Such examples, therefore, brethren, it is right that we should follow; 201 since it is written, “Cleave to the holy, for those that cleave to them shall [themselves] be made holy.” 202 And again, in another place, [the Scripture] saith, “With a harmless man thou shalt prove 203 thyself harmless, and with an elect man thou shalt be elect, and with a perverse man thou shalt show 204 thyself perverse.” 205 Let us cleave, therefore, to the innocent and righteous, since these are the elect of God. Why are there strifes, and tumults, and divisions, and schisms, and wars 206 among you? Have we not [all] one God and one Christ? Is there not one Spirit of grace poured out upon us? And have we not one calling in Christ? 207 Why do we divide and tear to pieces the members of Christ, and raise up strife against our own body, and have reached such a height of madness as to forget that “we are members one of another?” 208 Remember the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, how 209 He said, “Woe to that man [by whom 210 offences come]! It were better for him that he had never been born, than that he should cast a stumbling-block before one of my elect. Yea, it were better for him that a millstone should be p. 18 hung about [his neck], and he should be sunk in the depths of the sea, than that he should cast a stumbling-block before one of my little ones.” 211 Your schism has subverted [the faith of] many, has discouraged many, has given rise to doubt in many, and has caused grief to us all. And still your sedition continueth.
Literally, “To such examples it is right that we should cleave.”
17:202 17:203 17:204 17:205 17:206Or, “war.” Comp. Jas. iv. 1.
17:207Comp. Eph. iv. 4-6.
17:208 17:209This clause is wanting in the text.
17:210This clause is wanting in the text.
18:211Comp. Matt. xviii. 6, Matt. xxvi. 24; Mark ix. 42; Luke xvii. 2.