[Under the law, men were forbidden to sow their fields with different kinds of seed, or to wear clothes that were formed of different kinds of materials, as of woollen and linen : nor were they to yoke together an ox, which was a clean animal, with an ass, which was unclean*^. The import of these different laws was "the same : they were all intended to inti- mate, that in the Lord's people there should be a perfect sim- plicity of mind, and an entire freedom from all mixture of evil. It is to the yoking of the clean and unclean together, that the Apostle refers in our text: and his illustration of it is beautiful. He represents believers as the temple of the Lord, in which nothing but what is holy should be found. All the vessels of that temple must be holy ; and all the priests that officiate in it must be holy also. Li confirmation of this he quotes a passage from the Prophet Isaiah, where the priests in Babylon are enjoined to keep themselves from every species of defilement, in daily and hourly expectation that the order for their return to their own country shall be issued, and that they may be in a fit state to bear the vessels of the Lord, which would be restored by Cyrus for the service of the sanctuary at Jerusalem^. In such a state must all Christians, who are a holy priesthood, keep themselves, if they would please and honour God : they must " come out from among the ungodly, and be separate, and not touch any thing that is unclean." In Babylon they must be, till the time of their release from it : but they must keep themselves from all close connexion with the people of it, and be in heart and mind as separate as the vessels of the sanctuary are from any profane use. The Apostle's direction, not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers, is justly urged against that most fatal of all connexions, the union of a believer with an unbeliever in the indissoluble bonds of marriage. This union on the part of a believer, is to be formed "only in the LordV and with such a partner as will prove an helpmate for the soul. But the same rule should as far as possible be observed in every other relation of life, that so the spiritual person may not augment his difficulties in the way to heaven.]
3. We must not cultivate any unnecessary inti- macy with them —
[What is necessary for the discharge of our social duties must, as we have before said, be allowed : yet even that is rather to be submitted to from necessity than be sought from choice. The whole of the Apostle's argument extends to this. He supposes, that, as " the whole world lieth in wickedness," it is almost impossible for a believer to be much in union with
<^ Deut. xxii. 9—11. ^ Isai. Hi. 11. <" 1 Cor. vii. 39.
552 o CORINTHIANS, VI. 14—18. [2028.
it without contracting some defilement. Hence he says, in reference to all who would divert us from the path of duty, or impede in any way our spiritual progress, " Come out from among them and be separate, and touch not the unclean thing." Aware how soon " evil communications will corrupt good man- ners," his advice is like that of Solomon, " enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men : avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it and pass away^." In a word, the true line of conduct seems to be that which a physician would follow in the time of a pestilential disease. He would go amongst the infected from a sense of duty, and with a desire to do them good: but he would not make them his compa- nions, nor stay longer with them than his duty, and their necessities, required: and both before and after his visit, as well as during his intercourse with them, he would use all proper means to preserve himself from the contagion which he had reason to apprehend.]