A30189:391
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. Necess. of Separ. pag. 55.
The Ministry of England, as it is established by law, doth certainly depend upon the Bishops calling wholly, and no man• else: and if any in the Land stand otherwise he cannot properly be said to be a Minister of that Church, but rather is a schismatic from it, 1according to the formal constitution of it, &c. The most free Parish hath but only a liberty to admit of a Minister, before made by the Bishops, so that the people give him not any part, much less the substance of his calling, 2but a bare permission only to exercise by virtue of that calling. But none may hear or have spiritual communion with such a Ministry, 3whose calling doth essentially depend upon the Bishops calling. If the ministry of the Prelates belong not to any ordinary assemblies, then is the same Antichristian, and so consequently is that which is derived from it. And so much from their own principles we have formerly proved. 4The Ministry begotten by the Prelates is illegitimate and false. I say those, which take their offices and callings from them, are bastardly Ministers. The Ordination of Priests and Deacons by the Prelates is unlawful and Antichristian, and the Ministry is false, so long as they do retain that false calling, which they took first of the Bishops, 5they of the Pope, and he from the Devil Whosoever he be that dealeth with the holy things of God, and worketh upon the consciences of men,