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left a little Leaven, fhould leaven the whole Lump. Spirit may be faved in the

Day of the Lord Jefus.

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261

pentance and Humiliation, that fo the immortal Sect 9.
Spirit may be faved in the Day of the Lord Jefus,
from those infinitely more infupportable and ever- 1 Cor. V. 5.
lafting Agonies, to which it might otherwise be

doomed.

And give me Leave on this Occasion farther 6.
to tell you, that your Boafting, whether of fuch
a Perfon as your Friend, if he be remarkable for
any peculiar Distinction in Gifts, Abilities, and
Circumstances; or against him, as your Enemy,
if he be of an oppofite Faction, [is] not by any
Means good (e). Do you not know, in a familiar
Instance, which it may be profitable for you to
recollect, that a little Leaven quickly diffuses it-
self by a fecret Fermentation, till it leaveneth the
whole Mafs. Thus will evil Examples tend to
fpread in the Church: and if a Brand of Infamy..
be not quickly fet upon the incorrigible Offender,
Wickedness will grow familiar, and lofe its Hor-
ror; fo that many other Members of your So-
ciety may be polluted, enfnared, and dishonoured.
Set yourfelves therefore with a Refolution and Di- 7
ligence, like that, which the Jews fhew in all
their Dwellings, when the annual Feaft of the
Paffover is approaching, to purge out the old Lea-
ven: Search for it, as it were, with lighted Can-
dles, wherever you fufpect any of it to lurk un-
obferved, that ye may indeed be entirely a new..
Mafs; as ye are by your Chriftian Profeffion un-
leavened, let there be no Mixture of any Thing:
inconsistent with that: Simplicity and Purity,
which the Gospel teaches.

It is a Diligence and Resolution that becomes:
you; for we have not only the Divine Command
to enforce it, but this tender additional Obligation,
that even Chrift our Passover was Jain for us (f).

He

(e) Your Boafting is not good.] L'Enfant would read it interrogatively, Have you not a fine Subject for boafting? which is indeed more animated than our Verfion; but I think, not in the Tafte and Manner of St. Paul, nor does it seem exactly to fuit the Original.

(f) Chrift our Paffover was flain.] It is well known, that Justin Martyr, in his Dialogue with Trypho the few, accufes the Jews with having taken out of the Book of Efdras the following Words, "The Pallover is our Saviour, and our Refuge." L'Enfant thinks, these Words of St. Paul are an Allufion to them.It is a very inconclufive

In

262

He charges them not to be familiar mith lewd Perfons; Sect. 9. He hath made his precious Blood the Price of

our Redemption, that he might make it the Cor. V. 7. Means of our Sanctification; and that we, instead of being fmitten by the Sword of the avenging Angel, might fit down to a Divine Banquet in 8 Peace. Let us then keep the holy Feast, which he hath at fuch an Expence provided for us, and in which he feedeth us even with his own Flesh; and let us celebrate it in a Manner, which may do him the greatest Honour, and be moft pleafing to the adorable Author of our Liberty, and our Happiness; that is, not with the old ftale Leaven of Uncleanness, fo common in your Gentile Eftate, nor with the Leaven of Malignity and Mifchief, which your Judaizing Teachers would infufe, tho' it is as inconfiftent with the Benevolence, as the other, with the Purity of the Gofpel: But avoiding these with the ftricteft Care, keep it with the unleavened [Bread] of Sincerity and Truth; with the moft fimple and fincere Defire of knowing and practifing every Branch of our Duty which if we really have, it will keep us from all thefe Evils, and fecure an Uniformity of Behaviour, honourable to our Profeffion, and agreeable to the glorious Scheme and Defign of its illuftrious Author.

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In this Connection it occurs to me, and I conclude you remember, that I wrote to Epifle, which I fent you before your Messengers reached me, that you should not converse with Fornicators, and lewd Perfons (g), or others of 10 ill Fame and Character. But I think you muft apprehend, that by what I then wrote, I intended not entirely to forbid all Converfe with the lewd People of this World, or with covetous

Men,

8 Therefore let us keep the Feast, not with`old Leaven, neither with the Leaven of Malice, and Wickvened Bread of Sincerity edness; but with the unleaand Truth.

9 I wrote to you in an Epiftle, not to company with Fornicators.

10 Yet not altogether with the Fornicators of this World, or with the cove

tous, or Extortioner, or

with

Inference of fome from this Context, that this Epiftle was written about the Time of the
Pulover. Compare Chap. xvi. 8.

(g) Lewd Perfons.] I have rendered op, lewd Perfons, in thefe Verses, as I think it very plain, the Apofile intended the Word fhould be taken in that Extent; his Argument concluding yet more strongly against fome other Species of Lewdness, than against what is called fimple Fornication, deteftable as that is. See Vol. i. pag. 235, Note (ƒ). and Vol. ii. pag. 227. Note (f).

(b) Thofe

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with fuch an one, if called a Brother.
Men, or Extortioners, or Idolaters, among your
Heathen Neighbours; for then, as thefe Charac-
ters fo generally prevail among Mankind in this
degenerate State, you must indeed go out of the
World, and feek fome folitary Abode in the Wil-
dernefs;
which is what I never intended to re-

263 Sect. 9.

Cor.V. 10.

quire, or encourage. But the Intent of what I
I then faid, and of what I have now written un-
to you, is, that if any one who is named a Christian
Brother be evidently a lewd Perfon, or remarka-
bly covetous, or in Acts of occafional, tho' not
ftated and cuftomary Worship, an Idolater, or even
a Railer, who labours to provoke others by foul
Language, and infulting Behaviour, or injures
any in their Abfence by flanderous Reports, or a
Drunkard, and in any other Refpects an abandon-
ed Senfualift, or a rapacious Extortioner, you
Should not converfe familiarly, or fo much as eat
with fuch an one, in common Life, and much
lefs, in fuch religious Solemnities as are peculiar
to the Church of Chrift, which ought ever to
be a pure and holy Society.

You must understand my Caution with such a 12
Limitation as this: For what have I to do, as a
Chriftian Apoftle, to judge thofe that are without
the Pale of the Church? Of others indeed I may
fpeak; for do not even you, in your more private
Capacity, judge thofe that are within? I have
taught you, that every private Christian should
be concerned in his Station to maintain the Difci-
pline of the Church of Chrift, and to bear his
Teftimony against disorderly Walkers, which may
at prefent have a Place in it. But let it be 13
remembered, that thofe, who are without, GOD
judgeth (b); and he will find a Way, sooner or
later, to teftify his awful Displeasure against them,
for Crimes which they have committed against
the Law of Nature, and that Acquaintance with it
which

(b) Thofe, who are without, GOD judgeth.] Dr. Whitby thinks, this is an oblique Reference to the Mother-in-law of the inceftuous Perfon, who was a Heathen; which, from the Apostle's giving no Directions concerning her, is not improbable. But I think, the Views of St. Paul, in this Claufe, were more extenfive, and have paraphrafed them. accordingly.

(i) Take

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Reflections on the godly Difcipline of the Chriftian Church. which he knows they actually had, or might put away from among yourhave attained. Therefore in Confideration of this, felves that wicked Perfon. both in one View, and the other, let it be your immediate Care, as you regard the Peace of the Church, and the Safety of your own Souls, fpeedily, and with all due Solemnity, to take away from among yourselves the wicked Perfon (i) I have mentioned, and any others, whofe Characters may, like his, be fcandalous and infectious.

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HA

IMPROVEMENT.

APPY are thofe Churches who have it in their Power to exercife godly Difcipline, and to chafe from their Communion fuch Members, as are its Reproach and Scandal Happy they, who having this Power, have the Courage and Fidelity to use it, fo as not to be shamed and condemned by it. Let us not be too much furprized, that Offences come, and if there are, even in Chriftian Societies, fome Enormities, beyond what are commonly heard of among the Gentiles. It is no Wonder, if fuch abandon themselves, yea, if they are in righteous Judgment abandoned of GOD, to the uncontroulable Rage of their own Lufts and Corruptions, and the great Enemy of Souls be fuffered to carry them captive at his Pleafure. Let it however be our Concern that when this is the Cafe, the wicked Perfon be taken away. And tho' the extraordinary Power which the Apostles had, be long ceafed, and we cannot deliver over Offenders for Correction to Satan, as they did, let us take fuch Methods as are ftill open, for purging the old Leaven out of our Churches; and Oh, that we may be enabled to purge it out of our Hearts! remembering Chrift our Paffover, who was flain for us, feeding daily upon him by Faith, and keeping the facred Feftival, at once with Joy and Gladness, and with Simplicity and Sincerity of Heart.

Lamentable indeed is it, that fo many Vices fhould prevail in human Nature, that he, who would avoid all Society with Perfons of a bad Character, must needs go out of the World. But moft lamentable of all, that any one who is called a Brother, fhould be a Fornicator, or Covetous, an Idolater, or Railer, a Drunkard, or an Extortioner. May GoD preferve us from fuch deteftable Crimes, and may he purge out all fuch Spots as thefe from our Feafts of Charity! And to that End, may he

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(i) Take away, &c.] This feems plainly to imply, that the Corinthians had a Power of Excommunication in themselves, as has generally been pleaded by congregational Writers from

this Text.

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265

The Apoftle reproves their Contests in Heathen Courts. quicken our Zeal to bear a Teftimony against them, in every fuch Me- Sect. 9.

thod as fuits our Relation and Circumftances of Life! Above all, let not any ever imagine, that being joined in Communion with a Chriftian Church, can excufe the Guilt of fuch immoral and fcandalous Practifes,

for which the Wrath of GOD comes even upon the Children of Disobedience among the Heathen. GOD will have his Time to judge them that are Ver. 13. without; and not only Chriftians at large, as fome may fondly and per haps profanely be ready to call themselves, but Mahometans and Pagans too, fhall find Articles like thefe, fitting upon their Souls with a dreadful Weight, and if fincere Repentance do not make Way for Pardon, plunging them into the loweft Abyfs of Mifery, into a State of everlasting Separation from the blessed GOD, and all his holy and acceptable Servants.

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SECT. X.

The Apoftle reproves the Corinthians for profecuting their Brethren in Heathen Courts, and folemnly warns them of the fad Confequences which would attend the Indulgence of thofe criminal Difpofitions and Practices, in which Chriftianity found them, and from which it was intended to deliver them I Cor. VI. 1,---II.

I CORINTHIANS VI. I.

DA

I CORINTHIANS VI. 1.

I mentioned one

ARE any of you, having a Matter against another, go to Law before the Unjuft, and not

before the Saints.

HAVE already mentioned one very great Ir- Sect. 10. regularity among you; and now I am under an unhappy Neceffity of animadverting upon I Cor. VI. I. another; which is, that you enter into Suits of Law with each other in Heathen Courts. And is this poffible? Dare any of you indeed act fo shameful a Part? Can you really be fo imprudent, having any Matter [of Complaint] against another, as to refer it to the Decifion of Men, who lie under fo many Temptations to be unjust, and not of the Saints (a), of your Christian Brethren,

from

(a) Unjust—Saints.] The Heathen Judges, as Paul feems here to infinuate, or rather in VOL. IV.

LI

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