Quotes about Responsibility

I]f thou loiter when thou shouldst labour, thou wilt lose the crown. O fall to work then speedily and seriously, and bless God that thou hast yet time to do it; and though that which is past cannot be recalled, yet redeem the time now by doubling thy diligence (260).

Believe it, brethren, God looks for more from England, than from most nations in the world; and for more from you that enjoy these helps, than from the dark, untaught congregations of the land (271).

Direct. IV. Be a good husband to your wife, and a good father to your children, and a good master to your servants, and let love have dominion in all your government, that your inferiors may easily find, that it is their interest to obey you. For interest and self-love are the natural rulers of the world.

O]ne duty may be said to be too long, when its shuts out another, and then it ceaseth, indeed, to be a duty(274).

Every man therefore is bound to do all the good he can to others, especially for the church and commonwealth.

Beware lest, while you proclaim to the world the necessity of a Savior, your own hearts should neglect him, and you should miss an interest in him and his saving benefits. Take heed to yourselves, lest you perish, while you call upon others to take heed of perishing; and lest you famish yourselves while you prepare food for them. Though there

That physician is no better than a murderer, that negligently delayeth till his patient be dead or past cure (389).

If God had bid you give them all your estates to own them, or lay down your lives to save them, sure you would have refused, when you will not bestow a little breath to save them? Is not the soul of a husband, or wife, or child, or neighbour, worth a few words? It is worth this, or it is worth nothing. . . . If you did know their misery, you would now do more to bring them out of hell (409). (III.XIII)

remember, you cannot decline and neglect your duty, to your own hurt alone; many will be losers by it as well as you.

It is no small matter to stand up in the face of a congregation and deliver a message of salvation or damnation as from the living God in the name of our Redeemer.

The ministry is another kind of business than too many excellent preachers take it to be.

When spiritual leaders have done their jobs, the people around them have encountered God and obeyed his will.