The great design and intention of the office of a Christian preacher [is] to restore the throne and dominion of God to the souls of men. – Cotton Mather

The Supremacy of God in Preaching (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1990), 25

owenLet me add this to them who are preachers of the word, or intend, through the good hand of God, that employment: It is their duty to plead with men about their sins . . .

A skillful master of the assemblies lays his axe at the root, drives still at the heart . . .

. . . Can sin be killed without an interest in the death of Christ, or mortified without the Spirit? . . . If such directions should prevail to change men’s lives, as seldom they do, yet they never reach to the change of their hearts or conditions. They may make men self-justiciaries or hypocrites, not Christians.

 

Overcoming Sin & Temptation (Wheaton: Crossway, 2006), 84-85