Whyi?
Reman. We must spare none, that God may spare all. We that are ministers must spare no sin, that God may spare all. ' Lift up thy voice like a trumpet,' saith God, ' and tell Israel of their sins,' Isa. xviii. 58. If gentle means will not reform them, ' lift up thy voice like a trumpet.' Cast out Jezebel with her painted face. Though sin paint and colour itself, it must be cast out. Jonah must out of the ship, the ship will perish else. Achan must be stoned. We must tell men of their danger, not with hatred of their persons, but to prevent an eternal punishment.
You know well that preventing justice is better than executing justice. Is not discipline better than execution ? Is it not better to hear of our faults roundly, when other means will not prevail, than to cherish that that will be for our eternal destruction ? Is not searing and cutting better than killing ? Is it not better that a limb be seared and cut, than that all be clear cut off, and the whole body perish '? Is not the pain of chirurgery, or physic that makes a man sick for a while, better to be endured than the pains and terrors of death itself ? These preventing courses are the best courses : therefore we must spare none, but tell them of their danger faithfully.
Only, liberty of speech must not be a cover for boisterousness, or a cover for the venting of evil humours, as sometimes it is. For flesh will never prevail with flesh. Flesh, and pride in the speaker, will never prevail with pride in the hearer ; but it must be a spiritual kind of severity, discover- ing the danger to them we speak to, with a spiritual holy afi'ection, and a spirit of love, though with severity : for there is a severity of love and gentleness, it will prevail when it comes from such a spirit. But if there be a discover}' of flesh, not only in ministers, but in those that deal with others, flesh will rise against flesh. A man may sometimes find fault with another with greater corruption than the thing he finds fault with iu another ; he may be more to blame for his dealing than the other for his fault. ' I came not, to spare you.'
Use. Therefore, when ministers are plain in discovering the danger of the times, the danger of the persons, and places where they are to deal, people must hear them as they love their own souls. K they have any quarrel, let them quarrel with their master ; for what we speak is from the word of God. We come as his ambassadors and servants, and should be considered as ambassadors. Therefore, considering whose message we bring, they must take it in good part to be told of their sins in a good manner. As St Austin saith very well. Christ, saith he, speaks to the sea, and it was quiet : Christ said, ' Be still,' the sea heard, and the waves were still ; but he speaks to us iu the ministry to stay our violent courses in sin, and we puff and swell when we are told of our faults (</«). Is this good,
492 COMMENTARY ON
tbiuU you '? No. If \vc do so, it is a sign that God intends to seal us to destruction. As wo know, Eli's sons, when tliey did not hearken to their father, God had appointed them to destruction. Those that will not hearken to ministerial reproof, it is a sign that God hath sealed them over to destruction.
If we would not have either ministers or others to be severe in telling ns, let us be severe to our own sins first. Men are like to children ; first they foul and defile themselves, and they cry when they are washed : so men soil themselves with sins, and cry when they should be purged from them. If we cannot endure to be told of our faults, how shall we endure to be tormented for our faults in hell ? Those that arc so tender, that they will not endure a word contrary to their dispositions, how will they endure that sentence, ' Go ye cursed,' when they shall be turned into hell ? Con- sider what will come of it, if we live in sin.
I beseech you therefore, suffer the word of exhortation at our hands. Our salvation lies upon it. If we discover not the danger of the sins of people to whom we speak, if we discern them, we shall perish for it, be- cause we are unfaithful in our embassage. Therefore for your own souls ; and likewise that we may discharge our duty as we should, patiently and quietly sit under exhortation and reproof, not only public, but private, if occasion be.
0 beloved ! at the latter day it will be a matter of vexation that we were cherished too much in our courses. Do you not think that the damned spirits in hell wish, 0 ! that we had been told ! 0, that we had been dealt with violently, that we had been pulled out of this flame ! There is an ex- cellent place in Jude's epistle, ' Have nierci/ upon some.' Use some gently that are of tractable dispositions ; and pull ' some out of the fire with fear,' with threatening eternal damnation, with terrible courses, that they may have cause to fear ; first with admonitions, and if that will not prevail, with suspension, with further censure ; and if that will not prevail, with excom- munication, cast them out of the church, as this incestuous Corinthian, ' that their souls may be saved in the day of the Lord,' verse 23.