Reflections on the godly discipline of the Christian church. 241 IMPROVEMENT. verse HAPPY are those churches who have it in their power to ex- SECT. ercise godly discipline, and to chase from their communion such ix. members as are its reproach and scandal! Happy they, who having this power, have the courage and fidelity to use it, so as 13 not to be ashamed and condemned by it. Let us not be too much surprised, that offences come, and if there are, even in Christian societies, some enormities beyond what are commonly heard of 1 among the Gentiles. It is no wonder, if such abandon themselves, yea, if they are in righteous judgment abandoned of God, to the uncontroulable rage of their own lusts and corruptions, and the great enemy of souls be suffered to carry them captive at his pleasure. Let it however be our concern, that when this is the case, the wicked person be taken away. And though the extraordinary power which the apostles had, be long ceased, and we cannot deliver over offenders for correction to Satan, as they did, let us take such methods as are still open, for purging the old 5 leaven out of our churches; and O, that we may be enabled to 7 purge it out of our hearts! remembering Christ our Passover, who was slain for us, feeding daily upon him by faith, and keeping the sacred festival, at once with joy and gladness, and with simplicity and sincerity of heart. Lamentable indeed is it that so many vices should prevail in human nature; that he, who would avoid all society with persons of a bad character, must needs go out of the world. But most lamentable of all, that any one who is called a brother, 10 should be a fornicator, or covetous, an idolator, or railer, a drunk- 11 ard, or an extortioner. May God preserve us from such detestable crimes, and may he purge out all such spots as these from our feasts of charity! and to that end, may he quicken our zeal to bear a testimony against them, in every such method as suits our relation and circumstances of life! Above all, let not any ever imagine, that being joined in communion with a Christian church, can excuse the guilt of such immoral and scandalous practices, for which the wrath of God comes even upon the children of disobedience among the heathen. God will have his time 13 to judge them that are without; and not only Christians at large, as some may fondly and perhaps profanely be ready to call themselves, but Mahometans and Pagans too, shall find articles like these, sitting upon their souls with a dreadful weight, and if sincere repentance do not make way for pardon, plunging them into the lowest abyss of misery, into a state of everlasting separation from the blessed God, and all his holy and acceptable servants. 242 SECT. I. 1 Cor. The saints shall judge the world; SECT. X. The apostle reproves the Corinthians for prosecuting their brethrey in heathen courts; and solemnly warns them of the sad conse quences which would attend the indulgence of those criminal dispositions and practices in which Christianity found them, and from which it was intended to deliver them. 1 Cor. VI. 1-11. 1 CORINTHIANS VI. 1. 1 COR. VI. 1. I HAVE already mentioned one very great DARE any of you, having a mat irregularity among you; and now I am ter against another, under an unhappy necessity of animadverting go to law before the vi. 1 upon another; which is, that you enter into unjust, and not be suits of law with each other in heathen courts. fore the saints? And is this possible? Dare any of you indeed act so shameful a part? Can you really be so imprudent, having any matter of [complaint] against another, as to refer it to the decision of men, who lie under so many temptations to be unjust, and not of the saints, of your Christian brethren, from whose sanctity of character and profession you might reasonably expect the most equitable usage, and the utmost tenderness in accommodating differences, upon the 2 easiest terms that justice will allow. Do you 2 Do ye not know not yet indeed know, have you never been told that the saints shall judge the world? it by me, or by any other, that the saints shall and if the world in the great day judge the world? that they shall be judged by shall be assessors with Christ in that solemn you, are ye unworthy a est matters ? judgment when he shall condemn all the un- to judge the small- 3 I repeat it again; and you will find it a 3 Know ye not, To suppose, that the case of the incestu • Unjust-saints.] The heathen judges, gels, are not merely professing Christians. as Paul seems here to insinuate, or rather in effect to declare, were generally unjust; Christians were generally good, righteous, and holy men. There might be exceptions on each side, but the apostle's argument turns on what might commonly be supposed. The saints, who are to judge an pertaining to this 1 Cor. and should not be judged by persons not esteemed in the church: 243 angels? how much judge even the falling angels, themselves, who, SECT. more things that notwithstanding all their malignity and pride, pertain to this life. shall be brought to that tribunal at which you, having gloriously passed your own trial, shall vi. S be seated with Christ, your victorious Lord, when by his righteous sentence he shall send these rebellious spirits to that flaming prison which Divine justice hath prepared for them. 4 If then ye have And [are ye] not then much more apparently 4 judgments of things worthy to judge the little trifling affairs which life, set them to relate to this mortal life? If therefore ye, who judge who are least have such great honours and dignities in view, the have, in the mean time, any little controversies with each other, relating to the affairs of this life, do ye set those to determine them, who are of no esteem at all in the church, but whom ye know to be idolaters, despisers of the gospel, and enemies to your great Master, and his cause, as your heathen neighbours undoubtedly I speak to your are? I speak [this] to your shame; and hope you 5 shame. Is it so, that blush while you read it. Are things indeed come to such a pass in your church, celebrated as it is, and boasting so much of its wisdom, that this should be necessary? What, is there esteemed in church. there is not a wise Shall judge angels] Had the apostle, as Dr. Whitby supposed, referred to the power which many Christians had of driving out demons from those who were possessed by them, he would not have spoke of this as a future thing, nor can we suppose it to have been common to all Christians, nor would it have afforded an argument equally forcible with that which the paraphrase suggests. Mr. Reynolds extends the interpretation yet farther, and seems to infer from it, that the holy angels are still in a state of probation, and shall be rewarded at the last day, according to the degree of their fidelity and activity in the services assigned to them by Christ, as the head of angels, who shall take his redeemed from among men, to be assessors with him in that final sentence. Reyn. of Ang. p. 183. But the angelic legions are represented in quite another view, namely, as ministering to Christ, adding pomp to his appearance, and executing his sentence; which, I think, sufficiently proves that this is an ungrounded interpretation, and that if any such judgment to pass, with regard to them, it must be at some other time, and in some other place. But there seems a peculiar dignity and propriety in the determination of the great God, that when the devils, who are expressly said to be reserved in chains of darkness to the judgment of the great day, shall be condemned, the saints, being raised to the seats of glory which these wicked spirits have forfeited and lost, should assist in that sentence which shall display the victory of Christ over them in these his servants, once their captives, and will, no doubt, render the sentence itself yet more intolerable, to creatures of such malignity and pride. Do ye set them, &c] Our translation renders it, set them to judge, who are least esteemed in the church, as if the apostle had said, "take the meanest Christian, rather than any heathen." But I follow that preferred by Beza and Whitby. Limborch would understand xpilnpiæ, as equivalent to diania, and render it as a piece of advice, "constitute to yourselves courts of judicature, relating to civil affairs." Elsner shews, that nabw, signifies to place persons on judicial seats. Observ. Vol: II. p. 93. 244 The apostle therefore reproves their contests in the heathen courts. 1 Cor. the unbelievers. 7 Now therefore SECT. not one wise intelligent person among you all, man amongst you? who may be able to determine the cause of a no, not one that shall be able to judge beChristian brother? But though the civil contween his brethren? vi. 6 stitution allows you to decide these things 6 But brother goamong yourselves, one brother hath a suit eth to law with bro against another, and this before infidels, who ther, and that before cannot but be greatly scandalized at this, and take occasion from your mutual quarrels and accusations, to brand the whole body of you as injurious and avaricious; who, while you pretend to be so far superior to secular views, are yet so strongly attached to them, that with all your professions of universal benevolence and brotherly love, you cannot forbear wronging 7 one another? Therefore, whoever may have the right on his side, on this or that particular there is utterly a fault among you, bequestion, even this is altogether a fault among cause ye go to law you, that you bring it under the cognizance of one with another: heathens, on whatever occasion it be, that ye why do ve not rath have such lawsuits and contests with each other. do ye not rather suf er take wrong? why Why do ye not rather endure wrong patiently, fer yourselves to be and sit down by the loss? Why do ye not rather defrauded? suffer yourselves to be defrauded, than seek 8 such a remedy as this? But indeed, to speak plainly, you do wrong, and you defraud even [your] brethren. By such proceedings as these, you do much greater injury to the church of Christ, and the common cause of religion, than you can sustain from any particular brother against whom you advance a complaint. Nor is this the only thing wherein you are to blame, nor the only instance in which you injure each other. 9 8 Nay, ye do wrong and defraud, and that your breth ren. shall not inherit the And permit me to expostulate with you a 9 Know ye not, little on this head. What! can you contentedly that the unrighteous sacrifice this great and glorious hope which the kingdom of God? gospel gives you? With all your boasted knowl- Be not deceived: edge, do ye not indeed know, that the unjust shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived One brother hath a suit against another, &c.] Josephus observes, that the Romans, (who were now masters of Corinth,) permitted the Jews in foreign countries, to decide private affairs, where nothing capital was in question, among themselves; and from hence Dr. Lardner argues the justice of this rebuke of St. Paul, as there is no room to doubt but Christians might have had the same privilege, as they were looked upon as a Jewish sect Credibility, Vol. I. p. 165. But separate from that, they might certainly by mutual consent have chosen their brethren as referees. Even this is altogether a fault among you.] That adn, should be rendered even Raphelius hath well observed, and proved Annot. ex Herod, in lọc. dulterers, nor effem 1 Cor. The Corinthian converts were once of the worst character. 245 neither fornicators, by a vain imagination, that the Christian name SECT. nor idolaters, nor a- and privileges will secure you in the practice of inate, nor abusers your vices: for I now solemnly assure you, as of themselves with I have often done, that neither fornicators, nor vi. 9 mankind, idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate persons, who give themselves up to a soft, indolent way of living, and can endure no hardships in the way of duty and honour; nor Sodomites, those 10 Nor thieves, infamous degraders of human nature, Nor 10 nor covetous, nor thieves, nor those who are insatiably covetous, drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortion. nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor rapacious perers, shall inherit the sons, who by extortion, or any other kind of kingdom of God. 11 And such were are sanctified, but ve Jesus, and by the violence, invade the property of their neigh- And while I write this, excuse me, that I 11 some of you; but ye think it my duty solemnly, though tenderly, to are washed, but ye call you, my dear brethren, to recollect, that are justified in the such detested creatures as these, were some of name of the Lord you in your unconverted state! as many of your neighbours know, and as you yourselves, with deep humility and agony of soul confessed. But ye are washed, not merely by the baptism of water; but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified; Divine grace has made a happy change in your state and temper; and ye are purified and renewed, as well as discharged, from the condemnation to which ye were justly obnoxious, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of him whom we are now taught, through that common Saviour, to call with complacency our God. You ought therefore ever to maintain the most grateful sense of this important blessing, to stand at the remotest distance from sin, and to be tender of the peace and honour of a society which God hath founded by his extraordinary interposition, and into which he hath been pleased in so wonderful a manner to bring even you, who were once in the most infamous and deplorable state. IMPROVEMENT. ALAS! How great a reproach do we bring on our Christian profession, by so immoderate an attachment to our secular interests.! How much does the family of our common Father suffer, |