alas, poor sinful men, need not only be told their duty, or taught what they did not know before: but to be excited to it, that they may refolve, and fet upon it; and perfift, and go on in it. "Though ye know "these things, (faith the apoftle,) yet I think it meet "to ftir you up, by putting you in remembrance,' 2 Pet. i. 12, 13. And the preacher is God's monitor, to warn the wicked, to awaken the drowfy; to quicken the dull, to reduce the backfliding, to raise the fallen, and to preferve those that are yet ftanding. That men may not take up with mere names, and forms, and fhews; nor be fo vain, as to value themfelves, upon what they are called or reputed: (when alas they may have the name to live, and be dead;) nor be only almoft perfuaded to be Chriftians, but become fuch indeed and in truth, and (as such,) may hear what they are to be, and to do, more than others. Preaching then, is not only as the magnet, to point out their way: but as the goad put in their fides, that may quicken them, to take and follow it. It is to convince finners of their evil, and advertise them of their danger: that their blood may not be on the minifters heads, and that themselves (feeing where about they are,) may think it high time, to roufe, and escape for the life of their fouls; and flee from the wrath to come. It is not to tell them a cold and dull tale, to caft them asleep; or as if we were afraid to make them awake; but to cry aloud, and not fpare; to speak words, that like daggers fhall ftrike into their hearts: to flash in their faces, and throw fire into their confciences, to make them uneafy and afraid, to continue in fin; and in pain, to get out of their wicked ways. It is not to fmooth, and daub with untempered mortar, and fpeak to please their humour: but to ftrike home, and make clofe applications, to profit their fouls: to break down their ftrong holds, and force them out of their fastness, and confidence, to run in the fword of the

Spirit, fo as to divide between their hearts and their fins, and cut off their prefumptuous hopes, and their predominant lufts. Not handling the word of God deceitfully; but declaring to them the whole of his counsel, and setting life and death, heaven and hell before them: that they may know even the very worst, and so, not linger in their fins, to venture the lofs of their fouls, but make hafte, to escape the danger; and by a holy violence, take the kingdom of heaven. This is to lay the ax to the root of the trees; and hew down the sturdy oaks of obftinate wickedness, and throw the impertinent finners low in humiliation before the Lord, to make them cry out, what must we do to be faved? it is not to jingle with cadencies of fine words, to tickle itching ears, but to come to the bufinefs, and speak from the heart, to the heart: what we feel ourselves, to make others alfo feel it; to make them perceive, that we are in good carneft, and thus, to warm, and melt, and inflame their fouls. For it must be real fire, or fome violent motion and heat, that kindles fire. And it is not to beat about the bufh, and fpeak in ambages, and hard words, and abftruse notions, to darken the matter; but plain, and to the purpose in demonftration of the Spirit, and of power: and by manifeftation of the truth, to commend ourselves to every man's confcience in the fight of God. It is not for the preacher, to turn jefter; to feek out pleafant conceits, to fet his hearers a-fmiling, but to speak in fober fadnefs; fo as to put them in tears, rather than laughter. It is not to entertain them with crude and weak ftuff, befide the matter; and fhew the foolishness of preaching, in a fenfe too true. and too bad but rightly to divide the word of truth; and speak as the oracles of God, to ftop the mouths of gain fayers, or make it their fhame, to open them, in a baffled, fcandalous caufe. It is not to preach themselves, and vent their own paffions, and turn

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the pulpit into their garrifon, whence to let fly at thofe, with whom they have a quarrel: but to plead God's cause, and be urgent to prevail for their Lord, to recover and win fouls, and as though God did befeech them by fuch his agents, to pray them, in Chrift's stead, that they be reconciled to God: to be inftant and preffing with them, and stick upon them, as those that will take no denial of them. It is not to be pufilanimous, and afraid of offending the great and the guilty; afraid of lofing friends, and getting enemies, by delivering their meffage confcientioufly, and heartily: but to fpeak with authority, as ambaffadors for Chrift, and in the name of the great God, with whom is no refpect of perfons. It is not only to speak at random, and dwell all in generals, or fuch discourses, as have little or no agreeableness to their auditories but fo to acquaint themfelves with the ftate of their flock, that they may know how to give every one their portion, and to make the pertinent application; and fpeak the word in due feafon, to the understanding and confcience, to the doubts and fcruples, to the fears and dejections, to the delufions and prefumptions of the several forts of hearers: to wound fuch as need to be lanced; and to heal the wounded spirit, and comfort the broken hearted: and all the while, fo to preserve their own integrity, that they may speak boldly, and not fear any the sharpness to recoil upon themselves.

O my foul, what mighty things may be done, by fuch preaching as this! whoever take their freedom, and delight to be witty and warm upon the preachers: fuch preachers may prove too hard for them, in the best sense; and fpoil all the merriment, tho' nothing to their damage. For what they count the foolishness of preaching, is the wife method of God, to fave the foul. And the minifters of the word, (as contemptible as any do count them,) will be the favour of life, or of death to them. They fhall

ftand

ftand or fall, be happy or miferable for ever, according as they accept, or reject the terms, which these do offer them. O how many precious fouls have been the feal of their miniftry? and the bleffed work, by fuch means, wrought upon them, fpeaks for the happy inftruments, whom God has employed and impowered, to reduce, and gain them.

And cannot thy own experience, my foul, give teftimony, to the praife of this ordinance of God! haft thou not been fometimes thus ftartled and ftopt in an ill way, that threatened thy ruin! has not the preacher come fo near thee, as if he had been within thee; to find thee out, and tell thee thy own, and make thee refolve upon a change? has he not, another time, tranfported, and carried thee up, even in. to heaven; and made thee look upon him, not only as the meffenger of the Lord of hofts, but even as an angel of God? for certain, my foul, there is fomewhat more than ordinary, in the living voice of fuch a preacher; to reach to the quick, and work with power upon the affections, where books and writ ings, of the fame contents, have not such a force and command. And I cannot attribute this, only to the awfulnefs of the place, and the folemnity of the affembly, and the elocution of the speaker, but to the ordinance, and efpecial prefence of God; and O what can it be, but the voice of the Son of God, fpeaking through fuch minifters of his word! when even the dead do hear that voice, and live? and tho' too many, are for flipping fuch opportunities, and applaud themfelves in the fair efcape, to avoid fuch meffengers, might I but have, to my defire, of them: O when fhould I be tired with them! I cannot but pronounce the people happy, that are so provided; and I pray the Lord of the harveft, to fend ftill more of fuch true labourers into his harveft.

THE

"TH

THE PRAYER.

HY word, O Lord, is a precious treasure, better than thousands of gold and filver. Bleffed "be thy gracious goodness, that we not only have it "among us: but also thy meffengers and ftewards, "to open and dispense it unto us. O make them faith"ful in their office, to give unto every one their "due fhare, in due time. And make them fuccefs. "ful in thy work, that their labour may not be in "vain in the Lord. May they speak home, in thy "name, and by thy power, to reach and pierce the "hearts of finners; and to edify and comfort the fouls "of thy fervants. O give them the spirit of wif"dom, rightly to open the way of falvation to o"thers and alfo the fpirit of holinefs, to go be "fore them in it themselves. Teach them, Lord, " and help them, fo to preach, and fo to live, that "they may both fave themselves, and thofe that "hear them. Amen."

MEDITATION

XCIV.

Self-Reflection on the Author, as a Minifler.

Otwithstanding all the fcorn that is caft upon the priesthood by a miftaken, ingrateful world, O my foul, I will heartily thank Chrift Jefus the Lord, for putting me into the ministry, and making me an ambaffador from heaven, to his people, and an interceffor for his people unto God. So far am I from being ashamed of the office; that i do glory and rejoice in it; as much as I may, when to be the minifter of God, is a dignity worn, not only by the rulers of the world; but by the angels in heaVOL. I.

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ven,