HOW TO DO GOOD TO BIdNY. 553 one of these, design them to some other calling ; devote not an in- disposed lad to the ministry, in hope that God will make him bet- ter, but stay till he is better. 2. Seeing pastors are here obtruded upon the flock, it is a work ofgreat importance for religious gentlemen to buy as many advow- sons orpresentations as they can, that they may introduce the best that they can get. God hath hitherto made use of the qualifications of the ministers as the special means for the welfare of his church. The bare title and office is so far from sufficing, without the skill and fidelity of the persons, that stich have been the great .corrupters and disturb- ers of the chúrch. Whèn pious men have heaped up riches and honors upon the clergy, these have been baits for the worst men to become seekers, and make the sacred ministry but a trade for wealth : and ifcarnal, worldly meri be ministers, alas`l what plagues may they be to the people and themselves ! .Theywill hate the spiritual practice of doctrine which they preach. When they have told men ofa heaven and hell, and the necessity of a holy heart and life, as if they had been in jest, they will take those for hypocrites that believe them, and live accordingly. Theywill take the best of the flock for their enemies, because they. are enemies to their hypocrisy and vice. Instead of imitating St. Paul, (Acts xx.) who taught them publicly,and from house to house, day and night, with .tears, theywill turn the ministry into compliment and formal- ity, and think, by saying a cold, unskillful sermon, and by roting over a few',heartless words, they have laudably performed their part. They will take those for their best hearers who will most honor them, and best pay them, though ever so ignorant and un- godly ; and their spleen will swell against the best and most reli- gious people, because they dislike their unfaithful lives and ministration. .If religion should be in public danger, these will be the Judases thatwill sell it for, gain. Theywill do any thing rather than suffer much.; They are ministers of the world, and not of Christ ; readier to make crosses for others than to bear the cross of Christ ;'for it is gain that is theirgodliness ; and when their treachery is seen and hated, they will hate the haters of it; and the studies of malignant men will be their laboratories, and the pulpits' the place where the sublimate and essence of malice must be vended. How effectuallywill Satan's work be done when it is performed in the formalities of the )sacred ministry, and in the name of Christ!: O, what bath the church suffered by a worldly, graceless ministry these thousand years, and more and what doth it yet suffer by them in the east and west ! But, on the other side, a skillful, faithful minister wi1,l preach sound doctrine, and worship God with serious devotion, and live vot. IL 70
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