Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n
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A67768
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The proofe of a good preacher the right art of hearing : that good counsel is seldom well taken : that wilful offenders are as witlesse as wicked : with an apologie for wholesome truth, how distasteful soever / by J.F.
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Younge, Richard.
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1661
(1661)
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Wing Y180; ESTC R8002
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18,965
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45
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and bring you to life eternal Nor can he ever be thankful to God who is not thankful to the Instrument or means by whom God does or would do him good Besides it were a breach of Justice not to proportion the rebuke to the crime For for a Minister to use gentle reprehension in case of capital offences that is in case of thefts rapines sacriledges adulteries and incests to say to his people as Eli to his sons Why did you so Is no other than to shave that head which deserves cutting off For as it is with ill humours in the body that a weak dose doth but stir and anger them not purge them out yea if physick be not strong enough to purge out choller it encreaseth choller the humours it would have purged and expelled if it had been strong enough it inflameth exasperateth and sharpeneth And as the Sun in the Spring-time breedeth agues and other distempers because it stirreth humours and doth not waste them so it fareth with sins in the soul An easie and gentle reproof doth but encourage wickedness and make it think it self so slight as that rebuke importeth which is to patronize evil in stead of reproving it And experience shews that cold Preachers make bold sinners However such being like ill Archers that draw not their arrows up to the head seldome convert these sinners Nevertheless resolute sinners would have dissolute Teachers would have the Law according to their lives not their lives according to the Law That pleasâ—th them which is sweet to the sence not that which is wholesome to the conscience as the Holy Ghost informs us Isa 30.10 1 Kings 12.8 Mich. 2.11 Like wanton children they care not to be mended but to be commended He that praiseth them pleaseth them But wo to such Preachers as shall heal the hurt of these people with sweet words saying Peace peace and give them comfort as Jezabel did Ahab 1 Kings 21.5 6 7. when they rather deserve a curse Jer. 8.11 For this is no other than guilded treason like that of Hazael to his Master who told him with his mouth that he should recover when on the morrow he stifled him with his hand and a wet cloth 2 Kings 8.14 15. Whence the Holy Ghost brands all flattering Preachers that sow pillows for false Prophets Jer. 8.11 And indeed it is but a Mountebank trick to heal an ulcer and leave in the core A good Physician either for soul or body first tels the state of the disease with its symptomes and then prescribes and in prescribing first puls down the body with purgatives and then raiseth it with cordials And take this for a rule such as fear God are Ministers of his sending wil think is better to lose mens favors than their souls and be sure to discharge his conscience from the burthen of any ones bloud Ezek. 3.18 and 33.8 Yea an ingenious Patient should be so wise as to know that the stomack should raâ—her be pleased than the pallate and experience tels us that those things for the most part that are least pleasing are most wholesome Rue is an herb most bitter to the taste yet in regard of the vertue which is in it we usually call it Herb of grace And Physicians find that though Mithridate of all other Electuaries it be the most distasteful yet of all others it is the most wholesome And so it fares touching spiritual truths Whence a good Preacher cares not so much to stroke the car as to strike the conscience being like a good Physician who gives sharp medicines and bitter potions that he may make shoâ—t diseases and procure sound health The true method of preaching and the likeliest way to undeceive the deceived and with blessing from above to pluck sinners out of Satans snares is for a Minister to deal with his hearers as the Prophet did by Hazael when he plainly told him the abominable wickedness of his heart and what evil even beyond beleef he should shortly do or execute had he been wise enough to have been warned thereby Or as Nathan did by David when he so cunningly made him pronounce sentence of death against himself Or as Jonah did by the Ninâ—vites when with that short thundering Sermon of eight words he converted that great City Or as Peter by his Converts when he told them they were the men that had crucified the Lord of life Or John Baptist by Herod and all that came unto him Or as Christ by the woman of Samaria when he so represented the very thoughts of her heart unto her conscience that she was forced to confesse He hath told me all thingâ— that eveâ— I did Or as he did with Saul when he spake to him from Heaven which woâ—ds made him tremble and fall to the earth with astonishment Which makes one of the Fathers say that The crown of Preachers is the tears of their hearers And Saint Basil that Shaâ—p reprehension is the healing of the soul And Chrysostom say to his hearers If I make you smart give me the more thanks for it Nay says Busil It may well be feared that Ministers open not the word aright when wicked men kick not against it And Luther was of that judgement thaâ— he thought if Ministers should preach the word as they ought they should stir up all the Furies of Hell against themselves Sect. 6. Now what 's the reason why down right truth is so unpleasing to carnal minds when none can deny but it is by far the more wholesome It is this All men love the light as it shines but as it discovers and dirâ—cts the most of men hate it None so bad but they can away with pleasing truths and promisâ—s of mercie Or let the Minister walk in generals and labour more to fill the head with knowledge than the heart with grace to please the sence than speak to the conscience by driving an application close home to them in particular touching some one sin of theirs which is the soul of preaching so long they will like him yea he is a fair and good Church man a great Scholar But let him act the part of Boanerges thunder out the judgements of God against sinners let him do as God commands Ezekiel to do Ezek. 4.4 Answer them according to their Idols preach to their necessities presse them to holy duties reprove them for their unholy practices make known to them what evil consciences they have then they turn their backs upon him and hate him to the death as Ahab did Eliah and Michaiah Herod and Herodias John Baptist the Jews our Saviour and the Galatians Paul See Amos 5.10 yea they will say Away with such a fellow from the earth for it is not meet that he should live The case of all incorrigible and cauterized sinners as well the covetous as the riotous the civil such as seek to fill their chests as those that are all for satisfying their lusts For let a Minister but rowze and
raise them out of their security saying Awake thou that sleepest and stand up from the dead all are instantly about his ears Then the wit-foundered Drunkard cries out saying He subverts the state of the world and troubles our City then the covetous Oppressour is ready to tell the Prophet as the Sodomites Lot Away hence he is come alone as a stranger and shall he judge and rule then the whole Rabble furiously raging together against the Lord and against his Anointed conclude peremptorily that a peece of a pulpit half a Benefice is too much for such an unquiet spirit such a Fire slinger As let Paul but touch Demetrius his Copy-hold preach down his profit he and all of like occupation will rore out of measure Acts 19.28 Wherein they shew as great policie as did the Sodomites who made haste to turn out Lot and his family that fire and brimstone might make haste to destroy them A guilty conscience loves application as dearly as a dog loves a cudgel Sore eyes cannot endure the light of the Sun nor Bankrupts the sight of their counting-books nor deformed faces of the true glass A man were as good take an Elephant by the tooth or seek to rob a Bear of her whelps as go about to make them better For let a Minister charge them from God like rusty or ill-wroughâ— peeces they will recoyl in his face and like Serpents not onely be deaf to his charming but turn their tails to sting him Wherein they resemble the mad man that wounded his Physician while he was administring physick to him for his recovery They more seek for a rag to cover their sins than for a plaster to heal them as it fared with David while he slept in that foul sin of adultery 2 Sam. 11.5 6 c. Now if they are so startled and terrified at the Ministers telling them of one or a few sins what will they do when Satan and the Searcher of hearts shall lay open all the sins that ever they have committed spread them before them If it be so dreadful to hear of what they shall suffer if they repent not how terrible will it be to feel it The Law wasp-like stings shrewdly but Satan that Hornet will sting worse a great deal But if men will be warned by the former they may prevent the latter only these want that we commonly call reason therefore like children and cowards they rather shut their eyes and chuse to feel the blow than to see and endeavour to avoid it Owoful wretches that had rather be everlastingly damned for their sins hereafter than endure to hear of them now to their eternal comfort But I hope better things of some amongst so great a number Gods truth if you mark it would cry down mens sins as preaching would have done Demetrius his trade and therefore â—o marvel if the Trades-men of iniquity are up in arms against the Gospel as Demetrius was against Paul And did not the Gospel crosse their sins they would not crosse the Gospel but the waves do not beat or rore any where so much as at the bank that restrains them The Pharisees could not endure Jesus because he came to break their customes Luke 6.2 The Masters of the Pythonesse Acts 16.21 objected this against Paul and Silas that they did teach contrary to their customes For this cause was that uprore at Ephesus Acts 19.26 to 31. Paul had never become their enemy but for telling them the truth dealing so plainly and roundly with them And why did more than forty of the Jews bind themselves with a curse neither to eat nor drink till they had killed him Acts 23. not for the evils they found in him but for the vices he reproved in them By all which it appears that obstinate sinners are as witlesse as wicked and that they would if they durst deal with their faithful Pastours as the Jews did by Stephen who in their blind zeal were so furious and merciless that they put him to death for shewing them the way to eternal life and stoned him for a Blasphemer against God and his Law who was a man full of faith and power and of the Holy Ghost Acts 7.55 c. It hath ever been the manner of wickedness to be head-strong in the pursuit of its own courses impatient of opposition cruel in revenge of the opposers The great spite and spleen therefore that men bear to the Word must be wreaked upon the Minister he must be hated outed and persecuted yea if they durst they would stone him to death as the Jews did Stephen for as their hearts brast for anger as they gnashed at him with their teeth when they heard him Acts 7.54 so fares it with these touching their Minister But in the meantime what horrible what hellish ingratitude is this if it be looked upon with an impartial eye Are not these the very worst of monsters O you sottish Sensualists what can you alledge for yourselves or against your Minister Is he any other to you than those three Messengers were to Lot that came to fetch him out of Sodome that he might not feel the fire and brimstone which followed Gen. 19. Or than the Angel was to Peter that opened the iron-gates loosed his bands brought him out of prison and delivered him from the thraldome of his enemies You shew just as much reason in it as if those blind deaf diseased distracted possessed or dead persons spoken of in the Gospel should have railed upon our Saviour for offering to cure restore dispossesse recover and raise them again And are like those wicked witless and ingrateful Jews Judg. 15. who when God in great love sent Samson to deliver them from the slavish thraldome of their enemies they in requital bind him in whom all their hope of deliverance lay and deliver him up to those enemies that kept them under to the end they might slay him and still make slaves of them Here is your case right Are you not ashamed to be such Sots Were there ever such fools or frenzie men did commit a greater folly For shame think of it before it prove too late before you have sinned away all hope of mercie In the mean time as our Saviour said of his murtherers Father forgive give them for they know not what they do so may your Minister say adding thereto that prayer of Stephen when they stoned him Lord lay not this sin to their charge Acts 7.60 Sect. 7. But that I may if it be possible fetch tears from your eyes and bloud from your adamantine hearts I will yet acquaint you with that which is worse and more considerable than all I pray mind it All the indignities and wrongs that are done to Christs Ministers and Ambassadours redound to him and he that traduceth or any way wrongs a Minister for the discharge of his place his envie strikes at the image of God in him and he so takes it as a world of places