←2006
←2006
See Rom. 1.13. Bishop Patrick informs us, in his interesting account of the learned John Smith—‘that he had resolved (as he one day told me) very much to lay aside other studies, and to travail in the salvation of men’s souls, after whose good he most earnestly thirsted.’ Alleine ‘was infinitely and insatiably greedy for the conversion of souls; and to this end he poured out his very heart in prayer and in preaching. He “imparted not only the gospel of God, but his own soul.” His supplications and his exhortations many times were so affectionate, so full of holy zeal, life, and vigour, that they quite overcame his hearers. He melted over them, so that he mollified, and sometimes dissolved, the hardest hearts.’ Mr. Ward of Ipswich, an eminent Puritan divine, asks—‘If God were to say to a Minister, as he said to Solomon—“Ask what I shall give you!”—what would he desire, either before, or more than this—namely, a large portion of that magnetic virtue by which Peter and Paul, and other primitive preachers, drew many thousands of souls to the knowledge of Jesus?’ ‘How many faithful Ministers’ (says Baxter in his Preface to Alleine’s Alarm) ‘have I lately known who have lived in pining poverty and want; and yet, if they could but have truly said’—‘Lord, ‘the sermons which I privately and in danger have preached have won many souls to you’—it would have made their burden easy. ‘In my preaching’ (said Bunyan) ‘I could not be satisfied, unless some fruits appeared in my work. If I were fruitless, it did not matter who commended me; but if I were fruitful, I did not care who condemned.’ ‘I would think it a greater happiness’ (said Matthew Henry, in the view of his ordination) ‘to gain one soul to Christ, than mountains of silver and gold to myself,’ adding, in his dread of the misery of Ministerial unfruitfulness—‘If God allows me to labour in vain (though I should get hundreds a year by my labour), it would be the constant grief and trouble of my soul; and if I do not gain souls, I shall enjoy all my other gains with very little satisfaction, and I would rather beg my bread from door to door, than undertake this great work.’ Dr. Doddridge wrote thus to a friend—‘I long for the conversion of souls more sensibly than any thing besides. I think I could not only labour, but die for it with pleasure—The love of Christ constrains me.’