A iustification of separation from the Church of England Against Mr Richard Bernard his invective, intituled; The separatists schisme. By Iohn Robinson.

In the next place comes the visible hand of man, by which he on* 1.1 his part c••tracts with God, & enters covenant with him visibly: & that Mr B. makes the open profession of faith vnto the doctrine taught, which such as make, he sayth, have visibly taken hold of the word, & struc∣••en hands with God.

You make much of nothing Mr B. or of that which is worse thē* 1.2 nothing. Even now the profession of faith made the true matter of the Church; and here it must make the true form of the Church: and yet the truth is, that in the forming of your nationall En∣glish Church by a new covenant from that wherein it stood in Pope∣ry, which was by your own graunt, with Saints and Angels in stead of God, &, I adde, with Antichrist, in the stead of Christ, no such pro∣fession of faith was made, as your self here do both require, and prove necessary for the forming of the visible Church, or her v∣niting with God. And that I manifest in two particulars. The former is▪ that the profession of faith required for a peoples vniting with the Lord their God, must be made both freely, and particularly by the persons themselves so vniting. And this ap∣peares both by that which you haue sayd of Gods giving, or sen∣ding his word, which is his visible outstretched hand, by which he offereth reconcilation vnto men personally, and so by consequent requires that they stretch out the hand of personall profession to him: and also by the scriptures alledged by you; all which do give witnes of such a confession of faith, and sinnes, as was freely made by the persons themselves particularly, which were ioyned to the Church. Let the reader take knowledg of these scriptures amongst the rest. Mat. ••. 6. Act. 2. 38. 1 Cor. 1••. 1. 2. the profession of faith noted in the scriptures by you produced, was not made by men of lewd conversation, or apparantly vnsanctified (of whom alone, and their vnion with God our question is) but by men vi∣sibly, and externally holy; and such, as all of them were, visibly, and so far as men in charity could judge, iustified, sanctified, and in∣titled to the promises of salvation, and life eternall. The scriptures are (besides the th〈…〉〈…〉 last named, Math. 3. 6. Act. 2. 38. with which compare vers. 3••▪ 41 47. 1 Cor. 15. 1.) Mat. 10. 40. 41. & 32. Act. 8. 12. 13. 37. 38. 1 Cor. 6. 1••. Col. 2. 11. 12. Tit. 3. 5. Who but you Mr Bernard would thus wrong eyther these scriptures as iustifying the admission of lewd persons, des••rving to be excommunicated, into the Ch: or the Apostles of Christ for admitting, or baptizing such? And yet these persons are the true bad matter, for which you pleaded so much formerly: and which here by these scriptures, you would bring into a true bad vnion with God. For of these for the most part, hath the na∣tion alwayes consisted, and of these your Ch: was gathered at the first, when it became national, & so hath stood formed ever since.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Mr R.
• * 1.2

  Answ.