error, but an accumulative mischief: it is error, and wickedness

too.

Thirdly. And not only these, but all Turbulent and Factious Persons are disorderly walkers.

Such who rend the Church with schisms and divisions; and despise government and order, only because it is not of their own devising; and are so full of new models and new platforms of discipline in their fancies, that, in the meanwhile, they have made such wide breaches in the peace and unity of the Church, that I doubt it would much puzzle not only their overweening wisdoms, but the wisdom of an angel himself, to compose and make them up again.

And,

Fourthly. Not only these, but also all idle and impertinent Tattlers, all slothful Tale-bearers; who are very busily idle in gadding from house to house, like a company of giddy flies buzzing up and down; and who have no other employment, but very solemnly to whisper nothing in every man's ear they meet: these also are branded by the Apostle, as disorderly persons.

Indeed, a great part of this chapter is spent about these : especially v. 11. We hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busy-bodies; very busy they are, but yet do no work: unprofitable burdens to the earth; and good for nothing in the world, but only to keep the air in motion.

Now from all these sorts of disorderly persons, we ought to withdraw ourselves; to have no converse nor society with them.

Secondly. And to this we are bound by a command, as express and urgent, as any contained in the Scriptures. The form of it runs imperatively: We command you, brethren. And the authority of this command is most absolute and sovereign: In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ: i. e. We command you by the authority of Christ, or Christ commands you by us, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly. And here we may observe Two things:

First. That a mere external profession of Christianity, though it be overborne and contradicted by a disorderly and sinful life, is here made by the Apostle a sufficient title to a fraternity with true Christians.

Though they walk disorderly, and are dissolute in their lives, and erroneous in their tenets; yet, while they own the Head, Christ Jesus, and make profession of his name, they are, you

see, acknowledged and called Brethren. They all belong to the same family, the Church, till they are solemnly cast out from thence. And not only the dutiful and obedient are so called, but the untractable and rebellious: Withdraw.....from every brother that walketh disorderly.

Secondly. The Apostle commands them to be more cautious in abstaining from converse with a disorderly, lewd, or erroneous Christian, because he is a brother, than if he were an utter stranger to the commonwealth of Israel, and a sworn enemy as well to the profession as to the practice of Christianity: Withdraw....from every brother, rather than from every other person, that walketh disorderly.

To this purpose it is a most remarkable place, and well worthy our most serious consideration, 1 Cor. v. from the 9th to the 12th verse: I wrote unto you in an epistle, not to company with fornicators. Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world. But now I have written unto you, not to keep company, if any man, that is called a brother, be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one, no not to eat. It seems, that, in a former Epistle, which perhaps is not now extant, the Apostle had forbidden the believing Corinthians all converse with wicked men which,, possibly, might occasion some trouble and perplexity in them, because, in those beginning days of the Church, the number of Christians was so small, that the very necessities of life required their converse with their heathen neighbours, who were idolaters, fornicators, drunkards, and generally as wicked as wickedness itself could make them. And, therefore, to relieve their minds of this scruple, the Apostle writes to them again; and distinguishes wicked persons into two sorts: such, as visibly belonged to the world, and were professed Heathens, whom he calls the fornicators and idolaters of this world; and such, as belonged to the Visible Church, and were Christians by an external profession, but yet continued in their old sins, though not in their old Gentilism. "Now," saith the Apostle, "I meant not that you should wholly abstain from having any converse with wicked Heathens, though their crimes be very vile and flagitious: for, since the greatest part of the world, and of those among whom you live, are Heathens, the necessities of human life require that you should have commerce and dealing with them. You must go out of the world, i. e.

you cannot possibly live, if you be wholly interdicted their society; and debarred from those, with whom your natural relations, and secular affairs, interests, and dependencies, are so closely interwoven. But there is another sort of wicked persons: those, who are impious and scandalous Christians; those, who are called brethren, who make profession of the samé common faith and own the same Lord and Saviour; and yet their lives are as profane, as their profession is holy. From these you ought to withdraw yourselves: If any man, that is called a brother, be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one, no not to eat."

You see, then, that the command is most express; and that, which the Apostle urgeth with a great deal of vehemence and

earnestness.

And, in prosecuting it, I shall

State the Duty, and shew you how far we ought to with-
draw from those that walk disorderly:

Give you some Reasons, why we ought to do it: and
Make Application of all.

I. In STATING THE DUTY, I must premise, that our condition is much different from those Primitive Churches to whom the Apostle then wrote. They lived mingled among heathens and infidels, who made up far the more populous part of all their cities: then, the Church was in the world, as a little leaven in a great quantity of meal, as our Saviour compares it, Mat. xiii. 33. But now, since the progress and spreading of the Gospel, the world (at least this part of it) is come into the Church we live, we converse with few or none, but those, who are called brethren; and are all Christians and the people. of God, at least by external profession and vocation.

And, therefore, I shall

i. Shew you THE CASES, WHEREIN WE ARE NOT BOUND TO WITHDRAW FROM THOSE, WHO WALK DISORDERLY.

1. In the first place, As the Primitive Christians might lawfully converse with Heathens in managing their civil affairs in Traffic and Commerce, and whatsoever else was for the Necessity or

Convenience of their subsistence; the like converse may we lawfully maintain with ungodly and dissolute Christians.

For the reason in this case is the very same. 'The Apostle allowed them to company with Heathens, though they were vile and wicked; because most of those, among whom they lived, were Heathens; and, if this were not granted, there were no living in the world. And, therefore, now that we live among none but those who are Christians; though the greatest part of them should be supposed to be overgrown with vice and notoriously wicked and profane; swearers, drunkards, unclean and covetous persons: yet we may lawfully converse with them about the necessary concerns of life; otherwise, still the same inconveniencies would press us, that we must go out of the world. We may trade and traffic with them, and perform all offices of civility and courtesy, which do not either engage us unto or demonstrate too great a familiarity and inwardness with them. Yea, the very same converse, which was allowed the Primitive Christians with their Heathen neighbours, may, by the parity of reason, in all circumstances be allowed us with dissolute and disorderly Christians.

2. We are not so far to withdraw ourselves from them, as to violate the Bonds of Nature; or those respects which we owe, according to the Relations in which we stand towards them.

A godly Son must not withdraw himself from under the government and authority of a wicked father: and those, who are unequally yoked to wicked and dissolute persons, must not therefore assume a liberty, either of relinquishing that relation or of neglecting the duties of it, because the other is lewd and licentious. Servants must not therefore reject the commands of their masters, and refuse obedience to them because they are wicked; for this would put all the world into confusion and rude disorder. Dominion is not founded in grace. And it would be a wild world, if inferiors should acknowledge no superior, but those, who are truly and cordially subject unto God; if servants should obey no master, but such as obey their Master Jesus Christ; if yoke-fellows should not acknowledge one another, unless they were mystically and spiritually married unto Christ; if children should not be subject to their parents, unless their parents themselves were the children of God. No: we ought to converse with all persons, be they never so loose and dissolute, according to the relations in which we stand unto

them and that also, with the greatest intimacy and familiarity, and most endeared friendship that such relations do challenge from us. For the same authority, which hath commanded us to withdraw from every brother who walketh disorderly, hath commanded us likewise to love our relations: and, therefore, though they should remain obstinately wicked after all our endeavours and persuasions to reclaim them, we ought not to withdraw either our persons or our affections from them.

3. We are not to withdraw from any wicked person, if we have great hopes and strong probabilities of reforming and reducing him by our converse.

For this is to act the physician: and with whom should such an one be most frequent, but with the diseased? And therefore we find that our Lord Jesus Christ himself, who, by the Apostle, is said to be separate from sinners, Heb. vii. 26. was calumniated and traduced upon this very account, because he kept so much company and society with them; and was accused by the supercilious and blind Pharisees, who could not distinguish between the leprous and the physician, as a sinner himself, because so familiar with sinners: Matth. xi. 19. The Son of Man came eating and drinking; i. e. he demeaned himself affably and courteously to all, accommodating himself to all their lawful actions; and they say, Behold a man gluttonous, and a wine-bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners: and so, again, when they were captiously censuring him for eating with publicans and sinners, Matth. ix. 12. he justifies this action, which seemed so obnoxious to them, by the charity of his intention: They, that be whole, need not a physician; but they, that are sick: he was conversant among diseased persons, with a design of healing them; and among wicked persons, with a design of converting and reforming them. And, certainly, the same charity may justify our conversing with such for, should all serious and pious persons withdraw from them, it would only leave those diseases, which are in themselves dangerous, altogether desperate and incurable: and it would fare with them, as too often with many poor wretches in the plague, who perish miserably; not so much from the malignity of their disease, as only for want of help and assistance. But, yet, Two Cautions are here necessarily to be observed. (1) That thou thyself be very watchful over thine own heart, and over thine own actions, when thou art in wicked company, even with a design of doing them good.