SEPARATION Convicted OF 

Profanation,  
Oppression,  
Persecution,  
Rebellion,  
Self destruction, AND  
Antichristianism    
Being a FURTHER EVIDENCE OF The Mischief of Separation, As asserted by the most Learned and Pious Dr. EDW. STILLINGFLEET, DEAN of St. PAUL'S.  
By Lewes Sharpe, Rector of Moreton-Hampstead in Devon.  
LONDON: Printed by J. C. and Freeman Collins; to be sold by the Booksellers of London and Exeter. 1681.   

TO The very Reverend, and Right Worshipful, Dr Edw. Stillingfleet DEAN of St. PAUL'S.  
SIR,  
NOnconformity unto, and Separation from the Church of England, having brought forth bold and daring Advocates to offer to the world, and that with a repeated diligence, Pleas for their Justification; 'twas high time for some dutiful Son of so innocent and indulgent a Mother, to awake, arm, and march forth out of his Tent, for her Defence and Vindication: And how seasonably and obligingly you appeared, who are deservedly reputed the Antesignanus of the present Age, for the Protestant Cause and Interest, I can with more thank-ful Resentments acknowledge, than with due Eulogies represent; for I can tell you, Sir, without the least suspicion of flattery, That so good a Cause being managed by such an expert Champion for the Truth, the Conforming Sons of the Church are greatly confident, that you will rather need Spectators to congratulate your victorious Successes, than any Seconds to help you with any Succours in your Contests. Indeed you have so judiciously and learnedly stated the Case of sinful Separation, and so directly and plainly applied it to the Authors and Fomenters of it here in England, that you may with much truth, and no immodesty, say, Veni, vidi, vici. But 'tis your Infelicity, that you have to do with such Adversaries, who, like an angry and revengeful sort of Animals, which will show their Teeth when they cannot by't, and bawl when they durst not fight, rather than they will quietly and silently yield to the conquering force of your Arguments, they will raise a great Noise, and writ much against them too, though to no purpose: and though you have done enough to shame them out of a disputing and wrangling humour, yet you find they become impudent, and rail and upbraid, yea, turn mere Buffoons, quibble and scoff it out; and when nothing else will do, they will fly to their sure and old Refuge, their Obstinacy, which they know to be so strong an Hold against the power of Arguments, that the power of Miracles cannot demolish it. 'Tis true, they do not, with the Romanists, in their Contests with you, challenge to themselves an Infallibility; but yet they carry it as if they could not be deceived, accounting a perfective Change no commendable Improvement, but a vicious Weakness: and therefore that your friendly and compassionate Condescensions to instruct and convince them, have so highly displeased and provoked them, is not at all to be wondered at; for they take it to be an attempt to expose them, because you hereby represent them as a sort of men who are not altogether of the wisest, but such as have assented to Propositions, and engaged themselves in answerable Practices, without taking due evidence and consideration. And for such Pretenders to Knowledge as they are, who are, or would be, admired for Gods most secret ones, to take up Opinions and agreeable Practices, and to plead and suffer for them, and after they have made a strong and daring Party for them too, then to recant and lay them down, is a Punishment too great to be endured; an Argument of such weakness and vanity of Mind, and of such levity and unresolvedness of Will, they durst not own, lest their Reputations and dependant Interests than become as little, as they persuade themselves now they are great. Besides, you have charged Schism on a Separation from the Church of England, and you cannot make them understand what the Church of England is: and I will warrant no body else shall, unless he propound a Proposition concerning it, which will gratify their Affections, and accommodate their Interests; which not wise, good, and honest man will ever do. The Titles given to some of their Pamphlets are very goodly and specious: here you have, A Christian Temper; there, The Peaceable Design; here, A Peace-Offering; there, A Plea for Peace; here, A true way to Concord; there, A Discourse of Evangelical Love, Church-Peace and Unity: but they all join Issue in Declamations against the mischief of Impositions, and conclude in Pleas for Nonconformity, and Vindications of themselves from Schism; that is, they represent the Church of England as a Tyrannical Imposer, a Society of men usurping and exercising Church-power for Destruction and not for Edification; unto whom no body ought to submit and obey, but every body must oppose and defy. So that we must undo ourselves, and betake us to a Stool of Penance, before we can be in a meet capacity for a Christian communion with them in Love, Peace, and Unity. And to give them their due, they are no Changelings in their common design; they are all hard at it to pull down the Church of England, and to get themselves uppermost; and if they happen to rid themselves of Impositions, I can get a Commission to assure you in their Names, that they are more peaceable than to stomach it, and bring themselves under them again. Let there be no Laws made, and they will be very careful not to break them; Let it be lawful for every man to do that which is right in his own eyes, and they will be a very innocent sort of people, and never offend. This, Sir, you know, is the true construction of what they call the Mischief of Impositions. Now although we know them so well, that we need not the help of a Melius Inquirendum to discover that they are one of the most unteachable as well as most ungovernable sort of people in the world, against whom Authority is no longer safe than 'tis too strong for them; yet I hope God hath mercy in store for them, because he hath so signally called you forth (who so very well understand their Disease and Remedy) for their Cure. And that the Work may prosper in your hands, and be throughly effected, to God's Glory, this Church's Peace, and your own Satisfaction and Comfort, is the hearty and fervent Prayer of him that is,  
Reverend Sir, Your most humble Servant, Lewes Sharpe. Moreton-Hampstead, Octob. 22. 1680.   
JOSH. 22.19. Notwithstanding, if the land of your possession be unclean, then pass ye over unto the land of the possession of the Lord, wherein the Lords Tabernacle dwelleth, and take possession among us: but rebel not against the Lord, nor rebel against us, in building you an Altar beside the Altar of the Lord our God. 
THE word [Notwithstanding] is discretive, and plainly refers us to the Context for the right understanding of the words read to you. Israel having completed the Conquest of their Enemies, and being in a peaceable possession of the Promised Land, chap. 21.43, 44, 45. Joshua, their Captain-General, calls an Assembly of the Reubenites, Gadites, and half Tribe of Manasseh, and having commended them for their Obedience to God and to himself, and for their Love and Fidelity to their Brethren, he commands them to get to their Tents, and to return to the Land of their possession, which Moses gave them on the other side of Jordan, v. 1, 2, 3, 4. And because 'tis not enough to begin well, and for a season to hold on in a good course; therefore as at their first Assembling he commended them for what they had already well done, so at their dismission he charged them to persevere in well-doing: And so blesseth, and withal order them, when they are returned home to their Brethren, that they make them Sharers with them in the Spoils of their Enemies, v. 5, 8. that it might appear that the common good was a greater Incentive to their courageous Encounters, than a private gain; and that a present taste and experience of the beneficial fruits of their Victory, might most effectually provoke their Brethren to join with them in Praises and Thanksgivings for it.  
Sect. 2. Now the Reubenites, Gadites, and half Tribe of Manasseh in their return, being come unto the borders of Jordan, do not combine to erect triumphant Monuments of their signal Victories over their Enemies, but how to secure their religious interests in common with their friends, in the Worship and Privileges of the Tabernacle. Though the Soil they possess be different from that of the Land of Canaan, yet the Inhabitants of the one, as well as of the other, shall acknowledge the Lord of the Soil to be the same. Though they do not possess the same Land, yet they will enjoy the same God. And though their Habitations be at a greater distance from the place and symbols of Gods special presence than those of their Brethren, yet they will make a solemn Protest, and record a sensible Evidence for them, that they are as nearly related unto God, and have as good a claim to all the Rites and Memorials of his gracious Name and Commerce, as they.  
Sect. 3. For this purpose they built an Altar over against the Land of Canaan in the borders of Jordan, v. 10, 11. not like that in the Tabernacle, for Sacrifices, but for a Memorial to succeeding Generations, that they and their Seed may resort with the rest of the Tribes to the Tabernacle, and partake with them in all the services and privileges of it, v. 10. comp. with 24. a practical demonstration, how highly they prized a Right to the fellowship of their Brethren in the same Rites of Religion, which they endeavour to entail to their Posterities, as well as secure to themselves.  
Sect. 4. And what is the effect of this zeal for their God, and affection for their Brethren? Truly, it was here, as too often in other cases, that which was well meant was ill taken; for as soon as the other Tribes heard of this Altar, they were so alarmed, that they presently call a Council of War, supposing those who were very lately their Champions to be their Enemies, are so enraged against them, that notwithstanding their late usefulness to them, and near Relation with them, they seem to design them as a Sacrifice for their Altar, v. 12. but before they will go to extremities with them, expose them to their revenge who exposed themselves for their defence, they will expostulate with them before they will do execution upon them: and therefore sent chosen Messengers to them to reason the case with them, v. 13. And 'tis well they did so; for though it was bad enough to judge before they tried them, yet 'twould have been much worse to persecute and destroy them too.  
Sect. 5. That they sent Messengers to them, was an Argument that they were not implacable and inexorable: but the grievous offences they were commissioned to lay to their charge, was too strong an Evidence, that there was in their Enterprise too much of a passionate Fury, and too little of a well-advised Charity: for, from mere jealousy and suspicion, they attaint them with no lower crime than Rebellion against God and themselves; that is, either an Apostasy to the Worship of a false God, or a Separation from the Worshippers of the true. They thought the erection of a new Altar implied the adoration of a new God; and the consecration of a new Tabernacle or Temple, a separate religious Commerce and Communion from that formerly they had been obliged unto and exercised in; a guilt so tremendous, that it threatened destruction from God to them.  
Sect. 6. Now though this Charge be so very deep and heavy, that it looks rather like an invidious Accusation, Challenge, and Defiance, than a charitable Embassage for Amity, Peace, and Concord, and seems designed rather to Exasperation than Accommodation; yet the words I have read to you, plainly evince, that the Intent was charitable, pacific, and healing. For the words are an Expostulation, or a Reasoning with them, to work them to a consideration of what they had done, and the consequences of it; that they might reclaim them rather by the strength of Reason, than ruin them by the force of Arms. In them we have three things considerable: 

1. A Supposition, If the Land of your inheritance be unclean.  
2. A Concession, Then pass ye over into the possession of the inheritance of the Lord, wherein the Lords Tabernacle dwelleth, and take possession among us.  
3. A Limitation of this, But rebel not against the Lord, nor rebel against us, in building you an Altar beside the Altar of the Lord our God. I shall discourse of each in order.    
Sect. 7. Here is a Supposition, If the Land of your inheritance be unclean. They may suppose, but not grant it; for their inheritance was undoubtedly part of the promised and holy Land, as well as the Land of Canaan. And indeed the Supposition is not grounded on any misperswasion the Reubenites, Gadites, and half Tribe of Manasseh had concerning the Land, but on their own rash and uncharitable jealousy and suspicion. 'Tis very likely, that because the Land which the Reubenites, etc. were to possess, had not the Tabernacle and Altar in it, the only place unto which all the Tribes were to resort for the exercise of the public Ministeries and Rites of Religion, and there was no place like it on the other side of Jordan, they inferred this conclusion, That the Reubenites, etc. were prejudiced against their inheritance, because without the visible signs of God's special presence. From whence by the way, without any digression, we may observe, That God's Church and People then thought, That that Land was unclean (that is, excluded from God's special favour and protection) which had no Places by public consent set apart and consecrated for the exercise of religious Worship and Communion. For as the first-Fruits under the Law were to sanctify and procure a Blessing upon the whole Harvest; so Places dedicated and peculiarly appropriated to the public Worship and Service of God, are for a Blessing to the whole Country and Land where they are, Psal. 84.3.  
Sect. 8. But that which I design principally to commend to your consideration from the Supposition, is this, That a People professing the Lord to be their God, from a mistake and misperswasion of the nature of things, I mean from a conceit that things are unholy and unclean which are not so, may separate themselves from a public religious Commerce and Communion, and from the holy things of God. This the whole Congregation of the Children of Israel supposed the case of the Reubenites, etc. to be. And this is really the case of many now; they are more led by Opinion than Truth, more under the power of Imagination and affection, than Reason and Religion. What is it which buildeth their Church, chooseth their Teacher, prescribeth their Discipline, measureth their Devotion, formeth their Prayers, composeth their Gestures, and ordereth all their significations of Reverence to God, but their Conceits and Fantasies? Although it be not in the power of any man's judgement and conscience to change the natural condition of things, to render things essentially good, evil; or essentially evil, good; but every thing will retain its proper nature and condition, be a good or evil of the same quality and degree it naturally is, whatsoever men's Judgements and Persuasions of it are; yet men's Judgements and Conseiences have such power and influence upon themselves, that they may render a thing good and clean in its own nature, evil and defiling in its use to themselves. This the Apostle plainly asserteth, That there is nothing unclean of itself [that is, no kind of meats prohibited by the Mosaical Law, to which it refers] but to him that esteemeth any thing unclean, to him it is unclean, Rom. 14.14. the reason of which you have in the last clause of the last verse; for whatsoever is not of Faith, is sin; because by the constitution of God and Nature, men's Wills and Actions are to be guided and governed by their mental Persuasions and Consciences; so that if they counteract them, they rebel against their immediate Overseer and Ruler.  
Sect. 9 And such is the power and prevalency of men's Opinions and Persuasions, that they build as strong a Resolution upon them when they are erroneous and corrupt, as when they are right and sound: for Error is not entertained as Error, but as Truth; and a man is as firmly bound by it in his own persuasion, as if it were Truth, and is as much prejudiced against the contrary Truth, as if it were a very bad Error. Hence the Devil hath had his Martyrs as well as God; for Mr. Smith in his Remarks of the Manners and Religion of the Turks, gives us an instance in a Mahometan that suffered death rather than he would acknowledge, That there was a God: And Mahometans have been as zealous for their Mahomet, as Christians for their Christ. Heretics and Schismatics have been as zealous for their Fictions, as the Orthodox for their Faith. The false Prophets under the Law would as confidently call their Dreams and Imaginations, The Word of the Lord, as the true Prophets their divine Visions and Revelations. Hence Zedekiah the false Prophet struck Micaiah the true Prophet, saying to him, Which way went the Spirit of the Lord from me to thee? 2 Chron. 18.23. Bloody Saul was as much concerned for the Reputation of the Law, as St. Paul for that of the Gospel; I verily thought (said he) that I ought to do many things against the Name of Christ, Act. 26.9. He did what he did against Christ, from clear convictions of Judgement and Conscience; and he testifieth of the Jews, That they had a zeal of God, were hearty and affectionate in their Piety and Devotion, though it were not according to knowledge, Rom. 10.2. and so to no advantage. And our Saviour tells his Disciples, That their Enemies would think they should do God good service to kill them, John 16.2. And accordingly Tertullian tells us, That Maximinian, who sometimes offered humane Sacrifices, accounted the blood of Christians the most acceptable sort for the atonement of his angry Deities. So that men may be as confident that they are in a right mind, when they wickedly separate from the public Worship of God, and the Communion of his Church, as they are who confidently persist in their faithful adherence to it.  
Sect. 10. Secondly, Let us consider the Concession made upon this Supposition; Then pass ye over into the Land of the possession of the Lord, wherein the Lords Tabernacle dwelleth, and take possession among us. A Proposition full of Love, Compassion, and Indulgence; and a convictive Evidence, that their hearts were more inclined to Peace than War; and were rather disposed to receive Satisfaction, than to inflict Punishment. And in truth, whatever the Provocation be, Treating should go before Fight; for War must always be used as strong Physic in desperate Diseases, as the last Remedy; and can never be just, but when 'tis necessary and unavoidable. Indeed the persons here offended, were really the Offenders; and afterwards being better informed, justified the fact they now condemned, which was designed to prevent for ever the very thing they so severely blamed at present: but they thought themselves the wronged Party, and answerably acted the parts of men provoked by factious and rebellious Brethren, declare the iniquity and mischievous malignity of the Fact, and the tender resentments they have of it; and yet rather than they will run the hazards and endure the calamities of an Intestine War, dash one against another, and turn their Swords, as it were, against their own Bowels; they sue for Peace, offer terms of Accommodation, give the Law into their brethren's hands, will lose something for a quiet life, buy a Peace rather than fight for it, and so suffer a second wrong rather than revenge a former.  
Sect. 11. I will briefly open the sense and scope of the words themselves, and then offer an Observation or two to your considerations. Canaan is not here called The Land of the possession of the Lord, oppositely and in a way of discrimination from the Land of the Reubenites, etc. as if that were not so too; but eminently, and in a way of peculiarity, from the Tabernacle of God which was there, in which was the Shecinah, the special presence of God. And therefore the Tabernacle was called the Tabernacle of Meeting; not because the whole Congregation of Israel was to meet there, but because it was the place where God did in a most special manner meet with his People, Exod. 29.42. Numb. 17.4. Exod. 32.3. showing by many special Evidences of Grace and Glory, that he was there, to instruct, protect, and bless them, Leu. 1.1. & 9.23. and to receive Homage and Worship from them, Psal. 48.1, 2. From whence by Analogy, and from the consideration of the nature and general reason of the thing, we may infer, That God is in a most special manner present in those places which are set apart for his service, and are appropriately his. Those places which by a public designation are set apart only for the Offices of Religion and the use of holy things, have God's Name set upon them; and God hath such a peculiar propriety in them, that he makes them the places of the special determination of his gracious presence. I have sanctified the House which thou hast built, 1 King. 9.3. that is, I have accepted what thou hast dedicated; what thou hast designed for my Worship, I have designed for thy Blessing.  
Sect. 12. We have the Memorials of God's Name, Symbols and Tokens to testify God's Covenant with us now under the Gospel, as they had under the Law; and why should not those places which are selected and employed to partake of them, be graced with God's special presence now as well as then? Place is as necessary for the solemn and public Worship of God, as Time; and if some select portion of Time be to be appropriated unto God, and more acceptable to him than other, why should not select places be so too? 'Tis true, the Tabernacle and Temple were places of Gods own immediate appointment, and had extraordinary Privileges and peculiar Rites; but 'tis as true, that from the instinct of Nature and common Reason, there were public places set apart and erected for God's public Worship, with God's approbation, long before these places; and had Gods special presence determined to them too, Gen. 28.16, 17, 18. Exod. 33.7. and 'tis as true, that for the same reason the Jewish Synagogues, which were of humane and prudential institution and appointment, were called by the Holy Ghost, The Houses of God, Psal. 74.8. & 83.10. Our Christian Temples and Oratories are by him also called, The Churches of God, 1 Cor. 11.22. even because dedicated and appropriated to his service: And 'tis plain from the Apostles Argument drawn from the presence of Angels with Christians assembled in them, v. 10. that God is specially present in them; the specialty of God's presence being generally specified by the presence of Angels, which are God's Houshold-Train and Retinue, Acts 7.5. comp. with Exod. 19.16. & 18. Dan. 7.10, Isai. 61.1.  
Sect. 13. Hath God said, That where two or three are gathered together in his Name, there am I in the midst of them? Mat. 18.20. He hath said too, That he loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob, Psal. 87.2. for there he commandeth his blessing, and life for evermore, Psal. 133.3. and therefore the Psalmist asserteth, That a day in God's Courts [i. e. spent in partaking of God's public Ordinances with the solemn Assemblies of his people in his House] is better than a thousand, Psal. 84.10. And elsewhere professeth, that this one thing he had desired of the Lord, as a most desirable favour, and that would he seek after, that he might dwell in the house of the Lord for ever, Psal. 27.4. and when he was debarred from access to it, he was as a dry and thirsty land where no water is, and therefore longed to see God's power and glory so as he had seen it in the sanctuary, Psal. 63.1, 2. which implieth, that he had observed that God did there manifest greater impressions and expressions of his power and goodness, than in any other place in the world. And I know no reason any body hath to believe that God is less propitious to public religious Assemblies in his holy places now, than he was formerly. I am sure his Ordinances are not less essicacious, nor he himself less gracious, nor are holy places less capacious of God's presence and blessing. So that if we come hither and departed without special advantages to our Souls, 'tis because we are wanting to ourselves; we do not use holy Places, holy Ordinances, and holy Assemblies, in that manner, and to those ends and purposes we should. And 'tis to be scared, that meeting in secret Chambers, yea, Barns and Stables, and suchlike places for ordinary and profane Employments, have been and are preferred before our Church-Assemblies, because very few have senses exercised to discern betwixt things that differ, and know what it is to meet with God in his ways of acceptance and benediction.  
Sect. 14. The next thing here considerable in my Text, is, That they offer them liberty to take a possession among themselves; that is, to share with them in that Inheritance which fell to them by Lot when the Land was divided. 'Tis very likely, that a considerable part of the Land being yet in the possession of the Canaanites, that part of it which they at present enjoyed, was little enough for themselves; to be sure, they had no great supersluities; and yet so far do they prefer Religion before Interest, an inconvenient Maintenance before a mischievous Separation, that they freely offer to dispossess themselves, and to disinherit their Posterities, rather than their Brethren shall separate from the Worship of God in Communion with them. From whence this Observation naturally offers itself to us, That the Church and People of God had rather departed from their Estates, than their Brethren should wilfully and causelessly departed from a public Fellowship with them in the Worship and Service of God's House. They will rather communicate their worldly Goods to them, than be deprived of Communion with them. They are the men of this world, who have their portion in this life, who are more for Dives his good things, than for the good Fellowship of God's Church. The men of God, who are expectants of an Heavenly Kingdom, value that most which hath most of God in it, and therefore account the Communion of Saints a more eligible enjoyment than large possessions. The Evangelical Church having higher Obligations and stronger Motives to Love, Unity, and Peace, than the Jewish had, aught to be proportionably the more careful and zealous to preserve her Communion entire and inviolate; and consequently, wilful and causeless Separation from her, is in a due estimate a far greater Calamity to her, than any worldly adversity or distress whatsoever; and she cannot be duly affected with the evil of it, unless she have greater thoughts of heart for it, than for any worldly loss whatsoever. The Reasons of it are these:  
Sect. 15. First, Because they are more for God than for themselves; would rather Gods Name should be hallowed, than their own turns served. If the Church of God be despised (as most certainly it is, when her Members divide and separate themselves from her) the Name of God is profaned: for the Church is called by God's Name, and marked for his; and therefore the one cannot be despised, but the other must be profaned too: and is it not better that our Estates should be lessened, than the celebrated Honour of God abated? The one is a penal evil, an evil only contrary to their present well-being as men, and in some cases eligible; but the other is a sinful evil, an evil contrary to the Will, and in a sense, to the very Being itself of God, and in no case eligible. And you shall find, when the Prophet laments the evil portion of the Church, her sins and not her sufferings are the principal objects of his Lamentations, because the worst evils upon her, and the procuring causes of all the rest, Lam. 1.5, 8, 9 And David was more passionately affected and afflicted for the wickedness of his very Enemies, than for his own Exile and Reproaches, Psal. 119.136. And why was it? Even because he laid God's dishonours to his heart more than his own wrongs.  
Sect. 16. Secondly, Because they love their Brethren as themselves; and therefore do not seek their own things as to forget the things of others, but account other men's innocencies more valuable than their own conveniencies, and consequently more endeavour the eternal salvation of their brethren's Souls, than a temporal provision for their own Bodies. What is said of Adam's first sin, may also be said of sinful Separation; 'tis virtually every sin, a violation and breach of the whole Law. For 'tis a sin so formally and destructively opposite to love, that if love be the fulfilling of the whole Law, as the Apostle tells us it is, Rom. 13.10. then Separation is an evacuating of the whole Law. And St. James expressly asserts, that where Strife and Division is, there is every evil work, Jam. 3.16. that is, such men are not only at odds among themselves, but also with God and themselves, counter-acting too often, to make and maintain a Party, their own Judgements and Consciences: And is not Separation then a very likely way to Reformation? How light soever some men make of Divisions and Separations, they are no other than the Smoke of the bottomless Pit, the exudations and workings of that flesh which is Enmity against God, Gal. 5.19. and the Authors of them are represented by the Holy Ghost, notwithstanding their pretences to the Spirit, as carnal, 1 Cor. 3.3, 4. such as have not the Spirit, Judas, v. 19 nor are Servants to Christ, but Servitors to their own Bellies, Rom. 16.18. Yea, such is the Malignity of this sin, that Divines, both Ancient and Modern, assert it to be the greatest wickedness. Mr. Edward's, an eminent Presbyterian, and a Member of the Assembly of Divines, tells us in his Gangraena, second part, p. 197. That Schism, of itself, even with sound Doctrine in every point, is a most grievous wickedness, which exceeds all other wickedness. And Optatus, and St. Augustine before him, have observed, That for this sin, God more severely punished Corah, Dathan, and Abiram (though they fell into it from a pretence to Holiness and great Humility, Numb. 16.3.) than he did Cain for his Murder, or the Israelites for their Idolatry, Epist. 142. And Mr. Crofton, a man who preached, and wrote, and suffered as much for the Presbyterian Cause as any man in England, plainly asserts in the Presace to his Saints Care for Church-Communion, That groundless or causeless Separation from true Churches, such as he acknowledgeth and contendeth the Parochial Churches in England to be, and Self-constitution of new Churches, and Self-consecration of a new Ministry, are fundamental Errors, and inconsistent with a state of Salvation. And he hath a very good warrant for so saying; for the Holy Ghost himself taught him, That they which addict themselves to Divisions, shall not inherit the Kingdom of God, Gal. 5.19, 20. Now if Schism be of such a dangerous and damnable importance to the precious and immortal Souls of men, what price can be given too great to prevent or redeem from it? Certainly, if we ought to lay down our lives for our brethren's safety, 1 John 3.16. we should not think the expense of our Estates a cost too dear for it.  
Sect. 17. Thirdly, Because there is a greater interest of their own, even self-preservation, requires it. The danger of a Separation is not only to the Separatists, but to the whole Society of Christians, from whom the Separation is made. Eccles. 9.8. One sinner destroyeth much good, especially a Schismatic; for Schism is to a Church, what Sedition is to a Kingdom; divides, and so destroyeth it. A Kingdom divided cannot stand, but is brought to desolation, Mat. 12.25. Other sins destroy the Church effectively and consequentially, but Schism formally and directly: for Schism is to a Body Ecclesiastical, what a Solution of continuity is to the Body Natural; doth not like an Ulcer corrupt a part, but cuts or rends one part from another; and when a compounded body is dissolved, 'tis destroyed. Therefore when the Psalmist aimed at the defeating of his Enemy's Conspiracy against him, he prayed, Destroy, O Lord, and divide their tongues, Psal. 55.9. i e. as the Languages of the Babel bvilders were divided, which brought their Plots to an utter confusion, Gen. 11.7. So that Division and Destruction go together. The Members of Christ's Church are called Living stones built upon a spiritual house, 1 Pet. 2.5. Now you know, so long as Stones in a Wall are cemented and joined to one another, the Wall stands firm, one Stone supports and holds fast another, they mutually contribute preservation to each other, and to the whole Wall: but if you sever one Stone from another, 'tis no longer a Wall, but a ruinous heap. Churchuniting is Church-edifying; but Church-dividing is Church-destroying work. And therefore Mr. Baxter very plainly and honestly tells the Nonconforming Ministers, That if they set themselves in a dividing way, secretly to rejoice at [the Conforming Ministers] disparagement, and to draw as many from him as they can; they are but Destroyer's of the Church of God: Call yourselves what you will, (saith he to them) I will call you Destroyer's, if you are Dividers. Sacrilegious Desertion, page 91.  
Sect. 18. 'Tis true, every Division in a Church, and Separation from it, doth not actually end in the destruction of it, but yet 'tis the proper and direct tendency of every Division and Separation; and the Dividers and Separaters are as really and completely guilty, as if they did actually accomplish it; the ineffectualness of their design proceeding from a defect of natural Power, and not of Will and moral Endeavour. And though every Division do not eventually conclude in the destruction of a Church, yet 'tis a very heavy Oppression to it, and a most grievous Persecution of it.  
Sect. 19 'Tis a very heavy Oppression to it. We are all Debtors to the Church of God, Rom. 1.14. and so far as we are Christians, own to it our very selves, Philem. v. 19 for it is the Mother of us all, Gal. 4.26. and doth not only give us being, but also ministereth nourishment and increase to us, Col. 2.19. Eph. 4.16. and therefore we cannot alienate ourselves from its Communion and Service, without doing great injustice and wrong to it. Separations from a Church are very injurious to it, in five respects: 1. In respect of its Being and Existence. 2. In respect of its Beauty and Loveliness. 3. In respect of its Fame and Reputation. 4. In respect of its Stability and Strength. 5. In respect of its Propagation and Enlargement.  
Sect. 20. First, Separation is an Oppression to a Church, in respect of its Being and Existence. The Church is as the Body, and we are as Members of the Body; and is it not a great wrong to the Body, for the Members caufelesly to rend themselves from it? If the Life be more than Meat, and the Body more than Raiment, Luke 12.23. then 'tis a greater Oppression to destroy Life, or to dismember the Body, than 'tis to take away outward Accommodations, which are only for Food and Raiment. By Moses his Law, he was guilty of death that stole a man, Exod. 21.16. and is his guilt less, that robs the Church of a Saint? Man being by the very constitution of his nature, a sociable creature, we cannot conceive him related to any Society, but we must conceive him bound to preserve it, and to be a Guardian to it, to protect and preserve it in all those Laws and Orders, Rights and Privileges which are necessary to its Being, Security, and Welfare; and is not he an Oppressor which overthrows or weakens that Society which he is bound to maintain and support?  
Sect. 21. Secondly, Separation is an Oppression to a Church, in respect of its Beauty and Loveliness. External Beauty and Loveliness is properly nothing else but a resultancy from parts harmoniously and orderly united and disposed: so on the contrary, Deformity is a resultancy from maimed or disordered parts. And who is there which doth not as much dread Deformity as Poverty? What would you not give or lose, rather than become ugly and abominable? And what are Divisions but a disordering of the parts of the same Body? And what is Separation, but a pulling of one part from another? Dismember a Body, and you must certainly deform it; pluck out an Eye, or cut off the Nose, or any other visible part, and you will find that you have deformed it. The Church of God, for the correspondency of her parts in God's design and constitution of her, is so beautiful, that she is altogether lovely; and is it not a great Oppression to her, by Divisions and Separations to bring Deformity upon her, and make her an Object of lamentation to her compassionate Friends, and of scorn to her insulting Enemies?  
Sect. 22. Thirdly, Separation is a great Oppression to a Church, in respect of her Fame and Reputation. Detraction from Fame and Reputation, is as much and more an Oppression, than a detraction from any Civil Right or Possession can be. A good Name and Report is such a valuable Blessing, Phil. 4.8. Prov. 10.7. that good men of all sorts, in all Ages, have preferred it before either Pleasures, Eccles. 7.1. or Riches, Prov. 22.1. or Life itself, 1 Cor. 9.15. And the violation of it hath ever been ranked amongst the worst injuries incident to humane Society and Commerce. A man, or a Society of men, without Reputation, under contempt and scorn, is one of the meanest and most impotent things in the world. Now Separation from a Church is an high defamation to it, and most directly exposeth it to contempt; for this represents it to the world as a Society of Christians apostatised from Christ, declined from the ways of God, gross prophaners of God's Name and Ordinances, and consequently so devested of all goodness, that they are not fit for Christian Communion, but aught to be avoided and abandoned as Publicans and Heathens. This is the irresistible insinuation and true interpretation of every Separation from a Church: for no Separation, from a Church is justifiable, but for that reason which God giveth why his people should come out of Babylon, That they be not partakers of her sins, and receive not of her plagues, Rev. 18.4. So that they which separate from a Church, disgrace and brand it for a Society of corrupt and infamous Christians, with whom God is not graciously present, and with whom good men should have no fellowship: which is the most injurious dealing can be met withal in the world, and cannot be resented without a great deal of smart and indignation.  
Sect. 23. Fourthly, Separation is a great Oppression to a Church, in respect of her Stability and Strength. One end why Christ embodied and form his Disciples into a Church-Society was, that from their conjunction and relation, they might, like parts of the same body, contribute mutual help, strength, and secure to each other. Two (saith Solomon) are better than one, Eccles. 4.9. to 13. that is, Society with Love and Peace is better than Solitariness, because 'tis useful to encourage Endeavours, to support under Burdens, to preserve from Dangers, to rescue from Distresses, to further and cherish in the discharge of Duties and Offices, and to sympathise and refresh under all Griefs and Sorrows. As Christ for his protecting and quickening influences on the Church, is compared to the Head, Col. 1.18. so every Christian for his subordinate assistance and beneficialness to the whole Society, is compared to a Member fitly and orderly joined to the Body, Eph. 4.15, 16. So that, As the Eye cannot say to the Hand, I have no need of thee; nor the Head to the feet, I have no need of you, 1. Cor. 12.21. so neither can any the most perfect Christian say to the meanest, I have no need of thee: for they all embark in the same Bottom, and are engaged by the consignation of God to a common care and concern for the whole, and one another. The Church is said to be as terrible as an Army with banners, Cant. 6.1. that is, whilst like an Army she continueth in good Order, Peace, and Unity within itself; because in such a case one Member is a succour and defence to another: And as every Soldier in an Army keeping his Rank and Order, doth partake of the benefit and advantage of the conduct, courage, and prowess of the whole Army; so every Christian abiding in that Calling wherein he is called with God, walking orderly in the Church, doth partake of the usefulness of all those Gifts and Graces which God hath bestowed upon the whole Church, 1 Cor. 3.22. Now we all find by experience, that weak things united become strong, and strong things divided become weak: whence Scyllurus taught his eighty Sons by giving them a sheaf of Arrows, which together they could not break, but one taken from another they could easily break, That Unity and compacted Strength was the Bond that preserves all Societies entire and inviolate, but Division that which dissolves and extirpates them. So that he which separateth himself from a Church, and refuseth to supply his proper place and order in it, he breaks down her strong holds, and weakens her, and consequently oppresseth her.  
Sect. 24. Fifthly, Separation from a Church is a great oppression to it, in respect of its Propagation and Enlargement. We are all obliged to pray, and consequently to use our utmost endeavour, that the Kingdom of God may come, Mat. 6.10. that is, that the government of God administered by Jesus Christ, may more and more prevail, and be every where erected; or in the Apostles words, that the Word of God (which is the Sceptre of his Kingdom) may have free passage and be glorified, 2 Thess. 3.1. by opening men's eyes, and turning them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, Acts 26.18. and adding them to the Church, Acts 2.47. This is one of the great Interests of the Church; and whosoever sets himself to oppose it, is an Oppressor of it. You account, that he which unlawfully obstructs another's Trade and Commerce, and hinders him from improving and increasing his stock, doth as really oppress him, as he that violently detains or takes his goods from him. And this is the case of all Separatists; as they do unjustly with-hokl from the Church what of right belongs to it, so they hinder it from enlarging itself, by begetting Scandals, and laying Stumbling-blocks against its Communion and Fellowship. 'Tis a thing both good and pleasant, for Brethren to dwell together in Unity, Psal. 133.1, 2, 3. excites Admiration in the Beholders, invites their Affections, and encourageth them to a Commerce and Communion. But can we reasonably expect to gain the hearts of Jews, Pagans, Mahometans, Papists, and Atheists to us, persuade them to embrace our Religion, and to join themselves to our Communion, so long as we have such Variances, are at such Distances from one another, and cannot agree upon terms of religious Communion among ourselves? Do not our Divisions and Separations seem to proclaim to all the world, that we understand not the intent and meaning of those Institutions & Laws which Jesus Christ hath imposed upon us, and are uncertain what that Religion is which we ourselves profess, and commend to others as the best in the world? One Sect preacheth up that which another crieth down; and the religious Communion of one sort, is an abomination to another; and what one justifieth, another condemneth: And did you ever know disagreeing Witnesses an effectual Proof?  
Sect. 25. Besides, will a considering man unite himself to that City which is divided against itself? or choose that house for his place of habitation, whose materials are falling asunder? and will not the Enemies of Christ think him an unmeet person to gather under his dominion and rule all the Nations in the world, who seems not able to govern those in Unity and Peace which are already subject to him? 'Tis reported of Julian, that he thought the fomenting of Divisions in the Church, the most effectual way to suppress Christianity, and to advance Paganism: and he had reason to think so; for the world will never believe that they are taught of God, who divide from one another, because the Spirit of Truth is never contrary to itself; and the design of all true Religion is to draw and bind men unto God and one another. And therefore you shall find, that our Saviour prayeth again and again, that his Disciples and followers might be one, as he and his Father are one; and to this very end, that the world might believe that God had sent him, Joh. 17.21, 23. which implieth, that their Unity would be of principal influence, to persuade the world that he came into the world on God's errand, to destroy the works of the Devil, and to restore man to God's image, favour, and fellowship.  
Sect. 26. And you shall find, that when three thousand were converted at one Sermon, and added to the Church, all the Christians were with one accord in one place, and continued with one accord in the Temple, and were of one heart and one soul, Acts 2.1, 41, 46. & 4.32, 33. and then by the rule of contraries, they which cause divisions, cause offences, Rom. 16.17. and prejudice the minds of men against the Church of God, as if it were a Synagogue of Satan, a Society to be shunned and abhorred; which obstructs the propagation and enlargement of it, and consequently is a mighty Oppression to it.  
Sect. 27. As Separation is an heavy Oppression to, so 'tis a grievous Persecution of the Church too. Persecution in the strictest and severest sense, is the prosecution of a person with a peremptory design to ruin and destroy him. And what is Separation less than the execution of a design to dissolve and destroy that Community of Christians from which the Separation is made? Persecutors think the persecuted so bad and hateful, that they are not fit for the society of men: And Separatists think that Church from which they separate, so corrupt and degenerous, that 'tis not fit for the society of Christians. And as Persecutors would not have the persecuted to continue in being and existence among men, so the Separatists would not have the Churches they separate from, to continue in being and existence among Churches. They both act from the same inodiating and envenomed principle, and the aim of each horribly mischievous.  
Sect. 28. Yea, I take the Separatists to be the worst and most cruel sort of Persecutors: for by how much the Rights and Privileges of Christians, as such, are better and dearer to them than the Rights and Privileges of men, as such; by so much the more of Rigour and Severity is there in the rejection of Christians from their Rights and Privileges. Is it a very bad thing to suffer confiscation of Goods, imprisonment, banishment, and death? 'tis much worse to be rejected from the love and fellowship of God and his Church, the means of Grace, and the hope of Glory. Whatever some inconsiderate folk may think, to be dealt withal as intolerable in the Church, is much harder usage than to be dealt withal as intolerable in the Commonwealth; for the outward, earthly, and temporal condition of the Body, is only concerned in the one; but the inward, spiritual, and eternal condition of the Soul, is concerned in the other. When you unchurch a Society of Christians, you account them, in the expression of the Holy Text, as Dogs, Rev. 22.15. the basest and uncleanest sort of creatures, a company of men so far sunk under the power of the animal life, and given over to the power and tyranny of the Devil, that they are alienated from the life of God, enemies to all goodness, to be shunned as the Prophaners of holy things, and the Pests of Christian Commerce. And if it be great cruelty without cause to be judged worthy of Death, I am sure 'tis a greater without cause to be judged worthy of Hell and Damnation.  
Sect. 29. And, I think, 'tis very ordinary for the Separatists to carry on their Separation by far worse methods, than for the most part other Persecutors do their Persecutions; for other Persecutors accuse those they persecute of some heinous and capital Crime, implead and try them by the known Laws of that Community to which they do belong, produce Evidences of their Allegations against them, and do not judge and execute them before trial and conviction. But the Separatists from our Church, at least many of them, are so heady and fierce against those Christian Societies from which they separate, that they have no regard to such measures of proceed, but assume and exercise a power to reform, before they have, or indeed ever can, prove any thing to be amiss; and go about to heal the Church's distempers by cutting her throat, and stabbing her to the heart, without telling her that she is sick; herein doing that to others, which they would, questionless, in no case have done to themselves, nor perhaps to no particular person else in the world; as if Justice, Charity, and common Honesty, were not concerned men's behaviours towards whole Churches or Congregations of Christians, as well as towards particular persons; and that were justifiable towards a National, Provincial, or Parochial Community of men, which by the common sense of mankind hath been condemned for cruelty towards a single man. Certainly, to condemn and reject a Society of Christians for the greatest Guilts, without trial and conviction, is one of the greatest Outrages that humane Nature is capable of, and a thing, I am confident, the most barbarous Nations abhor: And yet is not this the common practice of Separatists? yea, when did they otherwise? What Congregation in England did they ever endeavour to convict and reform, before they forsook it? So that the Separatists have no more reason to glory in their Separation, than they have to glory in the vilest Oppression and most cruel Persecution.  
Sect. 30. And here is an Answer ready for them, who ask, Why we are so angry with them that separate from us? Even because they heavily oppress and grievously persecute us, without a cause. They break the staff of our Beauty, and the bands of our Perfectness, that is, violate our Unity, and quench our Charity, defame and expose us to Contempt, abhor us, and passionately pursue our Ruin; and yet confidently ask, What aileth us? and why we complain? as if they could not wrong or hurt us, unless contrary to the common Laws of the Land, they would not suffer us to live quietly in our houses, and did beat and slay us where ever they met us. And yet, some of us can remember when such forbearances were accounted great favours from some very near akin to them. You may as easily conceive, that a man may be torn into pieces without pain and smart, groans and lamentations, as a Church-society of Christians divided and broken asunder without grief and exasperation. When any of the Separatists, for affronting lawful Authority, and trampling on the known Laws of the Land, endure a confiscation of goods, imprisonment, or banishment, than your Ears shall be filled with Sighs and Groans, with Exclamations and biting Reflections, and all the world shall ring of it; and yet there is nothing in these Sufferings but what hath relation to a temporal concern. But when they censure and reject us from the Kingdom of Christ, deal with us as intolerable, profane, and ungodly wretches, proclaim to all the world, that we are Apostates, and incorrigible evil doers, and as much as in them lieth, disfranchise us of all our spiritual Rights and Privileges, which ought to be dearer to us than life itself; if we take on as hurt and injured, we are peevish and choleric, and have as little Reason to conduct us, as they judge we have of Religion. But this language of theirs becomes no man's mouth but such an one as he was, who said, He had rather have a part in Paris than in Paradise. They who are Christians indeed, prefer their God before their goods, and are more for the Communion of Saints, than for great Possessions. And this brings me to the last branch of my Text.  
Sect. 31. Thirdly, The Limitation of the Concession: But rebel not against the Lord, nor rebel against us, in building you an Altar beside the Altar of the Lord our God. The exceptive particle [But] is very emphatical, and seems to suggest, That no indulgence is to be showed to our separating Brethren, but upon condition of their penitence, and return to our Communion. The Children of Israel's condescension here, was founded on a presumption of the Reubenites Reformation. If the Reubenites, etc. will yield and submit themselves to God and his Church, than they will stoop to them, and gratify them; not else. So here, if the Separatists continue impenitent and obstinate, set up Altar against Altar, and Church against Church, we are under no Obligation to remit any of our Rights, or to give away any thing we justly possess, to them, to live in amity & peace with them. We need not be at any trouble or cost to purchase patterns of stubbornness and disobedience, we shall have more than a good many thrust upon us against our Wills. Church-peace is such a valuable Blessing, that we should readily purchase it at any rate of disadvantage to our Worldly Interests; and we should gratify them that have separated themselves from us into opposite Parties to us, in any thing consistent with Truth, Goodness, and Charity to our religious Church-communion: But if we cannot bring these Offenders into the Church, without bringing in their Offences too, we had better give away what we have to keep them out, than to be at any cost or trouble to make room to receive them in. If we cannot have some reasonable security, that their joining with us will do us more good than hurt, let them alone, Hos. 4.17. To stretch ourselves by comprehensive acts, to take into the bosom of the Church (as the Trojans did with the wooden horse) a company of men armed with designs to undermine and betray her power, and to disgrace and disturb her Order, will add to her calamities as well as to her numbers. Though they leave off their Separations, yet if they retain their unpeaceable and ungovernable spirits and principles, continue more apt to find faults in others than to amend them in themselves, will check at every feather, raise quarrels and divisions from their own mistakes and misperswasions, will not be made conformable to Laws, but will have Laws made conformable to them, or will live at large without the precincts of any Government at all, but what they themselves call the government of Christ, and will have the Wall within which we are enclosed broken and trodden down, Cant. 4.2. Isai. 5.2. i e. have it left indifferent how Congregations of Christians and their respective Worships and Disciplines be modelled; our Congregations may be much the greater, but our Offences and Sorrows will be never the less; and I think 'twill be more for our comfort and safety too, to go to Heaven, though without their company, in the good old way.  
Sect. 32. A Ceremony or two may not be much stood upon, (though we are not to make matters of decency so cheap, as to alter them to please every unmannerly Humourist) but Faith and Order, fixed Rules of Worship and Discipline, are an interest too considerable to be neglected for any body's sake. All is not Gold that glisters, and yet we may buy Gold too dear. 'Tis possible the Separatists may not be such a good company of Christians as they themselves report; but suppose them to be much better than indeed they are, they which shall sell the established Government of the Church, and its fixed modes of Worship, to regain them to it, shall pay much too dear for it, have a very bad bargain of it, and shall be sure to put all the gain in their eyes: For they are a People, for the most part, of such volatile spirits, that if you have no binding Impositions to fix them, you shall not be able to keep their company when you have it; and so in the issue the means used to make their company most sure, will bring it to the greatest uncertainty that can be. Take away all Order, and I am sure there can be nothing but Confusion: Or if it be in every man's power to be the Master of Order, 'tis great odds but the most will be the Masters of Misrule.  
Sect. 33. 'Tis therefore certainly better to keep the Church-doors close shut, than to set them wide open to those Separatists who would turn the doors out at windows, I mean, invert the whole order of things, and render Religion in its Ministrations, like some late itinerant Preachers of it, an ambulatory thing, as various as the complexions of the Celebrators, and as changeable as the Moon; which will infallibly harden its Enemies against it, and expose it to their contempt and scorn. Hath any Nation changed their Gods? Jer. 2.11. i e. all Nations account Innovations in matters of Religion a Reproach to them; because men's lightness and inconstancy is an Argument that they have very weak heads, or very bad hearts; either that they are greatly uncertain, or exceedingly careless, whether they please God or not by what they do. And truly, I take it to be as contrary to the revealed Will of God to abolish a good custom, 1 Cor. 11.16. as to introduce a bad one: And 'tis very seldom, that the benefit of an alteration doth compensate the trouble of it. And we cannot but observe, that men given to change, are seldom or never satisfied; but the gratifying of them in one thing, encourageth them to challenge it as their due in others: Change is so sweet to them, that like the Horseleeches daughters, they are still crying, Give, give. And I am sure we may be better employed than to be meddling with those men who are given to change. In a word, when men, who have withdrawn and separated themselves from us into distinct Societies, are obstinate, and refuse to be reform, we must be so far from studying a compliance with them, that we must not give place to them by subjection, no not for an hour, Gal. 2.5. but must mark and avoid them as the enemies of Christ, Rom. 15.16. and the words of Limitation in my Text are the reason of it; for they that build an Altar beside the Altar of the Lord, rebel against God and against us.  
Sect. 34. The Altar is called in the Hebrew [Misbeach] a Sacrificatory, or a place for the Sacrifices, Gen. 22.19. Leu. 1.11. And such a most holy place was it, both in the Tabernacle and the Temple, that it sanctified what they offered on it, Exod. 29.37. Mat. 23.19. Now Sacrifices were Rites of address to God, and used as Mediums of Praise and Prayer, 1 Sam. 13.12. Ezra 6.10. Psal. 116.13. And accordingly you shall find, that where Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob built Altars, they called on the Name of the Lord, Gen. 12.7. comp. with 13.4. Gen. 26.25. & 33.20. & 35.1. i e. they praised God, and prayed to him: So that an Altar was a place for solemn religious Worship. And then by building an Altar beside the Altar of the Lord, must needs be designed, as the Children of Israel thought, the erecting an holy place for solemn religious Worship, contradistinct to that of the Lords own appointment, where the Reubenites, Gadites, and half Tribe of Manasseh had conspired to meet in religious Assemblies to worship God in a peculiar & separate way, under distinct Officers and Orders from themselves, who were to inhabit the Land of Canaan. And 'tis very plain, they uncharitably suspected an intent of some kind of Idolatry, and so took it for a design of an aggravated Separation. 'Tis true, they had no such bad design as was supposed; yet lot the fact be such as it was supposed to be, and then 'tis granted on all hands, that by so doing they rebelled against God and his Church.  
Sect. 35. This building of an Altar beside the Altar of the Lord, hath been applied by all sorts of men to Schismatical Separations from the Christian Church; that is, when any sort of Christians do voluntarily, and causelessly, or rashly forsake those Christian Societies with which they once had, or aught to have, Communion, and gather themselves into separate religious Societies, live combined in a submission to distinct Laws of Government and Rules of Worship from those formerly observed, or were obliged unto, renouncing, refusing, or not owning public religious Communion with those from whom they separate; they are said to erect Altar against Altar, to gather Churches out of Churches, and to set up Churches against Churches.  
Sect. 36. Now although this be but too ordinarily practised among us here in England. yet 'tis such a very bad thing, that many of those among us, who are most notoriously guilty of it, vehemently disclaim and disown it. That there are divers Societies of Christians distinguished from one another by the observation of separate ways of Church-government and Orders of Worship, is too evident to be denied; but who are the faulty Separatists, is made by some, matter of Question and Doubt. 'Tis but to put Cases, and the Question will be answered; and the Doubt, if there be any, resolved. When the Reubenites, etc. built an Altar, if they had withal actually forsaken the religious Communion of the Children of Israel in the Tabernacle and held separate religious Meetings at their New-erected Altar, and resolved not to be united by the same common ties of Government and Orders of Worship with them; who had been the Separatists? questionless, the Reubenites, Gadites, and half Tribe of Manasseh, because they only would have departed from the Unity of the National Church, to which they did belong as Members, and to whose Laws of Government, and Orders of Worship they owed subjection and obedience. So here, they who have departed from the Unity of the National Church of England, are the Separatists: The National Church! that is a Scare crow; yea, less, a Chimaera dancing in a vacuum: and so some men endeavour to bring the old Church of England to a new nothing. They could swear (at least the chiefest of them) what the Church of Scotland was, and Covenant to maintain her in her Doctrine, Worship, Discipline, and Government, and to endeavour a Reformation according to her Pattern: but, good men! they cannot understand for their hearts what this Church of England should be. One would think that a National Church in England might as easily be defined, as a National Church in Scotland. All the odds is, the National Church of England is not now so likely to serve their turns, as the National Church of Scotland, then so termed, was. Let us but pull down the Bishops, and set up a General Assembly of Presbyters, and 'twill be as easy to understand what the National Church of England is, as what the National Church of Scotland was.  
Sect. 37. Let us reason the case a little with these men. Why may not the English Nation become a National Church, as well as the Jewish? What is there wanting which the Jews had, that is essential to the constitution of a National Church? May not that be as much from God, and have as great approbation, and as many Blessings from him which is effected in an ordinary way, as that which is effected in an extraordinary way? What they were by immediate, we are by mediate divine Constitution. Were they converted from dead Idols to the living God? so are we. Were they united in the profession of the same true faith? so are we. Were they bound to the same rules and modes of Worship? so are we. What is it which makes a Church, but Gods Call to a People, and their Answer to his Call? Now you shall find, that this is to extend to whole Nations of the Gentiles under the Gospel, as well as it did to the whole Nation of the Jews under the Law; Isai. 55.5. Thou shalt call a Nation which thou knewest not, and Nations which knew not thee shall run unto thee. Zech. 2.11. Many Nations shall be joined unto the Lord in that day, and shall be my people. So Mich. 4.2. Many Nations shall come and say, Let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and he will teach us his ways, and we will walk in his paths. And Psal. 72.11, 12. All King shall fall down before him, all Nations shall serve him: all Nations shall call him blessed. And Christ tells the Jews, Mat. 21.43. That the kingdom of God [that is, the Church-state] shall be taken from you, and given to a Nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. And 'tis no more than what Moses foretold them, Deut. 32.21. I will move them to jealousy with those that are not a people: I will provoke them to anger by a foolish Nation. Which the Apostle expressly applieth to the rejection of the Jews, and calling of the Gentiles, Rom. 10.19. which plainly evinceth, that God would convert whole Nations, as well as particular Congregations, out of them; and bring them to a Church-state, such for substance as the Jews enjoyed. And why may not an whole Nation incorporate into one Body Ecclesiastic, as well as into one Body Politic? There may be as universal agreement in divine matters as in civil, & the Members of a National Church may be as useful to one another in that relation, as the Members of a Civil State, and as governable in the one capacity as in the other. So that they which forsake, and gather themselves into distinct religious Societies from that Society of Christians here in England, which are united by National Laws Political and Ecclesiastical, in the profession of the same Faith, and observation of the same rules of Worship and Discipline, are faulty Separatists, and set their Altar beside the Altar of the Lord their God.  
Sect. 38. To make this yet a little plainer to you, I shall apply it to a Separation made from our Parochial Churches, which are of the same constitution with the National, and differ only as parts from the whole. Though Parochial or Congregational Churches are no more of immediate divine Institution than the Jewish Congregation in their Synagogues were, but a mere prudential distribution of the whole into parts, for the more convenient and orderly Community in a public confession of Faith, and participation of public Ordinances; and no Christian considered simply as a Member of the Church Catholic, is any more bound to the Communion of one part of the Church than of another, but ought indifferently, as he hath opportunity, to join himself to any one sound part of it as well as to another: yet our Parochial Churches being homageneal or similar parts of the National as well as Catholic Church, essentially considered, they who from Vicinity of Neighbourhood and Cohabitation, have or aught to have joined themselves to them as Christian Assemblies fitly accommodated for public Worship, common Order and Edification, and best subserving the duties of a Church-relation; if they separate from our Assemblies, as acting in a way of Communion with the National Church, and set up Assemblies of a different and disagreeing constitution, They do not walk as God hath called them, 1 Cor. 1.17. pitching every man by his own standard, Numb. 2.2. according to order, 1 Cor. 14.40. Do not go forth by the footsteps of God's flock, nor feed where God maketh his flock to rest at noon, Cant. 1.7, 8. but set up an Altar beside the Altar of the Lord.  
Sect. 39 Moreover, whatever the Original Constitution of our Parish-churches was, or whatever their relation to the National Church is, or suppose there were no National Church at all, yet 'tis evident that our Parish-churches consist of visible Saints, such as profess Christianity, and have been baptised into the Body of Christ; they are the pillars and ground of Truth, 1 Tim. 3.15. that is, they do preach and proclaim Gods Will as revealed in the Gospel, which is the Word of Truth; as those Pillars which have the Edicts of Princes affixed to them, proclaim their Will and Pleasure: the true Sacraments, which are the Symbols and Seals of God's Covenant, which is the Bond of all Amity and Commerce with God, are administered in them; they by mutual consent join themselves together as Pastor and People, and assemble themselves together to partake of the Ordinances of Christ; and therefore they are most certainly true Churches: and they which live in an orderly Communion with them, keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace, abide where they were called with God, keep their ranks and places where right Reason and Religion hath fixed them, and maintain public Charity and Order; and consequently, they which have been once joined to them (as all the Separatists in England have been, or aught to be; for such an Existence as Parish-churches now have, they for the main had long before the oldest Separatist in England was born) to separate from them, they carry it like Mutineers in an Army, violate all the bonds of Love, Peace, and Order, and by setting up distinct and separate Societies for Worship and Discpline from them, rebel against God and against us.  
Sect. 40. I. Such Separatists rebel against God. As there were some which professed they knew God, but by Works denied him, Tit. 1.16. so some Separatists pretend to a singular subjection to the Will of God in all things, and you shall not lightly meet with any sort of men who will outwardly appear more addicted to a Zeal for the setting up of the Kingdom of God and the Sceptre of his Christ, as they term it, and the throwing down all opposite Interests, than they; but yet in their practices are all the while deeply engaged in rebellion against him. Every sin being a transgression of God's Law, is virtually and by interpretation a making void of God's Law; which is a disclaiming his Sovereign Authority and Power over us, and consequently a Rebellion against him: But as every breach of Law, amongst men, is not strictly and properly denominated Rebellion against the Sovereign Powers; so neither is every breach of God's Law termed Rebellion against the Sovereign Power of God; but those sorts only which by circumstances are so aggravated, that they seem to be, after a sort, a formal renunciation of our subjection unto God, a plain resistance made to the Will of God, and a setting up the Will of man above the Will of God; and as it were a repealing of his Institutions, to establish our own Imaginations and Inventions. Now this sin of wilful and causeless or rash Separation, is a complicated sin, which partakes of the nature of those provocations which are under the imputation of Rebellion, as I will discover to you in a few remarkable instances.  
Sect. 41. First, Separation in the Context, is called a Turning away from following the Lord, v. 16. & 18. for when men causelessly separate themselves from God's Church, they go out, like Cain, from the presence of the Lord, Gen. 4.16. because 'tis a departure from love; and he that dwelleth not in love, dwelleth not in God, nor God in him, 1 John 4.12. Which includes an abuse of Grace, and a rebelling against Light, as Job speaks, ch. 24.13. a sin of knowledge and ingratitude. I pray mind it, Church-forsakers are God-forsakers; for what is the Church of God, but the house of God? 1 Pet. 4.17. And where doth God dwell, but in his house? 2 Cor. 6.16. And where doth God meet and bless a people, but where he records his Name? Exod. 20.24. And where doth he record his Name, but in Church-Assemblies, where, by the celebration of his Ordinances, preaching of his Word, Acts 5.15. performing of his Worship, Mal. 1.6. and exercising of his Discipline, he is known and acknowledged as a man by his Name? And how can we obtain and maintain intercourse with God, but by coming to him, and walking with him in his Temple, and in the midst of his golden Candlesticks? 1 Cor. 3.16. Rev. 2.1. In a word, God's Church is his Spouse, Cant. 4.8, 9, 10, 11, 12. and they that cleave not to God with her, go a whoring from God, Hos. 4.12. deal treacherously with God, and prostitute themselves to the filthy lusts of their own hearts, and do in effect say to God as they in the Parable, We will not have this man [that is, God] to reign over us, Luke 19.4.  
Sect. 42. Secondly, Separation is a gainsaying and resisting lawful Authority, which is the Ordinance of God, Rom. 13.1, 2. a sin of great pride and contempt. The formality of the sin of Corah, Dathan and Abiram, was Schism, a sinful Separation from the Church and Congregation of Israel; and 'tis expressly called, a gathering themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, Numb. 16.3. & 19 i e. against the chief Magistrate and the chief Priest. They avouched all the Congregation to be equally holy with them, one as good as another; and therefore some were too good to be under others. And because Moses and Aaron took too much upon them, and usurped a Supremacy over them, they would be a Church of themselves, a Congregation of holy people contradistinct to them. But though they pretended for a parity, and their words sound altogether that way, yet Moses plainly discerned that their plead for an equality proceeded from a spirit strongly working after a Superiority; and so he tells them, v. 7, 8, 9 Ye take too much upon you, ye sons of Levi— Seemeth it but a small thing to you, that the God of Israel hath separated you from the congregation of Israel, to bring you near to himself, to do the service of the Tabernacle of the Lord, and to stand before the congregation to minister to him— and seek ye the Priesthood too? They thought the High-priest's Garments would fit their shoulders as well as Aaron's. So that their humble Remonstrances against a Superiority, was but an ambitious design to exchange it, to pull down others and set up themselves. And we every where see men like the Fir-tree in the Parable, who would be cut down as low as the meanest shrub, rather than be over-toped by the Cedar; are so proud, that they cannot endure a Superior. I will not say, that all the Separatists do ambitionate a Superiority; nor will I say, that like the Pharisee, they affect a singularity, would not be like other men, Luke 8.11. lest they should be like Saul hid in the stuff, men of no remark, who deserve to be head and shoulders above their Brethren in reputation and honour, themselves being Judges: But I shall be bold to say, they are so far from moving under the regular conduct of Civil and Ecclesiastical Authority, as all good Christians ought to do, that the most visible signs by which they are distinguished from other Christians, are their bold desiances of both. And in truth, so far is the interest of the one incorporated into the other, that like Isocrates his Twins, they live and die together, and the enemies of the one are the enemies of the other. Conformity and Loyalty, a steadfast and zealous Communion with the Church, and an invincible and immovable Obedience to the King, like stones in an arch, do mutually support and streng.then one another; but Nonconformity and Malignity, Separation and Sedition, have such complicated influences and united interests and designs, that the one being armed with Power, is rarely divided from the other: and he must wink very hard, that doth not every where see, that when the Church loseth a Member, the King also in heart and affection loseth a Subject; unpeaceable in the Church, and ungovernable in the State: for they that are not held by the ties of Religion under subjection and obedience to those that have the rule and oversight of them in the Lord, have a very natural and easy step to despise Dominion, and to exalt themselves above all obligations to the civil Powers. And 'tis no wonderful sight to see those who from a presumption of secrecy have sneaked and creeped into an unlawful Conventicle, from a presumption of victory and impunity, boldly to defy and resist Authority in open field.  
Sect. 43. Thirdly, Separation proceeds from a preference of their own thoughts and devices before God's Institutions and Injunctions; which is called in the holy Text, Rebellion, Isai. 65.2. and the making of the commandments of God of none effect, Mat. 15.6. Mark 7.13. There is nothing more plain, and more easy to be understood in all the Bible, than, That the body of Christ is one, and that all Christians are baptised into this one body, 1 Cor. 12.12, 13. and therefore, though many, are yet one body in Christ, and members one of another, Rom. 12.4, 5. so that, if one member suffer, all the members suffer with it, 1 Cor. 12.26. From which near relation and sympathy, they are obliged to the dearest love, Rom. 12.10. and are to live in the exercise of it, as the evidence of their near relation to Christ, John 34.35. and the bond of perfectness among themselves, Col. 3.14. And that this be not weakened or interrupted, they are commanded not to forsake the assembling of themselves together, Heb. 10.25. and to give no of fence to the Church of God, 1 Cor. 10.32. nor to any member of it, Rom. 14.13. And if offences come, as through Satan's subtlety and the malignity of fleshly lusts they must needs do, Luke 17.1. (though woe to them by whom they come, Mat. 18.7.) their Christian Faith, which worketh by love, Gal. 5.6. must so moderate their passions, that they must not easily be provoked, but bear all things that are tolerable; yea, must cover a multitude of sins, and suffer long, 1 Cor. 13.5, 7. and aught to be so far from rejoicing in iniquity, and having advantages of dislike and separation, that they must account it their Glory to pass by offences, Prov. 29.11. follow after peace, and the things that make for it, Heb. 12.14. Rom. 14.10. and do as much as in them lies, do all that is possible to be done, to live in peace, Rom. 12.18. that is, no condition of a peaceable Communion is to be refused, but such as is morally impossible, cannot be submitted unto without sin. This is plainly the mind of God, That we must never forsake the Communion of that Church unto which we are united, so long as we can keep our innocency in it. Nothing but the sinfulness of a Communion can justify or warrant a Separation. When we cannot continue in Communion without either the acknowledgement of some error for a Truth, or the practice of some sin for a Duty, we may separate; but for no other provocation. The requiring of doubtful or suspected practices, as some speak, as the condition of Communion, can be no warrantable ground of Separation; because Engagements to a Separation must be equally certain as Engagements to a Communion. They are certainly very badly advised and disposed, who prefer their doubts and scruples before their known duty and the Church's honour and safety.  
Sect. 44. And I must tell you too, there may be real corruptions in a Church, and yet no ground for a Separation from it; because we may communicate with it in God's Ordinances, without partaking with it in its Corruptions: for that may be tolerated which is not imposed; practised by some, which is disowned by others, and required from none. And in all lawful things, condescension and yieldance is infinitely more commendable than selfwilledness, and stubborn frowardness. If therefore a Brother, much more a Mother, will have you go a mile with her, in a way of condescension and yieldance to such things as you conceive inconvenient and burdensome, you must, to maintain peace and love, go with her twain, Mat. 5.41. The Philosopher calls a good man, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a Cube or Square; implying, that a good man is not like a Spherical Figure, which is able to meet the plainest thing only in a point, but like a Cubical Figure, which meets with plain things in whole broadsides, and hath a notable aptitude for Unity and compliance. I am sure St. Paul was such an one, and he is worthy to be a precedent to us all, Who became as a Gentile to the Gentiles, that he might gain the Gentiles; and as a Jew to the Jews, that he might gain the Jews; yea, though he were a free man, yet he made himself a servant to all, and was made all things to all men, that he might gain some, 1 Cor. 9.19, 20, 21, 22. And certainly, he was never baptised with the Spirit of Christ, who will not do more for the unity and Peace of that Society to which he belongs, than to please an illnatured humour; and that will not smother his private judgement, and relinquish his private liberties, and his more public conveniences too, rather than by a peremptory publication of the one, and a stiff maintenance of the other, disturb the quiet of God's Church.  
Sect. 45. Now it being generally acknowledged by most of the Separatists, That the Church of England, at least, that our Parochial Churches are true Churches, and that they may, without the dangerous hazard of their Salvation, communicate with them in their religious Administrations; they cannot separate from them, without exalting their own Imaginations above God's Prescriptions, and preferring the gratification of an Humour, before the pleasing of God; which is a grand rebellion against him.  
Sect. 46. Fourthly, Separation is an act of great stubbornness and contumacy: 'tis a sin excused, justified, and pleaded for; which is the adding of rebellion to sin, as Job speaks, c. 34.37. The very same circumstances which rendered the sin of Saul in sparing Agag and the best of the spoil a Rebellion, are fully applicable to the sin of wilful and causeless Separation, and with some superior aggravations. Did Saul break the Commandment of God? so do they: And far more heinously; for he transgressed only a single, positive, temporary, dispensable Precept, but they an eternal and indispensable Law of Love and Righteousness: Saul transgressed to preserve and save, but they to ruin and destroy. Did Saul, notwithstanding his disobedience, pretend that he had performed the Commandment of the Lord? so do they: They do it in obedience to the Call of God, who will have them (as they say) come out from among us and separate. Did Saul excuse and justify his sin from the pretence of a good end and intention? so do they. The Church needs Reformation, and they have covenanted to reform it, and they will bring religious Ministrations to greater purity; so that they are in a faithful pursuit of The good Old Cause, are the men called forth to bear witness to the Gospel-designe, and their Separation is for the Honour of God, and the Edification of his Church; that is, they pull down the Church to build it up, rend the Members of the Body asunder to join them the more orderly together, wreck and quite mar the Ship to repair and mend it, destroy to save. Did Saul at last confess his sin? so do not they, but obstinately defend it, yea, glory in it as an attainment of an extraordinary size; and, which is the foundation of it, ascribe it unto God as his own doing; and are so far from assuming any shame or blame to themselves for it, as sometimes a Drunkard, a Liar, a Swearer, and other debauched persons will do, that they extol and magnify the worthiness of the action, and are confident that it commends them unto God, and is one of the most rewardable acts of Virtue they can do. This I take to be the very height of sin, and much worse than Saul's Rebellion, Which was as the sin of witchcraft, and his stubbornness as iniquity and idolatry, 2 Sam. 15.23.  
Sect. 47. Would you not think it an abominable aggravation to the sin of a Drunkard, a Thief, a Blasphemer, or any slagitious wretch, to hear him justify and plead for it as an act of Religion, and a notable piece of service done for God? and hear him censure others as defective in duty to God and themselves, that will not applaud and imitate him? This is the Case of all Separatists; how contrary soever they are to the Church and one another in their dividing and separating principles and practices, motives, and ends. they impute them all to God as the Author and Encourager of them. And what higher Affront and Reproach can be done to God, who is the God of order, 1 Cor. 14.33. and the Lord of peace, that giveth peace always by all means, 2 Thess. 3.16. than to avouch and represent him the Author of Divisions and Confusions? There is a sin unto death (saith St. John 1. ch. 5.16.) I do not say, that thou shouldest pray for it. I shall not judge any man, but shall leave him to stand or fall to his own Master, Rom. 14.4. And indeed, what have we to do to judge those that are without? 2 Cor. 5.12. But I cannot see how any body can expect that God should pardon that sin which he defendeth and justifieth, and will not confess and reform, but how vile a sin and provocation soever it be, will call it good, and father it upon God; and so blaspheme God, rather than condemn himself. Now these particulars being duly weighed singly or together, it will appear that wilful and causeless Separation, and erecting Churches against Churches, is as peremptory an engagement, and as considerable a motion against the bent of God's Will, and the design he is managing and carrying on in the world to magnify his Name, as any the boldest sinners can adventure on.  
Sect. 48. II. Separatists rebel against the Church of God too. That part of God's Church which is continued here on Earth, is not unsitly termed Militant, because 'tis always in a warfaring condition, is encompassed on all hands with malicious and spiteful adversaries, and subject to the most invidious and mischievous designs and oppositions. Hence she is compared to a Lily among Thorns, Cant. 2.2. because surrounded with enemies which are as vexatious and hurtful to her, as galling and sharp pricking Thorns to the tender Lilly. Now of all enemies, those of a man's own house, and those which have dearest intimacy, are most concerned with us in civil and religious matters, are the worst, the most dangerous and pernicious. Here lay the accent of David's hazards and sorrows, That his own familiar friend in whom he trusted, which had eat of his bread, did lift up his heel against him, Psal. 41.9. For it was not an enemy that reproached me (saith he elsewhere, Psal. 55.12, 13, 14.) then I could have born it; neither was it he that hated me that did magnify himself against me, than I would have hid myself from him: But it was thou, O man, mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance. Tea, which was a further aggravation of it, 'twas such an one as did not only take sweet counsel together with him, but walked unto the House of God in company with him. Such a sort of enemies as these are Schismatics to the Church; they were born and bred in it, have been fed with her fat things full of marrow, and with her wines on the lees well resined, Isai. 25.6. have been taken into her bosom and made one with her, in profession and outward appearance have had common interests, common loves and hatreds, and common hopes and fears with her, and have spoken unto her and quickened her, saying, Come ye and let us go up unto the mountain of the Lord, the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us his ways, and we will walk in his paths, Isai. 2.1. And for some to arise among ourselves, speaking perverse things, to draw away Disciples after them, must needs be a grievous hurt to us, Acts 20.30. because all their opposite designs are managed with treachery. And doing all in the Name of Christ, they do as it were turn our own weapons against ourselves; I mean, use the sacred Scriptures and Religion itself, on which the Churches Being and Unity is founded and preserved, as Engines to divide and destroy us. For this reason, the Dividers of, and Separaters from the Church have done more to weaken and destroy it, than all its other Enemies; for Schismatics are to a Church like Mutineers to an Army, which by dividing it against itself, do more certainly and easily bring it to desolation, than the most violent impressions from the power of any sort of enemy whatsoever can do. Who will regard that Authority and Communion which is despised and rejected by those who pretend to be the greatest friends to it?  
Sect. 49. In a word, as he which rebelleth against the supreme Head of a Kingdom, rebelleth against the Kingdom itself; so he that rebelleth against Jesus Christ the supreme Head of the Church, rebelleth against the Church too. Now sinful Separation is a peremptory rebellion against Christ; for 'tis a dividing of him, 1 Cor. 1.3. and he that divides Christ, and makes him the Head of a sinful Faction, doth in effect depose him from his Headship over the Church. Hence such Dividers are said to be carnal, and to walk as men, 1 Cor. 3.3. i e. walk not as persons related to the Spiritual Kingdom of Christ, but as men which have canceled all the Obligations of Christianity: for they cannot acknowledge Christ in his Supremacy, who do not keep the Unity of the Church in the Bond of Peace.  
Sect. 50. Thus I have with all faithfulness, without partiality or prejudice to any Party, Sect, or Faction of men, represented to you the damnable Mischief of Separation; and have said nothing which for the substance hath not been said by the most eminent Divines of the Presbyterian Judgement, with whom I have not a little consulted in this case. And certainly, were the Scriptures conscionably observed (as Mr. Baxter tells us in his Christian Concord, p. 119.) mwn would take Church-division to be a greater sin than Adultery and Theft: for 'tis an eminent branch of Antichristianism, a sin by which men as directly and effectually do the work of the Devil, and of the great Antichrist his subordinate Instrument, as by any sin they do or can commit. For 'tis most directly contrary to the design of God the Father in sending Christ into the world, which was to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, Luke 1.17. and to gather together in one, all things in Christ, Eph. 1.10. And as contrary to the redeeming work of God the Son, which was to gather together in one the children of God which are scattered abroad, John 11.52. And as contrary to the sanctifying Operations of the Spirit, by which we are all baptised into one body, 1 Cor. 12.12. And consequently as contrary to all those Ordinances and means of Grace by which they all derive the effluxes of their Grace, Love, and Goodness unto the Souls of men; which are all purposely designed to accomplish the Church's unity. E. g. When we are baptised, we are all baptised into one body, 1 Cor. 12.13. and what is the communion of the body and blood of Christ for, but to mind us, that though we are many members, yet we are all but one body? 1 Cor. 10.16, 17. And what are all the Officers of the Church and their respective Ministrations for, but to bring us to the unity of the Faith— and to speak the truth in love, that we may grow up into him in all things, which is the Head, even Christ; from whom the whole body fitly joined together, and compacted by that which every joint supplieth— the body increaseth to the edification of itself in love, Eph. 4.13, 14, 15, 16. And Divisions and Separations being so directly contrary and destructive to the design of Christianity, how unreasonable a thing is it, for the Dividers of, and Separators from our Church, in which nothing (as some among themselves acknowledge) is to be done and approved of which is unlawful, to assume to themselves the denomination of the Godly Party? Whereas we can justly appeal, and call Heaven and Earth to record, that for so doing, they are Rebels against God and against us. I shall conclude my Discourse with a serious and earnest Admonition and Charge to you, to remember with great thoughtfulness of heart, That the Church of Christ, which is the Body of Christ, was, is, and ever will be One; and that when you were initiated into a profession of Christianity, you were baptised into this one body, 1 Cor. 12.12, 13. So that here a departure from Unity is a Nullity: He that is of a New, and not of the Old Church, is of no Church. And this is the reason why the Sentence of Excommunication rightly executed is so terrible, because it cuts off from Christ's Body; which Sentence every Schismatic very desperately executes upon himself; and that too in the most effectual and tremendous manner that can be: for the Governors of the Church may, through some mistake or prejudice, sentence such as ought not to be sentenced; and then the Sentence is reversed, and made void by a superior Tribunal. But whosoever wilfully separates from the Christian Church, or any sound part of it, for a reason common to the whole, most certainly separates himself from Christ too, who is the Saviour only of his Body, Eph. 5.23. The Church is compared to the Ark, because out of it there is no Salvation: and he that wilfully leaps out of it, is rather more than less desperately guilty of Self-destruction, than he that is deservedly and judicially cast out, 'Tis a most fearful Curse for a Church to pronounce against an Obstinate Sinner, The Devil take him! and yet this Curse every man very resolutely executes upon himself, when he wilfully forsakes God's Church: for he doth in effect say, I will forsake God, and the Devil take me! A thing so full of terror and astonishment, I even tremble to speak and you to hear; and from which, Good Lord deliver us, for thy Christ's and our Jesus his sake. Amen.  
FINIS.