A30189:195
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.
CAN. Stay. Sec. 3. pag. 18.
If it was Israels great sin to carry the oblations under the law, to a place (howbeit sometimes lawful, and where their godly Ancestors had before truly worshipped) because they had no commandment so to do: then certainly, more in fault are those (which with the worship of the Gospel) go where it was never lawful publicly to serve God, and where their forefathers never to this day rightly served him.
If it was Israels great sin to carry the oblations under the law, to a place (howbeit sometimes lawfull, and where their godly Ancestors had before truly worshipped) because they had no commandement so to doe: then certainly, more in fault are those (which with the worship of the Gospell) goe where it was never lawfull publikely to serve God, and where their forefathers never to this day rightly served him.
ANSWER.
Here yout•g what we shall never grant, 1nor you be able to prove, to wit, that our Church is an Idol Church, our Ministry an Idol Ministry, and that our forefathers never rightly served God in our Assemblies: which is an easy kind of disputing, if you get a reader as credulous and willing to be mislead, as you are peremptory in passing sentence. But if we should believe you herein, we should belly the mercy of God, and condemn the generation of his Saints.