It is customary to give a long advice to a minister after he is ordained. It must be likewise owned that it is very ordinary for a minister to forget the advice. I shall therefore make it short. You are now a minister. Never recommend a duty till you first endeavour to reduce it to practice yourself. Do not mix the two covenants — they shall not mix for you. Preach your own experience, if you have any; and if you have not, beg God to give you experience. Read the Scriptures, preach Christ fully, and deal much in prayer. As the office you have undertaken is great, the danger is equally great if you do not do your duty. A rotten clergyman is a bad member of society; he gives a handle to infidels to laugh at religion; he destroys his flock, and damns his own soul. If a man be honest, God will give him his soul at death; and if he be not, his stipends will be a bitter morsel to him in that hour. The people should obey the minister, and the minister should obey God.
If you be a bad minister y’ll go to hell, and if you be a good minister y’ll go to heaven. Remember you heard that. You got a good advice, whether you will follow it or not.