when I spake, and was not heard.” This I imagine is my whole account. For the Holy Spirit
by the prophet Ezekiel hath given me sure hope. Ye know this passage concerning the
watchman; “O son of man,” saith He, “I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel;
if when I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt die the death, thou dost not speak;”
that is (for I speak to thee that thou mayest speak), “if thou dost not announce it, and the
sword,” that is, what I have threatened on the sinner, “come, and take him away; that wicked
man indeed shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand.”4121
Why? Because he did not speak. “But if the watchman see the sword coming, and blow the
trumpet,” that he may fly, and he took not to himself, that is, amend not himself, that it find
him not in the punishment which God threateneth, and “the sword shall come and take any
one away; that wicked man indeed shall die in his iniquity; but thou,” saith He, “hast delivered
thine own soul.” And in that place of the Gospel, what else saith He to the servant? when
he said, “Lord, I knew Thee to be a” difficult4122 or “hard Man, in that Thou reapest where
Thou hast not sowed, and gatherest where Thou hast not strawed; and I was afraid, and
went and hid Thy talent in the earth, lo, Thou hast that is Thine.” And He said, “‘Thou
wicked and slothful servant,’ because thou knewest Me to be a difficult and hard Man, to
reap where I have not sown, and to gather where I have not strawed, My very covetousness
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ought the more to teach thee, that I look for profit from My money. ‘Thou oughtest therefore
to have given My money to the exchangers, and at My coming I should have required Mine
own with usury.’”4123 Did He say, “Thou oughtest to give, and require”? It is we then,
Brethren, who give, He will come to require. Pray ye, that He may find us prepared.
4121 Ezek. xxxiii. 7, etc.
4122 Molestum.
4123 Matt. xxv. 24, etc.; Luke xix. 21, etc.
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The tenth chapter of the Gospel of John. Of the shepherd, and the hireling,…