The Breastplate of Faith and Love

Now it is Satan's end indeed to discourage, and remember but that, that the thing he labours, is to persuade you that you have no faith, and that a little will not serve the turn, and that because thou art not so strong as the strongest Christians, that therefore thou hast a false heart, and art no body at all; his end is to discourage, labour to resist him. And we that are Ministers of CHRIST, we are in this case to comfort and encourage you, as Paul saith, we were gentle among you, as a Nurse among her children; we should be tender over you, and comfort and encourage you, we are not Lords of your faith. And therefore in Ezekiel 33. it was the fault of the Shepherds, they ruled all the people with rigour, but we are helpers of your joy; for what have we to do, but what our Master hath set us about to do? as he did; how did he behave himself? the smoking Flax, he did not blow it with a tender breath to kindle it more, he dealt not roughly with it: So the Ministers of GOD should labour to build men up, to draw them on; Indeed sometimes the Minister must be sharp, to wake men when they sleep, to discover hypocrites, and temporizing professors, to teach those to know themselves, that have a form of godliness, without the power thereof, here the Word preached must be a two-edged sword, that must pierce between the marrow and the joints; here the Word must be as the ⟨p. 133⟩Thunder and Lightning, it must have terror in it: So Christ comes with his Fan in his hand, and with his Axe in his hand, he will burn the chaff with unquenchable fire, and hew down the unfruitful Trees; but this is to be understood of those that are false-hearted, those that are not sound, that have Christ offered them, but do not receive him. Indeed, to those our Ministry is sharp, but for others it is not so: And therefore in Ezekiel 34. we are to do as the Shepherds do there with their Flocks, some Sheep are weak, and are not able to go the pace of the rest; some are broken, some are lost, and some are gone astray, and some are great with young; our business is to seek those that are lost, to drive all according to the pace of the weakest, to bind up the broken, to carry them in our arms; thus Christ did, and if we fail in this, CHRIST, who is the great Shepherd of the Flock, he sees it, if we go astray, he fetches us in;