Now,  therefore,  that  "  their  obedience  was  complete,"  the  painful  task
remained  of  "  punishing  all  the  disobedient"  (2  Cor.  x.  6).  It  was  not
enough  that  those  who  had  so  often  offended  and  so  often  been  pardoned
before  should  now  merely  profess  once  more  a  repentance  which  was  only
the  offspring  of  fear  or  of  hypocrisy,  unless  they  were  willing  to  give
proof  of  their  sincerity  by  renouncing  their  guilty  indulgences.  They
had  long  infected  the  Church  by  their  immorality ;  they  were  not  merely
evil  themselves,  but  they  were  doing  harm  to  others,  and  causing  the
name  of  Christ  to  be  blasphemed  among  the  heathen.  It  was  necessary
that  the  salt  which  had  lost  its  savor  should  be  cast  out,  lest  its  putres-
cence should  spread  to  that  which  still  retained  its  purity  (2  Cor.  xii.
21).  St.  Paul  no  longer  hesitated  to  stand  between  the  living  and  the
dead,  that  the  plague  might  be  stayed.^  We  know,  from  his  own  descrip-
tion (1  Cor.  V.  3-5),  the  very  form  and  manner  of  the  punishment
inflicted.  A  solemn  assembly  of  the  Church  was  convened  ;  the  presence
and  power  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  was  especially  invoked ;  the  cases  of
the  worst  offenders  were  separately  considered,  and  those  whose  sins
required  so  heavy  a  punishment  were  publicly  cast  out  of  the  Church,
nnd  (in  the  awful  phraseology  of  Scripture)  delivered  over  to  Satan.
