To which we answer, that as the Church fell by degrees into universal pollution, by the Apostasy foretold to be under the Man of Sin; so by degrees it recovers out of it again: If therefore separation reach no farther then separation from sins, and such sins of Churches wherein our selves in joining with them must be involved, we suppose such separation ⟨p. 27⟩(all due respect and love reserved and professed to the Churches themselves) cannot justly be accounted unwarrantable; and 'tis the profession of the Author in his Epistle, to plead for communion with the Churches of Christ, no farther then they hold communion with Christ: If any transgress these bounds, either in respect of private or public communion in England, we must profess openly, that if any mourn for it, we are (or would be) companions with them in that grief. Whose heart bleeds not to see Gods flock scattered, and needless rents made? that scarce Truth or error can now adays be received, but it is maintained in a way of Schism; directly contrary to the gathering and uniting Spirit of Jesus Christ: A wide Conscience calls evil, good, and therefore can communicate with any evil; a strait Conscience calls good, evil, (as Gerson observes) and therefore can readily separate even from that which is good. When rash and sudden men are grown masters of their Consciences, it troubles not them from whom they divide, nor whither they run in separate ways; when weak (yet godly men) are under the tenderness, (yet much darkness) of Conscience, being very timorous of ways that are evil, grow many times shy (at least in simplicity are led) from ways that afterward are found to be lawful and good. 'Tis the usual misery of English spirits, either to spin the Spiders web, and swallow down all corruptions in Churches; or so to break down the gap in forsaking corruptions utterly to abandon the Churches themselves: The wine of causeless separation hath a spirit in it, (if God graciously prevent not) that hurries men headlong to strange distances, that in separating from public, they separate from private; in separating from corrupt Churches (as no Churches) ⟨p. 28⟩they separate from the purest, even those of their own; in separating from pollutions of Gods ordinances, at last they fall to the storming of some, if not to the utter renouncing of all the Ordinances themselves:
To which wee answer, that as the Church fell by degrees into universall pollution, by the Apostasie foretold to bee under the Man of Sin; so by degrees it recovers out of it againe: If therefore separation reach no farther then separation from sinnes, and such sinnes of Churches wherein our selves in joyning with them must bee involved, wee suppose such separation ⟨p. 27⟩(all due respect and love reserved and professed to the Churches themselves) cannot justly bee accounted unwarrantable; and 'tis the profession of the Author in his Epistle, to plead for communion with the Churches of Christ, no farther then they hold communion with Christ: If any transgresse these bounds, either in respect of private or publique communion in England, wee must professe openly, that if any mourn for it, wee are (or would bee) companions with them in that griefe. Whose heart bleeds not to see Gods flock scattered, and needlesse rents made? that scarce Truth or errour can now adayes bee received, but it is maintained in a way of Schisme; directly contrary to the gathering and uniting Spirit of Jesus Christ: A wide Conscience calls evill, good, and therefore can communicate with any evill; a strait Conscience cals good, evill, (as Gerson observes) and therefore can readily separate even from that which is good. When rash and sudden men are grown masters of their Consciences, it troubles not them from whom they divide, nor whither they run in separate wayes; when weak (yet godly men) are under the tendernesse, (yet much darknesse) of Conscience, being very timorous of wayes that are evill, grow many times shy (at least in simplicity are led) from wayes that afterward are found to be lawfull and good. 'Tis the usuall misery of English spirits, either to spin the Spiders web, and swallow down all corruptions in Churches; or so to breake downe the gap in forsaking corruptions utterly to abandon the Churches themselves: The wine of causelesse separation hath a spirit in it, (if God graciously prevent not) that hurries men headlong to strange distances, that in separating from publique, they separate from private; in separating from corrupt Churches (as no Churches) ⟨p. 28⟩they separate from the purest, even those of their own; in separating from pollutions of Gods ordinances, at last they fall to the storming of some, if not to the utter renouncing of all the Ordinances themselves:
