What are some objections pastors may give for not doing this duty of personal instruction, of preaching to the flock privately?
O: We teach our people in public; how then are we bound to teach them, man by man, in addition?
A: “Paul taught every man, and exhorted every man, and that both publicly, and from house to house, night and day, with tears” (212)?
O: The duty takes up too much time; how will a pastor complete all his studies?
A: “I highly value common knowledge, and would not encourage any to set light by it; but I value the saving of souls more” (213). “Get well to heaven, and help your people thither, and you shall know all these things in a moment, and a thousand more, which now, by all your studies, you can never know” (214).
O: This duty may destroy the health of our bodies; does not the bow that is ever bending break at last?
A: “The labour in which we are engaged is not likely much to impair our health. It is true, it must be serious; but that will but excite and revive our spirits, and not so much spend them” (218).
O: The times that Paul lived in required more diligence than ours; why are we to be expected to perform this duty in our time when the times have changed?
A: “Are there so many thousands round about us who are drowned in presumption, security, and sensuality, and, when we have done all we can in the pulpit, will neither feel us nor understand us? […] is the happiness of our times so great, that we may excuse ourselves from personal instruction, because of the less necessity of the times (223-24)?
O: But what purpose is all this, when most of the people will not submit?
A: “The willfulness of the people will not excuse us from our duty. If we offer them not our help, how do we know who will refuse it” (227)?
O: We teach our people in public; how then are we bound to teach them, man by man, in addition?
A: “Paul taught every man, and exhorted every man, and that both publicly, and from house to house, night and day, with tears” (212)?
O: The duty takes up too much time; how will a pastor complete all his studies?
A: “I highly value common knowledge, and would not encourage any to set light by it; but I value the saving of souls more” (213). “Get well to heaven, and help your people thither, and you shall know all these things in a moment, and a thousand more, which now, by all your studies, you can never know” (214).
O: This duty may destroy the health of our bodies; does not the bow that is ever bending break at last?
A: “The labour in which we are engaged is not likely much to impair our health. It is true, it must be serious; but that will but excite and revive our spirits, and not so much spend them” (218).
O: The times that Paul lived in required more diligence than ours; why are we to be expected to perform this duty in our time when the times have changed?
A: “Are there so many thousands round about us who are drowned in presumption, security, and sensuality, and, when we have done all we can in the pulpit, will neither feel us nor understand us? […] is the happiness of our times so great, that we may excuse ourselves from personal instruction, because of the less necessity of the times (223-24)?
O: But what purpose is all this, when most of the people will not submit?
A: “The willfulness of the people will not excuse us from our duty. If we offer them not our help, how do we know who will refuse it” (227)?
“There is, therefore, nothing from God, from the Scriptures, or from right reason, to cause us to make any question of our work, or to be unwilling to it” (228).
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