584 Rules how to deale with wicked men. hear of any one that accufes them for any evil!, prefently have foule Language againfl them Thefe are they that are fubje& to fall into the fin of reviling, inflead of a jull defence, or re- prehenfion, of that that is evill in others. Thirdly, You may reprove others for their fin, reprove them'fharply, but it mull not be for their fin of weakneílè, but there mull be force willfullneffe in the fin, before you doe re- prove them fharply : You should Confider, filch a one is fin - full, but is it of weaknefle, or of willfullneffe ? If it be a fn Of weakneffe, I mull pitty them, I may-not give them anyharih language at all , as Chrrll did to meter, Avod Satan. Certain - ly, it was a fin'of weakneffe in Peter,when as Peter prayed him, -Meer, Favour thy felfe ;. he rebukt him with. that Cutting Terme, and calla him Satan, not that Peter was malicious in ir, but becaufe the nature of the thing that he fpake had fógrett . evill in it, therefore Chrifl was the more sharp': But whey the thing is of weakneffe, and there is no fuch great Confequence in the nature of the offence, then you ;muff deale tenderly; but if there be any word now that hath mifpleafed you, and prefently you. goe and (peak sharply, you will turne to be a Reviler. Fourthly, If the' offence be repented of,then though it were a great offence, we mull not deale sharply with any, whereas ordinarily it is in men that doe revile the Saints, they will re- vile them for the deaf+ weakneffe, yea and will revile them for. the fins that they have repented of ; they will bring up all old things that were -in the time of their ignorance when they knew not God, to make than odious : But if it be an offence that bath been repented of , as the Lord buries it, fo mull we. Fifthly, If the fin be a fecret fn, then we mull not reprove it before others, not to give any- hard language before others; -if God hath kept it fecret, doe not you in the prefence of o- thers' reveäle it ; whereas thole that are of reviling fpirits, if they can 'find out any thing, though never fo fecret, They will blaze it prefently', onely that they might call a reproach upon fuch as they have a love to revile. Sixthly
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