An answer to the discourse of Mr. William Sherlock, touching the knowledge of Christ,…

Those public censures, ¹whereby rotten or dead members are cut off from the body of Christ; consist in casting such persons out of the Christian Society, in debarring them from the Communion of Prayers and Sacraments, and all religious Offices, which is a plain demonstration, that our union to Christ, is not an union to his person, but consists in a sincere and spiritual communion with the Christian Church; otherwise this external communion with the Church, could be no visible signification of our union to Christ; nor ⟨p. 191⟩could our excision from the visible Church signify our separation from him.

Those publick censures, ¹whereby rotten or dead members are cut off from the body of Christ; consist in casting such persons out of the Christian Society, in debarring them from the Communion of Prayers and Sacraments, and all religious Offices, which is a plain demonstration, that our union to Christ, is not an union to his person, but consists in a sincere and spiritual communion with the Christian Church; otherwise this external communion with the Church, could be no visible signification of our union to Christ; nor ⟨p. 191⟩could our excision from the visible Church signifie our separation from him.

1. 1Mr. Sherlock.

The Author argues thus,¹ If union to Christ be immediate, then our external communion with the Church cannot signify our union to Christ, nor could our excision from the visible Church, signify our separation from him: To which I answer, just before our Author saith, Our union to Christ, is not an union to his Person, but consists in communion with the Church, that is, the visible Church, as he afterwards calls it; and therefore our communion with the Church doth not signify our union to Christ, but is it; and our excision from the Church doth not signify our separation from Christ, but is it, according to our Author, which cannot possibly stand; Because our union to the visible Church is external, and our union to Christ internal and spiritual; our excision from the Church is one thing, and our separation from Christ another; a man may be united to the visible Church, and yet not really united to Christ; for so is the hypocrite; a man may be cut off from the visible Church, and yet not cut off from Christ, for so is the unjustly excommunicate.