A30189:236
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.
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.
Israel for a time continued in Egypt and Babylon, viz. until the Lord sent to bring them forth: and the Church lay ⟨p. 70⟩hid in Babylon, and that by the providence and approbation of God, long after Rome was miserably corrupted and defiled. The matter is notorious, and therefore to spend more words about it is needless. He that considereth the state of things, long before the faithful separated from Rome, and what is written in defence of that separation, which the reformed Churches have made, cannot be ignorant thereof. If to come out of Babylon then, had been to remove from all false assemblies, as you gloss it, it was necessary the commandment had been given much sooner, or the faithful should have departed without leave or commandment from God.