Proverbs 27:5 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Open rebuke is better than secret love— He who takes an ingenuous liberty to tell others of their faults, and rebuke them freely when need requires to their face, is a more valuable friend, though perhaps he may please less, than he who has more of the passion of love in his heart, but makes it not known by such good effects. The parable, says my Lord Bacon, reprehends the soft nature of such friends as will not use the privilege which friendship gives them, in admonishing their friends with freedom and confidence, as well of their errors as of their danger. See Adv. of Learn. book 8: chap. 2 and Plutarch's Treatise on the method of profiting by our enemies.