Riches of mercy to men in misery, or, Certain excellent treatises concerning the dignity…

The Word is Physic, therefore they are the Physicians and must heal them, least they take that complaint, Jer. 8. last, Is there no balm in Gilead, is there no Physician there? Why then is not the health of my people recovered? Let us make up the similitude a little, the word is balm, the Ministers ⟨p. 297⟩the physicians, the people patients, now we reckon him no better then a murderer, that being sent to a sick man should take his fee, and all this time he is with him, spend his time in sporting, and let his patient die; so if the people that are sick for knowledge, send for a Physician, a Minister, and give him his fee, and he neglect them, and they perish, he is a murderer. Though many perish, ex morbo & non ex defectu medici, by reason of the disease and not the defect of the Physician, yet this is the fault in most. Again if the word be food, then the Ministers are shepherds, and a shepherd must not feed himself with ease and pleasure, (not but that these may be conveniently taken,) but he must not spend his time in them. See if this induction be not made, Ezech. 34. 23. Woe to the shepherds that feed themselves, should not the shepherds feed the flock? they eat the fat and clothe them with the wool: they kill them that are fed by other.

The Word is Physick, therefore they are the Physicians and must heal them, least they take that complaint, Ier. 8. last, Is there no balm in Gilead, is there no Physitian there? Why then is not the health of my people recovered? Let us make up the similitude a little, the word is balm, the Ministers ⟨p. 297⟩the physicians, the people patients, now we reckon him no better then a murtherer, that being sent to a sick man should take his fee, and all this time he is with him, spend his time in sporting, and let his patient die; so if the people that are sick for knowledge, send for a Physitian, a Minister, and give him his fee, and he neglect them, and they perish, he is a murtherer. Though many perish, ex morbo & non ex defectu medici, by reason of the disease and not the defect of the Physician, yet this is the fault in most. Again if the word be food, then the Ministers are shepherds, and a shepherd must not feed himself with ease and pleasure, (not but that these may be conveniently taken,) but he must not spend his time in them. See if this induction be not made,