to drofie SAINTS. 31 wicked foones ; for men abhord the offerings of the Lord, I Sam. 2. 17. Their eyes mutt be taught as well as their Bares. Thole things, [ayes Paul, which ye have heard and feen in me, do, Phil. 4.9. Except with Thomas in another cafe, they fee, they will not believe. Let a Minister be never fo godly, hee (hall doe good little enough. The Prophet Efay, though a holy man, yet he complainer hee laboured in vaine. Now if a godly man can doe but little good upon the molt, much leffe can a wicked Minister. A true Minifier mutt be able to fay as Gideon, Look? on me, and doe likewife, as I doe, fo (hall ye doe, Iudg. 7. 17. Mini- sters mutt be examples unto the Flock, t Pet. 5. 3. Firfl cafi the beam out of thine own eye, and then [halt thin fee clearly to cafi out the moat out of thy brothers eye. As it is faid of Ezra, Ezra had prepared his owne heart to feeke the law ofthe Lord, and to doe it, and to teach in 'frail, Ezra 7. to. Our Saviour Chrift did and taught, as Luke (peakes. This is the courfe of a Minitier indeed, to dohis owne Sermons. When a Minister does not doe what hee teaches, this makes him a vile perfon ; nay, this makes him ridiculous. Like Lucian Apothecary, who had me- dicines in his Glop to cure the cough, and told others that hee had them, and yet was troubled with it hiinfelfe. With what a forehead cantt thou stand in a Pulpit, and publifh the lawes of God, and to undertake the charge of fouhs? that when thine owne nakedneffe appeares, when thy tongue is of a larger fize then thy bands, thy miniftery is divided againfi it (elk, thy courf es give thy doftrine the lie; thou fayeft that men mutt be holy, and thy deedes doe declare thy mouths hypocrite, thou doit more mifchiefe then an hundred others,as Peter faies of wicked Minilters, Many wall follow their pernicious wales, z Pet. 2.2. one Mi- nifter (hall have many followers. A good Minilter (hall'. hardly get two or th,ee to follow him. But when a Mini- fter is wicked; hee (hall have many that will follow him. From the Propwets cf Jerufalem, prophanen' 'e is gone forth into all the Land, jerem 23. 1 S, It the fprings be tain- P 2 ted,
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