234 Corr upt7ons ìn converíat;on hardly adniit of, feparation. The Old and New Covenant. Chap. 31 any finch wayes that fpeak his compliance , whether it be by the civili power through unfufferable fines, mulls, im- prifonments unavoidable, or perill of life, or by the Eccle- fiaftical power . in excommunications, when men are thus driven out, or neceffitated for foul- fubftance to go out there is full liberty and warranty to leave. But when Or - dinances in a Paving way may be enjoyed with liberty and fafety, no Laws being ena&ed for their fo heavie perfecuti --. on; or through indulgence or connivence not put into ex- ecution, there the Churches good calls for good mens flay, not their feceflion or feparation. There, was not a little leaven in theChurches dottrine in Chrifts time, error was into Mofes chair, yet Chrift himfelf(with many o- ther that waitedfor redemption in Jerufalean) held com- munion asChurch- members. All was not right in every Church of the Saints to whom Chrift wrote, Revd. 2.3; and to whom Paul fent Epiftles, yet as they retained fill the honour of Churches, and the happineffe of Chrifts pretence, fo we hear nothing of feparation enjoy ned , or prat`lifed.. The condition of beleevers in the Synagogue of Reme, was otherwife, the key of knowledge is there taken away, the people not allowed to read it in private, or to .' hear it in publike, but kept referved in an unknown lan- guage ; neither could they without capital danger keep there elves from compliances in their fin. fo that reformed Churches did not in any unwarrantable way of Schifme leave, but rather were left ; They forfook not the Church, but the botches and corruptions in it ; though we were never forbidden to partake of their truths,yet we are for- bidden to partake of their fans, left we partake of their plagues, Rev. r°. 4. and therefore to depart and be gone. when their truths could not be enjoyed, but their guilt through fin contrac`ted,and it is onely their fin that we relinquifh : It is theii'Schifine (in that or any other Church) that ob- trude thefe Heterogeneal things, and not theirs that do refufe them. 6. Corruptions in converfation fcarce admit of feparation, provided that dot`frine be fuck in which men may bave con;- munion for edification; if we look upon the people of lfrae: through::
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