1. The duty enjoined, of which two things are expressed. 1. The behavior required, negatively expressed, not to Reef company. 2. The manner or degree, no not to eat. II. The object, who is designed by two things. 1. That he appear to be vicious; a fornicator, or cove tous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortion. er. We are not to understand only these particular vices, but these, or any other gross sins, or whatever carries in it visible wickedness. It is evident, that the apostle here, and in the context, intends that we should exclude out of our company all those who are visibly wicked men. For in the foregoing verses he expresses his meaning by this, that we should purge out the old leaven; and, explaining what he means by leaven, he includes all visible wickedness; as in verse 8. "Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." 2. The other thing by which the object of this behavior or dealing is characterised, is, that he be one that is called a brother, or one that hath been a professed Christian, and a member of the church. DOCTRINE. Those members of the visible Christian church that are become visibly wicked, ought not to be tolerated in the church, but' should be excommunicated. In handling this subject, I shall speak, II. Of the subject; and, III. Of the ends of it. I. I shall say something of the nature of excommunica tion. It is a punishment executed in the name and according to the will of Christ, whereby a person who hath heretofore enjoyed the privileges of a member of the visible church of Christ, is cast out of the church and delivered unto Satan. It is of the nature of a punishment inflicted: It is expressly called a punishment by the apostle in 2 Cor. ii. 6. Speaking of the excommunicated Corinthian, he says, "Sufficient to such a man is this punishment." For though it be not de signed by man for the destruction of the person who is the subject of it, but for his correction, and so is of the nature of a castigatory punishment, at least so far as it is a punishment inflicted by men ; yet it is in itself a great and dreadful calamity, and the most severe punishment that Christ bath appointed in the visible church. Although in it the church is to seek only the good of the person and his recovery from sin, there appearing, upon proper trial, no reason to hope for his recovery by gentler means; yet it is at God's sovereign disposal, whether it shall issue in his humiliation and repentance, or in his dreadful and eternal destruction; as it always doth issue in the one or the other. In the definition of excommunication now given, two things are chiefly worthy of consideration. 1. Wherein this punishment consists. 2. By whom it is inflicted. FIRST. I would show wherein this punishment consists; and it is observable that there is in it something privative, and something positive. FIRST. There is something privative in excommunication, which consists in being deprived of a benefit heretofore enjoyed. This part of the punishment is in scripture expressed by being cast out of the church. So this punishment in the Jewish church was called putting out of the synagogue, John xvi. 2. The word synagogue is a word of the same signification as the word church. So this punishment in the Christian church is called casting out of the church. The Apostle John, blaming Diotrephes for inflicting this punishment without cause, says, 3 John v. 10. "He casteth them out of the church." This privative part of the punishment is sometimes expressed by the church's withdrawing from a member, 2 Thess. iii. 6. "Now we command you, brethren, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly." The privative part of the punishment of excommunication consists in this, viz. in being cut off from the enjoyment of the privileges of God's visible people. The whole world of mankind is divided into these two sorts, those that are God's visible people, and so are within the visible church of Christ; and those that are without the visible church, and are of the visible kingdom of Satan. Now it is a great privilege to be one of the visible people of God, to be within the visible church of Christ, and to enjoy the benefits of such: It is abundantly so spoken of in scripture. On the other hand, it is very doleful to be without this visible kingdom, or to be cut off from the privileges of it, and to be excluded, as those who are to be treated as belonging to the visible kingdom of Satan. The privileges which are to be enjoyed in the visible church of Christ, from which excommunicated persons are to be cut off, are of these four kinds : 1. The charity of the church. 2. Brotherly society with the members of the church. 3. The fellowship of the church in worship. 4. The internal privileges of visible Christians. 1. They are cut off from being the objects of that charity of God's people which is due to Christian brethren. They are not indeed cut off from all the charity of God's people, for VOL. VIII. 3 K all men ought to be the objects of their love. There is a love due from the people of God even to the Heathens and others who are not in the visible church of Christ. Our love should be like that of our heavenly Father, who is kind to the evil. and the good. But I speak of the brotherly charity due to visible saints. Charity, as the apostle represents it, is as it were the bond by which the several members of the church of Christ are united together; and therefore he calls it the bond of perfectness; Col. iii. 14. "Put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness." But when a person is justly excommunicated, it is like a physician's cutting off a diseased member from the body; and then the bond which before united it to the body is cut or broken. A scandal is the same as a stumbling block; and when a member of the visible church is guilty of scandal, a stumbling block is laid before others in two respects. (1.) It is a dishonor to God, a bad example, and a stumbling block, as it is the occasion of others falling into sin. (2.) It is a stumbling block in the way of the charity of his fellow Christians towards the offender. As long therefore as the scandal remains, it stumbles the charity of others: And if it finally remains after proper endeavors to remove it, then it breaks their charity, and so the offender is cut off from the charity of the church. He is cut off from the charity of the church in the following respects: [1] As he is cut off from the charitable opinion and esteem of the church; so that the church cannot any longer look upon him as a Christian, and so rejects him; therefore excommunication is called a rejection, Tit. iii. 10. “A man that is an heretic, after the first and second admonition, reject." This implies that the church doth not approve, or that it disapproves the person as a Christian: It cannot any longer charitably look upon him as a saint, or fellow worshipper of God, and can do no other than, on the contrary, esteem him an enemy of God; and so doth openly withdraw its charity from him, ceasing to acknowledge him as a fellow Christian, or fellow worshipper of God, and henceforward treating him as no more a fellow worshipper than the Heathens. [2.] The person excommunicated is also cut off from that honor which is due to brethren and fellow Christians. To be a visible Christian is an honorable character, and much honor is due to persons of this character. But excommunicated persons forfeit this honor. Christians ought not to pay that honor and respect to them which they pay to others; but should treat them as unworthy of such honor, that they may be ashamed. Christ tells us, that they should "be unto us as Heathen men and publicans," (Matth. xviii. 17.) which implies a withdrawing from them that common respect and honor which we pay to others. There doubtless, therefore, should be a great difference between the respect that we show such, and that which we show others: We ought to treat them so as to let them plainly see that we do not count them worthy of it, and so as tends to put them to shame. [3.] They ought to be cut off from that brotherly complacence that is due to Christian brethren. Much love and complacency is due to those who are visible Christians, or to those whom we are obliged in charity to receive as saints; and on this account, because they are visible Christians. But this complacence excommunicated persons forfeit. The love of benevolence or of good will is indeed still due to them, as it is to the visibly wicked: We should still wish well to them, and seek their good. Excommunication itself is to be performed as an act of Benevolence or good will: We should seek their good by it; and it is to be used as a mean of their eternal salvation. But complacence and delight in them as visible Christians is to be withdrawn; and on the contrary they are to be the objects of displacency and abhorrence. When they are excommunicated they are avoided and rejected with abhorrence, as visibly and apparently wicked. We are to cast them out as an unclean thing which defiles the church of God. |