name! What is become of the fouls committed to our care! O that we may give up our account with joy, and not with grief, to the Judge of the living and the dead, in that glorious, that dreadful and decifive hour !

§ 44. We charge and warn you, my dear brother, and we warn and charge ourfelves, by all the terrors written in this divine book, and by all the indignation and vengeance of God, which we are sent to display before a finful world; by all the torments and agonies of hell, which we are commiffioned to denounce against impenitent finners, in order to perfuade men to turn to God, and receive and obey the gofpel, that we take heed to our ministry that we fulfil it. This vengeance and our fouls, and that

thefe terrors will fall upon with intolerable weight, with double and immortal anguish, if we have trifled with these terrible folemnities, and made no ufe of thefe awful fcenes. to awaken men to lay hold of the offered grace of the gofpel. Knowing therefore the terrors of the Lord, let us perfuade men, for we muft all ftand before the judgment feat of Christ, to receive according to our work. *

45. In the laft place, we entreat, we exhort and charge you, by all the joys of paradise, and

the bleffings of an eternal heaven, which are our hope and fupport under all our labours, and which, in the name of Chrift, we offer to finful, perifhing men, and invite them to partake thereof. Can we fpeak of fuch joys and glories with a fleepy heart and indolent language? Can we invite finners, who are running headlong into hell, to return and partake of these felicities, and not be excited to the warmest forms of addrefs, and the most lively and engaging methods of perfuafion? What fcenes of brightness and delight can animate the lips and language of an orator, if the glories and the joys of the chriftian's heaven and our immortal hopes cannot do it? We charge and entreat you, therefore, and we charge ourselves, by the fhining recompenfes which are promised to faithful minifters, that we keep this glory ever in view, and awaken our dying zeal in our facred work.

THE

ΤΗΣ

CHRISTIAN PREACHER, &c.

DISCOURSE VI.

ON THE EVIL AND DANGER OF NEGLECTING SOULS.

§ 1. Introduction. 1. The neglect of fouls is highly criminal. § 2. 2. A readiness in men to excufe themselves for it. § 3-5. 3. These excufes might be over-ruled. § 6. An apology for the author's intended clofeness of address. § 7. The fubject ftated. § 8-10. (I.) What EXCUSES may be offered for neglecting fouls. 1. That we do fomething confiderable for that purpose. § 11. 2. That the care of particular perfons more properly belongs to others. § 12. 3. That we have much other bufinefs. § 13. Recreation. § 14. Studies. § 15. Pleafures of literature. § 16. An address to young minifters. § 17. Over-artful compofition of fermons. § 18, 19. That our attempts might difplease our people. § 20. (II.) The great

EVIL

EVIL of that neglect. § 21. 1. The death of the foul. 22. 2. How many fouls die around us. § 23. 3. The divine provifion to prevent their death. § 24. 4. The peculiar obligations we are under to endeavour their prefervation. As chriftians. §25. As minifters, obliged by the declarations of fcripture, and, § 26. Our perfonal engagement. § 27. (III.) Application in practical inferences. 1. To humble ourselves deeply, while we remember our faults. 28. 2. Seriously confider what methods are to be taken for the time

to come.

"IF thou forbear to deliver them that are §. 1. drawn unto death, and those that are ready to be flain: If thou fayeft, Behold, we knew it not: Doth not he that pondereth the heart, consider it? and he that keepeth thy foul, doth not he know it? and shall not he render to every man according to his works?" *

For the explication of these words, I would offer three plain and obvious remarks:

1. That the omiffion, which is here charged as fo difpleafing to God, though immediately refer

* Prov. xxiv 11, 12,

ring to men's natural lives, must surely imply, that the neglect of their fouls is much more criminál.

The text ftrongly implies, that we shall be expofed to guilt and condemnation, before God, by forbearing to deliver them that are drawn unto death, and thofe that are ready to be flain. This muft directly refer to innocent perfons, brought into vifible and extreme danger, by fome oppreffive enemy, either by the fudden affault of a private perfon, or by fome unjuft profecution under forms of law; and may particularly extend to cafes, where we have reason to believe, a capital fentence has been paffed, in confequence of falfe witnefs, detected before execution is done. if the neglect of that be (as you fee it is) reprefented as highly criminal, it must be a much more heinous crime, by any neglect of ours, to permit the ruin of men's fouls, without endeavouring their recovery, when they are, as it were, drawn away

And

to

* It was allowed among the Jews, that if any perfon could offer any thing in favour of a prifoner, after sentence was paffed, he might be heard before execution was done: and therefore it was ufual, (as the Mifthna fays) that when a man was led to execution, a cryer went before him, and proclaimed, This man is now going to be executed for such a crime, and fuch and fuch are witneffes against him: who ever knows him to be innocent, let him come forth and make it appear.