1. I advise you to be much in private
prayer and meditation. In order to do this, avoid all
company except such as your duty as a Christian Minister
calls you to mingle with. Only visit as a Minister of
Christ; letting every inviter know that he must receive
you in that character, or not at all. The sick,
and the poor, you must visit, or offend
Christ.
2. Keep you own secrets, and let others
keep theirs. The observance of this rule will save you much
time, much trouble, and many heart burnings.
3. Rise early in the morning, not
allowing the birds to be beforehand with you in praise to
God.
4. Be always neat, not fine, in your
clothing and person. A sloven disgraces the pulpit.
5. The moment you find any one to suspect
your sincerity in conversation, stop talking.
6. Never ask the counsel of any man who
envies you, or who entertains suspicions of the purity of
your motives.
7. Never contradict a low slander.
Let the slanderer have all the credit of his lying
report.
8. When you find a person always
contradicting you, resorting to dogmatisms instead of using
arguments, leave him to himself. He acts not from judgment,
but from a testy disposition, which Omnipotence alone can
change.
9. When you find a person always finding
fault, passing over a thousand excellencies with "frigid
indifference," and seizing upon infirmity or an accidental
blunder, with the avidity with which a vulture would seize
his prey, let him pass with you only as a wayfaring man.
Never make him a companion. These two last advices
apply only to those who consider themselves your equals.
When called to instruct the ignorant, to reclaim the vicious
or the wandering, you must persevere, whatever insults you
meet with, until hopes gives up to despair.
10. I have often thought of a saying of
Cotton Mather, that when you are most sincere and
zealous, you will meet with the greatest opposition. Let
not this discourage you. He that proclaims war against hell
must expect hell's rage.
11. Let the ignorance of others instruct
you to be ashamed of their defects; the wise to be emulous
of their virtues; the haughty to be meek; the avaricious to
be benevolent; the indolent diligent; the disdainful to be
kind and affectionate to all; the testy and clownish to be
patient and gentle. There is one enemy I would, above all,
have you, if possible, keep at a distance. It is not the
devil; he cannot hurt you unless you first hurt yourself. It
is not your own heart, though that is sufficiently deceitful
of itself to destroy you; and therefore you must pray to
God, to give you a constant victory over inordinate
self-love. It is, then, a self-conceited, ignorant,
dogmatical, overbearing, affected, envious, whining man, who
would attempt to teach you, to dispute with you, or to
inspire you with a concept of self. If you will stand
against such a fellow, and keep your temper without a blush,
I'll pronounce you not a philosopher, nor an able minister,
but what is incomparably better than either, a Christian
hero, who has conquered self. But when you find such
persons—and they are by no means scarce—if you cannot run
from them, I advise you to put a bridle on your tongue; and
while they beat you over the head and eyes, suffer in
silence; only lift up your heart to God for both yourself
and them.
12. In certain companies, you had better
be taken for a fool than to have it suspected that you have
the least confidence in your own judgement. Choose the
former, therefore, in most cases when so circumstanced; for
if you must suffer from such kind of beings, you may, by
letting them think you a fool, save them from the sin
of wilfully slandering you as such, because
they are determined, right or wrong, that you shall never
have the reputation of a wise man.
13. If it should so come to pass in the
course of your ministry, in consequence of a faithful
discharge of its duties, that you should rise to eminence
and celebrity, wonder not if the venom of envy should be
shot at you [...].