VII. Must such as want love to Christ be thus accursed? Then what great care and Conscience should Ministers have to preach the Lord Jesus Christ unto the People with that plainness and power, that Christ might have their love, and they might have the blessings of Christ? Cursed must the People be that do not love Jesus Christ, then cursed must the Preacher be that preacheth himself, and not Christ, and studieth to set out his own Gifts and Parts, that men might admire him for an Eloquent Orator, for his lofty Style, for his fruitful pregnant Fancy, and as the Phrase now prevails, for his fine English, or for a profound Philosopher, or a great polemical Divine; while by his starched Sentences, seraphical Notions, and needless Pulpit Disputations, and manner of Expressions, he soars aloft above the Peoples Capacities, and casts a veil upon their ⟨p. 88⟩Eyes, as if he studied in preaching of Christ, to hide Christ from their Understandings; while he preacheth to instruct them in the knowledge of Christ, he clouds the Doctrine of Christ, and makes the plain necessary Truths to be obscure, that after his polite Discourse, poor ignorant Souls remain as ignorant as before, as if he stood amongst a thousand People that must be damned, and cursed with everlasting Curses, if they love not Christ, to flourish his Parts, to get the name of a great Scholar, in making easy things hard, and hard more hard; when the true use of Learning (and great Learning it) is to make hard things easy, and to bring things sublime and lofty, down to the capacity of the meanest in the Congregation, that hath a Soul that must be damned or saved: Alas! it would make a serious man to tremble, when he thinks all these People stand upon the brink of Eternity, and if Death jog them, they fall and enter into it; and when he heareth the Preacher speak with lofty Rhetorical Strains, great swelling Words, as if he were making an Oration in the Schools, not considering the Ignorance, the weak Capacity, of hundreds of his Auditors. Can he think that Servants that have precious Souls, and many ignorant and unlearned Trades-men, that are taken up with the matters of the World all the Week, can be profited on the Lord's Day with such a Style, or manner of expressing the great things of God;
VII. Must such as want love to Christ be thus accursed? Then what great care and Conscience should Ministers have to preach the Lord Jesus Christ unto the People with that plainness and power, that Christ might have their love, and they might have the blessings of Christ? Cursed must the People be that do not love Jesus Christ, then cursed must the Preacher be that preacheth himself, and not Christ, and studieth to set out his own Gifts and Parts, that men might admire him for an Eloquent Orator, for his lofty Style, for his fruitful pregnant Fancy, and as the Phrase now prevails, for his fine English, or for a profound Philosopher, or a great polemical Divine; while by his starched Sentences, seraphical Notions, and needless Pulpit Disputations, and manner of Expressions, he soars aloft above the Peoples Capacities, and casts a vail upon their ⟨p. 88⟩Eyes, as if he studied in preaching of Christ, to hide Christ from their Ʋnderstandings; while he preacheth to instruct them in the knowledge of Christ, he clouds the Doctrine of Christ, and makes the plain necessary Truths to be obscure, that after his polite Discourse, poor ignorant Souls remain as ignorant as before, as if he stood amongst a thousand People that must be damned, and cursed with everlasting Curses, if they love not Christ, to flourish his Parts, to get the name of a great Scholar, in making easie things hard, and hard more hard; when the true use of Learning (and great Learning it) is to make hard things easie, and to bring things sublime and lofty, down to the capacity of the meanest in the Congregation, that hath a Soul that must be damned or saved: Alas! it would make a serious man to tremble, when he thinks all these People stand upon the brink of Eternity, and if Death jog them, they fall and enter into it; and when he heareth the Preacher speak with lofty Rhetorical Strains, great swelling Words, as if he were making an Oration in the Schools, not considering the Ignorance, the weak Capacity, of hundreds of his Auditors. Can he think that Servants that have precious Souls, and many ignorant and unlearned Trades-men, that are taken up with the matters of the World all the Week, can be profited on the Lord's Day with such a Style, or manner of expressing the great things of God;
