A30189:235
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
Chapter 1 › Section 5 › Can. Stay. Sect. 5. Pag 37.38. › ANSWER.
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.
You miserably corrupt and pervert the Text, when you give this to be the sense thereof, Remove your selves from all false Assemblies, covenant together to walk in all the ways of God, serve the Lord among your selves in spirit and truth, and return not from whence you are come. This is not to interpret Scripture, and learn of them what we are to think, but to rack Scriptures to our sense, and make them speak according to our fancies, which is an high point of Antichristianism.
You miserably corrupt and pervert the Text, when you give this to be the sense thereof, Remove your selves from all false Assemblies, covenant together to walke in all the wayes of God, serve the Lord among your selves in spirit and truth, and returne not from whence you are come. This is not to interpret Scripture, and learne of them what wee are to thinke, but to racke Scriptures to our sense, and make them speake according to our fansies, which is an high point of Antichristianisme.
If you will stand to your principles, within two hundred years after Christ, or less, there was not one true Christian society in the whole world, which did walk together in all the ways of God, and serve God in a Church state among themselves. And will you say, the faithful are charged of God, in this passage of holy writ, to remove and separate from all Christian assemblies, that then were in the world, and to serve God among themselves. If corruption in doctrine, manners, worship, government, and orders, make a false assembly, Rome was a false assembly long before the Lord gave commandment to his people to depart thence and separate themselves.
If you will stand to your principles, within two hundred yeares after Christ, or lesse, there was not one true Christian societie in the whole world, which did walke together in all the wayes of God, and serve God in a Church state among themselves. And will you say, the faithfull are charged of God, in this passage of holy writ, to remove and separate from all Christian assemblies, that then were in the world, and to serve God among themselves. If corruption in doctrine, manners, worship, government, and orders, make a false assembly, Rome was a false assembly long before the Lord gave commandement to his people to depart thence and separate themselves.