A50162:163
Small offers towards the service of the tabernacle in the wilderness four discourses accommodated…
Small offers towards the service of the tabernacle in the wilderness four discourses accommodated unto the designs of practical godliness : preached partly at Boston, partly at Charleston / by Cotton Mather ; published by a gentleman lately restored from threatening sickness as a humble essay to serve the interest of religion, in gratitude unto God for his recovery.
Boston: printed by R. Pierce, 1689
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.
Secondly Reprove not for ever. Tis said in Ps. 103. 9. God will not always chide, neither will He keep his anger for ever. To be always finding faults, is the way never to be curing them. A perpetual Wrangling is a continual Dropping, which there is no enduring of; it prejudices the minds of them that feel it, against all that shall ⟨p. 52⟩be said unto them.
Secondly Reprove not for ever. Tis said in Ps. 103. 9. God will not alwaies chide, neither will He keep his anger for ever. To be alwaies finding faults, is the way never to be curing them. A perpetual Warngling is a continual Dropping, which there is no enduring of; it prejudices the minds of them that feel it, against all that shall ⟨p. 52⟩be said unto them.
The Positive Rules are these Two.
First Reprove Reasonably. Let there be just Cause for it. When you reprove, it must be for a true cause. As it was said of our Saviour in Isai. 11. 3. He shall not reprove after the hearing of His ears. Thus, we may not go by mere Hear-say, when we reprove those that are under us. And it must be for a great Cause. Tis said of the Spirit in Jo•. 16. 8. He will reprove the world for SIN. The sinful thing, the thing for which the wrath of God comes, the thing which the soul of the Lord hates, this we are to reprove. We must not throw away Reproofs upon Nothing, or upon Every thing.