Now for the Application of this Doctrine, it teacheth us:

Now for the Application of this Doctrine, it teacheth us:

1. That Christian Policy and Order, prudent, meek, religious Government, is a very great blessing to the Church of God, and greatly to be desired, because thereby Unity and Concord are preserved among the Sheep of Christ, and as by a fierce or hedge they are thereby secured from the irruption of Wolves who would devour and make a prey of them; and all leaven and chaste which would sour the Lump, and corrupt the coin, is purged out, and fanned ⟨p. 47⟩away.^l When the unruly are admonished, and the weak strengthened, and the Feeble-minded comforted, and Heretics rejected, and disorderly Walkers made ashamed, this greatly tendeth both to the honour, and to the health and safety of the Church of God.

1. THat Christian Policy and Order, prudent, meek, religious Government, is a very great blessing to the Church of God, and greatly to be desired, because thereby Vnity and Concord are preserved among the Sheep of Christ, and as by a ferce or hedge they are thereby secured from the irruption of Wolves who would devour and make a prey of them; and all leaven and chast which would soure the Lump, and corrupt the coin, is purged out, and fanned ⟨p. 47⟩away.^l When the unruly are admonished, and the weak strengthned, and the Feeble-minded comforted, and Hereticks rejected, and disorderly Walkers made ashamed, this greatly tendeth both to the honour, and to the health and safety of the Church of God.

1. lTit. 3. 9. 1 Thes. 5. 14. 2 Thes. 3. 14.

2. It teacheth us to take heed of those^m who cause divisions and breaches contrary to the Doctrine of Christ which we have received, who rend his Seamless Coat, and make their tongues and their pens bellows to blow up the flames of contention among Christians, biting, tearing, and devouring one another, of whom the Apostle saith, That they serve not the Lord Jesus but their own belly. It is noted byⁿ Epiphanius as a wicked speech of Marcion the Heretic, Ego findam Ecclesiam vestram, & mi•tam fiffuram in ipsam in aeternum: And the Apostle maketh the ground of contentions and divisions in the Church to be fleshly Lusts, 1 Cor. 3. 3. Gal. 5. 20. ⟨p. 48⟩It is a great sin to make an undue separation from the true Church of Christ. A sin against the Communion of Saints from which the Separation is made. A sin against the Unity and Peace of the Church, which we all ought with our utmost endeavours to preserve. A sin against the Spirit of Christ, which is thereby grieved, as the soul is pained by the wounds which are made upon the body. A sin against the honour of Christ, whose name is thereby exposed to contempt and reproach. A sin against a mans own edification, who thereby cutteth himself off from the means of Grace, and exposeth himself to the danger of Heresy and Contagion. And therefore those holy Fathers St.^o Cyprian, ^pAugustine, and^q Optatus, use to set forth the Atrocity and danger of this sin, by the greatness and strangeness of the Judgement, wherewith God punished it in Corah, Dathan and Abiram, and those who adhered unto them, whom the earth opened her mouth to ⟨p. 49⟩swallow up; and by the sore Judgement upon the ten Tribes, in their total rejection, for separating from the house of David, and the true Worship of God in Jerusalem. We should therefore take special heed of departing from the true Church of Christ, where his Word is truly taught, and where Christ the foundation is held, for every infirmity or blemish which we may conceive to be upon it; for though the Apostle reproved many Corruptions and Abuses in the Church of Corinth, yet he blameth the Contentions, Emulations, Breaches and Divisions which were therein,

Of this sort were the Novatians, Luciferians, Donatists, Audians in the ancient Church, who for laxness of Discipline, or other Corruptions which they apprehended to be therein, did withdraw & keep themselves apart from their Communion: To such as these it was a good speech of^r Optatus, We have one Faith, one Baptism, one Conversation: We read the same divine ⟨p. 50⟩Testaments, we are of the same Sheepfold, we have been washed and wrought together, we are parts of the same garment, but ripped one from another, Sar•ura necessaria est, there wants nothing but that we be sewed up and reunited again.

Of this sort were the Novatians, Luciferians, Donatists, Audians in the antient Church, who for laxness of Discipline, or other Corruptions which they apprehended to be therein, did withdraw & keep themselves apart from their Communion: To such as these it was a good speech of^r Optatus, We have one Faith, one Baptism, one Conversation: We read the same divine ⟨p. 50⟩Testaments, we are of the same Sheep•fold, we have been washed and wrought together, we are parts of the same garment, but ripped one from another, Sar•ura necessaria est, there wants nothing but that we be sewed up and reunited again.

1. rContra Parmen. l. 3.

I shall not here enter upon any Polemical discourse to vindicate our own, or other Reformed Churches from that heavy Charge of Schism wherewith Pontificians implead us, for having forsaken the Communion of the Roman Church. Our Learned Writers have thus stated the Case.

1. That it is the^t Cause, and not the Separation, that makes the Schismatic; they who give the Cause, for which it is necessary to separate, are the Authors of the Schism; for where there is a necessary Cause to separate, we are commanded by God so to do, 2 Cor, 6. 17. Rev. 18. 4. As we find when Jeroboam had corrupted the Worship of God, the Priests and Levites, and out of all the ⟨p. 51⟩Tribes; such as set their hearts to seek the Lord, departed from his Idolatry, 2 Chron. 11. 13, 16 30. 11. For certainly one particular Church may reform it self, though another will not.

1. That it is the^t Cause, and not the Separation, that makes the Schismatick; they who give the Cause, for which it is necessary to separate, are the Authors of the Schism; for where there is a necessary Cause to separate, we are commanded by God so to do, 2 Cor, 6. 17. Rev. 18. 4. As we find when Jeroboam had corrupted the Worship of God, the Priests and Levites, and out of all the ⟨p. 51⟩Tribes; such as set their hearts to seek the Lord, departed from his Idolatry, 2 Chron. 11. 13, 16 30. 11. For certainly one particular Church may reform it self, though another will not.

1. tB. Jewels Defence. part 5. P. 505, 506, 507 Mo•nay of the Church. c. 10. p. 358. D. Crakenthorp against Spalat. c. 79. see. 3. c. 82. sect. 7. c. 85. sect. 1. B. White against Fisher. p. 107. B. Lawd Confer. sect. 21. p. 133, 142, 143 D. Chillingworth. c. •. sect. 30, 35, 38, 5•, 59, 74.

2. That they gave the Cause of this Breach and Separation, and that upon several accounts. 1. By^u many and great Corruptions in Doctrine and Worship, whereby they themselves departed from the primitive Purity, which Errors and Corruptions they obtruded and imposed upon us as Conditions of their Communion. 2. By^w great encroachments and usurpations upon the just power of Princes, and Liberties of Churches. 3. By^x Tyranny in Excommunications, Persecutions and fiery Inquisitions, frighting and thrusting us from their Communion 4. By^y refusing to be reclaimed, or healed of these distempers, in that they challenge a peculiar Infallibility, ⟨p. 52⟩& a power to hold all other Churches under their Laws & Dominations.

2. That they gave the Cause of this Breach and Separation, and that upon several accompts. 1. By^u many and great Corruptions in Doctrine and Worship, whereby they themselves departed from the primitive Purity, which Errors and Corruptions they obtruded and imposed upon us as Conditions of their Communion. 2. By^w great encroachments and usurpations upon the just power of Princes, and Liberties of Churches. 3. By^x Tyranny in Excommunications, Persecutions and fiery Inquisitions, frighting and thrusting us from their Communion 4. By^y refusing to be reclaimed, or healed of these distempers, in that they challenge a peculiar Infallibility, ⟨p. 52⟩& a power to hold all other Churches under their Laws & Dominations.

3. That this was not a Secession from the^z Catholic Church, nor from the Primitive Church, (unto whose judgement we are willing to appeal) but only from the Corruptions, Faction and Tyranny of a particular Church, with whom notwithstanding we retain an Unity still, in all points of Doctrine and Worship, which they hold consonant to the Will of God in his Word revealed, disowning nothing but those Errors and Additions which they have superinduced upon the Institutions of Christ.

3. That this was not a Secession from the^z Catholick Church, nor from the Primitive Church, (unto whose judgement we are willing to appeal) but only from the Corruptions, Faction and Tyranny of a particular Church, with whom notwithstanding we retain an Unity still, in all points of Doctrine and Worship, which they hold consonant to the Will of God in his Word revealed, disowning nothing but those Errors and Additions which they have superinduced upon the Institutions of Christ.

1. zJewels Defence p. 499. Mornay of the Church c. 10. Crakenth. c. 79 sect. 4. Morton. Appeal l. 4 c. 2. sect. 10. sect. 43. Gerard. Loc. de Eccles. sect. 180 B. Lawd. sect. 25 n. 18. p. 192. Chillingworth. sect. 32, 45, 47, 94.

Lastly, That this is^a not to set up a new Church which was never in the world before; for the Church is the same now as formerly, only sick and overgrown with Corruptions then; healed, weeded, purged and reformed now; nor were there wa•ting in former ⟨p. 53⟩ages, after those Corruptions prevailed in the Church, many Witnesses who appeared for the Truths then suppressed, greatly complained of the contrary abuses, and earnestly desired a reformation, as under the defection of the ten Tribes the Lord had seven thousand who had not bowed the knee to Baal, 1 Reg. 19. 18. and a Remnant according to the Election of Grace under the Apostasy of the Jews, Rom. 11. 1, 5.

Lastly, That this is^a not to set up a new Church which was never in the world before; for the Church is the same now as formerly, only sick and overgrown with Corruptions then; healed, weeded, purged and reformed now; nor were there wa•ting in former ⟨p. 53⟩ages, after those Corruptions prevailed in the Church, many Witnesses who appeared for the Truths then suppressed, greatly complained of the contrary abuses, and earnestly desired a reformation, as under the defection of the ten Tribes the Lord had seven thousand who had not bowed the knee to Baal, 1 Reg. 19. 18. and a Remnant according to the Election of Grace under the Apostacy of the Jews, Rom. 11. 1, 5.

1. aGerard ubi supra. sect. 179. B. Ushers Ser. p. 27, 31. Mornay of the Ch. c. 9. p. 324. c. 10 p 358. Crakenth. c 85. sect 2. Field of the Church. l. 3. c. 8, 12. & Appendix p 3. sect. 2. B Lawd Epist Dedicat. to the King. p. 16. Chilling. sect. 91. Carleton Consens. loc. de Scriptura. e. 1. pag. 9. 14. D. Jo. Whiteway, sect. 50.

3. We should be exhorted to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace; not to judge, despise, or condemn one another, but mutually to edify where we agree, and to endeavour Reconciliation wherein we differ; to be perfectly joined together, if it be possible, in the same Judgement, to think, and to speak the same things; however to mind the same End, to intend the same Common Salvation, to hold fast the same head, to pursue the same Interest, and however we go in several paths of the same Rode, yet still to have our faces towards the same City.

3. We should be exhorted to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace; not to judge, despise, or condemn one another, but mutually to edifie where we agree, and to endeavour Reconciliation wherein we differ; to be perfectly joyned together, if it be possible, in the same Judgement, to think, and to speak the same things; however to mind the same End, to intend the same Common Salvation, to hold fast the same head, to pursue the same Interest, and however we go in several paths of the same Rode, yet still to have our faces towards the same City.