While perusing the Puritan Golden Treasury tonight, I found an entry from Richard Baxter addressing ministers of the Gospel. They are eight points on which ministers should be constantly reminding themselves. They are challenging points that demand attention. They are as follows:

 

1. You have heaven to win or lose yourself… a holy calling will not save an unholy man.

2. You have sinful inclinations as well as others.

3. (You) have greater temptations than most men.

4. The tempter will make his first and sharpest onset upon you. If you will be leaders against him, he will spare you no further than God restrains him.

5. Many eyes are upon you, and therefore there will be many to observe you falls.

6. Your sins are more aggravated than those of other men. They have more hypocrisy in them.

7. The honour of your Lord and Master, and of His holy truth, doth lie more on you than other men.

8. The souls of your hearers and the success of your labours, do very much depend upon your self-examination.

I might take the next eight days and expand on each of these points. They are so poignant that they seem that much good could come from considering each of them more carefully. I don’t know, we’ll see.

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