The saints everlasting rest

And how thin are those ministers that are serious in their work! Nay, how mightily do the very best fail in this! Do we cry out of men's disobedience to the gospel, in the evidence and power of the Spirit, and deal with sin, as that which is the fire in our towns ⟨p. 136⟩and houses; and by force pull men out of this fire? Do we persuade our people, as those that know the terrors of the LORD should do? Do we press Christ, and regeneration, and faith, and holiness, as men that believe indeed, that without these they shall never have life? Do our bowels yearn over the ignorant, and the careless, and the obstinate multitude, as men that believe their own doctrine? When we look them in the face, do our hearts melt over them, lest we should never see their faces in rest? Do we, as Paul, tell them weeping, of their fleshly and earthly disposition? And teach them publicly, and from house to house, night and day with tears? And do we entreat them, as if it were indeed for their lives? That when we speak of the joys and miseries of another world, our people may see us affected accordingly, and perceive that we mean as we speak? Or rather, do we not study words? As if a minister's business were but to tell them a smooth tale of an hour long, and so look no more after them till the next sermon.

Oh the formal, frozen, lifeless sermons which we daily hear preached upon the most weighty, piercing subjects in the world! How gently do we handle those sins, which will handle so cruelly our people's souls! And how tenderly do we deal with their careless hearts, not speaking to them as men that must be awakened or damned! We tell them of heaven and hell in such a sleepy tone, and slight way, as if we were but acting a part in a play; so that we usually preach our people asleep with those subjects, which one would think should rather endanger the driving some beside themselves.