heathen man and a publican." [228:2]
The Israelites could have no religious fellowship with heathens, or the
worshippers of false gods; and they could have no personal respect for
publicans, or Roman tax-gatherers, who were regarded as odious
representatives of the oppressors of their country. To be "unto them as
an heathen" was to be excluded from the privileges of their church; and
to be "unto them as a publican" was to be shut out from their society in
the way of domestic intercourse. When the apostle says--"Now we command
you, brethren, that _ye withdraw yourselves_ from every brother that
walketh disorderly and not after the ordinance [228:3] which he received
of us," [228:4] he doubtless designed to intimate that those who were
excommunicated should be admitted neither to the intimacy of private
friendship nor to the sealing ordinances of the gospel. But it did not
follow that the disciples were to treat such persons with insolence or
inhumanity. They were not at liberty to act thus towards heathens and
publicans; for they were to love even their enemies, and they were to
imitate the example of their Father in heaven who "maketh his sun to
rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on
the unjust." [228:5] It is obvious from the address of the apostle to
the Thessalonians that the members of the Church were not forbidden to
speak to those who were separated from communion; and that they were not
required to refuse them the ordinary charities of life. They were simply
to avoid such an intercourse as implied a community of faith, of
feeling, and of interest. "If any man," says he, "obey not our word by
this epistle, note that man, and _have no company with him_, that he may
be ashamed. Yet _count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a
brother_." [229:1]

How different was this discipline from that which was established,
several centuries afterwards, in the Latin Church! The spirit and usages
of paganism then supplanted the regulations of the New Testament, and
the excommunication of Christianity was converted into the
excommunication of Druidism. [229:2] Our Lord taught that "whoever would
not hear the church" should be treated as a heathen man and a publican;
but the time came when he who forfeited his status as a member of the
Christian commonwealth was denounced as a monster or a fiend. Paul
declared that the person excommunicated, instead of being counted as an
enemy, should be admoni