CONFIRMED CHRISTIAN. 549. mistakes, he seeketh not to undo them, but gently to reduce them. If they censure him, and call him erroneous, heretical, antichristian, idolatrous, because he concurreth not with them in their mistakes, he beareth it with love and patience, as he would do the peevish c'hidings of a child, or the frowardness of the sick. He doth not lose his charity, and set his wit against a child, and aggravate the crimes; and, being reviled, revile again ; and say,.' You are schis- matics, hypocrites, obstinate, and fit to be severely dealt with.' But he ovèrcometh them with love and patience, which is the conquest of a saint, and the happiest victory both for himself and them. It is a "small matter to him tobe judged of man;" 1 Cor. iv. 3, 4. He is more troubled for the weakness and disease of the censori- ous, than for his own being wronged by their censures; Phil. i. 16-18. Rom. xv. 1-3. xiv. 2, 3. 2. But the weak Christian is more ready to censure others, than patiently to bear a censure himself. Either he stormeth against the censurers, as if theydid him some unsufferable wrong, (through the over-great esteem of himself and his reputation,) or else to es- cape the fangs of censure, and keep up his repute with them, he complieth with the censorious,and overruns his judgment and con- science to be well spoken of and counted a sincere and steadfast man ; Gal. ii. 12-14. 3. But the seeming Christian is so proud and selfish, and want- eth charity and tenderness to the weak, that lie is impatient of their provocations; and would cure the diseases of the servants of Christ;by cutting their throats, orridding the country of them. If a child do but wrangle with him, he crieth, Away with him ; he is a troubler of the world.' He taketh more notice of one of their infirmities, than of all their graces; yea, he can see nothing but obstinacy and hypocrisy in them, if they dò but cross him in his opinions, or reputation, or worrdly ends. Selfishness can turn his hypocrisy into malignity and cruelty, if once he take them to be against his interest. Indeed, his interest can make him patient: he can bear with them that he looketh to gain by, but not with them that seem to be against him. The radical enmity against sincerity, that was notmortified, but covered in his heart, will easily -be again uncovered ; Mark vi. 18. 20-22. Phil. i. 15, 16. 3 John 9. LII. 1. A Christian indeed is á great esteemer of the unity of the church, and greatly averse to all divisions among believers. As there is in the natural body an abhorring of dismembering or separating any part from the whole, so there is in the mystical body of Christ. The members that have life, cannot but feel the smart of any distempering attempt; for abscission is destruction; the members die that are separated from the body. And if there
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