly learn and submit to them : how much more would
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they do so by inferior men ? Seeing, then, the work is cast upon us, and it is we that must do it, or else it must be undone, let us be up and doing with all our might. When you are speaking to your people, do it with the greatest prudence and seriousness, and be as earnest with them as for life or death ; and fol- low it as closely as you do your public exhortations. I profess it is to me the most comfortable work, ex- cept public preaching — for there I speak to more, though yet with less advantage to each individual — that ever I yet did set my hand to. And I doubt not others will find it so too, if they only perform it faithfully.
My second request to ministers is, that they would at last, without any more delay, unanimous- ly set themselves to the practice of those parts of Christian discipline which are unquestionably neces- sary, and part of their work. It is a sad case, that good men should settle themselves so long in the constant neglect of so important a duty. The com- mon cry is, "Our people are not ready for it; they will not bear it." But is not the fact rather, that you will not bear the trouble and hatred which it will occasion? If, indeed, you proclaim our churches incapable of the order and government of Christ, what do you but give up the cause to them that withdraw from us, and encourage men to look out for better societies, where that discipline may be had? For though preaching and other ordinances may be omit- ted in some cases till a fitter season, and accordingly so may discipline, yet it is a hard case to settle in a constant neglect, for so many years together, as we
DEDICATION. 85
have done, unless there were an absolute impossi- bility of the work. And if it were so because of our incapable materials, it would plainly call us to alter our constitution, that the matter may be capable. I have spoken plainly afterwards of this, which I hope you will conscientiously consider. I now only be- seech you, if you would give a comfortable account to the chief Shepherd, and would not be found un- faithful in the house of God, that you do not wilfully or negligently delay it, as if it were a needless thing; nor shrink from it because of the trouble to the flesh that doth attend it; for as that is a sad sign of hypoc- risy, so the costliest duties are usually the most com- fortable ; and you may be sure that Christ will bear the "cost.
My last request is, that all the faithful ministers of Christ would, without any more delay, unite and associate for the furtherance of each other in the work of the Lord, and the maintaining of unity and concord in his churches; and that they would not neglect their brotherly meetings to those ends, nor yet spend them unprofitably, but improve them to their edification, and the effectual carrying on the work. Read that excellent letter of Edmond Grin- dal, Archbishop of Canterbury, to queen Eliza- beth, for ministerial meetings and exercises. You will find it in Fuller's History of the Church of England.
Brethren, I entreat your pardon for the infirmi- ties of this address; and, earnestly longing for the success of your labors, I shall daily beg of God, that he would persuade you to those duties which I have
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here recommended to you, and would preserve and prosper you therein, against all the serpentine sub- tlety and rage that are now engaged to oppose and hinder you.
Your unworthy fellow-servant,
RICHARD BAXTER. April 15, 1656.
THE
REFORMED PASTOR.
"TAKE HEED THEREFORE UNTO YOURSELVES, AND TO ALL THE FLOCK OYER THE WHICH THE HOLY GHOST HATH MADE YOU OVERSEERS, TO FEED THE CHURCH OF GOD, WHICH HE HATH PURCHASED WITH HIS OWN BLOOD." Acts 20:23.
Reverend and dearly beloved Brethren — Though some think that Paul's exhortation to these elders doth prove him their ruler, we who are this day to speak to you from the Lord, hope that we may freely do so without any jealousies of such a conclu- sion. Though we teach our people as officers set over them in the Lord, yet may w^e teach one an- other as brethren in office as well as in faith. If the people of our charge must " teach and admonish and exhort each other daily," no doubt teachers may do it to one another, without any supereminence in power or degree. We have the same sins to mortify, and the same graces to be quickened and strengthened, as our people have : we have greater works than they have to do, and greater difficulties to overcome, and therefore wTe have need to be warned and awakened, if not to be instructed, as wrell as they. So that I con- fess I think wre should meet together more frequently, if we had nothing else to do but this. And we should
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deal as plainly and closely with one another, as the most serious among us do with our flocks, lest, if they only have sharp admonitions and reproofs, they only should be sound and lively in the faith. That this was Paul's judgment, I need no other proof than this rousing, heart-melting exhortation to the Ephe- sian elders. A short sermon, but not soon learned. Had the bishops and teachers of the church but thor- oughly learned this short exhortation, though to the neglect of many a volume which hath taken up their time, and helped them to greater applause in the world, how happy had it been for the church and for themselves.
In further discoursing on this text, I propose to pursue the following method :
To consider ivhat it is to take heed to ourselves; and show why we must take heed to ourselves.
To inquire ivhat it is to take heed to all the flock; to illustrate the manner in which we must take heed to all the flock ; and to state some motives why we should take heed to all the flock.
And lastly, to make some application of the whole.
PART I.
THE OVERSIGHT OF OURSELVES.
CHAPTER I.
THE NATURE OF THIS OVERSIGHT.
Let us first consider, "What it is to take heed to ourselves.
I. See that the work of saving grace be thor- oughly wrought in your own souls. Take heed to yourselves, brethren, lest you should be destitute of that saving grace of Grod which you offer to others, and be strangers to the effectual working of that gospel which you preach ; and lest, while you pro- claim to the world the necessity of a Saviour, your own hearts should neglect him, and you should miss of an interest in him and his saving benefits. Take heed to yourselves, lest you perish while you call upon others to take heed of perishing; and lest you famish yourselves while you prepare food for them. Though there is a promise of shining as the stars, to those who turn many to righteousness, Dan. 12 : 3, that is on supposition that they are first turned to it them- selves. Their own sincerity in the faith is the con- dition of their glory, simply considered, though their great rriinisterial labors may be a condition of the promise of their greater glory. Many a man hath
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warned others that they come not to that place of torment, while yet he hastened to it himself: many a preacher is now in hell, who hath a hundred times called upon his hearers to use the utmost care and diligence to escape it. Can any reasonable man im- agine, that Grod should save men for offering salva- tion to others while they refused it themselves; and for telling others those truths which they themselves neglected and abused ? Many a tailor goes in rags that maketh costly clothes for others ; and many a cook scarcely satisfies his hunger, when he hath dressed for others the most costly dishes. Believe it, brethren, God never saved any man for being a preacher, nor because he was an able preacher ; but because he was a justified, sanctified man, and consequently faithful in his Master's work. Take heed, therefore, to your- selves first, that you be that which you persuade your hearers to be, and believe that which you persuade them to believe, and heartily entertain that Saviour whom you offer to them. He that bade you love your neighbors as yourselves, did imply that you should love yourselves, and not hate and destroy yourselves and them.
It is a fearful thing to be an unsanctified professor, but much more to be an unsanctified preacher. Doth it not make you tremble when you open the Bible, lest you should there read the sentence of your own condemnation ? When you pen your sermons, little do you think that you are drawing up indictments against your own souls ; when you are arguing against sin, that you are aggravating your own ; when you proclaim to your hearers the unsearchable riches of
OVERSIGHT OF OURSELVES. 91
Christ and his grace, that you are publishing your own iniquity in rejecting them, and your unhappiness in being destitute of them. What can you do in per- suading men to Christ, in drawing them from the world, in urging them to a life of faith and holiness, but conscience, if it were awake, would tell you that you speak all this to your own confusion ? If you speak of hell, you speak of your own inheritance; if you describe the joys of heaven, you describe your own misery, seeing you have no right to "the inheri- tance of the saints in light." What can you say, for the most part, but it will be against your own souls ? 0 miserable life ! that a man should study and preach against himself, and spend his days in a course of self- condemning. A graceless, inexperienced preacher, is one of the most unhappy creatures upon earth ; and yet he is ordinarily very insensible of his unhappi- ness ; for he hath so many counterfeits that seem like the gold of saving grace, and so many splendid stones that resemble Christian's jewels, that he is seldom troubled with the thoughts of his poverty, but thinks he is " rich, and increased in goods, and hath need of nothing ;" when he is "poor, and miserable, and blind, and naked." He is acquainted with the holy Scrip- tures, he is exercised in holy duties, he liveth not in open disgraceful sin, he serveth at God's altar, he re- proveth other men's faults, and preacheth up holiness both of heart and life ; and how can this man but be holy ? 0 what aggravated misery is this, to perish in the midst of plenty — to famish with the bread of life in our hands, while we offer it to others, and urge it on them ! That those ordinances of G-od should be
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the occasion of our delusion, which are instituted to be the means of our conviction and salvation ; and that while we hold the looking-glass of the gospel to others, to show them the face and aspect of their souls, we should either look on the back part of it ourselves, where we can see nothing, or turn it aside, that it may misrepresent us to ourselves.
If such a wretched man would take my counsel, he would make a stand, and call his heart and life to an account, and fall a preaching awhile to himself, before he preach any more to others. He would con- sider whether food in the mouth, that goeth not into the stomach, will nourish ; whether he that nameth the name of Christ should not depart from iniquity ; whether G-od will hear his prayers, if he regard in- iquity in his heart ; whether it will serve the turn at the day of reckoning to say, " Lord, Lord, we have prophesied in thy name," when he shall hear these awful words, " Depart from me, I know you not ;" and what comfort it will be to Judas when he has gone to his own place, to remember that he preached with the other apostles, or that he sat with Christ and was called by him friend. When such thoughts as these have entered into their souls, and kindly worked awhile upon their consciences, I would advise them to go to their congregations, and preach over Origen's sermon on Psal. 50 : 16, 17 : " But unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare my stat- utes, or that thou shouldest take my covenant into thy mouth ? seeing thou hatest instruction, and castest my words behind thee." And when they have read this text, to sit down, and expound and apply it by
OVERSIGHT OF OURSELVES. 93
their tears; and then to make a. fall confession of their sin, and lament their case before the whole as- sembly, and desire their earnest prayers to God for pardoning and renewing grace, that hereafter they may preach a Saviour whom they know, and may feel what they speak, and may commend the riches of the gospel from their own experience.
Alas, it is the common danger and calamity of the church, to have unregenerate and inexperienced pas- tors, and to have so many men become preachers before they are Christians; who are sanctified by dedication to the altar as the priests of God, before they are sanctified by hearty dedication as the disci- ples of Christ; and so to worship an unknown God, and to preach an unknown Christ, to pray through an unknown Spirit, to recommend a state of holiness and communion with God, and a glory and a happiness that are all unknown, and like to be unknown to them for ever. He is like to be but a heartless preacher, that hath not the Christ and grace that he preacheth in his heart. 0 that all our students in our universi- ties would well consider this ! What a poor business is it to themselves, to spend their time in acquiring some little knowledge of the works of God, and of some of those names which the divided tongues of the nations have imposed on them, and not to know God himself, nor to be acquainted with that one renewing work that should make them happy. They do but walk in a vain show, and spend their lives like dream- ing men, while they busy their wits and tongues about abundance of names and notions, and are strangers to God and the life of saints. If ever God awaken
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them by his saving grace, they will have cogitations and employments so much more serious than their un- sanctified studies, that they will confess they did but dream before. A world of business they make them- selves about nothing, while they are wilful strangers to the primitive, independent, necessary Being, who is all in all.
Nothing can be rightly known, if G-od be not known ; nor is any study well managed, nor to any great purpose, if God is not studied. "We know little of the creature, till we know it as it stands related to the Creator : single letters, and syllables uncomposed, are no better than nonsense. He who overlooketh Him who is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, and seeth not him in all, doth see nothing at all. All creatures, as such, are broken syllables ; they signify nothing as separated from God. Were they separated actually, they would cease to be, and the separation would be an annihilation ; and when we separate them in our fancies, we make nothing of them to ourselves. It is one thing to know the crea- tures as Aristotle, and another thing to know them as a Christian. None but a Christian can read one line of his physics so as to understand it rightly. It is a high and excellent study, and of greater use than many apprehend ; but it is the smallest part of it that Aristotle can teach us. When man was made perfect, and placed in a perfect world, where all things were in perfect order, the whole creation was then man's book, in which he was to read the nature and will of his great Creator. Every creature had the name of God so legibly engraven on it, that man
OVERSIGHT OF OURSELVES. Oo
might run and read it. He could not open his eyes, but he might see some image of God ; but nowhere so fully and lively as in himself. It was, therefore, his work to study the whole volume of nature, but chiefly to study himself. And if man had held on in this course, he would have continued to increase in the knowledge of God and himself; but when he would needs know and love the creature and himself in a way of separation from God, he lost the know- ledge both of the creature and of the Creator, so far as it was worth the name of knowledge ; and instead of it, he hath got the unhappy knowledge which he affected, even the empty notions and fantastic know- ledge of the creature and himself, as thus separated. And thus he that lived to the Creator, and upon him, doth now live to and upon the other creatures and himself; and thus, " Every man at his best estate," the learned as well as the illiterate, " is altogether vanity. Surely every man walketh in a vain show ; surely they are disquieted in vain."
It is the work of Christ to bring us back to God, and to restore us to the perfection of holiness and obedience ; and as he is the way to the Father, so faith in him is the way to our former employment and enjoyment of God. I hope you perceive what I aim at in all this, namely, that to see God in his creatures, and to love him, and converse with him, was the employment of man in his upright state ; that this is so far from ceasing to be our dutv« that it is the work of Christ to bring us, by faith, back to it; and therefore the most holy men are the most excellent students of God's works, and none but the
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holy can rightly study them or know them. " His works are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein;" yet not for themselves, but for Him that made them. Your study of physics and other sciences is not worth a rush, if it be not God that you seek after in them. To see and admire, to reverence and adore, to love and delight in God, as exhibited in his works — this is the true and only philosophy ; the contrary is mere foolery, and is so called again and again by God himself. This is the sanctification of your studies, when they are devoted to God, and when he is the end, the object, and the life of them all.
And therefore I shall presume to tell you, by the way, that it is a grand error, and of dangerous conse- quence, in Christian academies — pardon the censure from one so unfit to pass it, seeing the necessity of the case commandeth it — that they study the crea- ture before the Redeemer, and set themselves to physics and metaphysics and mathematics, before they set themselves to theology ; whereas no man that hath not the vitals of theology, is capable of going beyond a fool in philosophy. Theology must lay the foundation,' and lead the way of all our stud- ies. If God must be searched after in our search of the creature, then tutors must read God to their pupils in all ; and divinity must be the beginning, the middle, the end, the all, of their studies. Our physics and metaphysics must be reduced to theol- ogy ; and nature must be read as one of God's books, which is purposely written for the revelation of him- self. The holy Scripture is the easier book ; when
OVERSIGHT OF OURSELVES. 97
you have first learned from it God and his will, as to the most necessary things, address yourselves to the study of his works, and read every creature as a Christian and a divine. If you see not yourselves and all things as living and moving and having being in God, you see nothing, whatever you think you see. If you perceive not, in your study of the creatures, that God is all and in all, and that " of him, and through him, and to him, are all things," you may think, perhaps, that you "know something, but you know nothing as you ought to know." Think not so basely of your physics, and of the works of God, as that they are only preparatory studies for boys. It is a most high and noble part of holiness, to search after, behold, admire, and love the great Cre- ator in all his works : how much have the saints of God been employed in this exalted exercise. The book of Job and the Psalms may show us that our physics are not so little related to theology as some suppose.
I do, therefore, in zeal for the good of the church, propose it for the consideration of all pious tutors, whether they should not as timely, and as diligently, read to their pupils, or cause them to read, the prin- cipal parts of practical divinity — and there is no other — as any of the sciences ; and whether they should not go together from the very first? It is well that they hear sermons ; but that is not enough. If tutors would make it their principal business to acquaint their pupils with the doctrine of salvation, and labor to set it home upon their hearts, that all might be received according to its weight, and read
Ref. Paster. 5
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to their hearts as well as to their heads, and so carry on the rest of their instructions that it may appear they make them but subservient unto this, and that their pupils may feel what they aim at in them all ; and so that they would teach all their philosophy in habitu theologico — this might be a happy means to make a happy church and a happy country. But when languages and philosophy have almost all their time and diligence, and instead of reading philosophy like divines, they read divinity like philosophers, as if it were a thing of no more moment than a lesson of music or arithmetic, and not the doctrine of ever- lasting life — this it is that blasteth so many in the bud, and pestereth the church with unsanctified teach- ers. Hence it is, that we have so many worldlings to preach of the invisible felicity, and so many carnal men to declare the mysteries of the Spirit ; and 1 would I might not say, so many infidels to preach Christ, or so many atheists to preach the living Grod: and when they are taught philosophy before or with- out religion, what wonder if their philosophy be all or most of their religion.
Again, therefore, I address myself to all who have the charge of the education of youth, especially in order to preparation for the ministry. You that are schoolmasters and tutors, begin and end with the things of God. Speak daily to the hearts of your scholars those things that must be wrought in their hearts, or else they are undone. Let some piercing words drop frequently from your mouths of Grod, and the state of their souls, and the life to come. Do not say they are too voungr to understand and receive
OVERSIGHT OF OURSELVES. 99
them. You little know what impressions they may make. Not only the soul of that boy, but many souls may have cause to bless God for your zeal and dili- gence, yea, for one such seasonable word. You have a great advantage above others to do them good ; you have them before they are grown to maturity, and they will hear you when they will not hear another. If they are destined to the ministry, you are prepar- ing them for the special service of Grod, and must they not first have the knowledge of him whom they have to serve ? 0 think with yourselves what a sad thing it will be to their own souls, and what a wrong to the church of Christ, if they come out from you with common and carnal hearts, to so great and holy and spiritual a work. Of a hundred students in one of our colleges, how many may there be that are seri- ous, experienced, godly young men ? If you should send one half of them on a work that they are unfit for, what bloody work will they make in the church or country ; whereas, if you be the means of their conversion and sanctification, how many souls may bless you, and what greater good can you do the church ? When once their hearts are savingly affect- ed with the doctrine which they study and preach, they will study it more heartily, and preach it more heartily : their own experience will direct them to the fittest subjects, and will furnish them with mat- ter, and quicken them to set it home to the conscience of their hearers. See, therefore, that you make not work for the groans and lamentation of the church, nor for the great tormentor of the murderers of souls.
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II. Content not yourselves with being in a state of grace, but be careful that your graces are kept in vigorous and lively exercise, and that you preach to yourselves the sermons which you study, before you preach them to others. If you did this for your own sakes, it would not be lost labor ; but I am speaking to you upon the public account, that you would do it for the sake of the church. When your minds are in a holy, heavenly frame, your people are likely to par- take of the fruits of it. Your prayers and praises and doctrine will be sweet and heavenly to them. They will likely feel when you have been much with God : that which is most on your hearts, is likely to be most in their ears. I confess I must speak it by lamentable experience, that I publish to my flock the distempers of my own soul. When I let my heart grow cold, my preaching is cold ; and when it is con- fused, my preaching is confused : and so I can often observe also in the best of my hearers, that when I have grown cold in preaching they have grown cold too ; and the next prayers which I have heard from them have been too like my preaching. We are the nurses of Christ's little ones. If we forbear taking food ourselves, we shall famish them; it will soon be visible in their leanness, and dull discharge of their several duties : if we let our love decline, we are not likely to raise theirs ; if we abate our holy care and fear, it will appear in our preaching; if the matter show it not, the manner will. If we feed on un- wholesome food, either errors or fruitless controver- sies, our hearers are likely to fare the worse for it. Whereas, if we abound in faith and love and zeal,
OVERSIGHT OF OURSELVES. 101
how would it overflow, to the refreshing of our con- gregations, and how would it appear in the increase of the same graces in them.
0, brethren, watch therefore over your own hearts : keep out lusts and passions and worldly inclinations ; keep up the life of faith and love and zeal ; be much at home, and be much with God. If it be not your daily business to study your own hearts, and to sub- due corruption, and to walk with God — if you make not this a work to which you constantly attend, all will go wrong, and you will starve your hearers ; or, if you have an affected fervency, you cannot expect a blessing to attend it from on high. Above all, be much in secret prayer and meditation. Thence you must fetch the heavenly fire that must kindle your sacrifices : remember, you cannot decline and neglect your duty to your own hurt alone ; many will be losers by it as well as you. For your people's sakes, therefore, look to your hearts. If a pang of spiritual pride should overtake you, and you should fall into any dangerous error, and vent your own inventions to draw away disciples after you, what a wound may this prove to the church of which you have the over- sight ; and you may become a plague- to them instead of a blessing, and they may wish they had never seen your faces. 0 therefore take heed to your own judg- ments and affections. Yanity and error will slyly insinuate, and seldom come without fair pretences : great distempers and apostasies have usually small beginnings. The prince of darkness doth frequently personate an angel of light, to draw the children of light again into darkness. How easily also will dis-
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tempers creep in upon our affections, and our first love and fear and care abate. Watch, therefore, for the sake of yourselves and others.
But besides this general course of watchfulness, methinks a minister should take some special pains with his heart, before he is to go to the congregation : if it be then cold, how is he likely to warm the hearts of his hearers ? Therefore, go then to God for life ; read some rousing, awakening book, or meditate on the weight of the subject of which you are to speak, and on the great necessity of your people's souls, that you may go in the zeal of the Lord into his house. Maintain, in this manner, the life of grace in your- selves, that it may appear in all your sermons from the pulpit — that every one who comes cold to the assembly, may have some warmth imparted to him before he depart.
III. Take heed to yourselves, lest your example contradict your doctrine, and lest you lay such stum- bling-blocks before the blind, as may be the occasion of their ruin — lest you unsay with your lives what you say with your tongues, and be the greatest hin- derers of the success of your own labors. It much hindereth our work when other men are all the week long contradicting to poor people in private, what we have been speaking to them from the word of Grod in public, because we cannot be at hand to expose their folly ; but it will much more hinder your work, if you contradict yourselves, and if your actions give your tongue the lie, and if you build up an hour or two with your mouths, and all the week after pull down with your hands. This is the wav to make men think
OVERSIGHT OF OURSELVES 103
that the word of God is but an idle tale ; and to make preaching seem no better than prating. He that means as he speaks, will surely do as lie speaks. One proud, lordly word, one needless contention, one cov- etous action, may cut the throat of many a sermon, and blast the fruit of all that you have been doing. Tell me, brethren, in the fear of God, do you regard the success of your labors, or do you not ? Do you long to see it upon the souls of your hearers ? If you do not, what do you preach for ; what do you study for ; and what do you call yourselves the ministers of Christ for ? But if you do, then surely you cannot find in your heart to mar your work for a thing of naught. "What, do you regard the success of your labors, and yet will not part with a little to the poor, nor put up with an injury or a foul word, nor stoop to the meanest, nor forbear your passionate or lordly carriage — no, not for the winning of souls, and attain- ing the end of all your labors ? You little value suc- cess, indeed, that will sell it at so cheap a rate, or will not do so small a matter to attain it.
It is a palpable error of some ministers, wrho make such a disproportion between their preaching and their living — who study hard to preach exactly, and study little or not at all to live exactly. All the week long is little enough to study how to speak two hours; and yet one hour seems too much to study how to live all the week. They are loath to misplace a word in their sermons, or to be guilty of any notable infirmity — and I blame them not, for the matter is holy and weighty — but they make nothing of misplacing affec- tions, words, and actions, in the course of their lives.
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0 how curiously have I heard some men preach ; and how carelessly have I seen them live. They have been so accurate as to the composition of their ser- mons, that seldom preaching seemed to them a virtue, that their language might be the more polite, and all the rhetorical writers they could meet with were pressed to serve them for the adorning of their style — and gauds were oft their chiefest ornaments. They were so nice in hearing others, that no man pleased them that drowned not affections, or dulled not, or distempered not the heart by the predominant strains of a fantastic wit. And yet, when it came to matter of practice, and they were once out of church, how incurious were the men, and how little did they regard what they said or did, provided it were not so palpably gross as to dishonor them. They that preached precisely, would not live precisely. What a difference was there between their pulpit speeches, and their familiar discourse. They that were most impatient of barbarisms, solecisms, and paralogisms in a sermon, could easily tolerate them in their life and conversation.
Certainly, brethren, we have very great cause to take heed what we do, as well as what we say : if we will be the servants of Christ indeed, we must not be tongue-servants only, but must serve him with our deeds, " and be doers of the work, that we may be blessed in our deed." As our people must be " doers of the word, and not hearers only ;" so we must be doers, and not speakers only, lest " we deceive our own selves." A practical doctrine must be practi- cally preached. We must study as hard how to live
OVERSIGHT OF OURSELVES. 105
well, as how to preach well. We must think and think again, how to compose our lives as may most tend to men's salvation, as well as our sermons. "When you are studying what to say to your people, if you have any concern for their souls, you will be often thinking with yourself, How shall I get within them ; and what shall I say that is most likely to convince them, and convert them, and promote their salvation ? And should you not as diligently think with yourself, How shall I live, and what shall I do, and how shall I dispose of all that I have, as may most tend to the saving of men's souls? Brethren, if the salvation of souls be your end, you will cer- tainly intend it out of the pulpit as well as in it. If it be your end, you will live for it, and contribute all your endeavors to attain it. You will ask concerning the money in your purse, as well as concerning other means, In what way shall I lay it out for the greatest good, especially to men's souls ? 0 that this were your daily study, how to use your wealth, your friends, and all you have for Grod, as well as your tongues. Then should we see that fruit of your labors which is never otherwise likely to be seen. If you intend the end of the ministry in the pulpit only, it would seem you take yourselves for ministers no longer than you are there. And if so, I think you are unworthy to be esteemed ministers at all.
Let me entreat you, brethren, to do well, as wel* as say well : be zealous of good works. Maintain youi innocency, and walk without offence. Let your lives condemn sin, and persuade men to duty. Would you have your people more careful of their souls than you
5*
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are of yours ? If you would have them redeem their time, do not you misspend yours. If you would not have them vain in their conference, see that you speak yourselves the things which may edify, and tend to minister grace to the hearers. Order your own fam- ilies well, if you would have them do so by theirs. Be not proud and lordly, if you would have them to be lowly. There are no virtues wherein your exam- ple will do more, at least to abate men's prejudice, than humility and meekness and self-denial. For- give injuries, and " be not overcome of evil, but over- come evil with good." Do as our Lord, " who, when he was reviled, reviled not again." If sinners be stub- born and contemptuous, flesh and blood will persuade you to take, up their weapons, and to master them by carnal means ; but that is not the way, further than self-preservation or public good may require, but over- come them with kindness and patience and gentle- ness. The former may show that you have more worldly power than they — wherein yet they are ordi- narily too hard for the faithful ; but it is the latter only that will tell them that you excel them in spir- itual excellency. If you believe that Christ was more worthy of imitation than Cesar or Alexander, and that it is more glory to be a Christian than to be a conqueror, or even to be a man than a beast, which often exceed us in strength, contend with charity, and not with violence ; set meekness and love and patience against force, and not force against force. Remem- ber, you are obliged to be the servants of all. " Con- descend to men of low estate." Be not strange to the poor of your flock ; they are apt to take your strange-
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ness for contempt. Familiarity, improved to holy- ends, may do abundance of good. Speak not roughly or disrespectfully to any one ; but be courteous to the meanest, as to your equal in Christ. A kind and win- ning carriage is a cheap way of doing men good.
Let me entreat you to abound in works of charity and benevolence. Gro to the poor, and see what they want, and show your compassion at once to their soul and body. Buy them a catechism, or other small books, that are most likely to do them good, and make them promise to read them with care and attention. Stretch your purse to the utmost, and do all the good you can. Think not of being rich — seek not great things for yourselves or posterity. What if you do impoverish yourselves to do a greater good ; will this be loss or gain ? If you believe that G-od is the safest purse-bearer, and that to expend in his service is the greatest usury, show them that you do believe it. I know that flesh and blood will cavil before it will lose its prey, and will never want something to say against this duty ; but mark what I say, and the Lord set it home upon your hearts— that man who hath any thing in the world so dear to him that he cannot spare it for Christ, if he call for it, is no true Christian. And because a carnal heart will not believe that Christ calls for it when he cannot spare it, and there- fore makes that his self-deceiving shift, I say further, that the man who will not be persuaded that duty is duty, because he cannot spare that for Christ which is therein to be expended, is no true Christian ; for a false heart corrupteth the understanding, and that a^ain increaseth the delusions of the heart. Do not
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take it, therefore, as an undoing, to make friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, and to lay up treas- ure in heaven, though you leave yourselves but little on earth. You lose no great advantage for heaven, by becoming poor.
I know, where the heart is carnal and covetous, words will not wring men's money out of their hands : they can say all this, and more to others ; but saying is one thing, and doing is another. But with those that are true believers, methinks such considerations should prevail. 0 what abundance of good might ministers do, if they would but live in contempt of the world, and the riches and glory thereof, and ex- pend all they have in their Master's service, and pinch their flesh, that they may have wherewith to do good. This would unlock more hearts to the reception of their doctrine, than all their oratory ; and without this, singularity in religion will seem but hypocrisy ; and it is likely that it is so. Though we need not do as the papists, who betake themselves to monasteries, and profess to cast away property, yet we must have nothing but what we have for God.
IV. Take heed to yourselves, lest you live in those sins ivhich you preach against in others, and lest you be guilty of that ivhich daily you condemn. Will you make it your work to magnify God, and when you have done, dishonor him as much as others? Will you proclaim Christ's governing power, and yet contemn it, and rebel yourselves ? Will you preach his laws, and wilfully break them ? If sin be evil, why do you live in it ? if it be not, why do you dis- suade men from it ? If it be dangerous, how dare
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you venture on it ? if it be not, why do you not tell men so ? If God's threatenings be true, why do you not fear them? if they be false, why do you needlessly trouble men with them, and put them into such frights without a cause? Do you "know the judg- ment of Orod, that they who commit such things are worthy of death ;" and yet will you do them ? " Thou that teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? Thou that say est a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery ? Thou that makest thy boast of the law, through breaking the law dishonor- est thou G-od ?" "What, shall the same tongue speak evil that speaketh against evil ? Shall those lips cen- sure and slander and backbite your neighbor, that cry down these and similar things in others ? Take heed to yourselves, lest you cry down sin, and yet do not overcome it ; lest, while you seek to bring it down in others, you bow to it, and become its slaves your- selves : "For of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought into bondage/5 " To whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are whom ye obey, whether of sin unto death, or of obedi- ence unto righteousness." 0 brethren, it is easier to chide sin, than to overcome it.
V. Take heed to yourselves, that yon be not des- titute of the qualifications necessary for your work. He must not be himself a babe in knowledge, that will teach men all those mysterious things which are to be known in order to salvation. 0 what qualifica- tions are necessary for a man who hath such a charge upon him as we have ! How many difficulties in divinity to be solved : and these, too, about the very
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fundamental principles of religion! How many ob- scure texts of Scripture to be expounded ! How many duties to be performed, wherein ourselves and others may miscarry, if in the matter and manner and end we be not well-informed ! How many sins to be avoided, which, without understanding and foresight, cannot be done ! What a number of sly and subtle temptations must we open to our people's eyes, that they may escape them ! How many weighty, and yet intricate cases of conscience, have we almost daily to resolve ! And can so much work, and such work as this, be done by raw, unqualified men ? 0 what strongholds have we to batter, and how many of them ! "What subtle and obstinate resistance must we expect from every heart we deal with ! Prejudice hath so blocked up our way, that we can scarcely procure a patient hearing. We can- not make a breach in their groundless hopes and carnal peace, but they have twenty shifts and seem- ing reasons to make it up again ; and twenty ene- mies, that are seeming friends, are ready to help them. We dispute not with them upon equal terms. We have children to reason with, that cannot under- stand us. We have maniacs to argue with, that will bawl us down with raging nonsense. We have wil- ful, unreasonable people to deal with, who, when they are silenced, are never the more convinced; and who, when they can give you no reason, will give you their resolution : like the man that Salvian had to deal with, who, being resolved to devour a poor man's substance, and being entreated to forbear, re- plied, "he could not grant his request, for he had
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made a vow to take it;" so that the preacher, audita rcligiosissinii scelcris ratione, (by reason of his re- ligious wickedness,) was fain to depart. We dispute the case against men's wills and passions, as much as against their understandings ; and these have nei- ther reason nor ears. Their best arguments are, " I will not believe you, nor all the preachers in the world, in such things. I will not change my mind or life ; I will not leave my sins ; I will never be so precise, come of it what will." We have not one, but multitudes of raging passions and contradicting enemies, to dispute against at once, whenever we go about the conversion of a sinner ; as if a man were to dispute in a fair or a tumult, or in the midst of a crowd of violent scolds. What equal dealing, and what success, could here be expected ? Yet such is our work ; and it is a work that must be done.
0 brethren, what men should we be in skill, reso- lution, and unwearied diligence, who have all this to do. Did Paul cry out, "Who is sufficient for these things?" and shall we be proud, or careless, or lazy, as if we were sufficient? As Peter saith to every Christian, in consideration of our great approaching change, "What manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness ;" so may I say to every minister, Seeing all these things lie upon our hands, what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy endeavors and resolutions for our work. This is not a burden for the shoulders of a child. What skill doth every part of our work require ; and of how much moment is every part. To preach a sermon, I think is not the hardest part ; and yet what skill is
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necessary to make the truth plain — to convince the hearers — to let irresistible light in to their con- sciences, and to keep it there, and drive all home — to screw the truth into their minds — to meet every objection, and clearly to resolve it — to drive sinners to a stand, and make them see that there is no hope ; but that they must unavoidably be either converted or condemned — and to do all this, in respect of lan- guage and manner, as beseems our work, and yet as is most suitable" to the capacities of our hearers. This, and a great deal more that should be done in every sermon, must surely be done with a great deal of holy skill. So great a God, whose message we deliver, should be honored by our delivery of it. It is a lamentable case, that in a message from the God of heaven, of everlasting moment to the souls of men, we should behave ourselves so weakly, so unhand- somely, so imprudently, or so slightly, that the whole business should miscarry in our hands, and Grod should be dishonored, and his work disgraced, and sinners rather hardened than converted ; and all this through our weakness or neglect. How often have carnal hearers gone home jeering at the palpable and dishonorable failings of the preacher. How many sleep under us, because our hearts and tongues are sleepy, and we bring not with us so much skill and zeal as to awake them.
Moreover, what skill is necessary to defend the truth against gainsayers, and to deal with disputing cavillers, according to their several modes and case. And if we fail through weakness, how will they exult over us. Yet that is the smallest matter ; but who
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knows how many weak ones may thereby be per- verted, to their own undoing, and to the trouble of the church ?
What skill is necessary to deal in private with one poor ignorant soul for his conversion.
0 brethren, do you not shrink and tremble under the sense of all this work? Will a common measure of holy skill and ability, of prudence and other quali- fications, serve for such a task as this? I know necessity may cause the church to tolerate the weak ; but woe to us, if we tolerate and indulge our own weakness. Do not reason and conscience tell you, that if you dare venture on so high a work as this, you should spare no pains to be qualified for the per- formance of it ? It is not now and then an idle snatch or taste of studies that will serve to make an able, sound divine. I know that laziness hath learned to allege the vanity of all our studies, and how entirely the Spirit must qualify us for, and assist us in, our work — as if G-od commanded us the use of means, and then warranted us to neglect them — as if it were his way to cause us to thrive in a course of idleness, and to bring us to knowledge by dreams when we are asleep, or to take us up into heaven, and show us his counsels, while we think of no such matter, but are idling away our time on earth. Strange, that men should dare, by their laziness, to " quench the Spirit," and then pretend the Spirit for the doing of it. Grod hath required us, that we be "not slothful in business, but fervent in spirit, serving the Lord." Such we must provoke our hearers to be, and such we must be ourselves. 0 therefore, brethren, lose no
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time. Study and pray and confer and practise; for in these four ways your abilities must be increased. Take heed to yourselves, lest you are weak through your own negligence, and lest you mar the work of God by your weakness.
CHAPTER II.
THE MOTIVES TO THE OVERSIGHT OF OURSELVES.
Having showed you what it is to take heed to ourselves, I shall next lay before you some motives to awaken you to this duty.
I. Take heed to yourselves, for you have a heaven to win or lose, and souls that must be happy or miser- able for ever ; and therefore it concerneth you to begin at home, and to take heed to yourselves as well as to others. Preaching well may succeed to the salvation of others, without the holiness of your own hearts and lives ; it is, at least, possible, though less usual ; but it is impossible it should save yourselves. Many shall say at that day, "Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name?" to whom he will answer, "I never knew you; depart from me, ye that work iniquity." 0 brethren, how many men have preached Christ, and yet have perished for want of a saving interest* in him. How many, who are now in hell, have told their people of the torments of hell, and warned them to escape from them. How many have preached of the wrath of G-od against sinners, who are now enduring it. 0 what sadder case can there be, than for a man who made it his very trade and
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calling to proclaim salvation, and to help others to heaven, yet after all to be himself shut out. Alas, that we should have so many books in our libraries which tell us the way to heaven; that we should spend so many years in reading these books, and studying the doctrine of eternal life, and after all this to miss it — that we should study so many ser- mons of salvation, and yet fall short of it — that we should preach so many sermons of damnation, and yet fall into it. And all because we preached so many sermons of Christ, while yet we neglected him — of the Spirit, while we resisted it — of faith, while we did not ourselves believe — of repentance and conversion, while we continued in an impenitent and unconverted state — and of a heavenly life, while we remained carnal and earthly ourselves. If we will be divines only in tongue and title, and have not the divine image upon our souls, nor give up our- selves to the divine honor and will, no wonder if we be separated from the divine presence, and denied the fruition of Grod for ever.
Believe it, brethren, God is no respecter of per- sons : he saveth not men for their coats or callings ; a holy calling will not save an unholy man. If you stand at the door of the kingdom of grace to light others in, and will not go in yourselves, you shall knock in vain at the gates of glory, that would not enter at the door of grace. You shall then find that your lamps should have had the oil of grace, as well as of ministerial gifts — of holiness as well as of doc- trine— if you would have a part in the glory which you preached. Do I need to tell you, that preachers
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of the gospel must be judged by the gospel; and stand at the same bar, and be sentenced on the same terms, and dealt with as severely, as any other men? Take heed, therefore, to yourselves, for your own sakes; seeing you have souls to save or lose as well as others.
II. Take heed to yourselves, for you have a de- praved nature, and sinful inclinations, as well as others. If innocent Adam had need of heed, and lost himself and us for want of it, how much more need have such as we? Sin dwelleth in us, when we have preached ever so much against it; and one degree prepareth the heart for another, and one sin inclineth the mind to more. If one thief be in the house, he will let in the rest; because they have the same dis- position and design. A spark is the beginning of a flame ; and a small disease may cause a greater. A man who knows himself to be purblind, should take heed to his feet. Alas, in our hearts, as well as in our hearers, there are an averseness to God — a strangeness to him — unreasonable, and almost un- ruly passions. In us there are, at the best, the rem- nants of pride, unbelief, selfishness, hypocrisy, and all the most hateful, deadly sins. And doth it not, then, concern us to take heed to ourselves? Is so much of the fire of hell yet unextinguished, that at first was kindled in us ? Are there so many traitors in our very hearts, and is it necessary for us to take heed? You will scarcely allow your little children to go themselves while they are weak, without call- ing upon them to take heed of falling. And, alas, how weak are those of us that seem strongest. How
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apt to stumble at a very straw. How small a mat- ter will cast us down, by enticing us to folly, or kindling our passions and inordinate desires, by per- verting our judgments, weakening our resolutions, cooling our zeal, and abating our diligence. Minis- ters are not only sons of Adam, but sinners against the grace of Christ, as well as others ; and so have increased their radical sin. These treacherous hearts of yours will, one time or other, deceive you, if you take not heed. Those sins that seem now to lie dead will revive: your pride, and worldliness, and many a noisome vice will spring up, that you thought had been weeded out by the roots. It is most necessary, therefore, that men of so much infirmity should take heed to themselves, and be careful in the oversight of their own souls.
III. Take heed to yourselves, because you are ex- posed to greater temptations than other men. If you will be the leaders against the prince of darkness, he will spare you no further than God restraineth him. He beareth the greatest malice to those that are en- gaged to do him the greatest mischief. As he hateth Christ more than any of us, because he is the General of the field, the Captain of our salvation, and doth more than all the world besides against his kingdom ; so doth he hate the leaders under him, more than the common soldiers : he knows what a rout he may make among them, if the leaders fall before their eyes. He hath long tried that way of fighting, nei- ther against great nor small comparatively, but of smiting the shepherds that he may scatter the flock ; and so great hath been his success this way, that he
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will follow it as far as he is able. Take heed there- fore, brethren, for the enemy hath a special eye upon you. You shall have his most subtle insinuations, and incessant solicitations, and violent assaults. As wise and learned as you are, take heed to yourselves, lest he outwit you. The devil is a greater scholar than you, and a nimbler disputant ; he can transform himself into an angel of light to deceive ; he will get within you, and trip up your heels before you are aware ; he will play the juggler with you undis- cerned, and cheat you of your faith or innocence, and you shall not know that you have lost it ; nay, he will make you believe it is multiplied or increased, when it is lost. You shall see neither hook nor line, much less the subtle angler himself, while he is offer- ing you his bait. And his bait shall be so fitted to your temper and disposition, that he will be sure to find advantages within you, and make your own principles and inclinations betray you ; and when- ever he ruineth you, he will make you the instru- ments of ruin to others. 0 what a conquest will he think he hath got, if he can make a minister lazy and unfaithful — if he can tempt a minister into cov- etousness or scandal. He will glory against the church, and say, These are your holy preachers ! you see what their preciseness is, and whither it brings them. He will glory against Jesus Christ himself, and say, These are thy champions ! I can make thy chief servants abuse thee. I can make the stewards of thy house unfaithful. If he did so insult Grod up- on a false surmise, and tell him he could make Job curse him to his face, what will he do if he should
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prevail against us ? And at last he will exult as much over you, that he could draw you to be false to your great trust, and to blemish your holy pro- fession, and to do so much service to him who was your enemy. 0 do not so far gratify Satan — do not afford him so much sport : suffer him not to use you as the Philistines did Samson — first to deprive you of your strength, and then to put out your eyes, and so to make you the matter of his triumph and derision.
IY. Take heed to yourselves, because there are many eyes upon you, and consequently there icill be many to observe your falls. You cannot miscarry but the world will ring of it. The eclipses of the sun by day are seldom without witnesses. As you take yourselves for the lights of the churches, you may ex- pect that men's eyes will be upon you. If other men may sin without observation, so cannot you. And you should thankfully consider, how great a mercy this is, that you have so many eyes to watch over you, and so many ready to tell you of your faults ; and thus have greater helps than others, at least for the restraining of you from sin. Though they may do it with a malicious mind, yet you have the advantage of it. G-od forbid that we should prove so impudent, as to do evil in the public view of all, and to sin wil- fully while the world is gazing on us. " They that sleep, sleep in the night ; and they that be drunken, are drunken in the night." Why, consider that you are always in the open light : even the light of your own doctrine will expose your evil doings. "While you are as lights set upon a hill, think not to lie hid.
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Take heed therefore to yourselves, and do your work as those that remember that the world looks on them, and that with the quick-sighted eye of malice, ready to make the worst of all, to find the smallest fault where it is, to aggravate it where they find it, to di- vulge it and to take advantage of it, and to make faults where they cannot find them. How cautious- ly, then, should we walk before so many ill-minded observers.
V. Take heed to yourselves, for your sins have more heinous aggravations than other men's. It was a saying of king Alphonsus, that " a great man cannot commit a small sin ;" much more may we say, that a learned man, or a teacher of others, can- not commit a small sin ; or at least, that the sin is great, as committed by him, which is smaller as committed by another.
1. You are more likely than others to sin against knowledge, because you have more than they ; at least you sin against more light, or means of know- ledge. What, do you not know that covetousness and pride are sins ? Do you not know what it is to be unfaithful to your trust, and, by negligence or selfishness, to betray men's souls ? You know your Master's will, and if you do it not, you shall be " beaten with many stripes." There must needs be the more wilfulness, in proportion as there is the more knowledge.
2. Your sins have more hypocrisy in them than other men's, by how much the more you have spoken against them. 0 what a heinous thing is it in us, to study how to disgrace sin to the utmost, and make
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it as odious in the eyes of our people as we can, and when we have done, to live in it, and secretly cherish that which we publicly disgrace. What vile hypoc- risy is it, to make it our daily work to cry it down, and yet to keep to it — to call it publicly all naught, and privately to make it our bed-fellow and compan- ion— to bind heavy burdens on others, and not to touch them ourselves with a finger. What can you say to this in judgment ? Did you think as ill of sin as you spoke, or did you not? If you did not, wThy would you dissemblingly speak against it ? If you did, why would you cherish it, and commit it ? 0 bear not that badge of a hypocritical Pharisee, " They say, but do not." Many a minister of the gospel will be confounded, and not be able to look up, by reason of this heavy charge of hypocrisy.
3. Your sins have more perfidiousness in them than other men's, by how much the more you have engaged yourselves against them. Besides all your common engagements as Christians, you have many more as ministers. How often have you proclaimed the evil and danger of sin, and called sinners from it? How- often have you denounced against it the terrors of the Lord ? All this surely implied, that you renounced it yourselves. Every sermon that you preached against it, every exhortation, every confes- sion of it in the congregation, did lay an engagement upon you to forsake it. # # How often, and how openly, have you borne witness to the odiousness and damnable nature of sin ; and yet will you entertain it, notwithstanding all these professions and testi- monies of your owrn? 0 what treachery is it to
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make such a stir against it in the pulpit, and, after all, to entertain it in thy heart, and give it the room that is due to God.
VI. Take heed to yourselves, because such im- portant works as ours require greater grace than other men's. Weaker gifts and graces may carry a man through in a more even course of life, that is not liable to so great trials. Smaller strength may serve for lighter works and burdens. But if you will venture on the great undertakings of the minis- try— if you will lead on the troops of Christ against Satan and his followers — if you will engage your- selves against principalities and powers, and spiritual wickednesses in high places — if you will undertake to rescue captive sinners out of the devil's paws, do not think that a heedless, careless course will accom- plish so great a work as this. You must look to come off with greater shame, and deeper wounds of conscience, than if you had lived a common life, if you think to go through such momentous things as these with a careless soul. It is not only the work that calls for heed, but the workman also, that he may be fit for business of such weight. We have seen many men who lived as private Christians, in good reputation for parts and piety, when they took upon them either the magistracy or military employ- ment, where the work was above their gifts, and temptations did overmatch their strength, who have proved scandalous disgraced men. And we have seen some private Christians of good esteem, who, having thought too highly of their parts, and thrust them- selves into the ministerial office, have proved weak
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and empty men, and have become greater burdens to the church than some whom we endeavored to cast out. They might have done God more service in the higher rank of private men, than they do among the lowest of the ministry. If, then, you will venture into the midst of enemies, and bear the burden and heat of the day, take heed to yourselves.
VII. Take heed to yourselves, for the honor of your Lord and Master, and of his holy truth and ivays, doth lie more on you than on other men. As you may render him more service, so you may do him more disservice than others. The nearer men stand to Grod, the greater dishonor is done to him by their miscarriages ; and the more will they be im- puted, by foolish men, to Grod himself. The heavy judgments executed on Eli and on his house, were because they kicked at his sacrifice and offering : " For therefore was the sin of the young men great before the Lord, for men abhorred the offering of the Lord." It was that great aggravation, of " causing the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme," which pro- voked Grod to deal more sharply with David, than he would otherwise have done. If you be indeed Chris- tians, the glory of Grod will be dearer to you than your lives. Take heed, therefore, what you do against it, as you would take heed what you do against your lives. "Would it not wound you to the heart to hear the name and truth of (rod reproached for your sakes — to see men point to you, and say, There goes a covetous priest, or a drunken ; these are they that preach for strictness when they themselves can live as loose as others ; they condemn us by their ser-
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mons, and condemn themselves by their lives : not- withstanding all their talk, they are as bad as we. 0 brethren, could your hearts endure to hear men cast your iniquities in the face of the holy Grod, and in the face of the gospel, and of all that de- sire to fear the Lord ? Would it not break your hearts to think that all the godly Christians about you should suffer reproach for your misconduct? Why, if one of you that is a leader of the flock, should be ensnared but once into some scandalous crime, there is scarcely a man or woman that seek- eth diligently after their salvation, within the hear- ing of it, but, besides the grief of their hearts for your sin, are likely to have it cast in their teeth by the ungodly about them, however much they may detest it and lament it. The ungodly husband will tell the wife, and the ungodly parents will tell