nicated person according to the character of his offence. From a member who walks disorderly we are to withdraw ourselves. He is disowned of the Christian family, and while he remains so, we are to have no further communion or fellowship with him. He is not to be recognised as a professor of religion, or as a Christian. This is a general rule. Others are more specific. Them that cause divisions we are to mark and avoid. We are to treat them as dangerous persons; from whom we are to keep at a distance, as the most suitable way of expressing our disapprobation of them, and, at the same time, the most effectual way of preventing their mischiefs : for factious leaders are soon out of countenance when they can get none to adhere or listen to them. The same remark may apply to errorists in doctrine. "Let them alone." A member persisting in an injury done to another to that degree that he contemns or resists the united endeavors of the church, till they are forced to expel him, is to discover, in their subsequent deport

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ment towards him, that his religious character, in their view, is no better than that of "a heathen man and a publican," while the indecent, licentious, and abominable, are to be avoided to the utmost degree, as to our having any society with them, even so much as to eat. They are to be viewed and treated as men whose deeds are shameful, and themselves abhorrent to the Christian name.

In every case there is a greater reserve required to be observed towards excommunicated persons than towards the same grade of sinners who are not of the church. See 1 Cor. v. 9-11, where a distinction is made between sinners of the world and excommunicated professors.

As a general remark it may be observed, that whatever our deportment is to be in particular cases, it should in all cases be such, towards persons under censure of the church, whether before excommunication, or after, as to sustain and consist with the object of the censure, and not to defeat it. It were a vain thing to impose a cen

sure by our vote, and then nullify it by our actions. It is our behavior towards the subject, and not the formality of a vote merely, that must give efficacy to the discipline.

But while we may manifest no complacency in the excommunicate as a Christian, we are not to forget his soul, or to cast him off utterly from our Christian regards, but are to use all suitable means to bring him back to repentance and to Christ. It was for this very end, among others, we should remember, that he was cut off from the church,-that by his loss of its privileges and its Christian esteem, he might be made more sensible of his fallen condition. Perhaps we should show even more concern for him (though hope be less,) than if he had never sustained to us the endeared but forfeited relation of a brother in Christ.

Exceptions are of course to be made in - favor of the common duties and offices of humanity; such as relieving the sick and distressed; and in favor of the domestic

and other relations.

"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 duties proper to their relation. And so of all other less relations, whether natural, domestic, or civil."*

Whenever the excommunicate becomes a penitent, and satisfies the church of the same by a due confession of his sin, he is then to be restored. 2 Cor. ii. 8.

*Pres. Edwards.

CHAPTER V.

CHURCH MEETINGS AND CHURCH BUSINESS.

EVERY church has its meetings for business. It were to be wished that such meetings were more frequent than they are, in most of our churches. The desirableness of them must be obvious to every one who reflects on the variety and importance of the interests over which every church is called to exercise its wisdom and care. Besides attention to discipline, how many occasions are there for consultation on the state of religion and the means of reviving it; for devising ways and means for the support of the gospel at home, and its extension abroad; for attending to the various concerns of the Sabbath school 1; the choir; the relief of the poor, and other important matters? "More time, (says Dr. Beecher,) should be devoted by the