is called to-day; lest any be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin."

3. Do it from compassion and love. We have many reprovers; but their manner shows too plainly, that they are not influenced by love. Pride bids men reprove others, and they do it proudly, censoriously, and contemptuously: passion bids them reprove others, and they do it passionately. Now, it is not vilifying or reproaching a man for his faults, that is likely to work his reformation, or to convert him to God. Men will take those for their enemies that thus deal with them; and the words of an enemy are little persuasive. Lay aside your pride and passion, therefore, and go to poor sinners with tears in your eyes, that they may see you indeed believe them to be miserable, and that you unfeignedly pity their case. Let them see that your very bowels yearn over them, and that it is the earnest desire of your heart to do them good. Let them perceive that you have no other end in view, but their everlasting happiness; and that it is your sense of their danger, and your love to their souls, that force you to speak. If men would go to every ignorant unconverted neighbour they have, and thus deal with them, O what blessed fruit should we quickly see! You little know what a prevailing course this would prove. How few, even of the vilest drunkards or swearers, would be so obstinate, as wholly to reject or despise the exhortations of love! I know it must be God that must change men's hearts; but I know also, that God works by means, and when he means to prevail with men, he usually suits the means to the end, and stirs up men to plead with them in a kindly way, and so makes it successful.

4. Do it with all possible plainness and faithfulness. Do not trifle with men. Do not hide from them their misery or danger. Do not make their sins less than they are, nor speak of them in extenuating language. Do not encourage them in a false hope or faith, no more than you would discourage the sound hopes of the righteous. If you see their case to be dangerous, tell them so plainly. "Verily, verily I say unto you,”

says Christ, "except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." "Without holiness," says Paul, "no man shall see the Lord." Thus must you deal faithfully with men, if you intend to do them good. It is not hovering at a distance, in a general discourse, that will serve the turn. It is not in curing men's souls, as in curing their bodies, where they must not know their danger, lest it distress them, and hinder their cure. They are here agents in their own cure, and if they know not their misery, they will never bewail it, nor see how much they need a Saviour. If they know not the worst, they will not labour to prevent it; but will sit still and loiter till they drop into perdition. Deal plainly, therefore, with them, or you do but deceive and destroy them.

5. Do it earnestly, seriously, and zealously. The exceeding stupidity and deadness of men's hearts is such, that no other dealing will ordinarily work. If you speak to some persons of the evil of their sin, of their need of Christ, of the danger of their souls, and of the necessity of regeneration, they will wearily and unwillingly give you the hearing, and put off all with a sigh, or a few good wishes, saying, "God forgive us, we are all sinners,' " and there is an end. If ever you will do them good, therefore, you must sharpen your exhortation, and set it home to their hearts, till you have roused them up, and made them begin to look about them. Let them know that you speak to them not about trifles, or about matters of uncertainty, which perhaps may never come to pass, but about the saving and damning of their souls, whether they shall be blessed with Christ, or tormented with devils, and that for ever. O labour to make men know that it is madness, to trifle about salvation or damnation; that heaven and hell are not matters to be passed over with a few careless thoughts! Matters of moment must be dealt with seriously. To tell a man of his sins as softly as Eli did his sons; to reprove him as gently as Jehosaphat did Ahab, "Let not the king say so," does usually as much harm as good. I am persuaded the very manner of

some men's reproof and exhortation has hardened many a sinner in the way of destruction. To tell them of sin, or of heaven or hell, in dull, easy, careless language, makes men think you are not in good earnest, nor mean as you speak; but either that you scarcely believe such things to be true, or else that you consider them as very slight and indifferent matters. O brethren, speak of sin as sin, and of heaven as heaven, and of hell as hell, and not as if you were in jest, or they were but trifles.

6. Yet lest you run into extremes, I advise you to do it with prudence and discretion. Be as serious as you can, but yet with wisdom; and especially you must be wise in the things following.

(1.) Choose the fittest season for your exhortation. Speak not to men when they are in passion, or in drink, or in public, where they will take it for a disgrace. You should observe, when they are fittest to receive instruction. It is an excellent example that Paul set us, in relation to his Jewish brethren: "I communicated," says he, "the Gospel to them, but privately to them which were of reputation, lest I had run or should run in vain." Some men would take this to be a sinful compliance, but Paul knew how great a hindrance men's reputation is to their receiving the truth, and that the remedy must not only be fitted to the disease, but also to the strength of the patient Moreover, means will work easily, if you take the opportunity. When the earth is soft, the plough will

enter.

Take a man when he is under affliction, or in the house of mourning, or awakened by some moving sermon, and then set it home, and you may do him good. Christian faithfulness requires us, not only to do good when it falls in our way, but to watch for opportunities of doing good.

(2.) Suit your exhortation to the quality and temper of the persons addressed. If he be a learned or ingenious man, you must deal with him more by convincing arguments, and less by passionate persuasions. If he be one that is both ignorant and stupid, there is need of both. If he be one that is convinced, but yet not

converted, you must employ chiefly those means which rouse the affections. If he be obstinate and secure, you must reprove him sharply. If he be of a timorous, tender nature, and liable to dejections or distractions, you must deal mildly with him. Love, and plainness, and seriousness, take with all; but words of terror, some can scarcely bear.

(3.) Be wise also in using the apt expressions. Many a minister delivers most excellent and useful matter in such harsh language, that it makes the hearers loathe the food they should live by, and laugh at a sermon that might make them quake. And so it is in private exhortation as well as public. If you clothe the most amiable truth in sordid language, you will make men disdain it as monstrous and deformed, though it be the offspring of God, and of a high and heavenly

nature.

7. Let all your exhortations be backed with the authority of God. Let the sinner be convinced that you speak not from yourselves, or out of your own head. Show them the very words of Scripture for what you say. Turn them to the chapter and verse where the sin is condemned, and where the duty is commanded. Press them with the truth and authority of God. Ask them, whether they believe that this is his word, and whether his word be true. So much of God as appears in our words, so much will they carry power with them. The voice of man is contemptible; but the voice of God is awful and terrible. They can and may reject your words; but they cannot, they dare not, reject the words of the Almighty. Be sure, therefore, to make them know, that you speak nothing but what God has spoken before you.

8. Be frequent with them in this duty of exhortation. It is not speaking once or twice that usually will prevail with men. If God himself must be constantly solicited, as if importunity could prevail with him when nothing else can; and therefore requires us to pray always and not to faint, the same course will no doubt be most prevailing with men. We are therefore commanded to "exhort one another daily,"

and" with all long suffering." The fire is not always brought out of the flint at one stroke; nor men's affections kindled at the first exhortation. And if they were, yet if they be not followed with fresh exhortations, they will soon grow cold again. Weary out sinners with your loving and earnest entreaties. low them, and give them no rest in their sin. This is true charity; this is the way to save men's souls.

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9. Strive to bring all your exhortations to an issue. Content not yourself with simply doing the work, but look after the success. I have long observed, that, although ministers or private Christians speak convincing and powerful words, yet if their hearts do not long after the success of them with the hearers, but all their care is over when they have ended their speech, pretending that, having done their duty, they leave the issue to God, they seldom prosper in their labours. Labour, therefore, to drive all your exhortations to the desired issue. If you are reproving a sin, cease not till you have, if possible, got the sinner to promise to forsake it, and to avoid the occasions of it. If you are exhorting one to a duty, urge him to promise you to set immediately about it. If you would draw them to Christ, leave them not till you have made them confess, that their present unregenerate state is miserable, and not to be rested in; and till they have acknowledged the necessity of Christ, and of a change of heart; and till they have promised to apply diligently, and without delay, to the use of the means of grace. O that all Christians would be persuaded to take this course with all their neighbours and friends that are yet enslaved by sin, and strangers to Christ!

Lastly, be sure that your example exhort as well as your words. Let them see you constant in all the duties to which you persuade them. Let them see in your lives that difference from sinners, and that excellency above the world, which you exhort them

to.

Let them see by your constant labours for heaven, that you do indeed believe that which you would have them to believe. If you tell others of the