8. * Many of us are more immediately consecrated to God, called to _minister in holy things_. Are we then patterns to the rest, _in word, in conversation, in charity; in spirit, in faith, in purity_? Is there written on our forehead and on our heart, _Holiness to the Lord_? From what motives did we enter upon this office? Was it indeed with a single eye _to serve God, trusting that we were inwardly moved by the Holy Ghost, to take upon us this ministration, for the promoting of his glory, and the edifying of his people_? And _have_ we _clearly determined, by God’s grace, to give ourselves wholly to this office? Do we forsake and set aside, as much as in us lies, all worldly cares and studies? Do we apply ourselves wholly to this one thing, and draw all our cares and studies this way?_ Are we _apt to teach_? Are we _taught of God_, that we may be able to teach others also? Do we know God? Do we know Jesus Christ? Hath God _revealed his Son in us_? And hath he _made us able ministers of the new covenant_? Where then are _the seals of our apostleship_? Who _that were dead in trespasses and sins_, have been quickened by our word? Have we a burning zeal to save souls from death, so that for their sake we often forget even to eat our bread? Do we speak plain, _by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God_? Are we dead to the world and the things of the world, _laying up all our treasure in heaven? Do we lord over God’s heritage?_ Or are we the least, _the servants of all_? When we bear the reproach of Christ, Does it sit heavy upon us? Or do we rejoice therein? When we are _smitten on the one cheek_, Do we resent it? Are we impatient of affronts? Or do we _turn the other also: not resisting the evil_, but _overcoming evil with good_? Have we a bitter zeal, inciting us to strive sharply and passionately with them _that are out of the way_? Or is our zeal the flame of love, so as to direct all our words with sweetness, lowliness, and meekness of wisdom?
9. Once more, what shall we say concerning the youth of this place? Have _you_ either the form or the power of _Christian_ Godliness? Are you humble, teachable, advisable; or stubborn, self-willed, heady, and high-minded? Are you obedient to your superiors as to parents? Or do you despise those to whom you owe the tenderest reverence? Are you diligent in your easy business, pursuing your studies with all your strength? Do you _redeem the time_, crowding as much work into every day as it can contain? Rather, are ye not conscious to yourselves, that you waste away day after day, either in reading what has no tendency to _Christianity_, or in gaming, or in――you know not what? Are you better managers of your fortune than of your time? Do you, out of principle, take care to _owe no man any thing_? Do you _remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy_; to spend it in the more immediate worship of God? When you are in his House, Do you consider that God is there? Do you behave, _as seeing Him that is invisible_? Do you know how to _possess your bodies, in sanctification and honour_? Are not drunkenness and uncleanness found among you? Yea, are there not of you, who _glory in their shame_? Do not many of you _take the name of God in vain_, perhaps habitually, without either remorse or fear? Yea, * Are there not a multitude of you that are forsworn? I fear, a swiftly-increasing multitude. Be not surprized, brethren. Before God and this congregation; I own myself to have been of that number; solemnly swearing to _observe all those customs_, which I then knew nothing of; _and those statutes_, which I did not so much as read over, either then, or for some years after. What is perjury, if this is not? But if it be, O what a weight of sin, yea, sin of no common dye, lieth upon us! And doth not _the Most High regard it_?
10. * May it not be one of the consequences of this that so many of you are a generation of _Triflers_? Triflers with God, with one another, and with your own souls? For how few of you spend, from one week to another, a single hour in private prayer? How few have any thought of God in the general tenor of your conversation? Who of you is, in any degree, acquainted with the work of his Spirit, his supernatural work in the souls of men? Can you bear, unless now and then, in a church, any talk of the Holy Ghost? Would you not take it for granted, if one began such a conversation, that it was either _Hypocrisy_ or _Enthusiasm_? In the name of the Lord God Almighty, I ask, what religion are _you_ of? Even the talk of _Christianity_ ye cannot, will not bear. O my brethren! what a _Christian_ city is this? _It is time for thee, Lord, to lay to thine hand!_