engagements.

a year, ever after their ordination, to keep in their minds a continual remembrance of their important How necessary this counsel is, every minister, or candidate for the ministry, must determine for himself. For my part, I had never once read through the office when I was ordained, and was in great measure a stranger to the obligations under which I was about to enter, till the very period; nor did I ever afterwards attend to it till this advice put me upon it. The shameful negligence, and extreme absurdity, of my conduct in this respect are too glaring, not to be perceived with self-application, by every one who has been guilty of a similar omission. I would therefore only just mention, that hearty earnest prayer to God, for his guidance, help, and blessing, may be suitably recommended, as a proper attendant on such a perusal of our obliga

tions.

Again, he thus speaks of a wicked clergyman: "His whole life has been a course of hypocrisy, in the strictest sense of the word, which is the acting of a part, and the counterfeiting another person. His sins have in them all possible aggravations; they are against knowledge, and against vows, and contrary to his character; they carry in them a deliberate contempt of all the truths and obligations of religion; and if he perishes, he doth not perish alone, but carries a shoal down with him, either of those who have perished in ignorance through his neglect, or of those who have been hardened in their sins through his ill-example."-Again, having copiously discoursed on the studies befitting ministers, especially the study of the Scriptures, he adds, " But to

give all these their full effect, a priest that is much in his study, ought to employ a great part of his time in secret and fervent prayer, for the direction and blessing of God in his labours, for the constant assistance of his Holy Spirit, and for a lively sense of divine matters: that so he may feel the impressions of them grow deep and strong upon his thoughts: this, and this only, will make him go on with his work without wearying, and be always rejoicing in it.

But the chief benefit with accrued to me from the perusal was this:-I was excited by it to an attentive consideration of those passages of Scripture, that state the obligations and duties of a minister, which hitherto I had not observed, or to which I had

very loosely attended. In particular, (it is yet fresh in my memory), I was greatly affected with considering the charge of precious souls committed to me, and the awful account one day to be rendered of them, in meditating on Ezekiel xxxiii. 7-9. "So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore, thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me. When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die: if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at thine hand. Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his way, to turn from it: if he do not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul." For I was fully convinced, with Bishop Burnet, that every minister is as much concerned in this solemn warning, as the prophet himself was.

Acts xx. 17-35. was another portion of Scripture which, by means of this book, was brought home to my conscience; especially ver. 26, 27, 28, which serve as an illustration of the preceding Scripture: "Wherefore I take you to record this day that I am pure from the blood of all men: for I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. Take heed, therefore, unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed. the church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood."

In short, I was put upon the attentive and repeated perusal of the Epistles to Timothy and Titus, as containing the sum of a minister's duty in all ages. I searched out and carefully considered every text that I could find in the whole Scripture which referred to this argument. 1 was greatly impressed by 1 Cor. ix. 16. "For necessity is laid upon me, yea, woe is me if I preach not the Gospel." Nor was I less struck with Coloss. iv. 17. "Say to Archippus, Take heed to the ministry which thou hast received in the Lord, that thou fulfil it." This was brought to my conscience with power, as if the apostle had in person spoken the words to me. especially I was both instructed and encouraged by meditating upon 1 Peter v. 2-4. "Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being ensamples to the flock: and when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away."

But

I hope the reader will excuse my prolixity in

speaking on this subject, because in itself it is very important; and though I obtained no new views of gospel-truth from "The Pastoral Care," yet I received such a deep conviction of the difficulty and importance of that work, in which I had thoughtlessly engaged, and of the imminent danger to which my soul would be exposed, should I neglect to devote myself wholly to it; as laid the foundation of all my subsequent conduct and change of sentiments. I was, indeed, guilty of very criminal procrastination, after I had been thus convinced; and, being engaged more than I ought in other matters, I for some time postponed and neglected complying with the dictates of my conscience. But I never lost sight of the instruction which I had received, nor ever enjoyed any comfortable reflection, till, having broken off all other engagements, I had given myself up to those studies and duties, which pertain to the work of the ministry. And I have cause to bless God, that this book ever came in my way.

Still, however, my self-confidence was very little abated, and I had made no progress in acquiring the knowledge of the truth. I next read Tillotson's Sermons and Jortin's Works: and my time being otherwise engaged, I for a while gave into the indolent custom of transcribing their discourses, with some alterations, to preach to my people. This precluded free meditation on the word of God, and led me to take up my opinions on trust. My preaching was in general that smooth palatable mixture of law and gospel, which corrupts both; by representing the gospel as a mitigated law, and as accepting sincere instead of perfect obedience. This system, by flat

tering pride and prejudice, and soothing the conscience, pleases the careless sinner and self-righteous formalist, but does real good to none; and is in fact a specious, fatal, but unsuspected, kind of Antinomianism.

About this time I foolishly engaged in a course of diversion and visiting, more than I had done since my ordination: this unfitted me for secret prayer and close meditation, and rendered the Scriptures, and other religious studies, insipid and irksome to me, a never-failing consequence of every vain compliance with the world. For a season, therefore, my ardour was damped, my anxiety banished, and my inquiries retarded. I was not, however, permitted entirely to drop my religious pursuits: generally I made it a rule to read something in the Scriptures every day, and to perform a task of daily devotion; but in both I was very formal and lifeless.

Yet not long after, I was engaged in earnest meditation on our Lord's discourse with Nicodemus. (John iii.) I felt an anxious desire to understand this interesting portion of Scripture; especially to know what it was to be "born again," or "born of the Spirit," which in five verses our Saviour has three times declared absolutely necessary to salvation. I was convinced it was absurd to suppose, that such strong expressions implied no more than baptism with water. Tillotson's controversial sermons on this subject afforded me no satisfaction. Some great and total change I supposed to be intended, not only in the behaviour, but also in the heart. But, not having clearly experienced that change, I could not understand in what it consisted. However, having of