thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him.' But as to the particular discharge of this work as a duty, there must be either an especial office, or an especial relation, or a concurrence of circumstances for its warranty. God hath in his wisdom and care given rules and bounds unto our engagement unto duties; without a regulation whereby we shall wander in them with endless dissatisfactions unto ourselves, and unnecessary provocations unto others. But the duty of reproving with the love, wisdom, tenderness, and compassion required in the discharge of it; its motives, ends, and circumstances; its proper rules and limitations fall not under my present consideration: but these things in general were necessary to be premised unto what do so.

That which the text instructs us in may be comprised in this general observation.

Observation. Reproofs, though accompanied with some sharpness, if rightly received and duly improved, are a mercy and advantage, incomparably above all the satisfactions, which a joint consent with others in sin and pleasures can afford.

The latter part of the proposition I have mentioned only to express the balance that is proposed by the psalmist between the best and most desirable advantages of wicked society on the one hand, and the sharpest or most displeasing severities that accompany the communion of the righteous, or godly. But I shall not at all handle the comparison, as designing only some directions how men should behave themselves under reproofs, that they may be a kindness, and an excellent oil unto them; or how they may by them obtain spiritual benefit and advantage unto their own souls. And this, however at present the matter may be managed, is of itself of great importance. For as in the state of weakness and imperfection, of mistakes and miscarriages, wherein we are, there is no outward help or aid of more use and advantage unto us, than seasonable reproofs; so in the right receiving and improving of them, as high a trial of the spirits of men, as to their interest in wisdom and folly, doth consist, as in any thing that doth befall them, or wherewith they may be exercised. For as scorners of reproofs, those that hear them unwillingly, that bear them haughtily and

impatiently, with designs of revenge, or disdainful retortions, having the characters of pride and folly indelibly fixed on them by the Holy Ghost; so their due admission and improvement is in the same infallible truth represented as an evident pledge of wisdom, and an effectual means of its increase. This is so much, and so frequently insisted on, in that great treasure of all wisdom, spiritual, natural and political, namely, the Book of Proverbs, that it is altogether needless to call over any particular testimonies unto that purpose. Three things we are to inquire into, in compliance with our present design.

I. How reproofs may be duly received.

II. The reasons why they ought so to be.

III. How they may be duly improved.

I. That we may receive reproofs in a due manner, three things are to be considered: 1. The general qualification of the reprover; 2. The nature of the reproof; 3. The matter of it.

1. The psalmist here desires that his reprover may be a righteous man: Let the righteous smite me,' let him reprove me. To give and take reproofs is a dictate of the law of nature, whereby every man is obliged to seek the good of others, and to promote it according to their ability and opportunity. The former is directed by that love, which is due unto others; the latter, by that which is due unto ourselves which two are the great rules, and give measure to the duties of all societies, whether civil or spiritual. Wherefore it doth not evacuate a reproof, or discharge him who is reproved, from the duty of attending unto it, that he by whom it is managed, is not righteous, yea is openly wicked: for the duty itself being an effect of the law of nature, it is the same, for the substance of it, by whomsoever it is performed. Yea ofttimes such moral, or rather immoral qualifications as render not only the reprover less considerable, but also the reproof itself, until thoroughly weighed and examined, obnoxious unto prejudicate conceptions, do occasion a greater and more signal exercise of grace and wisdom in him that is reproved, than would have been stirred up, had all things concurred unto the exact regularity of the reproof. However it is desirable on many accounts, that he who reproves us be himself a righteous person, and be of us es

teemed so to be. For as such a one alone will or can have a due sense of the evil reproved, with a right principle and end in the discharge of his own duty; so the minds of them that are reproved are by their sense of his integrity excluded from those insinuations of evasions, which prejudices and suggestions of just causes of reflections on their reprover will offer unto them; especially without the exercise of singular wisdom and humility will all the advantages of a just reproof be lost, where the allowed practice of greater sins and evils than that reproved is daily chargeable on the reprover. Hence is that reflection of our Saviour on the useless, hypocritical diligence of men, in 'pulling the mote out of their brother's eyes,' whilst they have beams in their own; Matt. vii. 3-5.. The rule in this case is, if the reprover be a righteous person, consider the reprover first, and then the reproof; if he be otherwise, consider the reproof, and the reprover not at all.

2. The nature of a reproof is also to be considered. And this is threefold: for every reproof is either (1.) Authoritative, or (2.) Fraternal, or (3.) merely friendly and occasional. (1.) Authoritative reproofs are either [1.] Ministerial, or [2.] Parental, or [3.] Despotical.

[1.] There is an especial authority accompanying ministerial reproofs, which we ought especially to consider and improve. Now I understand not hereby those doctrinal reproofs, when in the dispensation of that word of grace and truth, which is profitable for correction and reproof," 2 Tim. iii. 16. they speak, and exhort, and rebuke' the sins of men 'with all authority;' Tit. ii. 15. but the occasional application of the word unto individual persons upon their unanswerableness in any thing unto the truth, wherein they have been instructed. For every right reproof is but the orderly application of a rule of truth unto any person under his miscarriage, for his healing and recovery. Where therefore a minister of the gospel in the preaching of the word doth declare and teach the rule of holy obedience with ministerial authority, if any of the flock committed to his charge shall appear in any thing to walk contrary thereunto, or to have transgressed it in any offensive instance, as it is his duty, the discharge whereof will be required of him at the great day, particularly to apply the truth unto them in

the way of private, personal reproof; so he is still therein accompanied with his ministerial authority, which makes his reproof to be of a peculiar nature, and as such to be accounted for. For as he is thus commanded, as a minister, to' exhort, rebuke, admonish,' and 'reprove' every one of his charge, as occasion shall require; so, in doing of it, he doth discharge and exercise his ministerial office and power. And he that is wise will forego no considerations that may give efficacy unto a just and due reproof; especially not such a one, as if it be neglected, will not only be an aggravation of the evil, for which he is reproved, but will also accumulate his guilt with a contempt of the authority of Jesus Christ. Wherefore the rule here is: The more clear and evident the representation of the authority of Christ is in the reproof, the more diligent ought we to be in our attendance unto it, and compliance with it. He is the great reprover of his church; Rev. iii. 19. All the use, power, authority, and efficacy of ecclesiastical reproofs, flow originally, and are derived from him. In ministerial reproofs there is the most express and immediate application of his authority made unto the minds of men; which if it be carelessly slighted, or proudly despised, or evacuated by perverse cavillings, as is the manner of some in such cases, it is an open evidence of a heart that never yet sincerely took upon this law and yoke.

These things are spoken of the personal reproofs that are given by ministers, principally unto those of their respective flocks, as occasion doth require; wherein I shall pray, that our Lord Jesus Christ, the great Shepherd of the sheep, would yet make us all more faithful and diligent, as the season wherein we live doth abundantly require it. But moreover church censures in admonition and excommunication have the nature and ends of ministerial reproofs. But the handling of their nature and use, with the duties of those persons who justly fall under them, and the benefit which they may reap thereby, is too long and large a subject to be here diverted unto.

[2.] Authoritative reproof is parental. Reproof is indeed one of the greatest and most principal duties of parents towards children, and without which all others for the most part do but pamper them unto slaughter and ruin. Neglect

hereof is that which hath filled us with so many Hophnies, Phinehases, and Absaloms; whose outrageous wickednesses are directly charged on the sinful lenity, and neglect in this matter, even of godly parents. And indeed whereas some parents are openly vicious and debauched even in the sight of their children, in a sensual neglect and contempt of the light of nature, whereby they lose all their authority in reproving, as well as all care about it; and whereas the most have so little regard unto sin as sin, whilst things are tolerably well in outward concerns, that they neglect the reproof of it as such; and many, through a foolish, contemptible prevalency of fond affection, will take no notice of the sinful follies, extravagancies, and miscarriages of their children, until all things grow desperate with them; but sooth up and applaud them in such effects of pride, vanity, and wantonness, as ought to be most severely reproved in them; the woful and dreadful degeneracy of the age wherein we live, owes itself much unto the horrible neglect of parents in this duty. That parental reproof is a duty taught by the law of nature, confirmed in the Scripture, enjoined under severe threatenings and penalties, exemplified in instances of blessings and vengeance, on its performance or neglect; rendered indispensably necessary by that depravation of our natures, which works in children from the womb, and grows up in strength and efficacy together with them, I should not need to prove, if it lay directly before me, it being a matter of universal acknowledgment. I shall only say, that whereas there is on many accounts an immediate impress of divine authority on parental reproofs, that which children ought to consider and know for themselves is, that a continuance in the neglect, or contempt of them, is a token that seldom fails of approaching temporal and eternal destruction; Prov. xxx. 17.

[3.] Authoritative reproof is despotical; namely, that of governors, rulers, and masters of families. This also partakes of the nature of those foregoing, and being a duty founded in the law of nature, as well as enforced by positive divine commands, casts a peculiar obligation to obedience on them that are so reproved. And where servants regard not sober and Christian reproofs, as the ordinance of God for their good, they lose the advantages of their condition,