TRACTS FOR THE TIMES.
BISHOP WILSON'S MEDITATIONS ON HIS SACRED OFFICE.
No. V.— THURSDAY.
CHURCH DISCIPLINE.
(Continued.)
Heb. xiii. 4. "Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge." You dare not say that this is not true. What can you say to your own mind to make it easy? Nothing but this can make you easy:—to take shame to yourself, to confess your sins, to fast, and to pray earnestly to God for pardon, &c., and to let others know "what an evil thing and bitter it is to forsake the Lord."
This visitation will either do you much good or much hurt; you will from this time grow much better or much worse.—Since you did not blush to sin, do not blush to own your faults. Let it be matter of joy and thankfulness to you, that we are concerned for you so much. Grace indeed we cannot give;—that is the gift of God;—we can only pray for you, and do our duty in admonishing you, &c.—If you submit for fear only, and not for conscience sake, you will suffer both here and hereafter.
When men, and especially men in any authority, are not content to neglect their own salvation, but are industrious to ruin others, they may depend upon it, they are very near filling up the measure of their iniquities, and consequently their destruction is not far off.
Our charity to offenders ought to be like that of God, not in flattering them by a cruel indulgence, but in putting them, by a merciful severity, in the way of obtaining pardon.
