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We must call upon our people, " to be ready to every good work." We must go before them in it, and by our own readiness at every good work, show them the manner of performing it. 66 Timothy," said the Apostle, "Be thou an example of the believers." It is a true maxim, and you cannot think of it too frequently ;-" The life of a minister is the life of his ministry." There is also another maxim of the same kind;"The sins of teachers are the teachers of sins."

Allow me, sirs, to say that your opportunities to do good, are singular. Your want of worldly riches, and generally of any means of obtaining them, is compensated by those opportunities to do good, with which you are enriched. The true spirit of a minister will cause you to consider yourselves enriched, when those precious things are conferred upon you, and to prize them above lands, or money, or any temporal possessions whatever. "In operibus sit abundantia mea; divitiis per me licet, abundet, quisquis voluerit.”* Well said, brave Melancthon!

It is to be hoped, that the main principle which actuated you, when you first entered upon the evangelical ministry, was a desire to do good in the world. If that principle was then too feeble in its operation, it is time that it should now act more vigorously, and that a zeal for doing good should now" eat up" your time, your thoughts, your all.

That you may be good men, and be mightily inspired and assisted from heaven to do good, it is needful that you should be men of prayer.

* Let me abound in good works, and I care not who abounds in riches.

This, my first request, I suppose to be fully admitted. In pursuance of this intention, it appears very necessary that you should occasionally set apart whole days for secret prayer and fasting, and thus perfume your studies with extraordinary devotions: such exercises may be also properly accompanied with the giving of alms, to go up as a memorial before the Lord. By these means, you may obtain, together with the pardon of your unfruitfulness, (for which, alas! we have such frequent occasion to apply to the great sacrifice,) a wonderful improvement in piety and sanctity; the vast importance of which, to form a useful minister, none can describe!" Sanctify them in (or for) thy truth," said our Saviour. They should be sanctified, who would become instruments for the propagation of the truth. You may obtain, by prayer, such an influence from heaven upon your minds, and such an indwelling of the Holy Spirit, as will render you grave, discreet, humble, generous, and worthy to be "greatly beloved." You may obtain those influences from above that will dispel the enchantments, and conquer the temptations which might otherwise do much mischief in your neighbourhood. You may obtain direction and assistance for the many services requisite to be performed, in the discharge of your ministry. Finally, you may fetch down unknown blessings on your flocks, and on the people at large, for whom you are to be the Lord's remembrancers.

Your public prayers, if suitably composed, will be excellent engines to "do good." The more judicious, the more affectionate, the more argumentative you are in them, the more you will teach your people to pray. And I would ask, how

can you prosecute any intention of piety among your people more effectually, than by letting them see you praying, weeping, striving, and in an importunate agony before the Lord, in order to obtain the blessing for them? The more appropriately you represent the various cases of your people in your public prayers, the more devoutly sensible you will make them of their own cases; and by this means they will obtain much consolation. The prayers you offer at BAPTISMS, may be so managed as greatly to awaken in the minds of all present, a sense of their baptismal obligations. What effusions of the Holy Spirit may your people experience, if your prayers at the table of the Lord, should be such as Nazianzen describes his father's to have been;-" Made by the Holy Spirit of God."

Your sermons, if they be well studied, as they ought to be, from the consideration of their being offerings to God, as well as to his people, will "do good" beyond all expression. The manner of your studying them, may very much contribute to their usefulness. It is necessary that you carefully consider the state of your flocks; and bring them such truths, as will best suit their present circumstances. In order to this, you will observe their condition, their faults, their snares, and their griefs; that you may " speak a word in season;" and that, if any remarkable providence occur among your people, you may make a suitable improvement of it. It will be useful to consider the different ages and circumstances of your people, and what lessons of piety may be inculcated on each; what exhortations should be given to the communicants, to those who are under the

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bonds of the covenant; what advice should be addressed to the, aged; what admonitions to the poor, to the rich, to the worldly, and to those who are in public situations; what consolations should be afforded to the afflicted; and what instruction may be necessary, with respect to the personal callings of your hearers. Above all, the YOUNG must not be forgotten; you will employ all possible means to cultivate early piety. Yea you may do well to make it understood, that you would willingly be informed, by any persons or societies in your flocks, what subjects they may wish to hear explained. By giving them sermons on such subjects, you will at least very much edify those who requested them; and it is probable, many other persons besides.

In studying your sermons, it might be profitable, at the close of every paragraph, to pause, and endeavour with ejaculations to heaven and self-examination, to feel some impression of the truths contained in that paragraph on your own mind, before you proceed any farther. By such a practice, the hours which you spend in composing a sermon, will prove to you so many hours of devotion: the day in which you have made a sermon, will even leave upon your mind such a savour as a day of prayer commonly does. When you come to preach the sermon, you will do it with great liberty and assurance; and the truths thus prepared will be likely to come with more sensible warmth and life upon the auditory;from the heart and to the heart! A famous preacher used to say, "I never dare to preach a sermon to others, till I have first got some good by it myself." And I will add, that such a me

thod is most likely to render it

Let the saying of the ancienseful to others.

be remembered;

Qui ludit in cathedra, lugebit in gehenna ;"* and the modern saying; "Cold preachers make bold sinners."

How much good may be done, sirs, by your VISITS! It would be well for you to impose it as a law upon yourselves; Never to make an unprofitable visit." Even when you pay a visit merely for the sake of civility or entertainment, it would be easy for you to observe this law; "That you will drop some sentence or other, which may be good for the use of edifying, before you leave the company." There have been pastors who have been able to say, that they scarce ever went into a house among their people, without some essay or purpose to do good in the house before they left it.

The same rule might properly be observed with such as come to us, as well as with those whom we visit. Why should any of our people ever come near us, without our contriving to speak something to them that may be for their advantage? Peter Martyr having spent many days in Bucer's house, published this report of his visit; "Ausim affirmare, me ab illius mensa semper discessisse doctiorem "+ I make no doubt that the observation of this rule, may be very consistent with an affable, and, as far as is suitable, a facetious conversation. But let it be remembered, that, "Quæ sunt in ore populi nugæ, sunt in ore sacerdotis blasphemiæ."‡

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*He that trifles in the pulpit shall weep in hell.

I can truly affirm, that I never left his table, without some addition to my knowledge.

What are but jests in the mouth of the people, are blasphemies in the mouth of the priest.

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