A30189:167
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.
The reason hereof, was not simply because it was not commanded, for when it was lawful to the Fathers of Old, it was not commanded, but left undetermined only, and used by them as a circumstance or adjunct allowed, not as a matter of necessity, holiness or worship; not could they have used it so without superstition; as on the other side, after the strict commandment given to Israel, to sacrifice in the place which God had chosen, and none other, and the place of worship precisely determined for typical signification, it was a part of true worship, in conscience necessary: for them to do otherwise, was grievously to transgress, and not to do that which was commanded as necessary, holy; and worship, had been profaneness. For that which is commanded, may not be neglected, neither is any thing to be done, which is repugnant thereunto.
The reason hereof, was not simply because it was not commanded, for when it was lawfull to the Fathers of Old, it was not commanded, but left undetermined only, and used by them as a circumstance or adjunct allowed, not as a matter of necessitie, holinesse or worship; not could they have used it so without superstition; as on the other side, after the strict commandement given to Israel, to sacrifice in the place which God had chosen, and none other, and the place of worship precisely determined for typicall signification, it was a part of true worship, in conscience necessarie: for them to doe otherwise, was grievously to transgresse, and not to doe that which was commanded as necessary, holy; and worship, had been prophanenesse. For that which is commanded, may not be neglected, neither is any thing to be done, which is repugnant thereunto.
But many things in the worship of God are not commanded or determined by God, but left to the liberty of Christians; many things were unprofitable, and needless to be determined particularly by divine authority, as being easily discernible by the light of nature, and common reason: and many things could not be determined, because one order in them could not fit all ages, times and places in the world. The divisions of the Chapters and verses, as they are in our Bibles, and the Sections of the Law, as among the Jews, are of men: and so is the phrase of speech and method used in Prayer, Preaching, Administration of the Sacraments, and the very words of Translations, wherein the Scriptures are read, and cannot be one and the same in all societies. And so are the circumstances, how oft,