A30189:103
An answer to two treatises of Mr. John Can, the leader of the English…An answer to two treatises of Mr. Iohn Can, the leader of the English…
An answer to two treatises of Mr. John Can, the leader of the English Brownists in Amsterdam the former called, A necessity of separation from the Church of England, proved by the Nonconformists principles : the other, A stay against straying : wherein in opposition to M. John Robinson, he undertakes to prove the unlawfulness of hearing the ministers of the Church of England ... / by the late learned, laborious and faithful servant of Jesus Christ, John Ball.An answer to two treatises of Mr. Iohn Can, the leader of the English Brownists in Amsterdam the former called, A necessitie of separation from the Church of England, proved by the Nonconformists principles : the other, A stay against straying : wherein in opposition to M. Iohn Robinson, he undertakes to prove the unlawfulnesse of hearing the ministers of the Church of England ... / by the late learned, laborious and faithfull servant of Jesus Christ, John Ball.
London: printed by R.B., 1642
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
and the contentions of the Governors: because every one leaving the doctrine of our Lord Jesus Christ, did challenge to himself, by his own authority, certain rules and orders: Also J perceived dissentions to arise from hence, because there was no discipline, no knowledge of God, or it was perverse if any. Chrysostome; Neque immeritos solum adleg• sed & idone [Greek or Hebrew]. The Toletan Councils complain, ⟨p. 23⟩that for eighteen years, no Synod was held, Whence came gross ignorance, and corruption of the Ministers. It would be too long to set down at large the grave, sharp and lamentable complaints, that Nicholas de Clemang; Petrus de Aliaco, 1Bernard, and our Gildas, have published against the Ecclesiastical Governors of their times, for their ignorance, pride; luxury, riot, drunkenness, persecution of all true godliness, covetousness, rapine, contentions, brawls, simony, and what not? And since the time of Reformation, not the Inconformists only, but the godly Bishops, and Martyrs themselves, have observed, bewailed, and reproved these abuses. Father Latimer, in his Sermons generally, but in his Sermon of the Plough, is plain and large against the pomp and idleness of Bishops, who Lord it over, but feed not the Flock of Christ, muzzle the people in ignorance and profaneness, live riotously, hunt after preferment, but seek not the winning of souls unto God. Bishop Hooper complains, saying, It is great pity to see how far that office of a Bishop is degenerated from the original in the Scripture, it was not so at the beginning, when Bishops were at the best, as the Epist. of Paul to Titus testifieth; that willed him to ordain in every City of Crete a Bishop. And as sharply and closely he censureth the Bishops of his days, for arrogating to themselves so much wit, as to Rule and serve in both States, in the Church, and in the Civill Policy, and to the contrary, professeth, That one of them is more than any man is able to satisfy; and that it is not possible that one should do both well, and that it is a great oversight of the Princes, and higher Powers of the earth, so to charge them with two burdens, when none of them, as he saith, is able to bear the least of them both.
and the contentions of the Governors: because every one leaving the doctrine of our Lord Iesus Christ, did challenge to himself, by his owne authoritie, certaine rules and orders: Also J perceived dissentions to arise from hence, because there was no discipline, no knowledge of God, or it was pervese if any. Chrysostome; Neque immeritos solum adleg sed & idone . The Toletan Councells complaine,