406 DIRECTIONS FOR GETTING AND KEEPING shall be damned ; " and we speak both ; will you take that as spok- en to you, which is spoken to the unbeliever and the wicked ? Alas ! how is it`possible then for us to forbear troubling you! If you will put your head under every stroke that we give against sin and sinners, how can we help it if you smart ? What a sad case are we in by such misapplications ! We have but two messages to deliver, and both are usually lost by misapplications. Thewick- ed saith, ' I am the righteous, and therefore it shall go well with me.', The righteous saith, 'J am the wicked, and therefore it shall go ill with me.' The unbeliever saith, ' I am a believer, and therèfore am. justified.' The believer saith, ' I am an Unbeliever, and therefore am condemned.', Nay, it is not only the loss of our preaching, but we oft do themmuch harm ; for they are hardened that should be humbled and they are wounded more that should be healed. A minister must now needs tell them who he means by the believer, and who by the unbeliever ; who by the righteous, and who by the wicked ; and yet whemhe bath done it as accurate- ly and as cautelously as he can, misapplying souls will wrong themselves by it. So that because people cannot see thé distin- guishing line, it therefore comes tò pass, that few are comfórted but when ministers preach nothing else but comfort ; and few humbled but where ministers bend almost all their endeavors that way, that people can feel almost nothing else from him. But 'for him that equally would divide to each their portion,'each one snatcheth up the part of another, and he oft misseth of profiting either; ande yet this is the course that we, must take. And what a snare is this to us, as well as a grief ! What ifwe should be so moved with compassion ofyour troubles, as to fit al- most all ourdoctrine and application to you ; what a fearful guilt should we draw upon our own souls-! Nay, what a snare may you thus prove to the greater part of the congregation! Alas! we have seldom past ope, or two, or three troubled consciences in an auditory, (and perhaps some of their troubles be the fruit of such willful sinning, that they have more need`of greater, yet) should we now neglect all the rest of these poor souls, to preach only to you ? O, how many an igno- rant, hard-hearted sinner comes before God every day! Shall we let such go away as they came, without ever a blow to awaken them and stir their hearts, when, alas ! all that ever we can do is too little? When we preach you into 'tears and trembling, we preach them asleep ! Could we speak words, it would scarce make them feel, when you through misapplication havegone home with anguish and fears. How few of all these have been pricked at the heart, and said, " What shall we do to be saved? " Have, you no pity now on such stupid souls as these ?' I fear this one
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