Page:Tracts for the Times Vol 1.djvu/436

 out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all long-suffering and gravity. For the time will come, when they will not endure sound doctrine, &c.… Preaching is a duty, but not the only duty of a Pastor. He is to take all occasions to instruct those that seek the truth; refute such as oppose it; reprove those that do not practise it; and confirm such as have embraced it. And the more we perceive the times of Apostasy approaching, the more zealous ought we to be to defend sound doctrine. It will be no comfort to a Pastor, that the world praises him for some one part of his duty, while God condemns him for the neglect of another……

John xvi. 13. "The shall lead you into all truth." O, make me to understand, embrace, and love the truths of the Gospel. Give, O, Thy blessing unto Thy Word, that it may become effectual to my conversion and salvation, and to the salvation of all that read or hear it…… Let Thy gracious promises, O , contained in Thy Word, quicken my obedience. Let Thy dreadful threatenings and judgments upon sinners, fright me from sin, and oblige me to a speedy repentance, for His sake.… Grant, O, that in reading Thy Holy Word, I may never prefer my private sentiments before those of the Church in the purely ancient time of Christianity. Give me a full persuasion of those great truths, which Thou hast revealed in Thy Holy Word…… From hardness of heart and contempt of Thy Word, Good, deliver us……

Matt. xiii. 36. "Declare unto us this parable." This should instruct us, that the knowledge of Word, and the mysteries of the Gospel, are favours which we must always beg of.