Secondly, And too many Ministers, who seem more able, are Lordly and lazy, and carry themselves strangely and at a distance from the people, and are seldom familiar with them in private: And so they give advantage to such seducers as creep into houses, to sow their tares; and for the weaker sort to vend their errors, when there is none to contradict them: These Pastors take their proper work, to which they are called, for a slavery or a toil. They are so proud and idle, that for them to watch over all the •lock, and to teach them publicly and from house to house, night and day with tears as Paul did, and to watch where any spark appeareth, and presently to quench it, doth seem to them such a drudgery and burden, that God were unmerciful if he should impose it on them: That is, They think God unmerciful if he will not rather let the patient die, than put the Chirurgeon to the trouble of dressing his sores: If he will not let the people be damned rather than put Ministers to so much labour to instruct and save them. If it were but to take their tithes and honour, and to be reverenced by the people, and to preach once or twice a week, a sermon which tendeth to their applause, they could submit to ⟨p. 387⟩this much: But Paul's exhortation Act. 20. seemeth intolerable preciseness. But souls will not be informed or reformed at so cheap a rate. Sin hath corrupted them more than so. If we will sleep, the envious man will not sleep: but when we awake, we shall find that he hath sowed his tares. Sometimes grievous Wolves will enter, not sparing the flock: and sometimes of our own selves will men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them: Therefore watch. Study hard and meditate on these things, and give your selves wholly to them, that your profiting may be known to all: that you may be able to stop the mouths of gainsayers; and to edify and stablish all the flock; that they be not as children tossed to and fro, and carried up and down by every wind of doctrine, by the c•nning slight and subtlety of men, by which they lie in wait to deceive. For to this end did Christ give offices and gifts: Study therefore to show your selves workmen that need not be ashamed, rightly dividing, methodizing, opening, and so defending the word of truth. Act. 20. 20, 28, 29, 30. Eph. 3. 12, 14. 1 Tim. 4. 15, 16. 2 Tim. 2. •, 15.
Secondly, And too many Ministers, who seem more able, are Lordly and lazy, and carry themselves strangely and at a distance from the people, and are seldome familiar with them in private: And so they give advantage to such seducers as creep into houses, to sow their tares; and for the weaker sort to vend their errours, when there is none to contradict them: These Pastors take their proper work, to which they are called, for a slavery or a toil. They are so proud and idle, that for them to watch over all the •lock, and to teach them publickly and from house to house, night and day with tears as Paul did, and to watch where any spark appeareth, and presently to quench it, doth seem to them such a drudgery and burden, that God were unmerciful if he should impose it on them: That is, They think God unmerciful if he will not rather let the patient die, than put the Chyrurgeon to the trouble of dressing his sores: If he will not let the people be damned rather than put Ministers to so much labour to instruct and save them. If it were but to take their tythes and honour, and to be reverenced by the people, and to preach once or twice a week, a sermon which tendeth to their applause, they could submit to ⟨p. 387⟩this much: But Paul's exhortation Act. 20. seemeth intollerable preciseness. But souls will not be informed or reformed at so cheap a rate. Sin hath corrupted them more than so. If we will sleep, the envious man will not sleep: but when we awake, we shall find that he hath sowed his tares. Sometimes grievous Wolves will enter, not sparing the flock: and sometimes of our own selves will men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them: Therefore watch. Study hard and meditate on these things, and give your selves wholly to them, that your profiting may be known to all: that you may be able to stop the mouths of gainsayers; and to edifie and stablish all the flock; that they be not as children tossed to and fro, and carried up and down by every wind of doctrine, by the c•nning slight and subtilty of men, by which they lie in wait to deceive. For to this end did Christ give offices and gifts: Study therefore to shew your selves workmen that need not be ashamed, rightly dividing, methodizing, opening, and so defending the word of truth. Act. 20. 20, 28, 29, 30. Eph. 3. 12, 14. 1 Tim. 4. 15, 16.
