1. Christians should not allow any thing to alienate them from their brethren, who afford credible evidence that they are the servants of God. Owing to ignorance, early prejudice, weakness of faith, and other causes, there may and must exist a diversity of opinion and practice on minor points of duty. But this diversity is no sufficient reason for rejecting from Christian fellowship any member of the family of Christ. It is, however, one thing to recognise a man as a Christian, and another to recognise him as a suitable minister of a church, organized on a particular form of government and system of doctrines, vs. 1 — 12.
2. A denunciatory or censorious spirit is hostile to the spirit of the gospel. It is an encroachment on the prerogatives of the only Judge of the heart and conscience ; it blinds the mind to moral distinctions, and prevents the discernment between matters unessential and those vitally important ; and it leads us to forget our own accountableness, and to over- look our own faults in our zeal to denounce those of others, vs. 4 — 10.
3. It is sinful to indulge contempt for those whom we suppose to be our inferiors, vs. 3, 10.
4. Christians should remember that living or dying they are the Lord's. This imposes the obligation to observe his will and to seek his glory ; and it affords the assurance that the Lord will provide for all their wants. This peculiar propriety in his own people Christ has obtained by his death and resurrection, vs. 8, 9.
5. We should stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, and not allow our consciences to be brought under the yoke of bond- age to human opinions. There is a strong tendency in men to treat, as matters of conscience, things which God has never enjoined. Wherevei this disposition has been indulged or submitted to, it has resulted in bringing one class of men under the most degrading bondage to another ; and in the still more serious evil of leading them to disregard the authority