I conjure you, brethren, in the name of the Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, who hath bought them and ♦us with his own blood, apply this each to his own soul. Let every man look unto God, and say, “Lord, _Is it I_? Am I one of these idle, careless, indolent shepherds, that feed myself, not the flock? Am I one that cannot bark, slothful, sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber? One of those who have not strengthened that which was diseased, neither healed that which was sick! _Search me, O Lord, and prove me; try out my reins and my heart. Look well if there be any way of wickedness in me, and lead me in the way everlasting._” ♦ “as” replaced with “us” per Errata 35. “Have I not, at least, _healed the hurt of thy people slightly_? Have I not said, _Peace, peace, when there was no peace_?”――How many are they also that do this? Who do not study to speak what is _true_, especially to the rich and great, so much as what is _pleasing_? Who flatter _honourable_ sinners, instead of telling them plain, _How can ye escape the damnation of hell_? O what an account have _you_ to make, if there be a God that judgeth the earth? Will he not require at _your_ hands the blood of all these souls, of whom _ye are the betrayers and murderers_? Well spake the prophets of your fathers, in whose steps ye now tread. _They have seduced my people, and one built up a wall, and another daubed it with untempered mortar. They strengthen the hands of the evil-doers, that none doth return from his wickedness. They prophesy lies in my name saith the Lord. They say unto them that despise me, ye shall have peace, and unto them that walk after the imagination of their own heart, no evil shall come upon you._ How great will _your_ damnation be, who _destroy_ souls, instead of _saving_ them? Where will you appear, or how will you stand, _in that great and terrible day of the Lord_! How will ye lift up your head, when _the Lord descends from heaven, in flaming fire, to take vengeance on his adversaries_! More especially on those who have so betrayed his cause, and done Satan’s work under the banner of Christ! With what voice wilt _thou_ say, “Behold me, Lord, and the sheep whom thou hadst given me, whom I gave to the devil, and told them they were in the way to heaven, till they dropped into hell?” Were they not just such shepherds of souls as you are concerning whom God spake by _Jeremiah_, _Many pastors have destroyed my vineyard, they have trodden my portion under foot; they have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness_: By _Ezekiel_, _There is a conspiracy of her prophets, like a roaring lion, ravening the prey, they have devoured souls_: And by _Zechariah_, _Thus saith the Lord, feed the flock of the slaughter, whose possessors slay them, and hold themselves not guilty; and they that sell them say, blessed be the Lord, for I am rich; and their own shepherds pity them not._