A30189:437
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.
It is needless to proceed further in the examination of particular Authors, 1because you your self do affirm as much. The godly (say you) are admonished to examine doctrines delivered to them in a right way and order. And if they find any by teaching to be a false Prophet, 2they are to depose him, and afterwards not to hear him again. Again, it is a question whether the godly in the Jewish Church, having by hearing discovered the Scribes and Pharisees to be strangers, that is, false Prophets, might afterward hear them again. 3The Treatiser was once of mind, that they might not, and gave some reasons for it. But howsoever the case is not easily to be determined, considering the state of that Church and time: yet this is clear to all men of sound judgement, that in the Churches now under the Gospel, false Prophets may not be suffered: But after due and orderly conviction (being found so, and obstinate) they are to be rejected, and so no outward hearing of them any more. Whence briefly let these things be noted. First, that the effects may be right and lawful, when the instruments are wrong and unlawful in themselves, and that a man may lawfully communicate, in the effects of such actions, whose instruments are unlawful. For the Scribes and Pharisees were unlawful instruments, by your own confession, 4but the effects of their ministry, in which the faithful might and did lawfully communicate. A false Prophet not discovered, not convicted orderly, before he can be deemed obstinate and cast forth, is an unlawful instrument, but you will not say, the effects of his Ministry are unlawful, and not to be communicated in. I might here add, that is unskilful to confound instruments and working causes, or link them together, as if there were the same reason of both, seeing all instruments are not working causes. Secondly the Ministers of the Church of England, have not duly and orderly been convinced of corruption in doctrine, especially in points fundamental, or that their place and standing is unlawful: much less can they be esteemed obstinate. They were never cast out by the faithful, and true members of the Church, but approved, maintained and reverenced by them: