only the gospel of God to them, but any thing that is dear to us, for the salvation of their souls; 1 Thess. ii. 7, 8.

Never suffer any differences (if possible) to arise between you and any of the people who are committed to your care, or attend on your ministrations: This will endanger the success of your best labours among them, and for this reason, though you visit families with freedom, yet avoid all unnecessary enquiries into their domestic affairs by a prying curiosity; the pleasure of such secrets will never pay for the danger that attends them, and your own business is sufficient for you. Avoid entering into any of the little private and personal quarrels that may arise among them, unless Providence give you an evident call to become a peacemaker: But even in this blessed work there is some danger of disobliging one side or the other; for though both sides are often to blame, yet each supposes himself so much in the right, that your softest and most candid intimation of their being culpable, even in little things, will sometimes awaken the jealousy of one or both parties against you; this will tend to abate their esteem of you, and give a coldness to their attention on your sacred services. We had need be wise as serpents in this case, and harmless as doves; Matt. x. 16.

V. Let your conversation be as fruitful and edifying as your station and opportunities will allow. Wheresoever you come, endeavour (if possible) that the world may be the better for you. If it be the duty of every christian, much more is it the indispensable duty of a minister of Christ, to take heed that no corrupt communication proceed out of his mouth, but that which is good for edification, that it may minister grace to the hearers; Eph. iv. 29. In your private visits to the members of your flocks, or to the houses of those who attend on your ministry, depart not (if possible) without putting in some word for God and religion, for Christ and his gospel: Take occasion, from common occurrences that arise, artfully and insensibly to introduce some discourse of things sacred. Let it be done with prudence and holy skill, that the company may be led into it ere they are aware. The ingenious Mr. Norris's little Discourse of Religious Conversation, and Mr. Matthew Henry's Sermon of Friendly Visits, have many excellent and valuable hints in them for our use.

It is to be confessed, that the best of ministers and christians sometimes fall into such company, that it is hardly possible to speak a word for God and the gospel among them. Try then whether you cannot lead the discourse to some useful theme in matters of science, art, and ingenuity, or to rules of prudence, morality, or human conduct. There is a time of keeping silence, and restraining our lips as with a bridle, even from every thing that is piously good, while some sort of wicked men stand before us; Psalm xxxix. 1, 2. The best men are sometimes dumb with silence, and dare not speak of God, or religion, lest they should cast their pearls before swine, and give their holy things to dogs; and lest they should provoke the unclean or the envious animals to foam out their impurities, or to turn again and rend them. But I doubt this caution has been carried much farther by our own cowardice and carnality of spirit, than David ever practised it in the xxxix. Psalm, or than Jesus Christ meant it in the vii. of Matthew. Let us take heed then that we abuse not this prudent caution to a manifest neglect of our duty, and to withhold our lips from the things of God, where Providence gives us a fair opportunity to speak of them.

Now and then take occasion to speak a kind and religious word to the children of the household; put them in mind of avoiding some childish folly, or of practising some

duty that belongs to their age. Let your memory be well furnished with the words of scripture, suited to the several ages of mankind, as well as to the various occasions of life, that out of the abundance of the heart your mouth may speak to the advantage of all that hear you, and particularly improve the younger parts of mankind, who are the hopes of the next generation. Make the lambs of the flock love you, and hear your voice with delight, that they may grow up under your instruction, to fill up the room of their fathers when they are called away to heaven: Nor let servants be utterly neglected, where Providence may afford you an opportunity to speak a word to their souls.

Learn what are the spiritual circumstances of the families whom you visit, and address them with a word in season, where you can have proper opportunity. Converse personally with them (if you can) about their eternal concerns. Let the ease and gentleness of your addresses to them, in a natural and familiar way, take off all that shy and bashful tincture from their minds, that is ready to prevent their uttering a word about the concern of their souls. Enquire tenderly into their state with regard to God: Draw sinners by words of compassion to repent of their crimes, to return to God, and to trust in Jesus the Saviour. Teach christians sincerely to love and practise duty, and to endure with honour the trials of life. Teach them to be sick and die as becomes the disciples of Christ. Treasure up your own experiences of divine things, not only as matters of delightful review in your own retirements, and for the encouragement of your own hope, but as lessons to be taught your people upon all proper occasions. Whether you are afflicted, or whether you are comforted, let it be for their consolation and salvation; 2 Cor. i. 6.

A minister, whose business and known employment is to speak of the things of God, should never be ashamed to impart divine knowledge, or to exhort to holiness with his lips, and to preach the word of the gospel of grace, whether the world calls it in season or out of season; 2 Tim. iv. 1. He that has the happy talent of parlour preaching, has sometimes done more for Christ and souls in the space of a few minutes, than by the labour of many hours and days in the usual course of preaching in the pulpit. Our character should be all of a piece, and we should help forward the success of our public ministrations by our private addresses to the hearts and consciences of men, where Providence favours us with just occasions.

In order to promote this work of particular watchfulness over the flock of Christ, where he has made you a shepherd and overseer, it is useful to keep a catalogue of their names, and now and then review them with a pastoral eye and affection. This will awaken and incline you to lift up proper petitions for each of them, so far as you are acquainted with their circumstances in body or mind. This will excite you to give thanks to God on account of those who walk as becomes the gospel, and who have either begun, or pro ceeded and encreased in the christian life and temper by your ministry: You will observe the names of the negligent and backsliding christians, to mourn over them, and admonish them: You will be put in mind how to dispose of your time in christian visits, and learn the better to fulfil your whole ministry among them.

I shall enlarge no further in the enumeration of our duties, which would easily swell into a volume, if they were set before our eyes in their full extent: But in general I say, these are the methods whereby we must take heed to ourselves, if we would fulfil the ministry that we have received of Christ. To supply what I have omitted, read frequently, and with holy attention, the epistles of Paul to Timothy and Titus, which will furnish

you richly with directions for your work; and I would recommend to you the examples of St. Paul and Timothy, as they are put well together in a little book by the Reverend Mr. Murray, which was printed but a few years ago. And as the account of the lives of many ancient ministers may furnish us with patterns for our imitation, so the life of the late venerable Dr. Cotton Mather, of New England, has many excellent hints in it for this purpose; Chap. ii. Sect. 1. and Chap. vi.

SECTION V.

A SOLEMN ENFORCEMENT OF THESE EXHORTATIONS ON THE CONSCIENCE.

*

THE things which I have spoken hitherto have been a display of the best methods I can think of, for the execution of the sacred office of the ministry: And so far as they are conformable to the word of God, we may venture to say these are your duties, my dear brother, and these are ours. It remains now to be considered, in what manner shall we enforce them on our own consciences, and on yours. What solemn obtestations shall I use to press these momentous concerns on all our hearts? What pathetic language shall I choose, what words of awful efficacy and divine fervour, which may first 'melt our spirits into softness, and then imprint these duties upon them with lasting power? We exhort and charge you, we exhort and charge ourselves, by all that is serious and sacred, by all that is important and everlasting, by all the solemn transactions between God and man which are past, and by all the more solemn and awful scenes which are yet to come, by all things in our holy religion which are dreadful and tremendous, and by all things in this gospel which are glorious and amiable, heavenly and divine; we charge you by all that is written in this book of God, according to which we shall be judged in the last day, by all the infinite and astonishing glories and terrors of an invisible world and an unseen eternity, we charge and exhort you, we exhort and charge ourselves, that we all take heed to the ministry which we have received of the Lord Jesus that we fulfil it. But let us descend to more particular forms of solemn exhortation, which perhaps may strike our consciences in a more sensible manner, and print the duties deeper upon our hearts.

First then, we exhort and charge you, we charge and exhort our own souls, by all the ancient transactions between God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ, for the salvation of sinful men, by all the eternal counsels of peace that passed between them to recover lost mankind to the favour and image of his Maker, that we preach this gospel with faithfulness, and be instant in the sacred work. It is the effect of these divine counsels that we publish to sinners; it is the merciful product of this sacred covenant of redemption that we are sent to proclaim to a lost world: This is the gospel that is put into our hands: God grant we may speak as becomes creatures entrusted with messages of such a heavenly original with affairs of such divine solemnity.

Secondly, We exhort and charge you, and we would charge ourselves to fulfil our ministry, by the invaluable treasure of this gospel which is put into our hands, by that word of life which is committed to our ministration. Let us speak with such a serious zeal as becomes the oracles of God and the embassies of his mercy, with such compassion to dying souls as is manifested in this gospel of love, with such inward fervour and holy solicitude for the success of our labours, that if it were possible, not the soul of one sinner

within the reach of our preaching might miss of this pardoning mercy and eternal joy. Oh let us not dare to trifle with God or men: Let us not dare be cold and lifeless in pronouncing the words of everlasting life, nor lazy and indolent in carrying these errands of divine love to a lost and perishing world.

Thirdly, We charge and beseech you, and we charge ourselves, by the mercies of the living God, which we hope both you and we have tasted, by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, which we hope we have felt and received, that you and we proclaim these mercies with a sacred zeal, and that in the name of God and of our Lord Jesus, we offer them to a miserable world with holy importunity. If ever we have known this wondrous compassion of God to ourselves, if ever we have tasted that the Lord is gracious, let us remember the relish we have had of this infinite compassion and condescending grace, when we were perishing under the power and guilt of sin; and with an imitation of that divine piety, let us entreat sinners to be saved. Let us remember all the alluring charms, the heavenly sweetnesses of forgiving, sanctifying, and saving grace; and do our utmost to set them all before sinners in the most inviting light, that we may win sinful men to accept of the same salvation.

Fourthly, We exhort and charge you, and we charge ourselves, by the dear and glorious name of our blessed Jesus, whose servants we are, whose name we bear, whose authority gives us commission, and who hath chosen us to be the ministers of his grace, the messengers of his dying love to the sons of men: We charge and beseech you to take care of the honour of his name in your ministrations, for we are sent forth to display before the eyes of the world the unsearchable riches of Christ. We are entrusted to spread abroad the honour of his name; O let us labour and strive that our zeal bear some proportion to the dignity of our trust, and let us take heed that we do nothing unworthy of our great and glorious Master in heaven, who dwells at the right hand of God; nothing unworthy of that holy and illustrious name, in which we are sent forth to preach this gospel, and to enlarge his kingdom. He has set us up as lights upon a hill in this sinful world, this benighted part of his dominion; let us burn and shine to his honour. He has assumed and placed us as stars in his right hand; let us shine and burn gloriously, that we may give light to a midnight world. O that we may point out to them the morning star, that we may bring them under the beams of the rising sun of righteousness, and guide them in the way to the hills of paradise and everlasting joy!

Fifthly, We beseech and charge you, while we charge ourselves, by the inestimable value of the blood of Christ, which purchased this salvation, that you and we display this illustrious and costly purchase to sinful perishing creatures; this precious blood, which is sufficient to redeem a world from death, and which is the price of all our infinite and everlasting blessings, demands that we publish and offer them in his name, with holy zeal and solicitude to sinful men. Oh may our hearts and our lips join to proclaim this redemption, this salvation, these everlasting blessings, with such a devout and sacred passion as becomes the divine price that was paid for them! Let us not be found triflers with the blood of Christ, nor let us bring cold hearts and dead affections, when we come to set before sinners the rich and inestimable stream of that life and blood that comes warm from the heart of the dying Son of God. Let perishing creatures know that it cost the Prince of Glory such a dreadful price as this to redeem them from eternal misery; and at the same time let our own spirits feel the powerful workings of gratitude to the

divine friend that bled and died for us, and let our language make it appear that we speak what we feel.

Sixthly, We entreat you with all tenderness, and with holy solemnity and fear, we charge you, and we charge ourselves, by the invaluable worth of perishing souls, that we fulfil all our ministry with a concern of heart equal to so important a case. How can we dare to speak with lifeless lips, with cold language, or a careless air, when we are sent to recover immortal souls from the brink of everlasting death? Oh let it never be said that such or such a soul was lost for ever through our carelessness, through our coldness, through our sinful sloth in publishing the offers of recovering grace! How tremendous and painful will such a thought be to our hearts! How dreadful the anguish of it to the awakened conscience of a drowsy preacher!

Seventhly, We charge you solemnly, and we charge ourselves, by the honour that Christ has done to us in times past, and has done to you this day, by the dignity of that office with which we have been formerly invested, and which you have this day received, that neither you nor we do any thing unbecoming this honourable character. Does Jesus, the divine Shepherd, appoint us under-shepherds of his flock; are we constituted stewards in his house, to dispense the mysteries of his grace, and the good things of his gospel; are we the messengers of our risen Lord to a dying world; are we the ministers of our exalted Saviour in his kingdom here below; are we the stars in his right hand; are we the earthly angels in his churches? Oh let us take heed that we do nothing to disgrace the titles of dignity and honour which he has put upon us in his word: Let us remember that every dignity brings an equal duty with it; and by fulfilling the various and difficult duties of our holy station, let us make it appear that our office was not conferred upon us in vain. It behoves us well to remember, that a blemish upon the name of a minister, arising from his own criminal conduct, brings a foul and lasting scandal upon the office itself, and upon the gospel of our glorified Lord, in whose name we act: And he will not fail to resent it.

Eighthly, We exhort and charge you therefore, my dear brother, by all the sacred solemnities of this day, by the vows of God which you have this day taken upon yourself, and the bond wherewith you have bound your soul; and we would each of us charge our own consciences, by our own former solemn vows, that neither you nor we ever suffer ourselves to forget or disregard our holy and powerful engagements; that we be awake at all times to fulfil our work, and that we never indulge low and trifling thoughts of what bas formerly appeared to us, and what this day appears to you of such awful importance. Oh let us ever refresh upon our spirits the serious and important transactions of that day, wherein we gave up ourselves to Christ, in the sacred service of his church. Let us often review the vows of these remarkable seasons of our life, and renew and confirm them before the Lord.

Ninthly, We charge you, and we charge ourselves, by the decaying interest of religion, and the withering state of christianity at this day, that we do not increase this general and lamentable decay, this growing and dreadful apostasy, by our slothful and careless management of the trust that is committed to us. It is a divine interest indeed, but declining; it is a heavenly cause, but among us it is sinking and dying. O let us stir up our hearts, and all that is within us, and strive mightily in prayer and in preaching to revive the work of God, and beg earnestly that God, by a fresh and abundant effusion of his own Spirit, would revive his own work among us! Revive thy own work, O Lord, in