1. Let Ministers think of this when they are studying for, and praying for, and preaching to their people, how they be in Bondage and in slavery, and that except their Chains be ⟨p. 100⟩loosed and their Fetters broken and knocked off, their souls are lost for ever, and that they will be faster shortly bound hand and foot and cast into a place of outer and eternal darkness; some serious and believing thoughts of their present danger, and their future misery would put more life into all we do for their recovery and prevention of their everlasting condemnation. Should we then preach unto them with such lukewarmness, as if we were telling them a tale, or saying such things in that manner, as if we did not believe our selves the things we do declare? or as if it were no matter whether our hearers did believe, receive and obey the Message we deliver to them or no? when yet they be the great and weighty truths of everlasting Life or Death: to preach a Redeemer to Captive souls what skill and life, and love doth it require? what zeal and pity to their souls doth it call for? Oh that God would pardon the want of these in me, give me that belief of their eternal state and seriousness of heart, that I may ever speak and preach the Doctrine of Redemption to enslaved sinners, as to those that are undone for ever, except they be prevailed with to come to him, submit to him, accept of him, and give up themselves to be His wholly, and to be his only that hath paid the ransom for their deliverance. When some years since I was called ⟨p. 101⟩occasionally to preach to the Prisoners in Newgate, and saw my Hearers come in Fetters, and heard their Chains rattling at their heels, methoughts it was an affecting spectacle to see men before me that were shortly to be called to the Bar of Men, and be tried for their lives, and some likely to be sentenced to death and put to execution: but if we do behold our Hearers standing before us, though free from such material Chains of Iron, yet bound fast in their lusts and sins, and consider they must be shortly tried at the Bar of God, and if not delivered by Christ, must receive a sentence of death, banished from the presence of the blessed God, cast down to Devils and damned Spirits, it should move us to pray for them, weep over them, and preach unto them with greatest pity and compassion.
1. Let Ministers think of this when they are studying for, and praying for, and preaching to their people, how they be in Bondage and in slavery, and that except their Chains be ⟨p. 100⟩loosed and their Fetters broken and knocked off, their souls are lost for ever, and that they will be faster shortly bound hand and foot and cast into a place of outer and eternal darkness; some serious and believing thoughts of their present danger, and their future misery would put more life into all we do for their recovery and prevention of their everlasting condemnation. Should we then preach unto them with such lukewarmness, as if we were telling them a tale, or saying such things in that manner, as if we did not believe our selves the things we do declare? or as if it were no matter whether our hearers did believe, receive and obey the Message we deliver to them or no? when yet they be the great and weighty truths of everlasting Life or Death: to preach a Redeemer to Captive souls what skill and life, and love doth it require? what zeal and pity to their souls doth it call for? Oh that God would pardon the want of these in me, give me that belief of their eternal state and seriousness of heart, that I may ever speak and preach the Doctrine of Redemption to enslaved sinners, as to those that are undone for ever, except they be prevailed with to come to him, submit to him, accept of him, and give up themselves to be His wholly, and to be his only that hath paid the ransom for their deliverance. When some years since I was called ⟨p. 101⟩occasionally to preach to the Prisoners in Newgate, and saw my Hearers come in Fetters, and heard their Chains ratling at their heels, methoughts it was an affecting spectacle to see men before me that were shortly to be called to the Bar of Men, and be tried for their lives, and some likely to be sentenced to death and put to execution: but if we do behold our Hearers standing before us, though free from such material Chains of Iron, yet bound fast in their lusts and sins, and consider they must be shortly tried at the Bar of God, and if not delivered by Christ, must receive a sentence of death, banished from the presence of the blessed God, cast down to Devils and damned Spirits, it should move us to pray for them, weep over them, and preach unto them with greatest pity and compassion.
