was desperate, by the obstinacy of the party, in refusing admonition, and to submit to discipline.—Penit. Disc. p. 41, 42, 75, 120.
Luke xv. 22. "The Scribes and the Pharisees murmured, saying. This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them." On some occasions, we ought to avoid sinners, for fear of being corrupted,—or to put them to shame, in order to their conversion. But to converse with them, as our Lord did, in order to teach them their duty, to encourage them in the way of piety, &c. this is Godlike.
Mark viii. 33. "Get thee behind me, Satan.—Thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of man." How dangerous is tenderness in matters of salvation! To spare a penitent, is to ruin him by a fatal kindness.
How perilous is the government of the Church, wherein a man becomes guilty of those things which he does not hinder. Rev. ii. 20. "I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferedst that woman Jezebel to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication," &c. 2 Cor. x. 4. "For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God, to the pulling down of strongholds." We surely mistake the spirit of the Gospel, when we would establish and defend the Church by human policy, and carnal means, by friendship of great men, credit, reputation, splendour, riches, &c. God will have us to use other sort of arms, namely,—patience, humility, meekness, prayers, suffering, and spiritual censures, to which God will join His own Almighty power.
All mankind are agreed that human legislatures can only dispense and make laws in cases purely human.
(To be continued.)
Oxford,
The Feast of St. Matthias.
These Tracts are published Monthly, and sold at the price of 2d. for each sheet, or 7s. for 50 copies.
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