A Golden Chain

Thus we see where at this day we may find the true Church of God. Now I come to the third question; and that is, at what time a man may with good conscience make separation from a Church. Ans. So long as a Church makes no separation from Christ, we must make no separation from it: and when it separates from Christ, we may also separate from it: and therefore in two cases there is warrant of separation. The one is, when the worship of God is corrupt in substance. And for this we have a commandment, Be not, saith Paul,¹ unequally yoked with infidels: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness, or what communion hath light with darkness, or what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath the believer with the infidel? or what ⟨p. 498⟩agreement hath the temple of God with idols? wherefore come out from among them and separate •our selves, saith the Lord. And we have a practise of this in the old testament.² When Jeroboam had set up idols in Israel, then the priests and Levites came to Judah and Jerusalem to serve the Lord. The second is, when the doctrine of religion is corrupt in substance: as Paul saith,³ If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to the wholesome words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness, he is puffed up: from such separate your selves. A practise of this we have in the Apostle Paul, who being in Ephesus in a Synagogue of the Jews, spake boldly for the space of three months, disputing and exhorting to the things which concern the kingdom of God:⁴ but when certain men were hardened and disobeyed, speaking evil of the way God, he departed from them, and separated the disciples of Ephesus: and the like he did at Rome also. As for the corruptions that be in the manners of men that be of the Church, they are no sufficient warrant of separation, unless it be from private company,⁵