A30189:489
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 first of these propositions is most true taught in Scripture, which forbiddeth. qto do evil that good may come thereof, or rtell a lie for the glory of God, and acknowledged by the learned of all sorts and professions whatsoever. If the Church shall deny communion to any member, because he will not approve the least sin, or acknowledge the least known error for truth, in that case the Church is schismatical, which doth cast out such a member, and not the member which doth suffer himself injuriously to be cast out. For God needs not my lie, and by divine precept I am obliged not to allow against conscience what the Lord condemneth. You need not therefore take such pains as you do, to prove the corruptions in our Book of public service to be so many in number, or heinous in quality, as you would make the world believe; much less to strain your conscience in misreporting as you have done: For if you can show, that by ⟨p. 22⟩communicating in the ordinances of worship, in that or any other society or Church under Heaven, we necessarily partake in sin, of what sort soever, great or small, either approving what is unlawful, or subscribing to an error known so to be, it will easily be granted that it is unlawful to join in that community. Be the scorruptions few or many, great or small; if by communicating in the ordinances of grace in that society, I must necessarily partake in sin; small or great, one or many, my communicating is unwarrantable: And let the abuses be many and great, yet if I may be present at the true worship of God without sin, consent unto, or approbation of such abuses or corruptions, in voluntary separation I sin against God, his Church, and mine own soul, withdrawing my self from the ordinances of grace, the comfortable presence of Christ, and the society of his Saints, without allowance or approbation from God, to whom I owe my self wholly.
The first of these propositions is most true taught in Scripture, which forbiddeth. qto doe evill that good may come thereof, or