The minister is to declare the gospel with boldness 2/4

         Third. What kind of boldness must the min­ister’s be.

1. A convincing boldness.  ‘How forcible are right words?’ saith Job; and how feeble are empty words, though shot with a thundering voice?  Great words in reproving an error or sin, but weak argu­ments, produce laughter oftener than tears.  Festus thought it ‘unreasonable to send a prisoner, and not withal to signify the crimes laid against him,’ Acts 25:27.  Much more unreasonable is it in the pulpit to condemn an error and not prove it so; a practice and not convince of the evil of it.  The apostle saith of some, ‘Their mouths must be stopped,’ Titus 1:11.  They are convincing arguments that must stop the mouth.  Empty reproofs will soon open the mouths of those that are reproved, wider, than shut them.  The Spirit of God reproves by convincing, ‘And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin,’ ¦8X(­>,4, John 16:8, he will convince; and so should the minister.  This is to preach in the evidence and demonstration of the Spirit.
2. A wise boldness.  The minister is to reprove the sins of all, but to personate none.  Paul, being to preach before a lascivious and unrighteous prince, touched him to the quick, but did not name him in his sermon.  Felix’s conscience would save Paul that labour; he ‘trembled,’ though Paul did not say he meant him.
3. A meek boldness.  ‘The words of wise men are heard in quiet,’ Ecc. 9:17.  Let the reproof be as sharp as thou wilt, but thy spirit must be meek.  Passion raiseth the blood of him that is reproved, but com­passion turns his bowels.  The oil in which the nail is dipped makes it drive the easier, which other­wise have riven the board.  We must not denounce wrath in wrath, lest sinners think we wish their misery; but rather with such tenderness, that they may see it is no pleasing work to us to rake in their wounds, but do it, that we might not by a cruel silence and foolish pity be accessory to their ruin, which we cordially desire to prevent.  Jeremiah sounds the alarm of judgment, and tells them of a dismal calamity approaching; yet at the same time appeals to God, and clears himself of all cruelty towards them: ‘I have not hastened from being a pastor to follow thee: neither have I desired the woeful day; thou knowest: that which came out of my lips was right before thee,’ Jer. 17:16.  As if he had said, I have delivered my mes­sage in denouncing judgment (for I durst do no other), but it was with a merciful heart; I threatened ruin, but wished for peace.  Thus Daniel, he dealt plainly and roundly with the king, but ushers in his hard message with an affectionate ex­pression of his love and loyalty to him: ‘My lord, the dream be to them that hate thee, and the interpretation thereof to thine enemies,’ Dan. 4:19.
4. A humble boldness; such a boldness as is raised from a confidence in God, not from ourselves, or our own parts and ability, courage or stoutness. Paul is bold, and yet can tremble and be in fear; bold, in confidence of his God: ‘We were bold in our God to speak unto you the gospel of God with much con­tention,’ I Thes. 2:2; but full of fear in the sense of his own weakness: ‘I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling,’ I Cor. 2:3.
5. A zealous boldness.  Our reproofs of sin must come from a warm heart.  Paul’s spirit was stirred within him when he saw the city given to idolatry. Jeremiah tells us ‘the word of God was as fire in his bones;’ it broke out of his mouth as the flame out of a furnace.  The word is a hammer, but it breaks not the flinty heart when lightly laid on.  King James said of a minister in his time, he preached as if death was at his back.  Ministers should set forth judgment as if it were at the sinner’s back, ready to take hold of him. Cold reproofs or threatenings, they are like the rum­blings of thunder afar off, which affright not as a clap over our head doth.  I told you the minister’s boldness must be meek and merciful, but not to prejudice zeal.  The physician may sweeten his pill to make his patient to swallow it better; but not to such a degree as will weaken the force of its operation.