being angry but the way is, to steer along straight through evil report and good report. 9. Never be proud when great numbers at tend your ministry, nor discouraged when there are but few; for it was your Master's alternate lot. 10. Never affect a regular method of preach. ing, without the Spirit leads you so; nor reject it, when you are so influenced; and always be a fool for Christ." 11. Private admonition, and family exhorta tion, are sometimes more blessed than the most elaborate preaching. 12. A love of popularity is often very hurtful to piety, and a life of hermitage is not to be sought for Jesus prayed his Father "Not to take his disciples out of the world, but to keep them from the evil of the world." 13. Never suppose your calling so exalted, that you are never to concern yourself with the affairs of human life. When David was dismissed from the court of Saul, he went to keep. ing his father's sheep; and when Paul had lei. sure he made tents. 14. Never be absolute in your assertions, nor dogmatical in your arguments, without you can confirm them by miracles. 15. Be always willing to leave an error (you may have before imbibed) to embrace the truth. 16. The best way to be a good preacher, poet, or disputer, is to be well taught in the Scrip tures. 17. The whole Bible in general; and the two epistles of Paul to Timothy, one to Titus, and the commission given by our Lord to his disciples in several places, in particular; are the best guide you can have. 18 Never descend to the local prejudices of neighborhoods, states or kingdoms, but form. your proceedings from the noble idea of allGod's. works. 19. Never intermeddle with the disputes of families or cities; but always bear the olive branch of peace to all. 20. As the work of the ministry calls for the exercise of the mind; so it calls for industry, and often painful labor of the body. 21. The spirit of the subject, always makes the oration the most lively. A proper modulation of voice, graceful cadence, and a comely gesture, are ornamental; but he is the best divine orator, who has most divine fire. 22. Strive to fall upon a subject suitable to the people's circumstances, and to the times, ast far as possible; but in this, our judgments are so weak, that the preacher's eye should always be on God for matter and manner. 23. Never be so positively fixed on your subject, but that you may fall upon another, either at discretion, or by impression. 24. When you are in company that will not hear experimental Religion spoken of, it is bet ter to entertain them civilly with history, principals of policy, or cn novelty, than for them. to entertain the company, and you among the rest, with confuson and debauchery. Consider what I say, and the Lord give the understanding in all things. A Word or two to Unbelievers, and the Scorners of Moses, in particular. WHAT Legislator ever established a national priesthood, without one foot of property in land, which, as that great statesman, Harrington, observes, "is the strong and durable pillar of power, respect, and wealth? Even when he saw the priests of Egypt possessing one-fifth part of the land; when he knew too, by full experience, that the people he had to lead and govern, were so untractable and disobedient, under the most extraordinary acts and miracles of God in their favor. He could not but foresee, that this precarious subsistence might be withdrawn, as the prophets afterwards complained, of the robbing of God of the tenths he gave to his own immediate servants, in his house or palace, the tabernacle and temple.-The folly of claiming them under the Christian church,by divine right, is gross enough, and has nothing to do with the religion of Christ. Shew the world who, but this lawgiver, publishes the shame & hakedness of the rebellions, murmurings, and seditions of his own people, under the seal of God's word; while all other ancient kingdoms appears jealous of their national character, that they paint their own pictures full of virtue, goodness, and every per ection that can adorn and exalt their name ? What legislator opened so free and general an admission into the rites and privileges, civil. and religious, as Moses? He demanded no more of strangers, than what was enjoined to his own people. Who shewed so little fear or jealousy of religious rites, secreted by other nations and their priests, as this servant of God, who threw the altars and courts open to every eye, describing the manner, and commanding the whole law to be read every seventh year before all Israel, men women, and children, and strangers who were perfect proselytes, and entitled to the same priveleges as natives of the land? Who among ancient founders of states, ordained a sabbatical year, promising such extraordinary abundance, without sowing, or any cultivation of the earth, such plenty as should suffice for more than two years? Of the truth or falsehood of which institution, he called his own people, and all persons adopted from other nations, to be witnesses for, or against him and his successors. Who expressed such an impartiality & veracity, in predicting the future calamities of this people for rebellion and disobedience; and the last and now-continuing dispersion of this nation; and yet with a promise, so improbable in appearance, of a return in the latter days? Where can be found one full and perfect system of civil and religious laws and statutes, where so many veins of mercy and attention to the four most exposed states of human Lature, run through every part, I mean to t poor, the widow, the fatherless, & the stranger? in which too, there were no infamous punishments of public whipping, and other barbarous treatment, which tend to harden the offender, and prevent his return to better conduct, and future regard in society. Who ever limited stripes to forty only, lest "thy brother should seem vile in thy sight;" to which every one was subject in their courts of judicature-even the high-priest, as well as an inferior Israelite, for such offences as demanded this rod ? Who forbade imprisonment for debt-not punishing misfortunes for crimes-judging poverty a cup bitter enough in itself: And even under the servitude in which debtors were bound to work for the creditors, enjoined the remission of debts on the first day of every seventh year? Let the Egyptian, the Grecian, and Roman laws, produce such alleviations of human misery! Who secured the peace, honor, and happiness of parents, in their most tender feelings, from the power of the rich, and seduction of the licentious, by compelling marriage, or dowry to the injured daughter? Who could venture, but by the order of God to predict, that a people comparatively small to the great empires, their neighbors, and hated for their religion, (a bar of distinction odious and despised by the idolatrous kingdoms) should exist, till the promised Messiah came, when they were included in a country of so small an xtent; which, by, the best geographical acunt, exceeded not three of the largest coun |