Preaching of Christ opened in a sermon preached at St. Peters Church in the…

3. In regard of our selves, It is necessary, 1. Ad impletionem muneris, for of all Stewards, the Stewards of the Mysteries of God must be found faithfull, 1 Cor. 4. 2. 2. Ad Acquisitionem Mercedis, for they that turn many to righteousness shall shine as Stars for ever and ever, Dan 12. 3. 3. Ad evitationem periculi, for woe be unto us if we preach not the Gospel, 1. Cor. 9. 16. So every one of these ways a necessity is laid upon us.

3. In regard of our selves, It is necessary, 1. Ad impletionem muneris, for of all Stewards, the Stewards of the Mysteries of God must be found faithfull, 1 Cor. 4. 2. 2. Ad Acquisitionem Mercedis, for they that turn many to righteousnesse shall shine as Starres for ever and ever, Dan 12. 3. 3. Ad evitationem periculi, for woe be unto us if we preach not the Gospel, 1. Cor. 9. 16. So every one of these wayes a necessity is laid upon us.

Therefore great diligence, fidelity and wisdom is to be used in this so ⟨p. 11⟩weighty a service. It is no small work whereby strong holds must be pulled down, and every high thing that exalteth it self against the Kingdom of God be demolished, whereby sin and Satan must be dispossessed, and the whole man subdued to the obedience of Christ, whereby the very natural propensions of men must be changed, and they effectually persuaded to hate what they loved, to love what they hated, to deny themselves, their reason, their will, their appetites, their interests, their lands, their relations, their lives, their All, (for this they must sometimes do quoad exercitium, ever quoad praeparationem animi) to please an invisible God, and to obtain an invisible inheritance. This is not the work of an illiterate Reader, but of one who hath the tongue of the learned, a workman that need not to be ashamed. This is not the work of a careless loiterer, that shears the fleece, and starves the flock, but of one who gives himself wholly to it. So did those Renowned