Justification of Separation from the Church of England, Treatise · Section 155
Now for the poynt it self: & first for your Reason by which you would prove it erroneous. If (say you) wee hold any of you the childrē Mr B.of God, then our Saviour hath taught vsus to ioyn with you in prayer, and to say, Our father with you.
You do wryte in another place of this book, that †pag. 114.a man justlyAnsw. excommunicated, & cast out is to be held a brother, & so consequently a child of God; for the brethren of the Saynts, are the children of God; wherevpon if your Argument in this place, and Position in the former place, be good, it must be lawfull to joyn in prayer with a man justly excommunicated. I do answer then, that it is true you say, we ought to cōmunicate both in prayer, & in al the other ordinances of God with all Gods children except they themselves hinder it, or put a barre: which we are perswaded they in the Church of Engl. do, in chusing rather the cōmuniō of all the profane rowt in the kingdom vnderunder the Prelates tyranny, then the cōmunion of Saynts, which Christ hath established, vnderunder his government. So that it is not we which refuse them, but they vsus, binding vsus eyther to practise as we do, or to cōmunicate in one spirituall body with all the graceles persons, and vile miscreants in the kingdom. For as he which hath hold of any one member of the naturall body i… not separated from the body, but holdeth the whole & every member by cohaerence, so he which is joyned in cōmuniō with one mē ber of the Church, is by cohaerence joyned with the whole Church, and every member of it. We do professe it is not in neglect of the graces of God, which we acknowledge to be eminent in many, that we deny cōmuniō with them: but onelyonly in conscience of the order which Christ hath set: & in testimony against the disorder, which Antichrist hath broughtAct: 2. 4…. 47. 1 Cor: 1. 2. Phil: 1. 1. into, & left in the world. The order which the Lord hath set, is, that those which fear him should be of a true visible Church rightly gathered: & that any such should be out of the true Church, or cōmingled with all the prophane Atheists in a kingdom, is a mayn part of Antichrists confusion. Now if God hath set vsus in the orderly cōmuniō of a Church, we must not break our order for other mens disordered courses. Cōmunion is a matter of order, & relation, standing in the orderly combyning of the graces of God in two faythfull persons, or more. And how far order ought to praevayl with men in this case let these particulars manifest.
One of the Church cōmits some notable sinne known to me alone, which (being dealt with by me) he denyes; and without *Deut: 19 …. Math: 18. 16.two or three witnesses the Church may not proceed against him. I must therefore still cōmunicate with the Church, and so with him as a mēber of it, til God so far discover him as he can be orderly dealt with, & till †Psal: 125. 5.the Lord lead him forth with the workers of wickednes. And as I am to cōmunicate with an vngodly man, with whom I am orderly joyned in the Church, till I can be orderly disioyned from him: so by proportion I am to forbear communion with a godly man out of the Church, vntill I be orderly joyned vntounto him. Further, put the case a man be excōmunicated in mine absence, vponupon the testimony of tvvo or three witnesses, and that I know he is injuryed,Math: 18. 15. 16. 17. 1 Cor: 5. 11. 12. & am able to manifest his innocency to all men: yet will I for order sake (& so am bound) forbear communion with him for the praesent, till his īnocency be by me sufficiently cleared. Now if for order I must refuse cōmunion with him, which is put out of the Church for weldoing, by the sinne of others how much more with him that keepes out himself by his own default, and sinne? So that the holines of a mans person is not sufficient for cōmuniō, but withall it must be ranged into the order of a Ch:, wherin both his persō, & actiōs must cōbyne, & vnderunder whose censure they must come: whereas this other vnorderly course destroyes the censures, which by Christs appointmēt, do extēd to every brother whosoever.
These thinges I do desire the godly Reader indifferently, and without offence to take knowledge of: and to rest in this our defence, if it be found according to the word of God: if not, to give vsus knowledge by the same word of the contrary, wherein we shall willingly rest, and (by the grace of God) so practise.