Pastoral Cautions
“Look well, therefore, to your internal character. For it is awful to think of appearing as a minister without being really a Christian, or of any one officially watching over the souls of others who is habitually unmindful of his own immortal interests.”
In Pastoral Cautions, Abraham Booth offers eleven cautions for pastors entering the ministry—cautions as relevant today as when he first preached them. A pastor for thirty-seven years, Booth speaks with lived insight into the joys and challenges of pastoral ministry. He has the brassy clarity of a prophet—mincing no words, cutting to the heart, and exposing every attempt at false piety. Yet for all the sharpness of his words, they also bind up and heal. Both those serving as pastors and those aspiring to the ministry would do well to read and pray through these cautions, asking whether there is not something in themselves that calls for repentance.
Abraham Booth (1734-1806) was a learned Baptist pastor and author from Derbyshire, England. Originally among the General Baptists, he later embraced the doctrines of grace and published The Reign of Grace at age thirty-three. Serving as pastor of the Prescott Street Church in London for thirty-seven years, he was known for his integrity, devotion, and deep knowledge of Scripture. Booth helped found Stepney College, wrote eight major works, and left a lasting influence through his preaching, writing, and counsel.