CHARGE XI. ON THE PRUDENT CONVERSATION AND BEHAVIOUR OF THE CLERGY. Let your moderation be known unto all men. CHARGE XI. ON THE PRUDENT CONVERSATION AND BEHAVIOUR OF THE CLERGY. REPRESENT to yourselves the Lord, whose Ministers we are, continually present with us; and as we are entrusted with the interests of His glory, His eyes incessantly upon us, lest, by levity, we should disparage, or by indecency, profane it, Nothing is more strongly recommended to the Ministers of the gospel, than propriety of conduct. The same decorum, the same circumspection, which accompanies them to the sanctuary, ought to accompany them every where and as they are every where the ambassadors of Christ, and represent His person, they are expected on every occasion, to support the dignity of their character, by their prudent conversation, and in the whole tenor of their actions. I say, first, in their prudent conversation. You know what the gospel requires of all, "who are "called by the name of Christ." Our Lord declares, that all men shall give a strict account of every word which they shall utter; not only of those W words, which according to the Apostle, ought not to be named among us; not only of filthy talking, which as the same apostle expresses it, is not becoming sáints-men who have taken upon them the profession of Christianity ;-not only of those words of bitterness, of hatred, of malignity, which extinguish the spirit of Christian charity in our hearts; not only of those words proceeding from wrath and passion, which rob us of the serenity and mildness, inculcated in the gospel, and indispensable in its professors; but also of every idle word.* Whence proceeds a severity so little accommodating to the weakness of fallen man? It proceeds from the first principle of our Christian calling, that we are holy; that our conversation is in heaven; that the time of our present life is but a rapid moment, intended to "work out for us, a far more exceeding and eter"nal weight of glory ;" and that we are not to prostitute our words, or employ our conversation, on topics which might pollute the mouth, as well as defile the heart. If, then, the gospel requires so much circumspection and reserve in the conversation of Christians, as to esteem an idle word to be a transgression of it--what will it not require of its Ministers? * See the five last pages of the Tenth Lecture of the Bishop of London, on St. Matthew, Vol. I. Can the mouth of a Christian Pastor, employed as it is, in celebrating the praises of God, and proclaiming the blessings of Redemption, open for the purpose of foolish, or profane conversation? Can his tongue, after reciting the wonderful works of Providence, after denouncing the terrors and threatenings awaiting wilful disobedience of the divine commands, pour forth, I do not say, oaths and curses, but unseemly words, indecent allusions, or disgusting levity? No! "Let my "mouth be filled with thy praise, that I may sing "of thy glory and honour, all the day long. My "mouth shall shew forth thy righteousness and "salvation, for I know no end thereof. My lips "shall rejoice when I sing unto thee, and so shall my soul, whom thou hast delivered." The lips of the Priest are to keep knowledge: the law of God is put into his mouth, to be delivered by him, to the world; and when the Holy Spirit calls us to the ministry, he sometimes addresses us, as he did the Prophet-" I have put my words in "thy mouth, and I have covered thee with the "shadow of mine hand, that I may plant the hea"vens, and lay the foundation of the earth, and say unto Zion, thou art my people ;"-that is to say, that you make a new heaven, and a new earth, of the people committed to your charge. What inference shall we draw from this?-That our tongue is no longer our own; that it is consecrated to the service of God, and the edification of mankind. We are not to understand, that we are forbidden the pleasures of innocent society; but that our conversation is always to be grave, decent, and reserved; more especially when we are conversing with " our brethren, partakers of the same holy calling," we are to promote mutual edification, and to encourage, animate, and support each other. We are, sometimes, witnesses of a great indiscretion, and observe a lamentable want of prudence, in Pastors: what is serious, edifying, becoming their profession, we do not hear; what disgusts by levity, and offends by indiscretion, may, sometimes, I fear, be attributed to us; justifying the observation, that where the heart is impure, the lips are polluted. Are these, my Brethren, the organs of the Holy Spirit? Are these the mouths consecrated to God, and appointed to bear his name, and proclaim his will, unto the world? Are these the voices which are to cry aloud, and not to spare? Are these the heralds of heaven, sent to prepare the way of the Lord, and to make the crooked paths of sinners straight? Are these the ambassadors of Christ, dispersed throughout the world, to declare unto it the word of reconciliation? Or, are they sent by his enemy, the prince of this world, in order to procure him followers, and to extend his wretched empire? How abominable, my Brethren, for a Clergyman to pollute his lips, devoted to the delivery of truths, the most awful in themselves, the most sublime in their effects! "He hath," says the Prophet, "made my mouth like a sharp sword. And he "said unto me, thou art my servant, in whom I "will be glorified." What? shall the mouth, pro |