+I. He is to be heard even as Christ Himself,+ because in preaching
he is the mouth of God.
II. Here we see the goodness of God, +who does not speak to us in
His majesty, but appoints men in His stead,+ who are His
ambassadors.
+III. There must be fidelity in teachers.+--They stand in the stead
of Christ, and must deliver only that which they know to be the
will of Christ.
+IV. They must have especial care of holiness of life.+
+V. The people are to hear their teachers with reverence,+ as if
they would hear the angels or Christ Himself.
+VI. The comfort of the ministry is as sure+ as if an angel came
down from heaven, or Christ Himself, to comfort us.--_Perkins._
Ver. 16. _The Right Mode of giving and receiving Reproof._--Should it
be esteemed the part of a friend faithfully to tell men the truth?
and should the suppression of truth and the substitution of its
opposite be held to mark the character of an enemy? How often has the
amicable state of feeling been broken up by telling the truth, even
when done in a proper spirit and manner!
+I. What would you wish your friend to be?+--1. Sincere. 2. That he
should take a very general interest in my welfare and be desirous to
promote it. 3. A person of clear, sound, discriminating judgment, and
with a decided preference in all things. 4. That he should not be a
man full of self-complacency, a self-idolater, but observant and
severe towards his own errors and defects. 5. A man who would include
me expressly in his petitions, praying that I may be delivered from
those evils which he perceives in me, and God far more clearly.
6. Such that, as the last result of my communications with him, a
great deal of what may be defective and wrong in me shall have been
disciplined away.
+II. Why do we regard a friend as an enemy because he tells us the
truth?+--1. Because plain truth, by whatever voice, must say many
things that are displeasing. 2. Because there is a want of the real
earnest desire to be in all things set right. 3. Because there is
pride, reacting against a fellow-mortal and fellow-sinner. 4. Because
there is not seldom a real difference of judgment on the matters in
question. 5. Because there is an unfavourable opinion or surmise as
to the motives of the teller of truth.
+III. How should reproof be administered?+--1. Those who do this
should well exercise themselves to understand what they speak of.
2. It should be the instructor's aim that the authority may be
conveyed in the truth itself, and not seem to be assumed by him as
the speaker of it. 3. He should watch to select favourable times and
occasions.
+IV. How should reproof be received?+--1. By cultivating a
disposition of mind which earnestly desires the truth, in whatever
manner it may come to us. 2. There have been instances in which a
friend, silent when he should have spoken, has himself afterwards
received the reproof for not having done so from the person whom he
declined to admonish. 3. If there be those so painfully and irritably
susceptible as to be unwilling to hear corrective truth from others,
how strong is the obligation that they should look so much the more
severely to themselves.--_John Foster._