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 But complacence and delight in them as visible Christians is to be withdrawn; and on the contrary they are to be the objects of displacency and abhorrence.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 de files the church of God.

In this sense the Psalmist professes an hatred of those who were the visible enemies of God. Psal. cxxxix. 21, 22. "Do I not hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? And am I not grieved with those that rise up against thee? I hate them with perfect hatred." Not that he hated them with an hatred of malice or ill will, but with displacency and abhorrence of their wickedness. In this respect we ought to be the children of our Father who is in heaven, who, though he loves many wicked men with a love of benevolence, yet cannot love them with a love of complacence. Thus excommunicated persons are cut off from the charity of the church.

2. They are cut off from the society which Christians have together as brethren. I speak now of the common society which Christian brethren have together. Thus we are commanded to withdraw from such; 2 Thess. iii. 6. To avoid them; Rom. xvi. 17. To have no company with them; 2 Thess. iii. 14. And to treat them as Heathens and publicans ; Matth. xviii. 17. The people of God are not only to avoid society with visibly wicked men in sacred things; but when excommunicated, as much as may be to avoid and withdraw from them as to that common society which is proper to subsist among Christians.

Not that they should avoid speaking to them on any occa sion. All manner and all degrees of society are not forbidden; but all unnecessary society, all such society as holds forth complacence in them, or such as is wont to be among those that delight in the company of one another. We should not associate ourselves with them so as to make them our companions. Yea there ought to be such an avoiding of their company as shall show great dislike, or such as there is wont to be between persons who very much dislike each other.

Particularly, we are forbidden such a degree of society, or appearance of associating ourselves with them, as there is in making them our guests at our tables, or in being their guests at their tables; as is manifest in the text, where we are com manded to have no company with them, no not to cat. That

this respects not eating with them at the Lord's Supper, but a common eating, is evident by two things.

(1.) It is evident by the words, that this eating here forbidden, is one of the lowest degrees of keeping company, which are forbidden. Keep no company with such an one, saith the apostle, no not to eat: As much as to say, no not in so low a degree as to eat with him. But this would be a ridiculous sort of language for eating with him at the Lord's Supper, which is the very highest degree of visible Christian communion. Who can suppose that the apostle would speak such nonsense as this, Take heed and have no company with a man, no not so much as in the highest degree of communion that you can have.

(2.) The apostle mentions this eating as a way of keeping company which they might not hold with an excommunicated brother, which however they might hold with the Heathen. He tells them, not to keep company with fornicators; then he informs them, he means not with the fornicators of this world, that is, the Heathens; but, saith he, "if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, &c. with such an one keep no company, no not to eat." This makes it most apparent, that the apostle doth not mean eating at the Lord's table; for so they might not keep company with the fornicators of the Heathens any more than with an excommunicated person.

Here naturally arise two questions.

QUESTION 1. How far are the church to treat excommunicated persons as they would treat the Heathens, or those who never have been of the visible church? I answer, they are to treat them as Heathens, excepting in these two things, in which there is a difference to be observed.

(1.) They are to have a greater concern for their welfare still than if they had never been brethren, and therefore ought to take more pains, by admonitions and otherwise, to reclaim and save them, than they are obliged to take towards those who have been always Heathens. This seems manifest by

that of the apostle, 2 Thess. iii. 14, 15. “And if any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man, and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed. Yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother." The consideration that he hath been a brother heretofore, and that we have not so finally cast him off from that relation, but that we are still hoping and using means for his recovery, obliges us to concern ourselves more for the good of his soul than for those with whom we never had any such connexion; and so to pray for him, and to take pains with him by admonishing him.

The very reason of the thing shows the same. For this very ordinance of excommunication is used for this end, that we may thereby obtain the good of the person excommunicated. And surely we should be more concerned for the good of those who have been our brethren, and who are now under the operation of means used by us for their good, than for those with whom we never had any special connexion. Thus there should be more of the love of benevolence exercised towards persons excommunicated, than towards those who never were members of the church.

But then,

(2.) On the other hand, as to what relates to the love of complacence, they ought to be treated with greater displa cency and disrespect than the Heathen. This is plain by the text and context. For the apostle plainly doth not require of us to avoid the company of the Heathen, or the fornicators of the world, but doth expressly require us to avoid the company of any brother who shall be guilty of any of the vices pointed out in the text, or any other like vice, and therefore be excommunicated.

This is also plain by the reason of the thing. For those who have once been visible Christians and have apostatized and cast off that visibility, deserve to be treated with more abhorrence than those who have never made any pretensions to Christianity. The sin of such in apostatizing from their

profession is more aggravated than the sin of those who never made any profession. They far more dishonor religion, and are much more abhorred of God. Therefore when Christ says, Matth. xviii. 17. “Let him be unto thee as an Heathen man and a publican," it is not meant that we should treat an excommunicated brother as Christians ought to treat Heathens and publicans; for they might eat with them, as Christ himself did; and the apostle gives leave to eat with such, 1 Cor. x. 27; and in the context gives leave to keep company with such; yet forbids to eat with an excommunicated person.

Christ's meaning must be, that we should treat an excommunicated person, as the Jews were wont to treat the Heathens and publicans; and as the disciples had been always taught among the Jews, and brought up, and used to treat them. They would by no means eat with publicans and sinners; they would not eat with the Gentiles, or with the Samaritans. Therefore Peter durst not eat with the Gentiles when the Jews were present; Gal. ii. 12.

QUESTION 2. What kindness and respect may and ought to be shown to such persons?

(1.) There are some things by which the members of the church are obliged to show kindness to them; and these things are chiefly two, to pray for them, and to admonish

them.

(2.) The common duties and offices of humanity ought to be performed towards them; such as relieving them when they are sick, or under any other distress; allowing them those benefits of human society, and that help, which are needful for the support and defence of their lives and property.

(3.) The duties of natural and civil relations are still to be performed towards them. Excommunication doth not release children from the obligation of duty to their parents, nor parents from parental affection and care towards their children. Nor are husbands and wives released from the