A30189:237
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.
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.
Israel for a time continued in Egypt and Babylon, viz. untill 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 needlesse. Hee that considereth the state of things, long before the faithfull 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 beene to remove from all false assemblies, as you glosse it, it was necessarie the commandement had beene given much sooner, or the faithfull should have departed without leave or commandement from God.
I might say to you in your own words, 1This is to gratify the error of Montanus, who professed that he knew more than the Apostles. For the Apostles knew nothing of our removing from all false assemblies (as you understand it) and covenanting together to walk in all Gods ways, and serve God among themselves. If this had been known to John, when he foretold the Apostasy from the faith, and the rising of the great Whore, he would have made more haste to warn the faithful to be gone out of the Churches, and to have withdrawn themselves, it being a matter of such weight and importance, and so needful to be done, divers hundred years, before it was ever once thought upon, When the words of a Text are plain, a gree with the circumstances of the place, the analogy of faith, and other Scriptures, for men then to leave the native sense, and to force a sense contrary to that the letter expresseth, it is to wrest the Scriptures, as you say, and not to expound them by the true rules and Canons of Divinity.