by the studies of youth, will make the labour of your middle age easy, when perhaps you will have much less time and leisure. This shall suffice for the second general head, which exhorts you to take heed to your private studies, both those which may furnish you for the work of the ministry in general, and those which are necessary to your particular preparations for the pulpit.

SECTION III.

OF PUBLIC MINISTRATIONS.

WE proceed now to the third general head, and that is, Take heed to your public labours and ministrations in the church, which may be done by attending to the following particulars:

I. Apply yourself to your work with pious delight; not as a toil and task, which you wish were done and ended, but as matter of inward pleasure to your own soul: Enter the pulpit with the solemnity of holy joy, that you have an opportunity to speak for the honour of God, and the salvation of men. Then you will not preach or pray with sloth or laziness, with coldness or indifference: We do not use to be slothful and indifferent in the pursuit of our joys, or the relish of our chosen pleasures. Stir up yourself to the work with sacred vigour, that the assembly may feel what you speak. But if you deliver the most solemn and lively composures like a man that is half asleep, it will be no wonder if your hearers slumber. A dull preacher makes a drowsy church.

II. Endeavour to get your heart into a temper of divine love, zealous for the laws of God, affected with the grace of Christ, and compassionate for the souls of men. With this temper engage in public work. Let your frame of spirit be holy with regard to your ́own inward devotion, near to God, and delighting in him; and let it be zealous for the name of Christ, and the increase of his kingdom. O pity perishing sinners when you are sent to invite them to be reconciled to God. Let not self be the subject or the end of your preaching, but Christ and the salvation of souls. We preach not ourselves, saith the apostle, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake; 2 Cor. iv. 5. Speak as a dying preacher to dying hearers, with the utmost compassion to the ignorant, the tempted, the foolish, and the obstinate; for all these are in danger of eternal death. Attend your work with the utmost desire to save souls from hell, and enlarge the kingdom of Christ your Lord. Go into the public assembly with a design (if God please) to strike and persuade some souls there into repentance, faith, holiness and salvation. Go to open blind eyes, to unstop deaf ears, to make the lame walk, to make the foolish wise, to raise those that are dead in trespasses and sins to a heavenly and divine life, and to bring guilty rebels to return to the love and obedience of their Maker, by Jesus Christ, the great Reconciler, that they may be pardoned and saved. Go to diffuse the savour of the name of Christ and his gospel through a whole assembly, and to allure souls to partake of his grace and glory.

III. Go forth in the strength of Christ, for these glorious effects are above your own strength, and transcend all the powers of the brightest preachers. Be strong in the grace which is in Christ Jesus; 2 Tim. ii. 1. Without him we can do nothing; John xv. 5. Go with a design to work wonders of salvation on sinful creatures, but in the strength of Jesus, who hath all power given him in heaven and earth, and hath promised to be with his ministers to the end of the world; Matt. xxviii. 20. Pray earnestly for the promised aids

of the Spirit, and plead with God who hath sent you forth in the service of the gospel of his Son, that you may not return empty, but bring in fair harvest of converts to heaven. It is the Lord of the harvest who only can give this divine success to the labourers. He that planteth is nothing, and he that watereth is nothing, but all our hope is in God, who giveth the increase; 1 Cor. iii. 7.

IV. Get the substance of your sermon, which you have prepared for the pulpit, so wrought into your head and heart by review and meditation, that you may have it at command, and speak to your hearers with freedom; not as if you were reading or repeating your lesson to them, but as a man sent to teach and persuade them to faith and holiness. Deliver your discourses to the people like a man that is talking to them in good earnest about their most important concerns, and their everlasting welfare; like a messenger sent from heaven who would fain save sinners from hell, and allure souls to God and happiness. Do not indulge that lazy way of reading over your prepared paper, as a schoolboy does an oration out of Livy or Cicero, who has no concern in the things he speaks. But let all the warmest zeal for God, and compassion for perishing men, animate your voice and countenance; and let the people see and feel, as well as hear, that you are speaking to them about things of infinite moment, and in which your own eternal interest lies as well as theirs.

V. If you pray and hope for the assistance of the Spirit of God in every part of your work, do not resolve always to confine yourself precisely to the mere words and sentences which you have written down in your private preparations. Far be it from me to encourage a preacher to venture into public work without due preparation by study, and a regular composure of his discourse. We must not serve God with what cost us nothing. All our wisest thoughts and cares are due to the sacred service of the temple: But what I mean is, that we should not impose upon ourselves just such a number of pre-composed words and lines to be delivered in the hour, without daring to speak a warm sentiment that comes fresh upon the mind. Why may you not hope for some lively turns of thought, some new pious sentiments which may strike light, and heat, and life into the understandings and the hearts of those that hear you? In the zeal of your ministrations, why may you not expect some bright, and warm, and pathetic forms of argument and persuasion, to offer themselves to your lips, for the more powerful conviction of sinners, and the encouragement and comfort of humble christians? Have you not often found such an enlargement of thought, such a variety of sentiment and freedom of speech, in common conversation upon an important subject, beyond what you were apprized of beforehand? And why should you forbid yourself this natural advantage in the pulpit, and in the fervour of sacred ministrations, where also you have more reason to hope for divine assistance?

Besides, for us who are protestant dissenters, and confine ourselves to no set forms in prayer, it seems more unreasonable to confine our lips constantly and precisely to the words written in our papers in the work of preaching. Do we plead so earnestly for the liberty of prayer, and yet never give our spirits a liberty to express their present warm, lively, and affectionate thoughts, in ministering the gospel of Christ under the hopes of his assistance? Why must we never dare to add any thing to our premeditated notes in speaking to the people, while we take this freedom in speaking to the blessed God? As there has been many a fervent and devout petition offered to God in our addresses to him which has not been thought of before, so many a sentence that was never written has

been delivered in our addresses to the people with glorious success; it has come more immediate and warm from the heart, and may have been blessed of God to save a soul. VI. Here would be a proper place to interpose a few directions concerning elocution, and the whole manner of delivery of your discourse to the people; which includes both a voice, gesture, and behaviour suited to the subject and design of every part of the sermon. But the rules that are necessary for this part of our work are much better derived from books written on this subject, from an observation of the best preachers, in order to imitate them, and an avoidance of that which we find offensive when we ourselves are hearers. Besides, as I have had an opportunity sometimes, my dear brother, of attending your performances in public, I think I may be bold to say, that in this, as well as in several other parts of your ministration, you stand in no need of any advice I can give. But since you have called me at present to this service, I have endeavoured to fulfil it. If I had a design to go through the whole of the ministerial office, I should here also find a proper place to speak of the manner of your performance of public prayer, of your direction of the person who leads that part of worship which is called psalmody, and in your ministration of the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's-supper; but this would require much more time, and my chief design was to put you in mind of a few useful things which relate to preaching. I proceed, therefore, to the last particular.

VII. Be very sclicitous about the success of all your labours in the pulpit. Water the seed sown not only with public but secret prayer. Plead with God importunately, that he would not suffer you to labour in vain. Be not like that foolish bird the Ostrich, which lays her eggs in the dust, and leaves them there, regardless whether they come to life or not: God hath not given her understanding; Job xxxix. 14-17. But let not this folly be your character or practice: Labour, and watch, and pray, that your sermons and the fruit of your studies may become words of divine life to souls.

It is an observation of pious Mr. Baxter's which I have read somewhere in his works, that he has never known any considerable success from the brightest and noblest talents, nor the most excellent kind of preaching; and that even where the preachers themselves have been truly religious, if they have not had a solicitous concern for the success of their ministrations. Let the awful and important thoughts of souls being saved by my preaching, or left to perish and be condemned to hell by my negligence, I say, let this awful and tremendous thought dwell ever upon your spirit. We are made watchmen to the house of Israel, as Ezekiel was; Ezek. iii. 17, &c. and if we give no warning of approaching danger, the souls of multitudes may perish through our neglect, but the blood of souls will be terribly required at our hands.

SECTION IV.

OF THE CONVERSATION OF A MINISTER.

We are come now to the fourth and last thing which I proposed, in order to the fulfilling of your ministry, viz. Take heed to your whole conversation in the world; let that be managed not only as becomes a professor of christianity, but as becomes a minister of the gospel of Christ. Now amongst other rules which may render your conversation agreeable to your character, I entreat you to take these few into your thoughts:

I. Let it be blameless and inoffensive. Be vigilant, be temperate in all things, not only as a soldier of Christ, but as an under-leader of part of his army. Be temperate, and abstain sometimes even from lawful delights, that you may make the work of self-denial easy, and that you may bear hardship as becomes a soldier; 2 Tim. ii. 3, 4. Be watchful or vigilant, lest you be too much entangled with the affairs of this life, that you may better please him who has chosen you for an officer in his battalions, and that you may not be easily surprised into the snares of sin. Guard against a love of pleasure, a sensual temper, an indulgence of appetite, an excessive relish of wine or dainties; this carnalizes the soul, and gives occasion to the world to reproach us but too justly.

Watch carefully in all your conduct that you give no offence, as far as possible, neither to Jew or gentile, nor to the church of God, that so the ministry may not be blamed; 1 Cor. x. 32. 2 Cor. vi. 3. Maintain a holy jealousy over yourself and your conduct, that the name of Christ and his gospel suffer not the reproach of tongues and impious blasphemies through your means. Oh how dreadful is the mischief that a scandalous minister does to the gospel of our blessed Lord! What a fearful train of consequences may attend his indulgence of any sinful appetite, or any single criminal action, even though it be not repeated! What a fatal stumbling-block does he lay before the feet of saints and sinners! He turns away the heart of sinners from God and religion, who perhaps began to think of setting their faces towards heaven: He discourages the hearts of young christians, and weakens the hands of all the friends of Christ. Woe be to the preacher by whom such offences come.

II. Let your conversation be exemplary in all the duties of holiness and virtue, in all the instances of worship and piety toward God, and in those of justice, honour, and hearty benevolence towards men. Be forward and ready to engage in every good word and work, that you may be a pattern and a leader of the flock, that you may be able to address the people committed to your care in the language of the blessed apostle, Be ye followers of me even as I also am of Christ; 1 Cor. xi. 1. Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an example.-For our conversation is in heaven; Phil. iii. 17, 20. Those things which ye have both learned and received, and heard and seen in me, do you practise, and the God of peace shall be with you; Phil. iv. 9. III. Let your conversation be grave and manly, yet pleasant and engaging. Let it be grave, manly, and venerable: Remember your station in the church, that you sink not into levity and vain trifling, that you indulge not any ridiculous humours or childish follies below the dignity of your character: Keep up the honour of your office among men by a remarkable sanctity of manners, by a decent and manly deportment. Remember that our station does not permit any of us to set up for a buffoon; nor will it be any glory to us to excel in farce and comedy. Let others obtain the honour of being good jesters, and of having it in their power to spread a laugh round the company when they please : But let it be our ambition to act on the stage of life as men who are devoted to the service of the God of heaven, to the real benefit of mankind on earth, and to their eternal interests.

Yet there is no need that your behaviour should have any thing stiff or haughty, any thing sullen or gloomy in it: There is an art of pleasing in conversation that will maintain the honour of a superior office without a morose silence, without an affected stiffness, and without a haughty superiority. A pleasant story may proceed without offence from a minister's lips; but he should never aim at the title of a man of mirth, nor abound in

such tales as carry no useful instruction in them, no lessons of piety, or wisdom, or virtue. Let a cheerful freedom, a generous friendship, and an innocent pleasure, generally appear on your countenance; and let your speech be ever kind and affectionate. Do not put on any forbidding airs, nor let the humblest soul be afraid to speak to you. Let your whole carriage be civil and affable; let your address to men be usually open and free, such as may allure persons to be open and free with you in the important concerns of their souls. Seek as far as possible to obtain all your pious designs, by soft and gentle methods of persuasion.

If you are ever called to the unpleasing and painful work of reproof, this may be done effectually upon some occasions without speaking a word. When vicious, or uncleanly, or unbecoming speeches arise in public conversation, a sudden silence, with an assumed gravity, will often be a sensible and sufficient reproof. Or where words of admonition may not be proper, because of the company, sometimes a sudden departure may be the best way to acquaint them with your disapprobation. But there are cases wherein such a tacit rebuke is not sufficient to answer your character and your office. Sometimes it is necessary for a minister to bear a public and express witness against shocking immorality, or against vile and impious discourse. Yet in general it must be said, if a reproof can be given in secret, it is best and most likely to prevail upon the offender, because it less irritates his passions, nor awakens his pride to vindicate himself, and to despise all reproof.

Whensoever Providence calls you to this work, make it appear to the transgressor, that you do it with regret and pain; let him see that you are not giving vent to your own wrath, but seeking his interest and welfare; and that were it not for the honour of God, and for his good, you would gladly excuse yourself from the ungrateful task; and that it is a work in which your spirit takes no delight. If the case and circumstances require some speeches that are awful and severe, let it appear still that your love and pity are the prevailing passions, and that even your anger has something divine and holy in it, as being raised and pointed against the sin rather than against the sinner. Study to make the whole of your carriage and discourse amongst men so engaging, as may invite strangers to love you, and allure them to love religion for your sake.

IV. In order to attain the same end, let your conversation be attended with much self-denial and meekness; avoid the character of a humourist, nor be unreasonably fond of little things, nor peevish for the want of them. Suppress rising passion early. If you are providentially led into argument and dispute, whether on themes of belief or practice, be very watchful lest you run into fierce contention, into angry and noisy debate. Guard against every word that savours of malice, or of bitter strife; watch against the first stirrings of sudden wrath or resentment; bear with patience the contradiction of others, and forbear to return railing for railing. A minister must be gentle, and not apt to strive, but meekly instructing gainsayers. He should never be ready either to give or take offence, but he should teach his people to neglect and bury resentment, to be deaf to reproaches, and to forgive injuries, by his own example, even as God has forgiven all of us. Let us imitate his divine pattern, who cancels and forgives our infinite offences for the sake of Jesus Christ. A bishop must not be a brawler or a striker; 1 Tim. iii. 3. but such as the apostle was, gentle among the people, even as a nurse cherishes her children; and being affectionately desirous of their welfare, we should be willing to impart not