this evil, and to be encumbered with a mixture of wicked men, even till the day of judgment, it is vain to seek for a church free from every spot.

XIV. But they exclaim, that it is an intolerable thing that the pestilence of crimes so generally prevails. I grant it would be happy if the fact were otherwise; but in reply, I would present them with the judgment of the apostle. Among the Corinthians, more than a few had gone astray, and the infection had seized almost the whole society; there was not only one species of sin, but many; and they were not trivial faults, but dreadful crimes; and there was not only a corruption of morals, but also of doctrine. In this case, what is the conduct of the holy apostle, the organ of the heavenly Spirit, by whose testimony the Church stands or falls? Does he seek to separate from them? Does he reject them from the kingdom of Christ? Does he strike them with the thunderbolt of the severest anathema? He not only. does neither of these things; but, on the contrary, acknowledges and speaks of them as a Church of Christ and a society of saints. If there remained a church among the Corinthians, where contentions, factions, and emulations were raging; where cupidity, disputes, and litigations were prevailing; where a crime held in execration even among the Gentiles, was publicly sanctioned; where the name of Paul, whom they ought to have revered as their Father, was insolently defamed; where some ridiculed the doctrine of the resurrection, with the subversion of which the whole Gospel would be annihilated; where the graces of God were made subservient to ambition, instead of charity; where many things were conducted without decency and order (z); and if there still remained a Church, because the ministry of the word and sacraments was not rejected, who can refuse the name of a Curch to those who cannot be charged with a tenth part of those crimes? And those who display such violence and severity against the churches of the present age, I ask how would they have conducted themselves towards

(2) 1 Cor. i. 11. iii. 3. v. 1. vi. 7. ix. 1. xiv. 26, 40. xv. 12.

the Galatians who almost entirely deserted the gospel, but among whom nevertheless the same apostle found churches? (a)

XV. They object that Paul bitterly reproves the Corinthians, for admitting an atrocious offender into their company, and follows this reproof with a general declaration that with a man of scandalous life it is not lawful even to eat. (b) Here they exclaim, If it be not lawful to eat common bread with him, how can it be lawful to unite with him in eating the bread of the Lord? I confess, it is a great disgrace, if persons of immoral lives occupy places among the children of God; and if the sacred body of Christ be prostituted to them, the disgrace is vastly increased. And indeed, if churches be well re. gulated, they will not suffer persons of abandoned characters among them, nor will they promiscuously admit the worthy and the unworthy to that sacred supper. But because the pastors are not always so diligent in watching over them, and sometimes exercise more indulgence than they ought, or are prevented from exerting the severity they would wish, it happens that even those who are openly wicked are not always expelled from the society of the saints. This I acknowledge to be a fault, nor have I any inclination to extenuate it, since Paul sharply reproves it in the Corinthians. But though the Church may be deficient in its duty, it does not therefore follow that it is the place of every individual to pass judgment of separation for himself. I admit that it is the duty of a pious man to withdraw himself from all private intimacy with the wicked, and not to involve himself in any voluntary connection with them; but it is one thing, to avoid familiar intercourse with the wicked; and another thing, from hatred of them, to renounce the communion of the Church. And persons who deem it sacrilege to participate with them the bread of the Lord, are in this respect far more rigid than Paul. For when he exhorts us to a pure

(a) Gal. i. 6. iii. 1. iv. 11.

(b) 1 Cor. v. 2, 11, 12

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and holy participation of it, he requires not one to examine another, or every one to examine the whole church, but each individual to prove himself. If it were unlawful to communicate with an unworthy person, Paul would certainly have enjoined us to look around us, to see whether there were not some one in the multitude by whose impurity we might be contaminated. But as he only requires every one to examine himself, he shews that it is not the least injury to us if some unworthy persons intrude themselves with us. And this is fully implied in what he afterwards subjoins; "he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh judgment to himself.” (c) He says not to others, but to himself, and with sufficient reason. For it ought not to be left to the judgment of every individual, who ought to be admitted into the Church, and who ought to be expelled from it. This authority belongs to the whole Church, and cannot be exercised without legitimate order, as will be stated more at large hereafter. It would be unjust therefore that any individual should be contaminated with the unworthiness of another, whose approach it is neither in his power nor his duty to prevent.

XVI. But though this temptation sometimes arises even to good men, from an inconsiderate zeal for righteousness, yet we shall generally find that excessive severity is more owing to pride and haughtiness, and a false opinion which persons entertain of their own superior sanctity, than to true holiness, and a real concern for its interests. Those therefore who are most daring in promoting a separation from the church, and act as it were as standard bearers in the revolt, have in general no other motive than to make an ostentatious display of their own superior excellence, and their contempt of all others. Augustine correctly and judiciously observes; "Whereas the pious rule and method of ecclesiastical discipline ought principally to regard the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, which the apostle enjoined to be preserved by mutual forbearance, and which not being pre

(c) 1 Cor. xi. 28, 29.

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served, the medicinal punishment is evinced to be not only superfluous, but even pernicious, and therefore to be no longer medicinal; those wicked children, who, not from a hatred of the iniquities of others, but from a fondness for their own contentions, earnestly endeavour to draw the simple and uninformed multitude wholly after them, by entangling them with boasting of their own characters, or at least to divide them: those person's, I say, inflated with pride, infuriated with obstinacy, insidious in the circulation of calumnies, and turbulent in raising seditions, conceal themselves under the mask of a rigid severity, lest they should be proved to be destitute of the truth; and those things which in the Holy Scriptures are commanded to be done with great moderation, and without violating the sincerity of love, or breaking the unity of peace, for the correction of the faults of our brethren, they pervert to the sacrilege of schism, and an occasion of separation from the Church." To pious and peaceable persons, he gives this advice: that they should correct in many whatever they can; that what they cannot, they should patiently bear, and affectionately lament; till God either reform and correct it, or at the harvest, root up the tares, and sift out the chaff. All pious persons should study to fortify themselves with these counsels, lest, while they consider themselves as valiant and strenuous defenders of righteousness, they depart from the kingdom of heaven, which is the only kingdom of righteousness. For since it is the will of God that the communion of his Church should be maintained in this external society, those who, from an aversion to wicked men, destroy the token of that society, enter on a course in which they are in great danger of falling from the communion of saints. Let them consider, in the first place, that in a great multitude there are many who escape their observation, who nevertheless are truly holy and innocent in the sight of God. Secondly, let them consider, that of those who appear subject to moral maladies, there are many who by no means please or flatter themselves in their vices, but are oftentimes aroused with a serious fear of God, to aspire to greater integrity. Thirdly, let them consider that judgment ought not to be

pronounced upon a man from a single act, since the holiest persons have sometimes most grievous falls. Fourthly, let them consider, that the ministry of the word, and the participation of the sacraments, ought to have too much influence in preserving the unity of the Church, to admit of its being destroyed by the guilt of a few impious men. Lastly, let them consider that in forming an estimate of the Church, the judgment of God is of more weight than that of man.

XVII. When they allege that there must be some reason why the Church is said to be holy, it is necessary to examine the holiness in which it excels; but by refusing to admit the existence of a church without absolute and sinless perfection, we should leave no church in the world. It is true that, as Paul tells us, “Christ loved the Church, and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it, by the washing of water, by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing." (d) It is nevertheless equally true, that the Lord worketh from day to day in smoothing its wrinkles and purging away its spots: whence it follows, that its holiness is not yet perfect. The Church therefore is so far holy, that it is daily improving, but has not yet arrived at perfection; that it is daily advancing, but has not yet reached the mark of holiness: as in another part of this work will be more fully explained. The predictions of the prophets, therefore, that " Jerusalem shall be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through her any more," and that the way of God shall be a "way of holiness," over which "the unclean shall not pass;” (e) are not to be understood as if there were no blemish remaining in any of the members of the Church; but because they aspire with all their souls towards perfect holiness and purity, the goodness of God attributes to them that sanctity to which they have not yet fully attained. And though such evidences of sanctification are oftentimes rarely to be found among men, yet it must be maintained, that from the foundation of the world, there has never been a period in which God had not his Church in it; and that to the consummation of all things,

(d) Ephes. v. 25-27.

(e) Joel iii. 17. Isaiah xxxv. 8.