# Joseph Alleine on ministers not preaching for fear of persecution



## Reformed Covenanter (Feb 1, 2021)

... Fathers and Brethren, we unfeignedly reverence you, we magnify the grace of God in and unto you. Did not we reverence your Parts, Gifts and Graces, and esteem them every way so useful to the Churches, we should contentedly see you sit still, and never be at the pains to excite you. But our high value of you, hath made us humbly bold to expostulate the case a little with you, and passionately to beseech you, to remember how great a work it is that lies upon you, and to set your hands to it in this time of difficulty. ...

Is not this the _Work_ of your Office and Calling, _To watch in all things, to suffer afflictions, and thereby to make full proof of your Ministry, and, as good Soldiers of Jesus Christ, to endure hardness?_ Shall you with _Jonah,_ fly to _Tarshish,_ when the Lord sends you about your work? will you not rather say, with resolution, as holy _Nehemiah, Shall such a man as I flee? Who_ _is there, that being as I am, would flee? &c._ And as the Apostles, your Leaders, when in your case; _And now, Lord, behold their threatnings, and grant unto thy Servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy Word. ..._

For more, see Joseph Alleine on ministers not preaching for fear of persecution.

Reactions: Like 3


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## chuckd (Feb 1, 2021)

1 Cor. 16:13 Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, *act like men,* be strong.


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## Herald (Feb 4, 2021)

It is easier for pastors to preach boldly when they have the prayers and support of the local body of Christ. 

A good passage to mediate upon:

Philippians 1:12-18 12 Now I want you to know, brethren, that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel, 13 so that my imprisonment in _the cause of_ Christ has become well known throughout the whole praetorian guard and to everyone else, 14 and that most of the brethren, trusting in the Lord because of my imprisonment, have far more courage to speak the word of God without fear. 15 Some, to be sure, are preaching Christ even from envy and strife, but some also from good will; 16 the latter _do it_ out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel; 17 the former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition rather than from pure motives, thinking to cause me distress in my imprisonment. 18 What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed; and in this I rejoice.


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