A Sermon Preached at Cripplegate: How Must We Reprove, That We May Not Partake of Other Men's Sins? — Kitchin, Of Reproving Sinners

AN EXTRACT

FROM

A SERMON,

PREACHED AT CRIPPLEGATE,

BY

THE REV. MR. KITCHEN,

OF ST. MARY, ABCHURCH.

A SERMON.

HOW MUST WE REPROVE, THAT WE MAY NOT PARTAKE OF OTHER MEN'S SINS?

1 TIM. 5: 22.

Neither be partaker of other men's sins: keep thyself pure.

THIS caution is not intended to Ministers only, neither is it to be confined to the case of ordination; but as CHRIST said upon another occasion, "What I say unto you, I say unto all;" so here, what ST. PAUL, writes to TIMOTHY, he speaks to all: a private Christian, as well as a Minister, must be sure to take heed, that he " be not partaker of other men's sins."

But how must we reprove, and not partake of other men's sins? This case is double. 1: About participation of other men's sins. 2: About reproving of other men's sins. And 1: It ought to be every man's care, not to partake of any man's sin. In the handling of which, I shall endeavor to show you, First, How many ways a man may be said to partake of other men's sins. Secondly, Why a Christian must be careful not to partake of them. I shall, Thirdly, Apply it. First, How a man may be said to partake of other men's sins: to this I answer, There are many ways. I will name some of them. There are eight ways especially noted in Scripture, by which a man is made partaker of the sins of others.

1. By contrivance: and this is in a high degree to be guilty of other men's sins: thus JONADAB was guilty of AMNON's incest, by his subtle contriving of that wickedness." (2 Sant. 13: 5.) When a Iran shall wittingly, and willingly, spread a snare in his brother's way, and either drive him in by provocation, or decoy 11inI in by allurement, he makes himself a partaker of his sin: so to provoke a man to passion, to tempt a person to drunkenness or uncleanness, to draw souls into error, heresy, or blasphemy; this is to adopt the sin, and to make it a man's own.

You know the story there, (2 Sam. 11:,) URIAH was slain, and the Ammonites slew him; but because DAVID contrived all this, the Scripture tells us that DAVID was the murderer: " You halt killed URIAH the Hittite with the sword; Thou has slain him with the sword of the children of Aminon." (2 Sam. 12: 9.) ST. PAUL tell us, he " was a blasphemer, and a persecutor." (1 Tim. 1: 13.) We do not read of any blasphemy that PAULL uttered, in all the Bible. O but, says he, " I compelled the saints to. blaspheme." (Acts 26: 11.) There was his blasphemy, in compelling others to blaspheme.

To incite and provoke any to sinful practices; to seduce and solicit any to erroneous opinions, is to be doubly guilty of those sins, once by infection, and again by instigation. In a word, he that shall either hinder another from doing that good which is commanded, or shall further another to the doing of that evil which is prohibited, is justly chargeable with both their sins.

2. By Compliance: by consenting and complying with sin and sinners, a man makes himself partaker; though he has no hand in it, yet, if he has a heart in it, though he does not act it, yet if he likes it, and loves it, though he does not persecute GOD’s saints and ministers, yet if he says, " Aha! aha! so we would have it," it is enough to make him guilty before GOD. SAUL had no hand in ST. STEPHEN's death; he did not cast one stone at him: but because he looked on with approbation, therefore was he esteemed guilty of his blood. So himself confesses, when GOD had awakened him: " When the blood of thy martyr STEPHEN was shed, I was consenting to his death." (Acts 22: 20.)

GOD looks not upon the outward man so much as upon the heart; according to the frame and inclination of this, according as the pulse of the heart beats, so is every man in the account of GOD. If sin has once stormed the fortroyal of the heart, though it never appears in the outworks, the garrison is lost: that which is upon the stage of the heart after consent, is as truly' acted in the sight of GOD, as that which appears in the outward man by commission. " Out of the heart proceed murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witnesses, blasphemies." (Matt. 15: 19.) From the hand proceed murders and thefts; from the eye proceed adulteries and fornications; and from the tongue proceed false witnessess and blasphemies but the heart is the forge of all.

You may murder a man with a thought, as they say the Basilisk will with a look: such a poisonous thing a wicked heart is: and, let me tell you, it is the heart-murder, the heart-adultery, the heart-blasphemy, and the heart-iniquity, that GOD especially judges, according to that well-known place: " I the Lo RD search the heart, to give to every man according to his ways," (Jer. 17: 10,) i. e. according to what I see acted upon the, stage of the heart: he does not only judge the actions, but the very intentions.

3. By Connivance: by dissembling and winking at,others in their wickedness, men become guilty of others' sins: " The leaders of this people cause them to err." (isai. 9: 16.) It is in the Hebrew, " The blessers of this people cause them to err." Beloved, the blessers of men in wickedness, are the leaders of men in wickedness; he that shall wink at men in sins, when he knows they do wickedly, makes himself captain and master of mis-rule among them. And thus we are too prone to be partakers of Magistrates' sins, and Governors' sins, and great men's sins, patrons' sins, and landlords' sins. If the grandees of the world profane the Sabbath, dishonor GOD, scoff at religion,-out of a base cowardly spirit, or out of a carnal covetous heart, we let them alone; it may be, applaud them O this is to be deeply guilty of other men's sins.

4. By Sufferance: by permitting the sins of others, so we become guilty, by suffering others to sin, whom we are bound in duty, and may be able by authority, to hinder and thus as in the former particular, we are guilty of Magistrates' sins; in this particular, Magistrates oft-times become guilty of our sins. Kings and Rulers, and subordinate Magistrates, become oft-times deeply guilty of their people's sins, namely, by sufferance, by tolerating blasphemies on the one hand, or by suffering wickedness and profaneness on the other. Sabbath-breaking abounds; let it pass, says the Mayor of a town: drunkenness abounds; let it alone, says the Justice of Peace: profaneness abounds; let it alone, says the Minister. Sirs, if it should be thus, this were to bear the sins of a whole parish, and a whole country, and a whole nation, upon a man's back at once.

5. By influence of bad Example: by. setting bad examples for others to imitate, so men are guilty of others' sins; as when children sin by the example of their parents, those very parents are guilty of their children's sin. So we have some families that inherit the lusts, as well as the lands of their ancestors: parents swear and curse, and so do children; parents are drunkards, and so are children; parents are unclean, and so are children: as they make them rich by their livings, so they make them wretched and debauched by their lives: this is to make themselves partakers of all their sins. So when people sin by the looseness of their Minister, that Minister is guilty of those very sins that the people so commit; which made AUSTIN so jealous of himself in this case, that it was his constant prayer, Libera me, Donaine, a peccatis meis alienis; “LORD, deliver me from mine other men's sins: " those sins that others have committed through my carelessness and incogitancy.

He that sets an evil example, sins not alone; he draws hundreds, it may be, into sin after him. He is like a man that sets his own house on fire; it burns many of his neighbors', and he is to be answerable for all the ruins.

6. By Inference from a bad example, or by Imitation so a man is guilty of another man's sin, not only by pattern, in setting bad examples, but also by practice, in following bad examples: and thus, that man that will be drunk because another was drunk, or that breaks the Sabbath because others do the like, is not only guilty of his own particular sin, but he is guilty also of their sins whom he imitates.

Hence it is that GOD is said " to visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children," because they make themselves guilty by imitation; and this may be a key to unlock that place of the Apostle: " Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived." (2 Tim. 3: 13.) Deceivers are worse, but the deceived are worse and worse; if they see a bad example, and will not avoid it, but copy it,. they are worse than worse. The deceiver is guilty of the deceived's sin by instigation, and the deceived is guilty of the deceiver's sin by imitation.

And this is the intricate, perplexed labyrinth, into which sin does precipitate careless sinners. If You committest that sin, which none before committed but thee, You art guilty of all the sins of future generations by thy example, as ADAM was in the world, and JEROBOAM inIsrael. And if You committest any sin, because others have committed it before, You art guilty of all the sins of former generations, by thy imitation: witness that dreadful place; Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes; and some of them ye shall kill and crucify, and some of them ye shall scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city:" Mark, "that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous ABEL unto the blood of ZACHARIAS, the son of BARACIHIAS, whom ye slew",(though slain in JEHOSAPHAT's reign, almost nine hundred years before, yet ye slew) " between the temple and the altar. Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation:" (Matt. 23: 34-36:) and why Because they a sinned after the similitude of their father's transgression." O what matter of humiliation is this to every soul that continues in any known sin!

7. By Countenance: If by society and company with wicked men, we countenance them, we become partakers of their sins. We cannot be intimate with such, without contracting their guilt to our own souls. It is true indeed, all commerce with such is not forbidden; for then (as the Apostle says) " we must go out of the world; " but intimate society is, upon this account. We read in Scripture, where wicked men have often fared better for the good, as LABAN for JACOB, and POTIPHAR for JOSEPH, and AHAB for JEHOSHAPHAT; but we never read that good men fared better for the company of the wicked. "Depart. from me, (says DAVID,) for I will keep the commandments of my GOD." (Psa. cxix. 115.) It is a very hard matter to keep wicked company, and to keep the commandments of GOD together.

8. By Maintenance: by upholding and encouraging men in their sins, though You never committest them thyself, yet You art guilty. "He that biddeth him God-speed, is partaker of his evil deeds." (2 John 11.) Though You doss not commit -it, yet if You doss applaud it, You art a partner; if You art not the father, yet You art the guardian of it. Thus I have done with the first thing, how many ways we may be partakers of other men's sins there are many more that might be named, as by hindering good, by excusing evil, by administering occasion, by not reproving, not mourning, not reclaiming, &c. But these, and many more, are but under sprigs from the general branches that I have opened.

Secondly. Consider we, Why a Christian must be careful not to partake of other men's sins I answer, 1. Out of a principle of charity to our brethren. 2. Out of a principle of pity to ourselves. 3. Out of a principle of piety to God.

1. Out of charity to our brethren, that we be not instruments to promote their ruin and destruction: for, to partake of other men's sins, though it does not more burthen us, yet it does never a whit ease them, but does rather harden them, and confirm them in their practices; for company in sin makes men act it with greater confidence. Now this is to do the Devil's part in the habit of a friend. Sirs, we must be charitable; charity is the golden rule, charity is the bond of perfection. Now, if it be a piece of charity to help up our brother's ox or ass, when he is fallen into a ditch; sure it is more charity to do as much for his soul. "Others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire." (Jude 23.) Sin is the deep ditch of the soul, and sin is the hell-fire of the soul, as it were; here should be lifting and plucking indeed.

The neglect of this duty of keeping one another from sin, the Scripture calls a hating of our brother: "You shall not hate thy brother in thine heart; You shall not suffer sin upon him." (Let. xix. 17.) I observe in company, that if many persons sit together by a fire, and a spark fly upon any one of them, every one is ready to shake or beat it off; and why should not we be as friendly and charitable to men's souls, when sin, which is as hell-flakes, lies burning upon their souls

2. Out of pity to ourselves; that we may keep ourselves from the blood of other men's souls, and secure ourselves from the judgments of other men's sins. For the former, says ST. PAUL, "I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men; for I have not shunned to declare unto you all, the counsel of GOD." (Acts 20: 26, 27.) Had the Apostle connived at, or consented to, their sins, GOD would have made inquisition for their blood at hiss hands. For the latter, says JACOB, "SIMEON and LEVI are brethren, instruments of cruelty are in their habitations. O my soul! come not into their secrets unto their assembly, mine honor, be not You united." Why "I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel." (Gen. xlix. 5-7.) He would not have a hand in their sinful union, because he would not have a share in their dreadful division: they were united in sin, and they must be divided in punishment.

3. Out of piety towards GOD: GOD forbids it, nay, GOD absolutely abhors and condemns it: "When You sawest a thief, You consentedst with him, and have been partaker with the adulterers: these things have You done, but I will reprove, and set them in order before thee." (Psa. 1. 18, 21.) This sin is a breach of all the law at once, being against the rule of charity. He that has his own sins alone, does only commit them; but he that takes other men's sins, does highly approve them; and this greatly dishonors GOD: It is worse partaking, of sin, than committing of sin: They "not only do the same," says the Apostle, "but have pleasure in them that do them." (Rom. 1:32.) Wherefore ZELOPHEHAD's daughters pleaded in mitigation of their father's offence, that he died in his own sin, "He was not partner with KORAH, but died in his own sin." It is worse to be a partner, than to be an actor.

I proceed, Thirdly, to the application.

And, 1. Is there such a thing as partaking of other men's sins after this manner?

(1.) Hence you may be informed of the equity and justice, of GOD’s proceeding in punishment. You oft-times see GOD punishing one man's sins upon another, or at least hear of it, and you- think it strange. This clue will conduct you through the labyrinth: they have been some way or other partakers of those sins, either by contrivance, or by compliance, or by connivance, one way or other, else GOD would never punish them.. If they have not been actors, they have been abettors: "Shall not the Judge of all the world do right?" GOD punishes children for the sins of their parents, (Exod. xxxiv. 7;) but those children have been partakers certainly by approbation,. it may be by imitation: GOD punisheth servants for the sins of their masters; (Gen. 12:17;) but sure the servants were partakers by consenting, it may be by executing: GOD punishes wives for the sins of their husbands; (Gen. 20: 18;) but those wives were partakers still by admitting, by inducing: GOD punishes Ministers for the sins of the people; (Ezek. xxxiii. 8;) but then those Ministers are partakers, by not instructing, by not reproving; still the justice of GOD is vindicated.

(2.) Hence, be informed what piety, and strictness, and watchfulness, are more especially required of those that have the care of others; 1: e., Kings and Parents, Masters, Magistrates, and Ministers: they should be exemplary in godliness: They have care of other men's souls, and therefore they should look well to their own. - The want of this, was her crime and complaint. (Cant. 1: 6.) O, those that are keepers of vineyards, had need to have special care of their own vineyard.

(3.) Hence, take an account, why the wicked so hate the good, and reproach and revile them: it is this, They will not be partakers of their sins, they will not commit them, neither will they connive at them. AHAB hates MICAH, and himself gives the reason: Because he reproved him "I hate him, he never speaks well of me." (1 Kings 22: 8.) HEROD hates JOHN BAPTIST, because he reproves him. No wonder that Ministers, of all kinds of men in the world, are most hated: the case is plain-Because they are reprovers. Good Ministers are wicked men's reprovers, and wicked men are good Ministers' reproachers. " They think it strange you run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you." (I Pet. 4: 4.)

(4.) Here is matter of reproof and humiliation this day, for our want of watchfulness in this kind. Oh, which of us can say, that we are free from the guilt of other men's sins Every man may cast this reproof and lamentation at his own conscience, and there let it stick. Parents every one, Ah, my children's sins; Masters, Ali, my servants' sins;. Ministers, Ah, my people's sins; Rulers, Ah, my subjects' sins. O let us deeply mourn for this, and more frequently and fervently pray that prayer, LORD, forgive me other men's sins. 2. The second use is of exhortation and caution together. Is it so, that it ought to be every man's care, not to partake of any man's sins? O Christians! let me entreat you then to be very mindful of this duty; be persuaded, beloved, and the LORD persuade you to be tenderly careful and watchful, that you do not partake of other men's sins. These are infectious times and places that we live in, and multitudes there are that catch diseases from others; but, let me tell you, bodily diseases are not half so catching as sin.

Sin is an infectious, contagious, pestilential plague, that spreads mightily in the world.. O take heed, take heed, that the guilt of other men's sins be not one day put upon your account. Give me leave to prosecute this, 1. By laying down some arguments to press this caution and exhortation. 2. By pointing out the sins especially you must not partake of. 3. By showing you how you may so manage, as not to be partakers of other men's sins. 1. To lay down the arguments..

(1.) Consider, you have sins enough of your own, you have no reason to partake of other men's; it is cruel to add affliction to your bonds. JESUS CHRIST had no sins of his own, and therefore he could, and did bear ours; though he did not partake of any man's sins, all were his by imputation. " He has laid upon him the iniquities of us all;" (Isai. liii. 6,) but none were his by perpetration or participation. It is not so with us, alas! We have sins enough of our own. Man, woman, thine own pride will damn thee, if Thou dost not repent; and thine own formality, and worldliness, and hardness of heart; thou' have no need to take the sins of others. Said the daughters, Of ZELOPHEHAD, Our "father died in his own sin." Aye, that is enough to kill a man, and damn a man; his own sin.

(2.) Consider, it is a most monstrous sin to partake of other men's sins. The Apostle speaks of "committing iniquity with greediness." (Eph. 4: 19.) Sirs, there is no such greedy sinning as this, for a man to lick up, and swallow down, and devour other men's sins. O Christians! this sin of devouring other men's sins, is a dreadful sin, a devilish sin; and therefore take heed of it.

(3.), Consider, if you. partake of other men's sins, you shall certainly partake of other men's plagues. "Come out of her, my people," says GOD, namely, from Babylon, "that you be not partakers of her sins, that so ye receive not of her plagues." (Rev. xviii, 4.) "A companion of fools shall be destroyed: " (Prov. 13: 20:) not only fools shall be destroyed, but "a companion of fools shall be destroyed." If you sin with them, you shall suffer with them, and you shall suffer more because of them.. This will be the shrieking and howling in hell among damned souls, one to another: "O woe the day, that ever I saw thy face! O that ever I saw thy face! Thou hast brought me hither; and You have brought me hither: " and so they will torment one another to 411 eternity. 2. What sins we must especially take heed of partaking of I answer, Of all sin whatsoever. "Abstain from all appearance of evil; " (1 Thess. 5: 22;) but especially of three sorts of sins, which may be called epidemical plagues.

(1.) Church sins: (2.) National sins (3.) Family sins. But I shall speak nothing of the first, but little of the second, and most to the third.

(2.) Among national sins, especially take heed of profaneness: This is obvious, this is a universal spreading plague, that is like to infect the whole kingdom, if GOD does not in mercy prevent it. There is a deluge of profaneness breaking in on every side; swearing, d}•inking, whoring, Sabbath-breaking, scoffing, and mocking at religion. O take heed of partaking here

(3.) Family sins, we must have a care of partaking, and so much the more watchful must we be, in that family of all sins are most catching and infectious: As it is with bodily diseases, if one be sick in a house, they of the family are likeliest to catch the distemper, because of their intimate converse' so if there be any predominant lust lurking in a family, all are apt to be infected with it, if they are not marvelously circumspect and watchful. And therefore parents, and masters, and governors of families, had need to be reformers both of themselves, and all under their charge, as they desire to have their souls and consciences free from the guilt of other men's sins.

PLATO seeing a child do mischief in the streets, went forthwith and corrected his father for it: that father that does not correct his child when he does amiss, is justly corrected for his faults; and it is the pattern of GOD’s judicial proceedings: as He visits the iniquities of the fathers upon the children who imitate them; so he visits the iniquities of the children- upon the fathers, who countenance and indulge them. JACOB was accountable to LABAN for the whole flock; not a sheep or a lamb was lost or torn, but it was required at his hands. (Gen. xxxi. 39.) Thus must family governors be accountable to GOD for every lamb in the fold, for every child in the family, for every servant in the house. GOD will one day cry aloud in thine ears, Quintili Vare, redde legiones Husband, father, master, wife, give an account of thy husbandship; give an account of thy fathership; give an account of thy mastership; give an account of thy wifeship. This made Joshua undertake for his house, as well as for himself. (Josh. 24: 15.) And this made DAVID careful of his house, as well as his heart: " I will walk within my house with a perfect heart." (Psa. ci. 2.) Not only with a perfect heart, but in his house with a perfect heart; to reform his family, that that may be the church of GOD; as well as to reform himself, that he may be the temple of GOD. How many families are there, whose houses are not the church of GOD, but the synagogue of SATAN rather.

It is said of NOAH's ark, that it was pitched within and without: such is the condition of many a-man's house: it is pitched within and without; nothing but the-pollutions of sin in every room, and passage, and corner. Idleness stands at the door; unconscionableness walks in the shop; covetousness lurks in the counting house; luxury sits at the table pride looks out at the window; wantonness lodges in the bed; all pitchy and filthy both within and without.

And therefore, for the LORD'S sake, out with all this rubbish, if it should be found in your families: Here delight to have your houses clean, and hereupon sweep them, and wash them, and rub them. O that you would be as careful to cleanse your families from sin, as you are to cleanse your houses from dirt; how soon would this great city become a habitation of righteousness, and a mountain of holiness; how would this family-reformation prevent the guilt of family sins, and keep out family distractions, and set up family watchfulness and family correction. Set about family reading, and family conference, and especially family prayer; that all your houses' may be GOD’S-house: You know his is called a "house of prayer." (Isai.:lvi. 7.) So. should yours be houses of prayer, all of them-; if they be not, let me tell you, they are no better than dens of thieves. Says CHRIST, "My house shall be-called the house of prayer, but ye have made it a den of thieves. (Matt. 21: 13.) There is no medium betwixt these two if your houses be not houses of prayer, they are certainly dens of thieves; if you do not pray to GOD for your mercies before you receive them, and praise GOD for your mercies when you enjoy them, you do but rob GOD of. his mercies: they' are not given, but thrown; and snatched, rather than received.

3. In the last place we come to consider, Howw we. must so carry it as not to partake of other men's sins. And, (1.) Exercise a holy jealousy over others, especially thy relations; and this is the way to deliver thy soul from their sins. Job, sacrificing for his children, said, "It may be they have sinned." (Job 1: 5.)

(2.) Watch against the sins of others, have your eyes about you; take heed of-contriving, complying, winking at them, if it be in your power, take heed of suffering them. This is the direction in the text: "Keep thyself pure::" take heed of infectious places, and infectious practices, and infectious company.

(3.) Pray against them: pray against profaneness; pray AUGUSTINE's prayer, LORD deliver me from other men's sins.

(4.) Mourn for them: mourn for the sins of the nation, and mourn for the sins of thy relations; for the sins of thy brethren in their obstinacy, that they will not be reformed.. Cxn,isr came to sinful Jerusalem with weeping eyes, and with a mourning heart. DAVID mourned for the wickededness of the times that he saw. (Psa. cxix.. 136.) "Many walk," says PAUL, "of whom I tell you weeping." Thus did GOD’s people of old free themselves from national sins, and particular men's sins. When they could not be reformers they turned mourners. And see how prevalent this is with GOD; these mourners are the only people to deliver a nation, or at least to deliver themselves from the sin and plagues of a nation, when GOD makes an overflowing scourge to pass through. (Ezek. 9: 4.) On the other side, not mourning for the sins of others, makes us adopt and espouse the sins of others. (Dan. 5: 22.)

(5.) Reprove them. If we would not partake of the sins of others, we must reprove the sins of others; so the Apostle says expressly, (Eph. 5: 11,) intimating, that you certainly approve, if you do not. reprove them. Reprove heresy, blasphemy, drunkenness, oaths, sabbath-breaking, uncleanness, and every sin you hear or see committed.

But this sword of reproof is a very dangerous weapon, if it be not rightly handled: There is required great skill, prudence, wisdom, and watchfulness, to a successful managing of it. He that would fasten this nail of reproof in the conscience of his offending brother, had need be a wise man. To this end I shall, give you these rules: l. He that reproves another, must be careful that he himself be blameless, as much as may be; otherwise he is not acting his charity, but bewraying his hypocrisy. There are two things couched in this:

(1.) A man must be faultless in reference to sin in general, as much as may. be, that will reprove another. -It behoves that man that will reprove others, to be very upright and circumspect in all things; and-then he may reprove with greater advantage, authority, and efficacy. "Let the righteous smite me," says DAVID. A man of a strict' and severe life, and religious conversation, carries-a- kind of a majesty and authority with him, at which- the guilty consciences of sinners cannot but recoil. And then,

(2). A man must, be blameless- in reference- to that sin he reproves: especially; else, in healing his brother, he doth but stab himself: if Thou reprovest pride in others, and art, proud thyself,-covetousness, and art covetous thyself, drunkenness, and art a drunkard thyself,-You dost but, like DAVID in NATHAN'S parable, pronounce the sentence of thine own condemnation. But here I must enter one caution,-None is exempted from this duty for, unfitness; no," this You oughtest to have done, and not to have left the other undone." 2. As he must take heed that himself be faultless, so he must be sure that his brother be faulty for otherwise it is not to reprove him, but to reproach him; and so instead of %doing a Christian duty, a-man commits a devilish sin; he becomes an accuser of the brethren, instead of a reproven of the brethren. And here are likewise two things t(o be considered --(L) It must be a- truth that You reprovest him for. (2.). It must be a sin that Thou reprovest him for.

(1.) A conjecture, or imagination; or jealousy, or rumor, or, - hearsay, is not ground= sufficient, for reproof; for all these may be false, and the rule of charity- is ‘Every man is presumed to be good, until he is proved to be evil:’ But verily the, way of the world is far' otherwise; we deal with our brethren as the persecuting Pagans did with the primitive Christians; put them into lions' skins and bears' skins, and then bait them and tear them in pieces. Alas the poor Christians were harmless, meek lambs, but they disguised them, and so abused them. Thus it is now Christians are apt and ready to put their poor brethren into I know not what kind of monstrous shapes, of their own imagining and devising, or else of other men's reports' and without more ado they fall upon them.

2. It must be a breach of some command, affirmative or negative; either the omission of that which is good, or the commission of that which is evil.

3. He must manage his reproof to sincere ends; must take heed that his aim be upright and honest: Take heed of mingling any wild-fire of pride or vain-glory, or love of contradicting and controlling: others, with thy zeal of reproving. This heat must be a holy heat, a fire of the sanctuary; as free from the smoke of by-ends as may be; purely for GOD’S glory, and out of hatred' to sin, and out of love to the salvation of thy brother's soul..

4. He must manage his reproof in fit season.. There is a time to speak, and a time to be silent: Reproof is a duty grounded upon an affirmative precept. Now it is -well observed by Divines, that affirmative precepts bind- semper, but not ad semper; we must always reprove, but not reprove always;, it is a constant duty, but it must be done in a seasonable opportunity. There are certain mollia fandi tempora,--words upon the wheels, as SOLOMON calls them, that are like apples of gold; and let me tell you; Christians, one word spoken in season, is worth a thousand other words. Now it is impossible to define and determine all, the nicks of time wherein, a man should strike in with a -reproof; for this must be left to the wisdom and experience of every Christian, that makes it his business to be his brother's keeper; and let him assure himself he must expect to lose many an admonition, shoot many an arrow of reproof, as JONATHAN did his, under and over, on this side and the other side, before he hit the mark.

(1.) He must take a season wherein the offender is capable of reproof. If a man be drunk, we must stay until he be sober; so if a man be all in a heat of passion, we must stay, and come to him, as GOD did to ADAM, in the cool of the day, when the fit is over.

(2.) We must take a season wherein we have occasion to commend a man for something, and then reprove him for his fault: Sir, you are thus and thus; O, but if you would but mend this and that, how excellent it would be!

(3.) We must do it as soon as ever we can, and the sooner the better: a green wound is easier healed than an old sore.

(4.) If you have long waited for fit seasons, and yet cannot find them, we had better make a breach upon one's prudence than one's conscience; discretion then must -give place: to necessity: out with it, and leave the success: to GOD.

(5.) He must manage his reproof-with due conditions and qualifications: and there are seven properties of that reproof that will in all likelihood benefit our brother, and secure ourselves fi'om participation of his sins.

[1.] We must reprove seriously and in good earnest, so as to knock the nail up to the head in the conscience of the sinner. In our reproofs of our brother, we should charge him home: These things You have done there is no. denying; "Thou art the man," says NATHAN' unto DAVID; "this JESUS, whom ye have crucified, says PETER to the Jews. And thus we should set things in order before him:’ Sir, is, not this and that highly to dishonor GOD, to shame your profession, to impair your body, to wound your conscience, and to damn your precious and immortal soul? And therefore, for the LORD'S sake, think of it, and amend it.'

[2.] We must reprove impartially,- without respect to persons. Good men, if they miscarry, must be reproved, as well as. bad men. If PETER temporize, PAUL will not spare him, nor BARNABAS neither; they shall, hear of it. (Gal. 2:) Great men, be they never so great, should be admonished as- well as others, so. long- as they are under the great GOD, and subject; to great failings; Kings, and Nobles, and Magistrates, as well as inferior persons. NATHAN reproved DAVID, though a King; and so did ELIJAH, AHAB; and NEHEMIAH reproved the Nobles and Rulers for usury and Sabbath-profanation. Certainly, if any be fit to teach great men, they are as fit to reprove them, for they must go together. (2 Tim. 4: 2.) It is the great unhappiness of Princes and Nobles that they have so many flatterers, and so few reprovers.,

[3.] We must reprove discreetly, making a difference between man and man: for though it is true, that all are to be reproved that are offenders, especially within the pale of the Church, yet all must not be handled in-the same manner. Some will do more with a rod, than others will do with a scorpion; some must be dealt withal with lenitives, others with corrosives; some gently reproved, other's sharply rebuked, according to the tenderness or stubbornness of their disposition, and according to the nature and quality of their offences. And here abundance of rules might be laid down about public and private, great and small, seldom or frequent offences. In one word, a reprover must be like the thresher that the Prophet de-scribes. (Isai. 28: 27, 28.)

[4.] We must reprove compassionately, , and so with the greater pity to their infirmities. (Gal. 6: 1.). BERNARD said of himself, "That he never saw another man sin, but he was distrustful and jealous of his own heart." This would take off a great deal of that rigor that renders a reproof so unpleasing and so and profitable: for a Christian tenderness and compassion in the reprover, is the best way to work sense and passion in the sinner.

This is the way to mollify men's hearts; whereas by tin austere rigid reproof, instead of rendering thy brother God's friend, you do render thyself his enemy.

[5.] We must reprove charitably, and with the greatest love to men's persons, even when we show the greatest veal against their sins; for it is one thing to be angry with the sins, -and another with his person; therefore we should consult our brother's credit and person, while we stab his sin; and not, in healing a wound in his conscience and conversation, leave a scar of reproach upon his person, and a brand of shame and ignominy upon his name. That were to do the work of an enemy under the vizard of a friend.

[6.] We must reprove meekly; not in rage, and passion, and bitterness, but in meekness, and sweetness of spirit. This rule the Apostle gives. (2 Tim. 2: 25.) Though there may be some warmth in a reproof, yet it must not be too hot. Take soft words and hard arguments to convince gainsayers; and gentle reproofs and solid reasons to reduce offenders.

[7.] We must reprove scripturally: that is, as near as we can to reprove "our brethren in Scripture-text and Scripture-language, that so it may not seem to be we that speak, so much as the SPIRIT of our FATHER that speaks in us; and this is to reprove with authority. (Tit. 2: 15.) What greater authority and majesty can there be, wherewith to awaken the conscience of a sinner than the word of GOD, by which he should be ruled, and by which he must certainly be judged?