are of the household of faith have with pagans and heathens ? Every unbeliever is a traitor ; he commits treason daily against the crown and dignity of heaven : and what loyal subjects will hold communion with traitors ? Unbelievers are the greatest robbers ; they rob God of his declarative glory, though they cannot rob him of his essential glory ; they rob him of the glory of his truth and faithfulness ; as if he would falsify the word that is gone out of his mouth : as if he were yea and nay ; and as if his credit was so low and contemptible, that he must needs run a hazard that shall trust to him, or roll himself upon him. They rob him of the glory of his goodness and mercy, as if there were any sins too great for him to pardon, or any mercy too great for him to give, or any wrath too great for him to divert, or any debt too great for him to satisfy. They rob him of the glory of his omnipotency and all-sufficiency, as if there were something too hard for a God. Now what communion can the people of God have with robbers, with the greatest robbers, with the worst of robbers? and yet such are all unbelievers. And therefore let no unbelievers mutter or murmur when the door of admission is shut against them. But,
(2.) Secondly, Such as have a form, a picture, a mask, a vizard of godliness, hut deny the power, 2 Tim. iii. 5.
(3.) Thirdly, Such as walk disorderly, that live either without a call- ing, or idly and negligently in their calling ;^ these make religion odious, by making religion a mask for their idleness and laziness : 2 Thes. iii. 6, ' Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly.' Now, who they are that walk disorderly you may see in ver. 11, 'For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies.' Such vagrant professors that live idly, that will have an oar in every man's boat, a sickle in every man's harvest, a curious eye upon every man's way and work, are to be shut out of the communion of Christians, and to be shunned as a man would shun a serpent, an ill air, a contagious disease, or as the seaman shuns rocks, and sands, and shelves. It was a great vanity in Dionysius, that would needs be the best poet ; and in Caligula, that would needs be the best orator ; and in Nero, that would needs be the best fiddler ; and so became the three worst princes, minding more other men's business than their own callings ; so it is a very great vanity in many professors to mind more other men's busi- ness than their own ; from the society of such saints must withdraw. No man is too noble to have a calling. If iron had reason, it would choose rather to be used in labour than to grow rusty in a corner. By Mahomet's law the Grand Turk himself was to be of some trade. The hour of idleness is the hour of temptation ; an idle person is the devil's tennis-baU, tossed by him at his pleasure. God ordained the neck of the consecrated ass should be broken — Exod. xiii. 13 — instead of sacrificing him ; peradventure because that creature hath ever been the hieroglyphic of sloth and laziness. Among the Egyptians idleness
^ Solon made a law, that the son should not be bound to relieve his father when he was old, unless he had set him in his youth to some^calling. — Plutarch in the Life of Solon.
HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 65
was a capital crime. Among the Lucans, he that lent money to an idle person was to lose it, saith Diphilus.i Among the Corinthians idle persons were delivered to the carnifex. By Solon's law idle per- sons were to sniFer death. The ancients call idleness the burial of a living man. And Seneca had rather be sick than idle. Now shall nature do more than gi-ace ? Shall poor blind heathens be so severe against idle persons, and shall Christians embrace them ? Shall they not rather turn their backs upon them, and have no communion with them who think themselves too great or too good to hold the plough?
(4.) Fourthly, Such lohose judgments are corrupt and unsound in foundation-truths : Titus iii. 10, ' A man that is an heretic, after the first and second admonition, reject.' ' A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump : ' and what leaven is more infectious than that of heresy and error ? 2 John 9, 10, ' Whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God : he that abideth in the doc- trine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed.' You must have nothing to do with them who have nothing to do with God, 1 John ii, 22-25 ; Col, ii. 18, 19: your house must be too hot to hold him who holds not fast to foundation-truths, who holds not close to Christ the head. Eusebius reports of John the Evangelist, that he would not suffer Cerinthus the heretic in the same bath with him, lest some judgment should abide them both. 2 He that had the leprosy in his head was to be pro- nounced utterly unclean. Lev. xiii. 44. The breath of the erroneous is more dangerous and infectious than the breath of lepers : for one infects but the body, but the other infects the soul, and therefore ought more carefully to be avoided. An erroneous mind is as odious to God as a vicious life ; and why should it not be so to us also ? Cer- tainly we should shun the society of erroneous persons as we should shun a serpent in the way, or poison in our meat : 1 Tim. vi. 5, ' Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness : from such withdraw thyself : ' or, as the Greek word d(f>Laraao signifies, stand ofi*, keep at a distance, as you would from one that hath an infectious disease, or as seamen stand off from rocks or from a leeshore. It is recorded by Theodoret, that when Lucius, an Arian bishop, came and preached amongst the Antiochians his erroneous doctrines, the people went out of the con- gregation, and would not so much as lend an ear to him. 3 In these days there are many old errors new vampt, and old Jezebels, old harlots, new painted. The best way is not to lend an ear to them, but to serve them as they served Jezebel : they gave her no quarter, but cast her down and trode her under foot, 2 Kings ix. 10, 30-37. Errors about the foundation are like the Jerusalem artichokes, which overrun all the ground where they are planted, and choke the very heart of it ; and therefore to be abhorred, avoided, and shunned, as a man would shun hell itself Who but a fool or madman would exchange one old piece of gold for a hundred new counters ? and what
^ As before, the Lucanians.— G. * Eusebius, 1. iii. c. 25.— G.
^ Eccles. Hist., lib. iv. cap. 20. VOL. IV. E
66 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.