The unbelievers preparing for Christ. By T.HThe vnbeleevers preparing for Christ. By T.H

but you should sharpen them and bring them home to the hearts of your wives, and your children, and servants, and they that belong unto you; you should follow the blow home; when the Lord is pleased to exhort, exhort you; when the Lord is pleased to reprove, reprove you; it is no great matter haply, to bring your children or servants under the word, but when they are here, they play and sport, and talk, and run about, as though there were no God here; and therefore you should tell your children and servants, it is the word of the Lord child, and it is the word of the Lord servant, it is not the word of man as you may think, but it is the word of the Lord by which you shall one day be judged; the Minister told you that God hateth a proud man, and and a drunkard, and an adulterer, and a swearer, why this was the word of the Lord; thus bring the word home unto their souls, and this is the way to bring them home unto God here, that they may receive salvation hereafter; we should use all the cords of mercy, and love, and anger, and indignation; that so if it were possible we might hale the souls of poor sinners to God; oh blessed spirit of Saint Paul in this kind, I wonder what is become of that love & zeal that was in him, as we may see in the 19. of the Acts, he travels from place to place, from country to country, he goes from house to house, and raps at every mans door, persuading men with all patience to be reconciled to God; he dealeth as the nurse doth with her child, the child cries, and shrikes, and wrawles, and yet the nurse bears all, ⟨p. 112⟩so doth the Apostle Paul, he met with much opposition here, mocked there, imprisoned there, set in the stocks and scourged, and yet he bears all with patience, and persuades, and beseeches men to be reconciled; I say this power, this zeal, this love is gone; if we had hearts and hands and endeavours, much more might be done in this case, and God might work more mercifully with us, & powerfully by us, for the conversion of poor sinners; and this doth not lie only in the Ministers hands, but, Masters, in yours; and, Officers, in yours: and so much shall serve for this point. The next thing considerable in the Text, is from the order, first drawing, then coming;

but you should sharpen them and bring them home to the hearts of your wives, and your children, and servants, and they that belong unto you; you should follow the blow home; when the Lord is pleased to exhort, exhort you; when the Lord is pleased to reprove, reprove you; it is no great matter haply, to bring your children or servants under the word, but when they are here, they play and sport, and talk, and runne about, as though there were no God here; and therefore you should tell your children and servants, it is the word of the Lord child, and it is the word of the Lord servant, it is not the word of man as you may think, but it is the word of the Lord by which you shall one day be judged; the Minister told you that God hateth a proud man, and and a drunkard, and an adulterer, and a swearer, why this was the word of the Lord; thus bring the word home unto their soules, and this is the way to bring them home unto God here, that they may receive salvation hereafter; we should use all the cords of mercy, and love, and anger, and indignatiōn; that so if it were possible we might hale the soules of poore sinners to God; oh blessed spirit of Saint Paul in this kind, I wonder what is become of that love & zeale that was in him, as we may see in the 19. of the Acts, he travells from place to place, frō countrey to countrey, he goes from house to house, and rappes at every mans doore, perswading men with all patience to be reconciled to God; he dealeth as the nurse doth with her child, the child cries, and shrikes, and wrawles, and yet the nurse beares all,