Justification of Separation from the Church of England, Treatise · Section 160
THe first is, bycause They enioy, and ioyn together in the vse of those outward means, which God in his word hath ordeyned for the gathering Minist:of an invisible Church, which are, preaching of the gospell, and administration of the sacraments: which they will prove by the vnf…yned conversion of many: & by the scriptures, Math: 28. 18. 20. Eph. 4. 11. 14.I.
First the Church of Engl: namely the nationall Church, under aAnsw: nationall government, and Ministery, is a popish devise: the Lord having appointed none other Church, vnderunder the new testament but a particular congregation (as these Ministers truely vnderstand.Pag: 180. Mat: 18. 17.) with a government, & Ministery correspōdent.
2. Before men joyne together (as a Church in the fellowship ofII. the gospell, and communion of Saynts) in the ordinances of God, they should be prepared by the preaching of the word, and fitted as spirituall stones for the Lords building, & so joyn in covenant, by voluntary, & personal profession of faith, & confessiō of sinns: from which how far the body of the nationall Church of Engl: both is, and ever hath been, all know.
3. As the sacraments are no meanes to gather eyther theIII visible, or invisible Church, but do praesuppose a CHVRCH gathered already into covenant with God, of which covenaunt they are seales: so doth not the Church of England ioyn together in the preaching of the doctrine of sayth, which is the outward meanes for the gathering of the Church. The greatest part of the parishes, as they have onelyonly the service book for prayer, so have they onelyonly the homilies for preaching. And even in the Parishes where the word is best taught, and the sacraments most orderly administred, yet do not men joyn in the vse, but in the abuse of these ordinances: considering the confused cōmunion wherein, the vsurped authority by which, and the book-service according to which, they are dispensed. If the Ministers had onelyonly affirmed, that they had taught amōgst thē such truths of the gospel, as by which the Lord might, and did sanctifie, & save his elect, or gather an invisible Church, as they speak, I should not contend with them, but should further ad, that I doubt not but such truthes are even in many assemblies of Papists, and Anabaptists, and to hold otherwise is a fowl, & cruell errour: but where they speak of enioying the outward meanes, and by them vnderstand the offices of Ministery, which Christ hath given vntounto his Church, for the gathering and feeding of the same (for which purpose they alledge Math. 28. 18. 20. & Ephe. 4. 11. 14) I deny they enioy the outward means ordeyned for the gathering of the Ch: neyther shall they ever be able to prove it, except they can prove themselves lawfully, and according to Christs testament possessed of some of the offices there spoken of.
In the 4. place I would the cause, why these ministers speak ofIIII the outward meanes of gathering an invisible Church, & not of a visible, since both the quaestion betwixt them, and vsus, is about the visible, and not about the invisible Church, and also that the scriptures they bring for the justification of these meanes amongst them, do speak of the meanes, & ministeries given not to the invisible, but to the visible Church: and if it be not, bycause they know, that if they had spoken of the means of gathering the visible Church, we would (and that justly) have excepted, that they do not enjoy, nor have not so much as taught amongst them, those doctrines of the gospell, and that part of Christs Testament, which teacheth the right, & orderly gathering of the visible Church, by separation of the saynts from the vnsanctified world into the covenant, and fellowship of the gospell, by free, and personall profession of fayth, and confession of sinns.