A30189:374
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.
ANSWER.
You busy your self to weave the Spiders web, which is good for little, long in weaving, but soon swept down. Our Ministers be not Antichristian Ministers, nor false Prophets, (in the Scriptures sense) because they preach the whole counsel of God in all points necessary to salvation, and rightly dispense the seals of the Covenant, by authority derived from Jesus Christ, the Lord and King o• his Church, the great Shepherd of his Sheep. At least they are set apart to this office, which was never deemed Antichristian in the Church of Christ.
You busie your selfe to weave the Spiders web, which is good for little, long in weaving, but soone swept downe. Our Ministers be not Antichristian Ministers, nor false Prophets, (in the Scriptures sense) because they preach the whole counsell of God in all points necessary to salvation, and rightly dispense the seales of the Covenant, by authoritie derived from Jesus Christ, the Lord and King o• his Church, the great Shepheard of his Sheep. At least they are set apart to this office, which was never deemed Antichristian in the Church of Christ.
But if we take these words (Antichristian Ministers, and false Prophets, in your sense, for you use them in a peculiar dialect) then it is not only lawful but necessary to hear such as you call Antichristian Ministers. For it is commanded in the word, and acceptable service unto God, the means to build up the Church: It is to hold communion with God, to reverence his name, to lay hold upon Christ and lodge him in our bosom: It showeth that a man is one of Christs sheep, because he heareth his voice, and a member of his sheepfold, the servant of the most high God: it manifesteth love and zeal to God, and is ordinarily blessed to the soul and conscience of the dutiful hearer. And in that which you allege to the contrary, you misallege Scripture, speak evil of the truth, revile the heritage of the Lord, and grievously wound your own conscience.