A30189:468
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 mone proper to say, the Mass was added to our common-prayer, than that our common-prayer was taken out of the Mass-book: For most things in our common-prayer, were to be found in the Liturgies of the Church, long before the Mass, whereof we speak, was heard of in the world. And the Mass was patched up by degrees, and added to the Liturgy of the Church, now one piece, then another; so that the ancient truths and holy Liturgies were at last stained with the Idol of the Mass, 1which was sacrilegiously thrust into them. But the prayers and truths of God taught in that Book, pertained to the Church, as her prerogative: the Mass and the abominations thereof belonged into the man of sin. And if a true man may challenge his goods, which the thieves hath drawn into his den; the Church of God may lawfully make claim unto those holy things, which Antichrist hath unjustly usurped: That answer which is returned to the accusation, makes against them that sue for discipline, viz. That a great part of their discipline is borrowed from the Anabaptists, will serve as a buckler in this case: And it is this; which (I doubt not) you will approve: Whatsoever is proper either to the heresy of Papists and Anabaptists, Donatists, or Puritans, that we utterly condemn to the pit of hell: But if amongst the filth of their heresies, there may be found any good thing (as it were a grain of ⟨p. 12⟩good corn in a great deal of Darnell) that we willingly receive, not as theirs, but as the Jews did the holy Ark from the Philistines, 2whereof they were unjust owners. For herein that is true, that is said; The sheep must not lay down her fell, because she seeth the Wolfe sometimes clothed with it. August. lib. 2. Serm. de Monte: yea, it may come to pass, that the Synagogue of Satan may have some one thing at one time with more convenience, than the true and catholic Church of Christ: 3If our Book please the Papists, it is but in some things, wherein in reverence to Antiquity, we come too nigh them in some rites and ceremonies; but with the substance of the ministration it self they cannot be pleased, unless they be displeased with their own service, and will renounce their own Religion.