628 AN HUMBLE ATTEMPT, í&C. either begun, or proceeded and increased 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 methodswhereby 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. Patti 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. SECT. V.-A solemn Enforcement of these Exhortations on the Conscience. The things which I have spoken hitherto, havebeen á dis- play 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 consi- dered, in what manner shall we enforce them on our own conscien-' ces, and on yours ? What solemn obtestations shall I use to press these momentous concerns on all our hearts ? What pathetic language shall i chuse, 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 whichare 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, weexhort and charge ourselves, that we all take Treed to the ministry which we have received of the Lord
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