543 / 652
A
REFORMATION
SERMON.
555
3.
They complain
that
you
are "
partial, and have
a
'
respect of
persons.
Some
you
prosecute withont
mercy,
and
you indulge
an escape to others
who
are
equally
cri-
minal." Answer them
that
you
pursue'vice impartially,
wheresoever'you
find it,
and
that
you
follow
those me-
thods
that
may most effectually
reclaim
mankind.
Tell
them
that
you
make
no
distinction
between
transgressors
of
high or
low
degree
;
you
put
no difference between
the
guilty,
whether
they belong
to
your
own
party
and
pro-
fession,
or
to
another.
Assure them
that
in
this case
you
are
unwilling
to know
a
friend or
a brother,
even
as
the
sons
of
Levi when
they girded
on
their
swords
in
the
camp
of
Israel,
"
and consecrated themselves
that
day
to
the Lord,
every man
upon.his companion,
his
neigh-
bour,
his
brother, and
his
son
;"
Ex.
xxxii. 26,
27, 29.
But
the apostle
Jude
seems
to
direct
you to make
a
difference
in
other
respects with
compassion and fear,
treating
those
more
severely
" that are
mockers
and
sensualists walking after
their
own
ungodly
lusts,;"
Jude
18,
19,
22.
The
very design
of the work
of
reformation
seems to
require that
a
distinction
be
made between
young and
old offenders, between
the
bashful and
the
impudent, the trembling transgressor
and
the obstinate
wretch,
that
has no sense
of
guilt or
shame
:
Some
may
be reclaimed for ever,
by
one admonition
or
reproof;
others must
be
sharply chastised to make them
feel
con-
viction.
Yet
it needs
divine
prudence
to
practise
the.e
directions
aright;
and sometimes
you
must
be
forced
to
make
no
distinction
at
all where
nature
and virtue
seem
to desire
one,
lest the enemy
should
take
occasion to
revile
your
conduct. May
the
God of
wisdom
and
counsel
be
ever near
you,
and
direct
you to
pursue
your
glorious
designs
by
the most
successful
and unreproacl.-
able methods
!
4. You
are charged
with
tempting others
to
sin
that
you
may
accuse them,
But
this
slander
is
so
malicious,
and
so
inconsistent
with
your
design,
that
your
enemies
can
persuade but
few
to believe-It.
The standing rules
of your
societies
bear
witness
against it, and your con-
stant
practice refutes the
lie.
It
is
easy to accuse
in
general, and
fling
impudent
falsehoods
in
gross upon
the
fairest reputation
;
but
you
have
madefrequent
and bold
appeals
to
your reproachers,
and none
of
them
have
been
2
1I.3í