The works of George Swinnock, M.A

⁴I Wish that I may be both faithful and wise, to recover a fallen Brother out of his sin and error; Jonathan, a true friend of David, promised to tell him if there were any danger, and accordingly warned him, whereby he saved his life. I profess my self a lover of my Christian Companions, but I am false in my profession, if I suffer sin to lye upon them. Yet I confess it is a difficult work to perform this duty in a right manner. The best plaster may be ineffectual, if it be not fitly applied; I can seldom with Moses seek to unit• quarrelling Christians, but one of them with the Hebrew, is ready to quarrel with me, and say, Who made thee a Ruler, or a Judge over us? Men are seldom more touchy then when their sores are searched; and therefore he that would not have their wounds to bring them into a Fever or Fury, must handle them with much wariness; I desire that Wisdom, Courage, and Love, may be the ingredients of which all my medicines may be compounded. Wisdom, that I may observe the quality and temper of the Offender, the nature of his offence, and the sittest season and manner of administering the reproof; the quality of the person, if he be my Superior, that I may do it with reverence, rather exhorting and beseeching, the plainly rebuking; The temper of the offender; if he be of a fierce nature, that I may so manage my work with meekness, as when I am endeavouring to heal his distemper, I may not increase it; The nature of the offence, If the sin be small, that I may not make it great, by giving stronger medicines then ⟨p. 341⟩the disease requires; The season of reproving, that I may not give open rebuke for private offences, but observe my Saviours r•le, If thy Brother offend thee, tell him his fault between him and thee. The presence of many, may make him take up an unjust defence, who in private would have taken upon him a just shame; The open air makes sores to wrankle; the more public rebukes are for Magistrates and Courts of Justice to give. Possibly, it may be my suspicion more then any real fault, as in the case of the Blessed Virgin and Joseph, and then what wrong should I do him, to accuse innocency before a multitude? The manner of delivering it, that I may give him his due praise, as well us his deserved reproof; This will somewhat allay his passion, and make my reproof the more prevalent.