13. Argument 12. What deprives of the principal plea for separation from the Church of England in its present state ough
Argument 12. What deprives of the principal plea for separation from the Church of England in its present state ought not to be admitted.
A rgument 12 Owen:
12th Argument: That which deprives us of the principal plea for the justification of our Separation from the Church of England in its present state ought not justly to be received or admitted. 1 But this is certainly done by a supposition of the lawfulness of this worship and a practice suitable thereunto, as is known to all who are exercised in this cause.
Many other heads of arguments might be added to the same purpose if there were occasion.
Baxter:
§28. To your 12th argument I answer:
1. That which discovers the unsoundness of anyone's plea for Separation is to be received. There are several cases in which separation from the Church of England is sinful, as:
1. If any separate as the Papists do, because they are against sound doctrine or any good that is in the Church.
2. If any renounce communion with all the parish-churches under the name of the Church of England.
3. If any renounce communion with the Church of England as it is a Christian kingdom, headed by one Christian protestant king.
4. If they renounce communion with the Church of England as it is called one from the association or concord of its pastors or Church governors.
5. If any renounce communion with faulty bishops or worship, or discipline, simply and absolutely, and not only secundum quid [according to what; that is in a qualified manner], and so forsake the good that is in them for the sake of the evil.
In a word, 1. all that separate for a wrong cause, 2. or further than they separate from Christ, or than Christ would have them separate, do sin.
2. But they that renounce any corruption as such, and the Church no further than secundum quid, as it is faulty, do well: For we must so renounce the faults of all Churches and Christians in the world (and our own first), but not the Churches and Christians for any tolerable faults, so that we commit no sin ourselves, which they impose as the condition of their communion.
1. This argument makes it appear that for Owen separation from the Church of England in her then circumstances was primary and preconceived, and the supposition of the unlawfulness of her worship, or at all attending it, was secondary and perhaps even determined by supporting this preconceived end. That is, separation was not a consequence of the unlawful worship, but the worship being thought unlawful and to be separated from was a consequence of Owen's greater priority of Separation from the then Church of England.