2 Cor. x. 8. "For though I should boast of my authority, (which the Lord hath given us for edification, and not for destruction,) I should not be ashamed." It is necessary, sometimes, to extol the dignity of our office. N. B. Pastors are appointed by Christ to edify the Church; they must, therefore, be honoured and obeyed.
The disorders which a good pastor observes in his flock, will always be matter of humiliation to him, because he will always impute them to himself. A pastor, a priest, who does not, with tears and supplications, bewail the sins of his people, cannot call himself their mediator with God.
It is the greatest comfort of a good pastor, to feel himself obliged to use nothing but good advice, and the mild part only of his authority; but when that will not do, he must "use sharpness;" but still, with this view, that it be for their edification, not for their destruction.
It seldom happens that great men, whether clergy or laity, reform their lives, because they seldom meet with persons of courage to oppose them, or to tell them of their faults. A Bishop, who is not restrained by any earthly engagements, will not spare any man whose conduct is, prejudicial to the faith.
Gal. v. 12. "I would they were even cut off which trouble you." To wish shame, or some temporal evil, for the salvation of my neighbour's soul, is not contrary to charity. It seems, matters were come to a great height of evil, when St, Paul was forced to wish that to be done, which he did not, in prudence, think fit to do.
Ecclus. viii. 5. "Reproach not a man that turneth from sin, but remember that we are all worthy of punfshment."
2 Thess. iii. 6. "Now we command you," (and the same authority subsists still in the governors of the Church,) "in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly," &c. Nothing is there which the faithful ought more carefully to avoid, than disorderly livers,—nothing which pastors ought more earnestly to warn their flocks of.
May I ever observe the rules of an holy and charitable severity.
