impenitent sinners. They are commanded to lift up their voice like a trumpet, and tell Jerusalem her sins. ' Preach the word,' saith St. Paul, ' be instant in season and out of season : reprove, rebuke with all long-suifering.' He must reprove, and continue therein, while they continue to sin. A minister without this boldness is like a smooth tile, a knife without an edge, or a sentinel who is afraid to let off his gun when he should alarm the city upon a danger approaching. There is nothing more unworthy than to see a people bold to sin, and the minister afraid to reprove them. It is said of Tacitus, that he took the same liberty to write the emperors' lives, that they took in leading them. So should the minister, in reproving sin ; not reprove the l)eggar, and spare the gentleman; not to censure the profane, and favour the professor. It was all one to Christ, whoever sinned should hear of it: the Scribes and Pharisees he paid to purpose; neither connived he at his own disciples, but rebuked them sharply : ' Get thee behind me, Satan,' said he to Peter ; — ' Woman, what have I to do with thee ? ' to his own mother, for her unseasonable importiniity.
SECTION III. — What kind of boldness must the minister's be? P'irst, A convincing boldness. How forcible are right words, saith Job; and how feeble are empty words, though shot with a thundering voice. Great woixls in reproving an error of sin, but weak argiunents, produce laughter oftener than tears. Festus thought it unreasonable to send a prisoner, and not to signify the crimes laid against him. Acts xxv. 27 : much more mireasonable is it, in the pidpit to condemn an error, and not prove it so; — to reprove a practice, and not convince of the evil of it. The apostle speaks of some 'whose mouths must be stopped,' Titus i. 11. They are convincing arguments that can stop the mouth. Empty reproofs will soon open wider the mouths of those that are reproved. The Spirit of God reproves by convincing ; John xvi. S, ' That when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin ;' that is, he will convince ; and so should the minister : this is to preach in the evidence and demonstration of the Spirit. Secondly, A wise boldness. The minister is to reprove the sins of all, but to name none. Paul, being to preach before a lascivious and un- righteous prince, touched him to the quick, but did not name him in his sermon. Felix's conscience saved Paul that labour ; he trembled, though Paid did not say he meant him. Thirdly, A meek boldness. ' The words of wise men are heard in quiet,' Eccles. ix. 17. Let the reproof be as sharp as thou wilt ; but thy spii'it must be meek. Passion raiseth the blood of him that is reproved ; but compassion turns his bowels. We must not denounce wrath in wrath, lest sinners think we wish their misery ; but rather with such tenderness, that they may see it is no pleasing work to us, but do it, that we might not, by a cruel silence'be accessary to their ruin, which we desire to prevent. Jeremiah sounds the alarm of judgment, and tells them of a dismal calamity ajiproaching; yet, at the same time, appeals to God, and clears himself of all cruelty toward them; Jer. xvii. 16, 'I have not hastened from being a pastor to follow thee ; neither have I desired the woeful day, thou knowest ; that which came out of my lips was right before thee.' As if he had said, I have delivered my message in denouncing judgment ; but with a mournful heart : I threatened ruin^ but wished for peace. Thus Daniel dealt plainly with the king, but ushered in his hard message with an affectionate expression of his love and loyalty to him : ' My lord, the dream be to them that hate thee, and the interpretation thereof to thine enemies,' Dan. iv. 19. Fourthly, An humble boldness; such a boldness as is raised from a confidence in God, and not from ourselves, our own parts and ability, courage or stoutness. Paul is bold, and yet can trendjlc, and be in fear ; bold, in confidence of God : ' We were bold in our God to speak unto you the gospel of God with much contention,' 1 Thess. ii. 2 : but full of fear in the sense of his own weakness : ' I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling,' 1 Cor. ii. 3. Fifthly, A zealous boldness. Our reproofs of sin must come from a warm heart. Paul's spirit was stirred within him when he saw the city given to idolatry. Jeremiah tells us the word of God was a fire in his bones : it broke out of his mouth as the flame out of a furnace. The word is a hammer ; but it breaks not the flinty heart when lightly laid on. King James said of a minister in his time, that he preached as if death were at his back. Ministers should set forth judgment as if it were at the sinner's back, ready to take hold of him. Cold reproofs or thi-eatenings are like the rumblings
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