SERMON II.

2 CORINTHIANS, VI. 17, 18.

WHEREFORE COME OUT FROM AMONG THEM, AND BE YE SEPARATE, SAITH THE LORD, AND TOUCH NOT THE UNCLEAN THING; AND I WILL RECEIVE YOU, AND WILL BE A FATHER UNTO YOU, AND YE SHALL BE MY SONS AND DAUGHTERS, SAITH THE LORD ALMIGHTY.

THE Epistle from which the text is taken, was addressed by St. Paul to the Church of God at Corinth. The inhabitants of that city were notorious, even in the heathen world, for the dissoluteness of their lives. Being enriched by commerce, they indulged to excess in all the sensual pleasures which wealth can purchase. Even among people of this character, the preaching of the Gospel by the Apostle had been eminently blessed: a con

siderable congregation, consisting partly of Jews resident at Corinth, but chiefly of Gentiles, having been gathered from among them. Many of these, however, appeared to have retained, for a considerable time, a strong propensity to the peculiar sins of their unconverted state; and were therefore the more easily drawn aside by false teachers, who took advantage of the Apostle's absence, to introduce amongst them doctrines of a licentious tendency. These teachers, abusing the liberty to which Christians are called by the Gospel in matters of indifference, induced some to return to a very blamable laxity of manners; and to frequent, without restraint, the company, and even the sacrifices, of their idolatrous neighbours. The consequence was, that they were returning to the spirit and conduct of idolaters: and if they had been suffered to go on in this course, they would soon have lost, along with the purity of Christian practice, the very form of Christian faith. Having put away a good conscience, concerning faith they would have made shipwreck. Amongst other errors, therefore, which the Apostle set himself to oppose in the two Epistles addressed to the Church at Corinth, was

that of mixing freely in the company of persons who knew not God. "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers," says he, in the verses immediately preceding the text; "for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? and what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth, with an infidel? and what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the Living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people." Then follow the words of the text: "Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty*."

Some of the expressions in this passage are the same that were used by the Prophet Isaiah (chap. lii. verse 11), when he exhorted the Jews, especially the Levites, to preserve themselves in Babylon from

* 2 Cor. vi. 14-18.

the contagion of idolatry; and by St. John, in the Revelation*, where he exhorts Christians not to partake of the sins of the spiritual Babylon. The whole passage is scarcely less proper as addressed to Christians in the present day, than to those at Corinth, to whom the Apostle wrote. We, in like manner, are commanded to come out and be separate from the ways of sinners, by whatsoever name called; to avoid the pollution that is in the world through lust, and to be a peculiar people unto the Lord; to abstain from all appearance of evil, and to follow after holiness. And, to induce us so to act, we have the same precious promises which were held out to the first believers in the Gospel. God himself promises to be our Father, and to adopt us into His family, as sons and daughters. More than this, He could not promise; for it comprehends all blessings for time and for eternity. Let us, then, consider more particularly, as addressed to ourselves, the command in the text, and the promise with which it is accompanied. The command is, “Come out from among them, and be ye separate, and touch not the unclean thing."

*Rev. xviii. 4.