[146] But not denying her to be a church, unless she cast off some essential part; but so disowning her as in 2 Thess. iii.
[147] Where any church retaining the purity of doctrine doth require the owning of and conforming to any unlawful or suspected practice, men may lawfully deny conformity to and communion with that church in such things, without incurring the guilt of schism. Mr. Stillingfleet. Iren. p. 117.
[148] 1 Sam. xv. 22; Prov. xv. 8.
[149] 2 John x. 11; 2 Tim. iii. 5; Rom. xvi. 17; 1 Cor. v. 11.
[150] Matt. xiii. 41, 30; Jer. xv. 19; 1 Cor. xii. 23, 24.
[151] See Rom. xiv. throughout; Rom. xv. 12, 5-7; Eph. iv. 4-7; 1 Pet. iii. 6; 1 Cor. xii. throughout; Phil. iii. 15, 16; Acts ii. 1, 46; iv. 32; Rom. xii. 4, 5; Psal. cxxxiii; 1 Cor. viii; 1 Tim. i. 4; James iii.
[152] Peace containeth infinite blessings: it strengtheneth faith: it kindleth charity. The outward peace of the church distilleth into peace of conscience: and it turneth the writing and reading of controversies into treatises of mortification and devotion. Against procuring unity by sanguinary persecutions, see Lord Bacon, Essay iii. Surely there is no better way to stop the rising of new sects and schisms, than to reform abuses, to compound the smaller differences, to proceed mildly, and not with sanguinary persecutions, and rather to take off the principal authors by winning and advancing them, than to enrage them by violence and bitterness. Lord Bacon in his Essay lviii. Ira hominis non implet justitiam Dei. And it was a notable observation of a wise father, that those which held and persuaded pressure of consciences, were commonly interested therein themselves for their own ends. Id. Essay iii. p. 19.
[153] Concil. Tolet. 4. c. 16. 28. q. 1. Ca. Judæi qui—allow separation from a Jewish husband, if after admonition he will not be a christian: and so doth Acosta and his Concil. Limens. l. 6. c. 21, and other Jesuits, and allow the marrying of another: and sure the conjugal bond is faster than that of a pastor and his flock: may not a man then change his pastor when his soul is in apparent hazard?
[154] Eph. iv. 16; 1 Tim. i. 4; Rom. xv. 19; Acts ix. 31.
[155] Rom. xiv. 17; 1 Tim. i. 4.