By what Means may Ministers best win Souls?

A Sermon preached by ROBERT TRAILL, London, in October, 1682.

“Take heed unto thyself, and unto thy doctrine: continue in them: for in doing this, thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.” (1 Timothy, iv. 16).

THE words are a substantial part of the good counsel and direction the apostle giveth unto Timothy, and in him unto all the ministers of the gospel.

In them are two things.

1. A three-fold duty laid on gospel-ministers, Take heed unto thyself, and unto thy doctrine; continue in them.

2. A double advantage consequent upon the discharge of this duty: For in doing this, thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.

3. Ministers duty is in three things here.

1st, Take heed unto thyself. Thou art set in a high office, in a dangerous place; take good and narrow heed, look well to thyself, thy heart and way.

2dly, Take heed unto thy doctrine. Though thou be ever so well gifted, and approved both of God and men; though thou be an extraordinary officer (as Timothy was); yet take heed unto thy doctrine. These two we pass at present; because we shall resume them at greater length, when we take their help to the resolving of this question.

3dly, Continue in them. This hath relation, it appears, unto ver. 12 and 15 as well as unto the preceding part of this verse. I shall dismiss this part of the verse with these:

(1.) Continue in thy work. Thou who art a minister, it is a work for thy lifetime; and not to be taken up and laid down again, according as it may best suit a man’s carnal inclinations, and outward conveniences. The apostles that laboured with their hands, have, by that example, set the conscience of a minister at liberty, to provide for the necessities of this life by other employments, when he cannot live of the gospel; yet certainly no man that is called of God to this work, can with a safe conscience abandon it wholly. Paul, for example rather than necessity, both preached and wrought in a handy-craft. As preaching doth not make working unlawful, so neither should any other business of a minister make preaching to cease.

(2.) Continue in endeavours after greater fitness for thy work. No attainments in fitness and qualifications for this work can free a man of the obligation that lies on him to increase and grow therein more and more. It is not enough that a man study and be painful ere he enter into the ministry, but he must labour still to be more fit for his great work.

(3.) Continue in thy vigour, and painfulness, and diligence. Young ministers, that are sound and sincere before God, are usually warm and diligent in the first years of their ministry; and many do decline afterwards, and become more cold and remiss. This exhortation is a check thereunto: Continue in them.

1. The second thing in the word is the double advantage proposed to encourage ministers to this hard duty.

1st, Thou shalt save thyself. Thy own salvation shall be promoted and secured thereby.

How becoming is it for a minister to mind his own salvation! and to mind it so heartily, as to be animated from the hopes of it unto the greater diligence in his ministry!

But how doth faithfulness in the ministry of the gospel further the minister’s salvation?

(1.) Faithfulness is a man’s generation-work, is of great use and advantage to salvation. Well done good and faithful servant, from the Lord’s own mouth, is a great security; and diligence and faithfulness in improving the talents we are entrusted with, through grace, procure that testimony.

(2.) Thou shalt save thyself from the guilt of other men’s sins and ruin, if thou be faithful in the ministry: Ezek. xxxiii. 9. Thou hast delivered (or saved) thy soul, saith the Lord to the prophet in the case of

unsuccessful faithfulness. So Paul, Acts xviii. 6. I am clean, your blood be upon your own heads: and Acts xx. 26, 27. I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men: for I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. Every minister pledgeth his soul to God, that he shall be a faithful servant; and he that is such may freely take up his stake, whatever his success on others be.

(3.) Faithfulness and painfulness in the ministry of the gospel, promotes a man’s own salvation, in so far as the work of Christianity is woven in with the right discharge of the office of the ministry. Many ministers can say that if they had not been ministers, they had in all appearances lost their souls. The subject of the minister’s work is the same with that of a Christian’s; and above all men should he be careful of his heart and intentions, that all be pure and spiritual. No man in any work he is called to, is under so strict a necessity of dependence on the influence and assistance of the Holy Ghost, both for gifts and grace. And are not all these great helps unto our own salvation?

2dly, The second advantage is, Thou shalt save them that hear thee. There is little hope of that man’s being useful to save others, that minds not his own salvation; and therefore the apostle puts them in this order, thyself, and then, them that hear thee.

This description of the people, them that hear thee, saith, That the principal work of a minister is preaching; and the principal benefit people have by them, is to hear the Lord’s word from them; though there be a seeing (i.e. of their holy conversation) that is also useful, Phil. iv. 9. But the apostle knew no such ministers as were only to be seen in worldly pomp and grandeur, and seldom or never heard preaching.

Thou shalt save them. The great end of both preaching and hearing, is salvation; and if salvation were more designed by preachers and hearers, it would be more frequently the effect of the action.

Thou shalt save them. Thou shalt, by the Lord’s blessing on thy ministry, be successful in converting sinners, and in building up of saints in holiness and faith unto salvation. Not that ministers are of themselves able by all their endeavours to carry on this great end; they are only God’s tools and instruments, 1 Cor. iii. 6, 7. Concerning this,

(1.) We find that the Lord hath appointed this great ordinance of the gospel-ministry for this end, the saving of men, Eph. iv. 11, 12, 13. It is through their word that men believe, John xvii. 20. And divine appointment of the means, declares both it to be useful, and the end to be hopeful.

(2.) He hath also given many promises of his presence, blessing, and success, to follow and attend them whom he sends on this great errand. Christ’s first calling of the apostles had this promise in it, I will make you fishers of men: which not only declared what that employment was he called them unto, but it assured them of success in it. At his leaving of them, Matth. xxviii. 20, he promised to be with them unto the end of the world. And this promise is as good to us as it was to them.

(3.) He hath also revealed much of his mind about ministers duty, in order to this end of saving men. This also makes the end more hopeful.

(4.) We find, that the Lord doth qualify and fit them whom he makes successful. He makes men able ministers of the New Testament, the word of

Life, 2 Cor. iii. 5, 6. And still, according to the success the Lord hath a mind to bless a man with, gifts and qualifications, and assistance, are proportionably given. The apostles, that had the greatest harvest to gather in, were made the strongest labourers: and, though in a far inferior degree, the same method is observed by the Lord in dealing with and by ordinary ministers. It is true, that always the most able and learned ministers are not most successful; yet, generally, the most skilful labourers are most blessed. Neither are the most learned and able men for parts most fit and skilful in dealing with souls at all times.

Now, having opened the words, we shall return to the question to be resolved,