N02338:65
Manuductio ad ministerium. Directions for a candidate of the ministry
Manuductio ad ministerium. Directions for a candidate of the ministry. : Wherein, first, a right foundation is laid for his future improvement; and, then, rules are offered for such a management of his academical & preparatory studies; and thereupon, for such a conduct after his appearance in the world; as may render his a skilful and useful minister of the Gospel. : [Three lines of quotation in Latin]
Boston: printed for Thomas Hancock, 1726
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
§ 2. The Apprehension of Approaching DEATH, One would think, should make you as soon as may be Begin to Live. But you do not Begin to Live, no, you are Dead while you Live, until you Live unto GOD. Methinks, I have already prepared you to consider the Words which before I go any further, I shall transcribe for you, from a Treatise Entitled, The Angel of Bethesda, which is yet, [I may say, lying at the Pool,] unpublished. CHRISTIAN, Fill thy Life with most explicit Acknowledgements of the Glorious GOD, and Acts of Obedience to Him. Let even ⟨p. 4⟩the whole Business of thy Temporal Calling be explicitly designed for an Obedience to GOD. At the same time, Fill thy Life with Good Offices to Mankind, and with Actions that shall be Blessings (and make the Doer a Rich One) unto thy Neighbours. This will be Living. — Caetera Mortis erunt. The Man who does the most of these things is the longest Liver. In Three Sevens of Years, One who lives at this rate may have a longer Life than a Drowsy and Thoughtless Wretch, that should get along to Nine Hundred and Sixty Nine. I may make the more free with the Number in my Expression on this Occasion, because the Jewish Rabbi's venture to tell us, That the Time lost by Methuselah in Impertinent Things, being defalked from his Nine Hundred and Sixty Nine Years, he will have no more than Ten Years of True Life lest unto him. It is a Maxim of Truth, Non Annu sed Factis vivunt mortales. And, They have lived longest in the World, who have done the most Good in the World. So my Angel.
§ 2. The Apprehension of Approaching DEATH, One would think, should make you assoon as may be Begin to Live. But you do not Begin to Live, no, you are Dead while you Live, until you Live unto GOD. Methinks, I have already prepared you to consider the Words which before I go any further, I shall transcribe for you, from a Treatise Entituled, The Angel of Bethesda, which is yet, [I may say, lying at the Pool,] unpublished. CHRISTIAN, Fill thy Life with most explicit Acknowledgements of the Glorious GOD, and Acts of Obedience to Him. Let even ⟨p. 4⟩the whole Business of thy Temporal Calling be explicitly designed for an Obedience to GOD. At the same time, Fill thy Life with Good Offices to Mankind, and with Actions that shall be Blessings (and make the Doer a Rich One) unto thy Neighbours. This will be Living. — Caetera Mortis erunt. The Man who does the most of these things is the longest Liver. In Three Sevens of Years, One who lives at this rate may have a longer Life than a Drowsy and Thoughtless Wretch, that should get along to Nine Hundred and Sixty Nine. I may make the more free with the Number in my Expression on this Occasion, because the Jewish Rabbi's venture to tell us, That the Time lost by Methusalah in Impertinent Things, being defalked from his Nine Hundred and Sixty Nine Years, he will have no more than Ten Years of True Life lest unto him. It is a Maxim of Truth, Non Annu sed Factis vivunt mortales. And, They have lived longest in the World, who have done the most Good in the World. So my Angel.