304 SERMONS UPON TSALM CXIX. [SeR. XXXII.
which Grod had displayed because of liis truth, and so could not in conscience and spiritual safety live without the means of grace and the benefit of ordinances and church -societies, lest they should be scat- tered as sheep without a shepherd, and become a ready prey to Satan.
And then this separation, which was so necessary, was carried on with love and pity, and with great distinction between the corrup- tions from which they separated, and the persons from Avhom they separated ; and they had the same affection to them, and carried it all along just as those that are freed from Turkish slavery, and have broke prison, and invited the other Christian captives to second them. It may be they have not the heart and courage to venture with them ; though they leave them fast in their enemies' chains, and will not return to their company, they cease not to love and pity them, though it were long, of their fear they did not enjoy the like liberty them- selves.
Thirdly, As to the continuance of this separation. It was made upon good grounds, and it is still to be continued upon the same grounds. The Roman Church is not grown better, but worse ; and that which was before but mere practice and custom is since estab- lished by law and canon, and they have ratified and owned their errors in the Council of Trent. And now Antichrist is more discovered, and God hath multiplied and reformed the churches, and blessed them with his gifts and graces, and the conversion of many souls, surely we should not now grow weary of our profession, as if novelty only led us to make this opposition. If we shall think so slightly of all the truths of God and blood of the martyrs, and all this ado to bring things to this pass, that Christ may gain ground, and we should tamely give up our cause at last, as some have done implicitl}', and others shrink, and let the Papists carry it quietly, it is such wickedness as will be the brand and eternal infamy of this generation. If Hagar the bond- woman, that, hath been cast out, should return again, and vaunt it over Sarah the lawful wife, the mischiefs that would follow are un- speakable. God permitted it to be so for a while in Queen Mary's days ; and what precious blood was shed during that time we all know ; and shall we again return to the garlic and onions of Egypt, as being weary of the distractions of the wilderness, and expose the interest of Christ, merely for our temporal good, which we cannot be secured of either? Therefore, since this separation was not unjust, without cause, nor unnecessary, without sufficient cause, and since it was carried on with so much meekness and Christian lenity, and since Eome is not grown better, but worse rather, surely we have no reason to be stumbled at for our departure from that apostatical church.
In short, this separation was not culpable ; it came not from error of mind : ' They went out from us, but they were not of us,' 1 John ii. 19. Not from corruption in manners : ' These are those that separate themselves, sensual, not having the Spirit,' Jude 19. Not from strife and contention, like those separations at Corinth, where ' one was of Paul, another of ApoUos,' <fcc., 1 Cor. i. 12; not from pride and censoriousness, like those that said, ' Stand farther ofi"; I am holier than thou,' Isa. Ixv. 5. Not from coldness and tergiversation, as those that 'forsook the assembling of themselves together,' because they
VeR. 30.] SERMONS UPON PSA.LM CXIX. 305
were in danger of this kind of Christianit}', Heb. x. 25. But from conscience ; and this not so much from the Christians, as from the errors of Christians ; from the corruptions, rather than the corrupted. There is no reason we shoukl be frightened with this suggestion.
But now, because that separation is good or evil according to the causes of it, let us a little consider the state of Rome when God first summoned his people to come out of this spiritual Babylon ; and if it be the same still, there is no cause to retract the change.
The state of it may be considered either as to its government, doc- trine, or worship ; the tyranny of their discipline and government, the lieresy of their doctrine, and the idolatry of their worship. And if our fathers could not, and if we cannot, have communion with them with- out partaking of their sin, it is certain the separation was and is still j ustifiable.
First, As to their government. Three things are matter of just ofi'ence to the reformed churches : —
1. The universality or vast extent and largeness of that dominion and empire which they arrogate.
2. The supremacy and absolute authority which they challenge.
3. The infallibility which they pretend unto.
And if there were nothing else but a requiring a submission to these things, so false, so contrary to the tenor and interest of Christianity, this were ground enough of separation.
1. The universality of headship over all other churches, this the people of God neither could nor ought to endure.