Note, 1. The punishment of scorners will be a means of good to others.
When men are so hardened in wickedness that they will not themselves be
wrought upon by the severe methods that are used to reclaim and reform
them, yet such methods must be used for the sake of others, that they
may hear and fear, Deut. xix. 20. If the scorner will not be recovered
from his sin, the disease being inveterate, yet the simple will beware
of venturing upon the sin which exposes men thus. If it cure not the
infected, it may prevent the spreading of the infection. 2. The reproof
of wise men will be a means of good to themselves. They need not be
smitten; a word to the wise is enough. Do but reprove one that has
understanding and he will so far understand himself and his own
interest that he will understand knowledge by it, and not miss it again
through ignorance and inadvertency when once he has been told of it; so
kindly does he take reproof and so wisely improve it.