and wil have no nay before they obtain their 〈◊〉 so the Adulterous woman Prov. 7. 21. with much fair speech she caused him to yield with the flattering of her lips she forced him so Judg. 16. 16. Dalilah layd siege and made battery at the heart of Sampson at last wearied him out and wrought him to her own wil and his ruine an evil example is like the presenting of an army before a place and summoning of it but spech is like a constant beleaguring of a City which wil force it to surrender and therefore I have ever judged it more dangerous to live with a person of an il language than of an evil life because a mans practice wil be but seldom and occasional and mainly an enticement to some one kind of evil but speech pursues a man with variety of enticements words are arrowes and he that shoots a whol quiver wil hardly miss but wound with some or other at the last The evil of the tongue is a kind of restless unweariable untameable wickedness the practice of sin 〈◊〉 such that somtimes a mans years permit not the pursuit ofit or the time suits not or the place fits not or a mans ability and strength makes unapt and wholly unable to take it up so nature desires 〈◊〉 and rest and the commission of sin is at an end the Thief must leave his trade of robbing the Drunkard his company the Adulterer his lusts when age and sickness comes in upon him and their able strength is now spent But the evil of the tongue begins with a man in his tender years when the child knowes not the mistery of sin nor yet hath ability to practice it yet he can prate and talk of it this grows up with him to his riper years and when his strength and nature decayes and a man grows towards his grave yet the evil of his tongue grows lively and active and when a wretch is able to do nothing yet then is he able to read lectures of villany and wickedness which he hath learned in his life and practiced in the leudness of his carriage from his youth As it is with old Huntsmen when their legs fail that they cannot follow the game yet they wil sit and hear the cry and lewr after the hounds when they can do little else So here This I take to be the meaning of that of James which exerciseth the apprehensions of interpreters and its mervailous hard to find the sul mind of God therin James 3. 6. It sets on fire the whol course of nature and it self is set on fire of Hel. i. e. by the hellish delusions and temptations of Satan Two things I suppose are ospecially implied in the text 1. The violence and untameableness of this evil cannot be stopped it carries al before it not onely propounds a temptation unto evil but counsels yea commands if not that entreats if that take not place pursues al these perseveres to importune til the importunity kindles in the heart like a mighty flame which cannot be quenched So when Demetrius had pressed his companions with such prevailing arguments of profit 〈◊〉 you know that by this trade we have our liveing presently they were al upon a flame and the voyce prevayled by the space of two hours Great is Diana of the Ephesians Acts. 19. 28. when they heard those sayings so they were kindled and carried away with Herods speech the voyce of God and not of man Acts. 12. 22. 2. This untameable evil of the tongue hath not his dates and periods his spring and fal as it were but sets on fire the whol course of nature i. e. grows up with us from our beginnings and goes along with us in our daily course until we ly down in our graves When children can know nothing nor learn to do nothing yet they wil easily take in naughty words and tattle them when they know not what they talk In a word this is the ful meaning so near as I can guess whereas the feebleness of our childhood unfits us for the knowing and practicing of some evil our 〈◊〉 years frees us from some as childish sports and vanities decrepit age utterly 〈◊〉 us to most the 〈◊〉 evil of our tongues sends in a veyn and currant of wickedness through our whol course the folly and 〈◊〉 of our child-hood unfits us not for this or our riper years frees us not but such count it as suitable to their condition our decrepit age hinders us not but the vanity of the tongue casts a venom through al nor is a man wearied with such 〈◊〉 as that he craves end or ease but is as fresh at night as he was in the morning in his youth as he was in his childhood in his decaying age as he was in his riper yeers This hellish fire 〈◊〉 few el and matter to nourish it in a mans whol course therefore it 's sayd it 's set on fire of Hell Because our natures are easily tainted with this poyson and takes it in almost unawares you cannot keep children from learning the language especially that 's nought which they hear nor can you force them to leave it or forget it they grow up to ripenes and readiness in it without either care or pains Joseph swears the Court oath and the children speak half Ashdod and half Hebrew That thou mayest see how far thou art deceived in slighting the evil of thy words know if there be any evil in the world it is in-manner and measure in them James 3. 6. the tongue is a world of evil an University an Universality of al wickedness in it and its an Ornament of al evil besides the word wil carry both and I would include both what ever evil is on earth amongst men in Hell amongst Devils and the damned what ever wickedness the manners of al Countries have invented the Condition of al men have practised or the hearts and 〈◊〉 of men contrived the tongue shares in al these It 's the chief secretary to al estates of sin and sinners the Interpreter of mens minds Translator of these evils betwixt man and man In a word what ever evil is in the heart or mind of a mans self the tongue hath vented it whatsoever hath been done by others seen or observed the tongue hath related reported it It 's that which wil cover al the foulness excuse or lessen the loathsomness of the most vile evils hath varnished and decked over the most detestable practices with some pretences of liberty or indifferency hath been the Lawyer which hath undertook to plead the cases of the vilest waies of evil that ever were Having seen the vileness of sinful words Now let us proceed to consider of our THOUGHTS the first stirrings of the distempers of our hearts that suddenly and presently vanish away men imagine there cannot be such evil in them nor are they to charge themselves so deeply for them as Ministers would bear them in hand No
at such a time the light of the word broke in upon my soul and after that I never heard the Minister preach but I received somthing and my heart did close with more than I could bear away but I could understand then and remember also ever after that time This is palpably true in cases of Conscience I wil issue this point thus 2 Pet. 2. 9. who hath called you out of darkness to his mervailous light the soul now begins to wonder and to be amazed at the vileness of sin at the frame of his heart at the patience of God that hath suffered him so long and he marvails with himself where he hath been and what he hath been doing all his dayes he is in another world as it were and if ever you have had this work of the spirit calling and turning of you from darkness to light it wil 〈◊〉 you a wondering you will see sin and your self and grace and Christ and the Ordinances and all after another fashion than ever you saw them before How far the sinner may be said to be active in this sight of sin The answer to this may be expressed in severall particulars that that way of God and the work of his spirit may more distinctly be discovered There is a weakness impotencie and insufficiencie in the understanding to reach this right discovery of sin for however there remaynes so much glimmering in the twilight of Natural reason and so much sensibleness in the stupid benummedness of the corrupt conscience of acarnal man that it can both see and sensibly check for some grosser evil or some such sins or venom of sin as crosseth his own peace and Comfort or those ends which he sets up as the chiefest good at which he aymes but to search into the entrales of sin and discern the spiritual composition of the accursed nature therof he can in no wise attayn this by all the labor and light he hath 2. Pet. 1. 9. He that lacketh these things that is these heavenly graces whereof the chief were faith and heavenly knowledg mentioned before he is blind and cannot see afarr of he may like a purblind-man give guess or have a confused conceiving of things after a dym and dazling fashion if the things be neer as the man in the gospel saw men walking like Trees but there be secrets in sin depths in the disstempers of mens hearts which are far removed from outward appearance and ordinary apprehension these he cannot perceive As it is in natural things and the several actions which issue from them each man is able to hear the sound of a mans words to discern the sence and reason of them and wil easily grant from the received principles of reason that they come from a man and evidence undeniably that there is a reasonable soul there which is and must needs be the cause thereof because they are properties that appertain to creatures of that kind alone and argue a life of the highest excellency nor Trees nor beasts can do so It s beyond their kind and the bounds of their ability But what this reasonable soul is in the constitution and composition therof this is further removed from our sence and so from our apprehension and it wil excercise the most sharp and ablest understanding and that furnished with Learning and reading to apprehend or discover so it is in sin when we hear the falsness of mens language when they speak thay care not how to cover their own shame or deny that which might bring danger to them when we see the cruelty and fiercness of their carriage in stealing or killing each man out of ordinary principles will condemn those these be as it were the words and hands of sin Ah but the spirituall pride and soveraignty of will which lifts up it self above the law and will of God justles his holiness and holy command to the wall this is the inward soul of sin thousands which condemn the former have and harbour and maintayn these to their dying day they never saw the evil of them How the sound of their actions strik outwardly they hear and observe but how the wheels of their mind and wil go inwardly and swerve al the day long and all their lives long in the whol inward frame of the whol man they be as far to seek as though there were no such thing The Conscience checks and the worst of men see the loathsomness of the evil if he should stab and take away the Life of a man but every Blasphemer stabs the Lord and yet his Conscience doth not so check him there because he sees the grossness of the one its near but the spiritualness of the other he doth not see it is a far off To stick in the medium and fall short of the object is feebleness That is the proper intendment of the Apostle when he layes open the seebleness of the wisdom of the most Eminent heathen Rom. 1. 21. they knew God but did not glorify him as God but became vayn in their discourse i. e. they fell short of their end of God whom they pretended to worship they missed of him that was their vanitie and they worshipped the creature in the room of God And hence the Prophet expresseth the practice of such as those who be wholly misguided in their course by reason of their mistakes Isay. 5. 20. They call evil good and good evil they put darkness for light and bitter for sweet and therfore it is they are so easily cousened by Satan and do so easily cousen themselves And upon this ground it is though they in Acts. 17. 23. worshipped an unknown God and Paul would have taught them the true God whom they ignorantly worshipped they would follow their own fancies and worship Gods of their own making but the true God blessed for ever they might have heard of him and been instructed concerning him his being and Worship they would not own nor entertain the Apostles Counsel in that behalf nay verse 32. they mocked him when he spake to them of 〈◊〉 things There is an incapability in our minds to receive this spiritual light by which we might be enabled to come to the right discovery of our Corruptions John 1. 5. The Light shined in darkness and the darkness Comprehended it not This is the Condition of every man by Nature So the Apostle ye were darkness Eph. 5. 8. Now one opposite will oppose and resist another but will not nay cannot entertain another and hence the Apostle gives that to be the ground of that resistance against the truth 2 Tim. 3. 8. They are men of corrupt minds therefore they resist the truth as Jannes Jambres did As it is in Nature when any sense hath lost his right temper and wholsome Constitution it is not possible to put forth its operation with any right discerning or discovery of that which comes to it the tast is corrupt the tongue tainted and over-grown
a poysoning and spreading and infectious Nature it 's not consined within a mans own compas and conscience it 's not a sin in a mans self but there be many sins in this one it becomes the Cause of sin to many others Many are provoked and encouraged to the practice of the like Evils by thy practice Examples are of a constrayning Nature Peter dissembles and many are snatched 〈◊〉 by his example to do as he did Gal. 2 Many are strengthened and confirmed in their wickedness because they have thy example to warrant them they will certainly perish But their Blood will be required at thy hand thou wast the man that did lead them to an ungodly Course and didst harden them therein And the Name of God and his truth will be blasphemed amongst the Heathen for thy sake Rom. 2. 24. How can they but conclude that Religion allows such an ungodly Course which men dare So Commonly to commit and to Continue in without remorse or reformation The Second shift whereby our carnal hearts would keep off the Evidence of Conviction is this As the commonness seems to 〈◊〉 our corruption so the naturalness is made pretence to excuse it Here the plea is ready whereby men would challenge pity 〈◊〉 connivance as their debt It is my disposition or constitution I cannot mend it it is my Nature I cannot alter it Al flesh is frail God knows whereof we be made how feeble we be and he doth not expect perfection at our hands no man counts his coat the worse because there 〈◊〉 some moats in it or casts away his Gold because there is a flaw or mark in it It 's my natural infirmity and hath not each man his failings would you have us be Saints Saints Yea either Saints or Devils The Lord would have thee to be so This is the will of God even your sanctification 1 Thes. 4. 3. the Law would have thee to be so 1 Peter 1. 15. Be ye holy in all manner of Conversation thy Profession would have thee to be 〈◊〉 Let every one that cals upon the Name of the Lord depart from iniquity 2 Tim. 2. 19. And he that hath this hope purgeth himself as he is pure 1 John 3. 5. That generally but to come a little neerer and to shew the vanity of this Shift I Answer First This excuse that would cover one sin discovers another and thy Plea doth give in undeniable evidence that all the means of Grace that ever thou hast enjoyed and God hath vouchsafed hath never wrought upon thee nor prevailed with thee for good to this very day nor hast thou received benefit or profit therefrom but al the pains that hath been taken with thee is like water spilt upon the ground For that 's the manner of the Lords proceeding with the soul of a sinner when he intends savingly and effectually to work upon him he changeth his Nature gives him another heart and as it was said of Saul in a like case 1 Sam. he makes him another man It 's the Prophesie of the power of the Gospel The Leopard becomes as a Lamb and the Lyon as a Kid Isai. 11. 6. the savage harsh and 〈◊〉 distempers which like a fretting Leprosie possessed the nature of sinners are taken away when the Lord comes to take possession of them or to prevail with them in the power of any Ordinance It 's the first step in the profession of the Gospel He that wil be Christs Disciple must deny himself he must be able to say as the blind man whom our Savior cured I was blind but now I see I was dead but now I am alive I was of a proud peevish wayward waspish contentious froward quarrelsom disposition could agree with no body nor with my self neither but since the Lord hath met with me and wrought upon me by his Word and Spirit I am not I I have another mind and another heart and another carriage and Conversation than formerly He that is in Christ and Christ in him he is a new Creature and hath a new Nature he strives most against that unto which he is most addicted by his own disposition he watcheth how to prevent that he fears al the day long lest he should be surprized with it fortifies most in the improvement of al means against that confesseth that with most sorrow and bitterness seeks with most care and diligence to obtain help from Heaven to subdue that and commonly gets the greatest ground against the same Hast thou then the same corrupt Nature Conclude thou mayest and write upon it thou never hast prayed aright heard aright thou hast never received a Sacrament aright unto this day thou hast never profited by any means thou hast enjoyed or duties thou hast performed to this day Thy Disease and distempers are desperate and likely never to be cured and thou recovered out of them when they come to be natural as it were and yield to no Remedy Jer. 13. 23. Can the Black-more change his skin and the Leopard his spots no more can they learn to do well who are accustomed to do evil There be some spots of filth which are cast upon our coats and flesh there is a sooty blackiness wherewith our garments and our skins are somtimes sullied withal by somthing from without which may be clensed and washed away with little labor in a short time but 〈◊〉 which grow out of Nature as Moles and Wens in the Body there is little hope that ever they should be altered as long as Nature it self continues It is so with distempers when some sudden occasions or temptations from without taints and pollutes the soul there is Hope in Israel that some Spiritual means like healing Medicines seasonably applied may help and recover But when men out of a corrupt inclination are customarily carried in the continuance of some distemper it 〈◊〉 like another Nature he may lose his life and soul but is like never to lose his lust that wil go to his Grave and so to Hell with him Job 20. 11 12. When wickedness is sweet in a mans mouth when he hides it under his tongue when he spares it and forsakes it not his bones are full of the sins of his youth they have been bred and brought up with him grown and continued and encreased dayly with them he would not leave them they wil not leave him they shal lie down in the dust with him rise with him to Judgment and go to Hell with him in the end Thy person comes most to be abhorred and loathed by the Almighty for which thou vainly conceivest thou mayest be pitied We pity a man that drinks poyson because it 's not his disposition to be so but the infection that befel him but the Spider and the Toad we abhor the sight and not endure to touch them because they are 〈◊〉 a poysonful Nature So it is with the Spiritual plague of thy Soul even the dearest of Gods
they were from the beginning of the creation 〈◊〉 yee not see how men provoke God and prosper and hath it not been so in all ages 〈◊〉 wicked ungodly continue in sinful courses yet succeed according to their own content It was so in the former ages it went best with the worst men it is so in this and wil be so to the end the Lord lookes not after the mean occasions of men upon earth finds himself employment in the affayres of Heaven it matters not what the desert of our sins be we shal never feel what they do deserve so those rulers Amos 7. they put away the evil day far from them and then they cause the seat of violence to come near 〈◊〉 73. 10. 11. those blasphemers who set their mouths against Heaven and their tongue walks through the midst of the Earth they say how doth God know this and is there knowledg in the most high Upon this ground it is that they let loose themselves in the fearless pursuit of 〈◊〉 loathsom abominations then said he unto me the Angel of the Lord of Hosts the iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceeding great the land is ful of blood and the city ful of perversness For they say the Lord hath forsaken the earth the Lord seeth not Ezek. 9. 9. For since here we must learn to chase out and keep out such imaginations by setting up the light of the truth in our minds and listening wholly thereunto So the psalmist shewes the cause and applyes the cure Psal. 94. 8. Understand ye brutish among the people and ye fools when wil ye be wise He that plantd the ear shal not he hear he that formed the eye shal not he see Yea the Lord professeth to take notice of these mens wayes in an especial manner to make privie search after them Zeph. 1. 12. he wil search Jerusalem with candles and visit such as sit upon their lees and say who sees us you shal find he knows both good and evil and he wil work both as a reward to such as deserve This Job felt by experience Job 14 16. For now thou numbrest my steps dost thou not watch our my sins my transgression 〈◊〉 sealed up in a bag and thou shalt find it so the Lord wil follow thee step by step and track and trace thee in all thy wandrings and keeps an account of al thy sins sealed up as it were in bags But if the Lord doth see and observe al our evils yet he is patient and wil pass them by and put up those many 〈◊〉 being pitiful and compassionate to poor creatures knowing they be but dust True it is the Lord out of his long sufferance wil bear long with the base dealings of the sons of men yet out of the purity and holiness of his nature he cannot but bring them to account and trial for al the swervings of their lives Psal 50. 18. Thus the secure sinner counted the Lords patience a kind of connivence and allowance of him in ungodly wayes I held my tongue and thou thoughtest wickedly that I was such a one as thy self that God could wink at wickedness look aside at the slips and swervings of the ungodly and suffer them to go away with it but al in vain For I wil reprove thee and set thy sins in order before thee consider this yee that forget God so likewise in Eccles. 11. 9. rejoyce O yong man in thy youth and let thy heart chear thee in the wayes of thy youth walk in the sight of thine eyes but know thou that for all these 〈◊〉 thou shalt come to judgment the Lord wil arrest thee for the wrong done to his holiness and follow the suit against thy soul for al thy injurious dealings and he himself wil come in against thee as a swift witness If thy Conscience condemn thee God himself is greater than thy Conscience and he knowes al things and wil bring to light the hidden things of darkness will make manifest the counsels of the heart When al those dunghil stains of Adulterous lusts and malicious envious and covetous desires shal be layd open to the view of the sun al those swarmes of foolish and wicked imaginations shal be then discovered it s better therefore that thou shouldst see them now in the day of Grace better thou shouldst have them now discovered to thy Conscience for thy humiliation then at the day of judgment for thy confusion But if the Lord will require all then I hope I may use means to satisfy for al when my day beginns to decline and my Sun to set and my glass is run when I am dropping down to the grave and groaning upon my sick bed I wil then betake my self to my prayers tears and repentance for my sins I wil sorrow for my sins seek unto God for mercy I wil repent and reform the evil of my wayes and the Lord wil remove the Plague of them In thy declining daies wilt thou do this Oh deluded creature who knows but this day or before thou hast read over this book the Lord may take away thy soul who knows whether thou shalt have time to seek or a heart to seek or God wil accept of thee when thou seekest Whether a time or no. Whether the date of Gods bounty the day of Grace and period of Gods patience be come to an end When thou hast abused 〈◊〉 many opportunities whether ever he wil give thee leave or time once to look out for 〈◊〉 when thy tongue shal be faultring in thy mouth thy eyes fallen in thy head 〈◊〉 heart sink and dy within thy bosom not able to sigh out one desire and the Lord snatch thee out of the land of the living before thou canst see or consider whithere thou art going Luke 19. 41. 42. If thou hadst known at least in this thy day the things that belong to thy peace but now they are hidden from thine eyes the things of their peace were before their eyes and yet were hid from their eyes Rev. 2. 21. 23. I gave her day to repent but shee repented not therefore I wil cast her in to a bed and 〈◊〉 her children with death shee had no more dayes of repentance but of ruine shee was cast into a bed of sorrow and had not time to pour out her prayers If thou hast time who knows that God will give thee a heart to seek for mercy or sue for Grace It 's true God may help thee but it 's as true God may harden thee he may humble thee and he may 〈◊〉 thee and it 's most likely he wil thou which hast refused to hear he wil refuse to help Ezek. 24. 13. I would have purged 〈◊〉 and thou wouldest not be purged thou shalt never be purged more Jer. 51. 9. we would have cured Babilon but she would not be cured leave her then leave them to the blindness of their
discouraged in the bearing of it for to be contented and yet discouraged cannot stand together but such a soul sits down in silence submits himself 〈◊〉 under the hand of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 away well 〈◊〉 with whatever disparagement is cast upon him by reason of his desert and takes it as an allowance set out unto him by the Lord he can look upon it and lie down 〈◊〉 it with 〈◊〉 and quietness of Spirit So the Apostle recals and recounts his former loathsom miscarriages upon each occasion breaks kindly with the fresh abasement of himself in the sight of God and man I was a persecuter blasphemous and injurious not worthy to be called an Apostle for I persecuted the Church Christ came to save sinners of whom I am chief So Dan. 9. 17. Oh Lord Righteousness belongeth to thee but unto us shame and confusion of face he looks at it as their due owns it as their portion which is appropriated to them and belongs to them of right and rests satisfied therein Nay the heart truly called is here indeed most comforted when it can take the greatest shame with greatest content and that when it seems most loathsom and himself for it The sick Patient is most comforted with the Vomit when it works most vehemently 〈◊〉 he knows the more sick it makes him the sooner it wil make him wel but when it lies like a dead drug in the stomach stirs him least endangers him most Oh saies the Patient it made me marvelous sick but I was marvelous glad it wrought kindly upon the Humor and I expect a Cure my stomach is much clensed periissem nisi 〈◊〉 the greatest shame that ever I received did me the most good was the best Physick I could ever take I had never parted with my sin but my shame weaned me from it Whereas a false heart never yet truly turned from his sin and sincerely humbled if the venom of Gods vengeance give him a Vomit and make him cast out all his 〈◊〉 by confession in his own face there follows such wearish wrastlings of Spirit such restless and 〈◊〉 hurries of thoughts sits down disconsolate Rachel like cannot be comforted because their Honor is not their Credit and Respect is not lies a bleeding as they suppose and not likely to be recovered he cannot look upon his reproach but he is weary of his life his spirit faints his 〈◊〉 wil not down his 〈◊〉 departs what avails all if yet his shame remains he would be any thing and any where rather than under the foot of contempt A heart that is content to take shame wil not choose unlawful means in cold blood and upon consideration to remove it he is discontended with his sin not with his shame he wil not therefore choose sinful means to be freed from it So the good theif Luk 23. 41. we are justly here receiving the due reward of 〈◊〉 deeds the punishment and plague a heart absed takes as just and therefore wil not do that which is unjust to be quit of them whereas the haughty 〈◊〉 is so impatient under reproach that he wil rather break under his shame than with quietness bear it he cares not what he doth or suffers if he may not suffer that So Abimelech Judg. 9. 54. Saul 1. Sam. 31. 4. Achitophel 2. Sam. 17. 23. al of them used unlawful means to be rid of their shame Job was of another temper though his 〈◊〉 were strong to carry him and counsel wretched which was given to perswade him to another course Job 2. 9. dost thou stil continue in thine 〈◊〉 blessing God and dying q. d. you may see what you get by your holiness and dependance is it not better not to be than to be thus this is the meaning but his answer shewes another resolution shal we receive good from the hand of God and not evil the good God owes us not and yet he gives it the evil we deserve and therefore should be quiet if he bring it The fourth use is for EXHORTATION If you know these things as I am perswaded you do then be entreated in the name of the Lord Jesus to walk in that way that God hath revealed this is the baseness of our hearts we are loath to unbuckle our vile and secret distempers they are shameful themselves and yet we are loath to take shame for them therefore deal openly and freely with your selves and confess your sins 〈◊〉 fully that God may deal 〈◊〉 with you hath the 〈◊〉 at any time 〈◊〉 in this horror into thy soul and is thy heart now troubled at the word and after al thy prayers and tears and pains and means using with uprightness do thy 〈◊〉 stil remain are they not yet subdued canst thou not yet get assurance of the pardon of them I say then cast away thy shameful hideing and 〈◊〉 of sin and do not say what wil men and Ministers say of me away with these shifts God calls thee to confession the Saints have done it and thou must nay thou wilt if ever thy 〈◊〉 be kindly broken as it should be in some measure pleasing to God and profitable to thy self But some may say how should we do it For answer hereunto I wil first give some directions how to do it Secondly I wil give some motives to work our hearts to the same Be wise in choosing the party to whom you confess your sins for every wide mouthed vessel is not fit to receive precious liquor so this confession is not to be opened to every carnal wretch that wil blaze it abroad nor to every Godly man no nor Minister neither The Minister to whom you confess ought to have these three graces First he must be a skilful and able Minister of God one that is trained up and is master of his art and so experienced that he might be able in some measure to find out the nature of the disease Not that any Minister under heaven can give pardon to a poor sinner but onely he is able Ministerially to do it under God he must be able to approve himself as the Minister of God he must have the tongue of the learned and be able to speak a word in season Isa. 50. 4. he must be able to break the heart and prepare the soul for Christ and then to apply the promises of the Gospel to him He must be a merciful Physitian one that wil pity a poor soul they that have experience of trouble and misery in themselves are most compassionate to others in distress he that hath been tossed in the sea wil pity others that have been in the same danger Lastly he must be a faithful Minister one that wil not fit mens humors nor answer the desires of their hearts in speaking what they would have him but his faithfulness must appear in two things 1. In dealing plainly with a man about his spiritual estate what ever a mans place and condition be if he have