These be they who separate themselves
Not from sinners openly profane; such a separation is
commendable, being according to the will and word of God, to the
mind and practice of Christ, and which tends to the good of men,
and to the glory of God; but from the saints and people of God;
it is possible that a child of God may for a time leave the
fellowship of the saints, but an entire and total forsaking of
them, and of assembling with them, looks with an ill aspect; nor
did they separate themselves from superstition and will worship,
and every false way of worship, which would have been right, but
from the pure worship, ordinances, and discipline of God's house,
by a perversion of them, and as being above them, or unwilling to
be under any notice and government; not from errors and heresies,
and persons that held them, with these they herded; but from the
pure doctrines of the Gospel, and ministers of the word, and made
divisions and separations among the churches, for worldly ends,
and through pride and affectation of vain glory, as if they were
more knowing, more holy, and more spiritual than other men: when
they were
sensual;
such as gave themselves up to sensual lusts and pleasures; and at
best were but natural men, who had only natural and rational
abilities, but without spiritual and experimental knowledge:
hence it follows,
having not the Spirit;
though they might have some external gifts of the Spirit; or he
himself dwelling in them as a spirit of conviction and
illumination, as a spirit of regeneration and sanctification, as
a spirit of faith and comfort, as a spirit of adoption, and as
the earnest and pledge of the heavenly glory; they were not under
his influence, nor did they feel the operations of his grace, nor
had they communion with him: hence they appeared to be none of
Christ's, nor could they claim interest in him, and were without
life, and so could not persevere.