Manuductio ad ministerium. Directions for a candidate of the ministry

XVII. If you have laid up an Inexhaustible Store of Stories, accommodated unto all the Purposes of the Profitable and the Agreeable, and have the Skill of telling them Handsomely, and with a Deliberate, Expressive, Unstumbling Brevity, and produce them on many Occasions, you may not only Ingratiate yourself wherever you make your Appearance, but also obtain almost any Request that you shall make one of them a witty Introduction to. The Precious Stones that every one sets a Value on, are called, Pleasant Stones. But let not your Pleasancy, degenerate into any unbecoming Levity. Forever so Regulate it, and so Moderate it, that it may Gracefully Terminate in the most Serious ⟨p. 146⟩Discourse, and if it may be, in the Inculcation and Insinuation of some serious Maxim, which may be Good for the Use of Edifying.

XVIII. In Public Transactions, and especially when any thing is driving, about which the People of GOD may be divided in their Sentiments, let there be a continual Terror of GOD upon you, lest you unawares fall in with something that may be Inimical or Detrimental to the Kingdom of GOD: Continually suspicious, lest some Stratagem of Satan may draw you into something that may gratify that Great Adversary. For Example; Things may look very plausibly, and there may seem a laudable Regard paid unto Peace, and Love, and Charity in them; and yet it may be a prostituted Charity, which going so far as to embrace those for Brethren in CHRIST, who are Enemies to Him, it may prove a Treachery to the most Glorious Cause in the World. And so, there was once in the Low Countries, that pressed under the Name of Moderation, which others found and called, Mnrderation.

XVIII. In Publick Transactions, and especially when any thing is driving, about which the People of GOD may be divided in their Sentiments, let there be a continual Terror of GOD upon you, lest you unawares fall in with something that may be Inimical or Detrimental to the Kingdom of GOD: Continually suspicious, lest some Stratagem of Satan may draw you into something that may gratify that Great Adversary. For Example; Things may look very plausibly, and there may seem a laudable Regard paid unto Peace, and Love, and Charity in them; and yet it may be a prostituted Charity, which going so far as to embrace those for Brethren in CHRIST, who are Enemies to Him, it may prove a Treachery to the most Glorious Cause in the World. And so, there was once in the Low Countrys, that press'd under the Name of Moderation, which others found and call'd, Mnrderation.