cursing the time that ever they came into thy family where they saw so much wickedness where there was no worshiping of God or means to come to the knowledge of him whereupon they went on securely in sin and are now swallowed up in the bottomless pit of destruction Or suppose any of thy children following thy steps in wickedness and contemning Gods word and worship as they saw thee do should now be sunk down to eternal misery there cursing the day that ever they were born of such a Parent or crying out against thee for neglecting them for suffering them to swear lye and do evil without severe rebukes for letting them prophane the Lords-day for neither instructing them thy self nor causing them to be instructed by others in the waies of God Were this so it might make the most flinty heart to ake and tremble Therefore that it may never be so with thee resolve duly to promote godliness in thy family however thou standest therein related Dwell with thy wife as a man of knowledge as heirs together of the grace of life that your prayers be not hindred 1 Pet. 3. 7. Labour that thy servants may know and serve God they will be to thee more faithful Bring up thy children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord they will be to thee more dutiful Pray with them and for them put them upon learning such verses of Scripture as will further their holy walking Encourage all under thy roof to observe better the Lords day Suffer them not to mis-spend so much of that precious time in such idle trifling and unlawful practices as too many do Thou hadst need chuse a right path that hast thy servants and children or others near thee following thee to heaven or hell Be therefore exact in thy actions that they may have the fairer copy to write after Weigh thy words considering that they will learn thy language Remember that Faith and Troth sound not so well as yea and nay our Saviour being Judge S t Mat. 5. 37. Be afraid to have the Devil so often in thy mouth lest others about thee have him both in their tongue and their heart too Repeat not others oaths nor speak irreverently of the great God and his Word Let no corrupt communication proceed out of thy lips but that which some ways tends to good In all thy religious performances be very serious and sincere that they may see thou art in good earnest about Soul-affairs and matters of eternity Oh be careful thus if it be possible by thy pious exhortations thy devout prayers and thy exemplary behaviour to bring the Souls of all under thee and near thee unto Christ And make that still thine which once was good Joshua's resolution and practice Josh 24. 15. As for me and my house we will serve the Lord. Use 5. Is each ones Soul of so great worth and the losse of it to them so dreadful and undoing as not to be recompenced with the gaining of the whole world See then further how exceeding careful we should every one of us be of our own Souls and how we may not always count them the happiest people who have all worldly things here for a while that heart can wish but those rather who are most careful of their precious Souls everlasting happiness in the world to come Now if thou wouldst understand whether thou thy self art herein rightly careful or no thou mayst know it by looking to the sincerity of thy conversion or thy due care of believing such truths exercising such graces and performing such duties as God requires of all regenerate Christians And which thou mayst find set down in the Directions Questions and Answers of the foregoing Book especially from page 84 to page 93. As also in the prayers thereof which teach us at once both what to ask and what to do and be in order to the Souls eternal welfare For having such prayers to use we may study our petitions before and so the sense of our minds may keep pace with our words and our affections go along with our sense Thus Gods Spirit assisting our devotion would beenlivened and our prayers become the rule of our conversation when we swarve from them they would make us blush into amendment But more particularly to know that thou art in good earnest desirous to save thy Soul 1. Being Christ the Physician of Souls works not a cure upon one every whit whole nor is prized by them that feel no need of him S t Mat. 9. 12 13. hast thou had an imbittering sense of the evil and danger of sin and an humbling sight of thy Souls lost condition by nature as fallen from God and inordinately set upon worldly vanities Hast thou seen that this is not a state to be rested in and therefore been solicitous after a better carefully in effect asking like them Acts 2. 37. what shall I do to be saved 2. Hast thou hereupon been heartily willing to receive Christ as offered in the Gospel for thy Lord as well as thy Jesus or Saviour And as thy Lord dost thou yield to the sanctifying work of his word and spirit and art thou so guided by his Laws as ordinarily to practice the most strict holy costly and self-denying duties which thou knowest him to require of thee And again as thy Jesus dost thou feel the power of his death killing sin in thee doth he by his bloodshed not only pardon thy sins but also save and deliver thee from them so that thou heartily strivest against all known sin and overcomest all grosse sins and when fallen under any prevailing temptation risest again by repentance begging forgiveness of God in his blood and resolving by his grace to watch and resist more carefully for the time to come Acts 16. 30 31. Ezek. 36. 25 26 27 Acts 3 26 Tit. 2. 11 12 14. 3. Art thou so sensible of what Christ thy Redeemer hath done and suffered for thee and of thy many engagements to him upon that account as to love him above all and constantly to cleave unto him in every condition And hath Christ so brought thee back again to God that thou takest him for thy portion and lovest him with all thy heart Soul and strength and chusest to live with him in his favour and glory without sinning or offending him any more rather then sinfully to enjoy the delights of the world and want the favour of God Eph. 6. 24. Phil. 3. 8. S t Mat. 22. 38. Psa 73. 25 26 27 28. 4. Moreover art thou so convinced of the Souls worth and the worlds vanity of the certainty and excellency of heavenly glory and the intollerableness of eternal misery of the goodness of the Divine precepts and the need of obeying them art thou I say so convinced of this as sincerely to set thy self to perform all those holy spiritual duties in heart and life which God hath absolutely commanded thee being sorry thou canst perform them no better
that as to whatever befalls the Christian either in this life or that to come If in this life God give prosperity this care of the Soul will make thee use all outward blessings soberly and temperatly This will make thee ready to honour God with them by works of piety and charity Prov. 3. 9. This will make thee endeavour to enjoy God in all such enjoyments and to tast in their sweetness the sweetness of his love in Christ Jesus And thus thy earthly comforts will prove doubly comfortable and thy gaining in the world become the greatest gain to the Soul Or if God send adversity this will make all thy troubles and calamities to work together for thy good He that lost all by shipwrack and then was more careful for his Soul and eternity sayd well I had been undone if I had not been undone The world by its hard using of Gods servants gets nothing nor do their Souls lose any thing If it turn our breath into sighs and groans we shall with the Apostle 2 Cor. 5. 2. groan more earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven And after death the holy Soul cannot but be well Christ who hath redeemed it and prepared heaven for it and it for heaven will thither receive it unto himself where joyntly with the glorified body it shall be most happy for evermore Thus my beloved neighbours you have seen the Souls worth and danger and what care we should have of its eternal salvation to which end you have nothing urged but such solid and weighty truths and duties as are generally owned and manifestly tend to make us holy and happy And now though I be separated from all troublesome affairs that I may thus wholly attend the welfare and service of your Souls and though my eternal life lies out as indeed yours too I can do no more then what I have been endeavouring and am further according to this printed gift ready to do for you The things herein contained still abide to be read and considered by you as often as you please but if any be unwilling thereunto slighting and refusing whatever may thus profit them who can help it How many of those who saw the miracles and heard the sermons of our Blessed Saviour himself and his holy Apostles continued unconverted with what unwearied patience and diligence did the great Evangelical Prophet Isaiah preach above sixty years together to a rebellious and a gainsaying people Isa 65. 2. Rom. 10. 21. Their profitings for a long time did not answer his labours among them but he might comfort himself with a remarkable passage in his own prophecy Isa 49. 4 5. Then I said the words are meant chiefly of Christ sent to the Jews and complaining of them I have laboured in vain I have spent my strength for nought and in vain yet surely my judgment is with the Lord and my work or my reward with my God And now saith the Lord that formed me from the womb to be his servant to bring Jacob again to him Though Israel be not gathered yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the Lord and my God shall be my strength God will reward his faithful servants both according to what they have done and moreover according to what they truly desired and endeavoured to do If a few if but any one be really advantaged by what I am endeavouring I shall count my labour well bestowed as 't is said of the reverend and learned D r Hammond a passionate Lover of Souls that he used often to break out in these words with an extraordinary vehemence O what a glorious thing how rich a prize for the expence of a mans whole life were it to be the instrument of rescuing any one Soul But which I often and humbly pray if God shall bow the hearts of more making us all a willing people in the day of his power making us seriously mind our Souls salvation in the fore-mentioned ways of true Christian piety oh how greatly should we rejoyce in his goodness and in one anothers happiness O how blessed a thing would it be when the Lord our maker should thus have the Souls which he hath created and be glorified by them when Christ our Saviour should thus have the immortal spirits which he hath redeemed and be magnified in them when further his unworthy servant should come thus to have the fruit of his ministerial labours and you your selves to have the comfort and everlasting gain FINIS
custody would you not be the more sollicitous especially if you saw they were in continual danger and if further you knew that if any of them should be lost by your default you should certainly lose your life for it But now which is much more we are entrusted with many very many precious Souls each of them more worth then a world and they are we see in great and apparent danger to be ruined for ever by manifold errour and wickedness and by innumerable temptations of the flesh the devil and the world and we know moreover that if any of them perish through our neglect our own Souls may come to perish with them and for them as was said to him who had one to keep 1 Kings 20. 39 42. If thou let this man go or be missing thy life shall go for his life Have we not then need to be watchful to the uttermost of our power and to be carefull all the ways we can for their safety and preservation Consider well Acts 20. 17 18 19 20 21 26 27. Ye know after what manner I have been with you at all seasons serving the Lord with all humility of mind and with many tears and temptations which befell me And how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you but have shewed you and have taught you publickly and from house to house Testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks repentance towards God and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ Wherefore I take you to record this day that I am pure from the blood of all men For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsell of God and Ezek. 3. 17 18 19 20. 21. as also Ezek. 33. 2 to 9. O son of man I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth and warn them from me When I say unto the wicked O wicked man thou shalt surely dye If thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way that wicked man shall die in his iniquity but his blood will I require at thine hand Nevertheless if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it if he do not turn from his way he shall die in his iniquity but thou hast delivered thy Soul If we be faithful as every honest man should be in his trust we may you see deliver our own Souls but if we be negligent watchmen there are these things among many others which will sadly aggravate our condemnation 1. When admitted to places of imployment we take upon us the cure of Souls for their edification and salvation 2. That we may attend this care the better we receive a benefit piously given to free us from all other cares 3. In order to this I mean the care of Souls for their edification and Salvation our Masters and Tutors instructed us and our parents devoted us to the service of Christ 4. To this too we devoted and gave up our selves professing or hoping that we were thereunto inwardly called and moved by the Holy Ghost 5. For this end we have also been outwardly called or set apart by the Church for the work of the Ministry 6. Moreover when ordained we did solemnly promise and engage this way to bend our studies and to use both publick and private monitions and exhortations as well to the sick as to the whole within our cures as need should require and occasion be given 7. And which we may adde in the last place we were then by the Bishop ordaning most gravely charged and exhorted in these words Brethren we exhort you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ that you have in remembrance in how high a dignity and to how weighty an office and charge ye are called That is to say to be messengers watchmen and stewards of the Lord to teach and to premonish to feed and to provide for the Lords family to seek for Christs sheep that are dispresed abroad and for his Children who are in the midst of this naughty world that they may be saved through Christ for ever Have alwaies therefore printed in your remembrance how great a treasure is committed to your charge For they are the sheep of Christ which he bought with his death and for whom he shed his blood The Church and Congregation whom you must serve is his Spouse and his Body And if it shall happen the same Church or any member thereof to take any hurt or hindrance by reason of your negligence ye know the greatness of the fault and also the horrible punishment that will ensue Wherefore consider with your selves the end of your Ministry towards the Children of God towards the spouse and body of Christ and see that you never cease your labour your care and diligence untill you have done all that lieth in you according to your bounden dutie to bring all such as are or shall be committed to your charge unto that agreement in the faith and knowledge of God and to that ripeness and perfectness of age in Christ that there be no place left among you either for errour in religion or viciousness of Life Now after all this If we do our utmost for the Souls health of them committed to our charge if we leave no good means thereof unattempted If we should labour for this night and day with tears as the Apostle says he did If we should never so often and earnestly beseech you to practice the fore going printed Directions put into your hands and what ever Christian duties our Saviour requires of us If we should follow you from the Church-house to your own houses if no better could be with the most passionate intreaties as for the life of our own Souls and yours who could justly think us too importunate who could reasonably count us too earnest or too busie who could justly blame us for making more a do then needs for all this would be but enough as to some and as to others it would be too little 2. Parents and Family-governours how carefully should they look to it lest any under them should perish by their negligence or wickedness Be assured Christ will erelong say to the as Eliab to David with whom hast thou left those few sheep in the wilderness what are become of those precious Souls of thy Children or Servants which I intrusted thee with Nor will it be enough for thee only to answer For my children I brought them up without the charge of the Parish I put them out to trades or I left them competent estates or portions And as for my servants I paid them their wages and gave them meat and drink according to my agreement with them For all this chiefly respects but the body and thy heart would be filled with horrour if the blood of their Souls should be required of thee Oh the cry of a lost Soul is a dreadful thing Suppose any of thy Servants should now be in hell