Rules of Worship and Discipline are an interest too considerable to be neglected for any bodies sake All is not Gold that glisters and yet we may buy Gold too dear 'T is 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 mans power to be the Master of Order 't is great odds but the most will be the Masters of Misrule Sect. 33. 'T is 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 mens 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 custome 1 Cor. 11.16 as to introduce a bad one And 't is 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 Horsleaches 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sure we may be better employed than to be meddling with those men who are given to change In a word when men who have withdrawn and separated themselves from us into distinct Societies are obstinate and refuse to be reformed we must be so far from studying a compliance with them that we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 Lev. 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 finde 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 't is very plain they uncharitably suspected an intent of some kind of Idolatry and so took it for a designe of an aggravated Separation 'T is true they had no such bad designe as was supposed yet lot the fact be such as it was supposed to be and then 't is 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 causelesly or rashly forsake those Christian Societies with which they once had or ought 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 publick 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 't is 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 'T is but to put Cases and the Question will be answered and the Doubt if there be any resolved When the Reubenites c. 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 tyes of Government and Orders of Worship with them who had been the Separatists questionless the Reubenites Gadites and half Tribe of Manasseh because they onely 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
the publick 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 designe 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 publick 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 c. 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 chuseth 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 Phantasies Although it be not in the power of any mans 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 mens Judgments and Perswasions of it are yet mens Judgments 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 it self 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 mens Wills and Actions are to be guided and governed by their mental Perswasions 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 mens Opinions and Perswasions that they build as strong a Resolution upon them when they are erroneous and corrupt as when they are right and sound for Errour is not entertain'd as Errour but as Truth and a man is as firmly bound by it in his own perswasion as if it were Truth and is as much prejudiced against the contrary Truth as if it were a very bad Errour 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 Hereticks and Schismaticks 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 concern'd 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 Judgment 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 publick 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 inslict Punishment And in truth whatever the Provocation be Treating should go before Fighting for War must always be used as strong Physick in desperate Diseases as the last Remedy and can never be just but when 't is 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 Brethrens 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 sence 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 c. 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 shewing by many special Evidences of Grace and Glory that he was there to instruct protect and bless them Lev. 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 publick designation are set apart onely 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 testifie 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 Gods special presence now as well as then Place is as necessary for the solemn and publick 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 'T is true the Tabernacle and Temple were places of Gods own immediate appointment and had extraordinary Priviledges and peculiar Rites but 't is as true that from the instinct of Nature and common Reason there were publick places set apart and erected for Gods publick Worship with Gods approbation long before these places and had Gods special presence determined to them too Gen. 28.16 17 18. Exod. 33.7 and 't is 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 't is 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 Gods presence being generally specified by the presence of Angels which are Gods 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 Sion 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 Gods Courts i. e. spent in partaking of Gods publick 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 debar'd from access to it he was as a dry and thirsty land where no water is and therefore longed to see Gods 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 publick 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 Gods presence and blessing So that if we come hither and depart without special advantages to our Souls 't is because we are wanting to our selves we do not use holy Places holy Ordinances and holy Assemblies in that manner and to those ends and purposes we should And 't is to be scared that meeting in secret Chambers yea Barns and Stables and such-like places for ordinary and prophane Employments have been and are preferr'd 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 'T is 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 it self to us That the Church and People of God had rather depart from their Estates than their Brethren should wilfully and causelesly depart from a publick Fellowship with them in the Worship and Service of Gods 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 Gods 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 ought 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 prophaned for the Church is called by Gods Name and marked for his and therefore the one cannot be despised but the other must be prophaned too and is it not better that our Estates should be lessen'd than the celebrated Honour of God abated The one is a penal evil an evil onely 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 sence to the very Being it self of God and in no case eligible And you shall finde 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 Gods 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 mens innocencies more valuable than their own conveniencies and consequently more endeavour the eternal salvation of their Brethrens Souls than a temporal provision for their own Bodies What is said of Adam's first sin may also be said of sinful Separation 't is virtually every sin a violation and breach of the whole Law For 't is 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 expresly asserts that where Strife and Division is there is every evil work Jam. 3.16 that is such men are not onely at odds among themselves but also with God and themselves counter-acting too often to make and maintain a Party their own Judgments 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 Smoak 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 Jude 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. Edwards an eminent Presbyterian and a Member of the Assembly of Divines tells us in his Gangraena second part p. 197. That Schism of it self 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 Murther 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 Errours 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 Brethrens safety 1 John 3.16 we should not think the expence 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 onely 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 Schismatick 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 't is destroyed Therefore when the Psalmist aimed at the defeating of his Enemies Conspiracy against him he prayed Destroy O Lord and divide their tongues Psal 55.9 i. e. as the Languages of the Babel builders were divided which brought their Plots to an utter confusion Gen. 11.7 So that Division and Destruction go together The Members of Christs 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 joyned 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 't is 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 rejoyce at the Conforming Ministers disparagement and to draw as many from him as they can they are but Destroyers of the Church of God Call your selves what you will saith he to them I will call you Destroyers if you are Dividers Sacrilegious Desertion page 91. Sect. 18. 'T is true every Division in a Church and Separation from it doth not actually end in the destruction of it but yet 't is the proper and direct tendency of every Division and Separation and the Dividers and Separaters are as really and compleatly guilty as if they did actually accomplish it the ineffectualness of their designe 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 't is a very heavy Oppression to it and a most grievous Persecution of it Sect. 19. 'T is 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 owe to it our very selves Philem. v. 19. for it is the Mother of us all Gal. 4.26 and doth not onely give us being but also ministreth nourishment and increase to us Col. 2.19 Eph. 4.16 and therefore we cannot alienate our selves 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 Inlargement 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 Rayment Luke 12.23 then 't is a greater Oppression to destroy Life or to dismember the Body than 't is to take away outward Accommodations which are onely for Food and Rayment 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 Priviledges 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 finde that you have deformed it The Church of God for the correspondency of her parts in Gods designe 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 it self 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 apostatized from Christ declined from the ways of God gross prophaners of Gods Name and Ordinances and consequently so devested of all goodness that they are not fit for Christian Communion but ought 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 imbodied and formed 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 succour 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 't is useful to encourage Endeavours to support under Burthens to preserve from Dangers to rescue from Distresses to further and cherish in the discharge of Duties and Offices and to sympathize 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 joyned 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 embarque 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 it self because in such a case one Member is a succour and defence to another And as every Souldier 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
do not judge and execute them before tryal 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 proceedings 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 Churches 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 concern'd mens 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 sence 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 tryal 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 Ruine 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 neer 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 then 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 prophane 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 Priviledges which ought to be dearer to us than life it self if we take on as hurt and injured we are peevish and cholerick and have as little Reason to conduct us as they judge we have of Religion But this language of theirs becomes no mans 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 shewed 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 c. will yield and submit themselves to God and his Church then they will stoop to them and gratifie 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 gratifie 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 joyning with us will do us more good than hurt let them alone Hos 4.17 To stretch our selves 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 designes to undermine and betray her power and to disgrace and disturb her Order will adde 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 finde 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 inclosed 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 't will 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 decencie so cheap as to alter them to please every unmannerly Humourist but Faith and Order fixed
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 Scepter 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 Gods Law is virtually and by interpretation a making void of Gods Law which is a disclaiming his Soveraign Authoritie 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 Soveraign Powers so neither is every breach of Gods Law termed Rebellion against the Soveraign Power of God but those sorts onely 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 causelesly separate themselves from Gods Church they go out like Cain from the presence of the Lord Gen. 4.16 because 't is 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 minde 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 Gods 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 't is exprefly 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 pleadings 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 neer 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 designe 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-top'd by the Cedar are so proud that they cannot endure a Superiour 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 Authoritie as all good Christians ought to do that the most visible signes 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 stedfast 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 Non-conformity 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 tyes of Religion under subjection and obedience to those that have the rule and oversight of them in the Lord have a very natural and easie step to despise Dominion and to exalt themselves above all obligations to the civil Powers And 't is no wonderful sight to see those who from a presumption of secrecie have sneaked and creeped into an unlawful Conventicle from a presumption of victorie and impunitie boldly to defie and resist Authoritie in open field Sect. 43. Thirdly Separation proceeds from