A30189:454
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.
The whole form of the Church-service is borrowed from the Papists, pieced and patched together without reason or order of edification: yea not only is the form of it, taken from the Church of Antichrist, but surely the matter also: For none can deny but it was culled and picked out of that popish dunghill, the portius and vile Mass-book, full of all abominations. From three Romish Channels, I say, was it raked together, namely, the Breviary, out of which the common prayers are taken; out of the Ritual or book of Rites, the administration of the Sacraments, Burial, Matrimony, Visitation of the sick are taken; and out of the Mass-book, are the Consecration of the Lords Supper, Collects, Gospels, and Epistles. And for this cause it is, that the Papists like so well of the English Mass, (for so King James used to call it) and makes them say, Surely the Romish is the true and right Religion. Else the Heretics in England would never have received so much of it. For some have avouched it to my face (saith the Author of the Curtain of Church-power) that the service there is ⟨p. 5⟩nothing to the Mass in the English; others that it wants nothing but the Popes consecration. These things thus retrieved, it was also thought that popish Kings and Princes would be the less offended; what marvel, seeing the Jesuits themselves are so well pleased with the ceremonies and service, that I heard one of them (God is my witness herein) make it his hope, that the maintenance of them against the Puritans, would make England the sooner return to Rome in the rest. 1Mine eyes and ears (saith Bishop Hall) can witness with what approof and applause divers of the catholic royal (as they are termed) entertained the new translated Liturgies of our Church. Which is the less wonder, seeing Pope Pius the fourth sending Vicentio Parpatia, 2Abbot of Saint Saviours to Queen Elizabeth, offered to confirm the English Liturgy by his Authority, if she would yield to him in some other things. Indeed it pleased them so well, 3that for the first eleven years of Queen Elizabeth, Papists came to the English Church and service, as the Lord Cooke showeth. 4