“[Richard] Baxter gives eight reasons why ministers should examine themselves:
- You have heaven to win or lose yourselves…A holy calling will not save an unholy man.
- You have sinful inclinations as well as others.
- (Ministers) have greater temptation than most men.
- The tempter will make his first and sharpest onset upon you. If you will be leaders against him, he will spare you no further than God restrains him.
- Many eyes are upon you, and therefore there will be many to observe your falls.
- Your sins are more aggravated than those of other men. They have more of hypocrisy in them, and are more detrimental to the cause of Christianity.
- The honor of your Lord and Master, and of his holy truth, lies more on you than other men.
- The souls of your hearers and the success of your labors, do very much depend upon your self-examination.
The preaching of one who does not live as he preaches will be disregarded” (Paul Cook, “The Life and Work of a Minister According to the Puritans,” Puritan Papers: Volume One, 1956-1959, 181).
