Can any shepherd do this (and if he do not, he will never _give any account with joy_) who imagines, he has little more to do, then _to preach_ once or twice a week? That this is the _main point_, the _chief part_ of the office, which he hath taken upon himself before God? What gross ignorance is this? What a total mistake of the truth? What a miserable blunder touching the _whole nature_ of his office? It is indeed a very great thing, to speak in the name of God; it might make him that is the stoutest of heart tremble, if he considered, that every time he speaks to others, his _own soul_ is at stake. But great, inexpressibly great as this is, it is perhaps the least part of our work. To _seek and save that which is lost_, to bring souls from Satan to God, to instruct the ignorant, to reclaim the wicked, to convince the gainsayer; to direct their feet into the way of peace, and then keep them therein; to follow them step by step, least they turn out of the way, and advise them in their doubts and temptations; to lift up them that fall, to refresh them that are faint, and to comfort the weak-hearted; to administer various helps, as the variety of occasions require, according to their several necessities: these are parts of our office; all this we have undertaken at the peril of our own soul. A sense of this made that holy man of old cry out, “I marvel if any ruler in the church shall be saved;” and a greater than him say, in the fulness of his heart, _who is sufficient for these things_?
34. But _who is_ not _sufficient_ for these things, _for_ the taking care of a parish, though it contain twenty thousand souls, if this implies no more than the taking care to preach there, once or twice-a-week; and to procure one to read prayers on the other days, and do what is called the _parish duty_? Is any trade in the nation so easy as this? Is not any man sufficient for it, without any more talents either of nature or grace, than a small degree of common understanding? But O! what manner of shepherds are those, who look no farther into the nature of their office, who sink no deeper into the importance of it than this! Were they not such as these concerning whom the _word of the Lord came unto_ Ezekiel, _saying, Woe be to the shepherds that feed themselves: should not the shepherds feed the flock? Ye eat the fat, and ye cloathe you with the wool; but ye feed not the flock. The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken; neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost――――And they were scattered, because there was no shepherd, and they became meat to all the beasts of the field. Yea, my flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth, and none did search or seek after them._
I conjure you, brethren, in the name of the Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, who hath bought them and ♦us with his own blood, apply this each to his own soul. Let every man look unto God, and say, “Lord, _Is it I_? Am I one of these idle, careless, indolent shepherds, that feed myself, not the flock? Am I one that cannot bark, slothful, sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber? One of those who have not strengthened that which was diseased, neither healed that which was sick! _Search me, O Lord, and prove me; try out my reins and my heart. Look well if there be any way of wickedness in me, and lead me in the way everlasting._”
♦ “as” replaced with “us” per Errata
35. “Have I not, at least, _healed the hurt of thy people slightly_? Have I not said, _Peace, peace, when there was no peace_?”――How many are they also that do this? Who do not study to speak what is _true_, especially to the rich and great, so much as what is _pleasing_? Who flatter _honourable_ sinners, instead of telling them plain, _How can ye escape the damnation of hell_? O what an account have _you_ to make, if there be a God that judgeth the earth? Will he not require at _your_ hands the blood of all these souls, of whom _ye are the betrayers and murderers_? Well spake the prophets of your fathers, in whose steps ye now tread. _They have seduced my people, and one built up a wall, and another daubed it with untempered mortar. They strengthen the hands of the evil-doers, that none doth return from his wickedness. They prophesy lies in my name saith the Lord. They say unto them that despise me, ye shall have peace, and unto them that walk after the imagination of their own heart, no evil shall come upon you._