A30189:498
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 exposition which is made of public and ministerial faults, to wit, such as he performeth for the people to God, is as strange, if not more strange then the distinction it self, as it is applied. For in preaching the Word, and reading the Scripture, a ministerial fault may be committed, which is not performed for the people to God. In prayer, the faults of the Minister are not ever ministerial, if we may believe the forenamed distinction, and yet prayer is an action performed for the people to God. And let that description stand, and the use of our ceremonies are no ministerial faults; for they are neither performed for the people unto God, nor from God unto the people, as the Church professeth. But I have stood too long about these things, because in the first Chapter the contrary hath been showed at large.
The exposition which is made of publique and ministeriall faults, to wit, such as he performeth for the people to God, is as strange, if not more strange then the distinction it selfe, as it is applyed. For in preaching the Word, and reading the Scripture, a ministeriall fault may be committed, which is not performed for the people to God. In prayer, the faults of the Minister are not ever ministeriall, if we may beleeve the forenamed distinction, and yet prayer is an action performed for the people to God. And let that description stand, and the use of our ceremonies are no ministeriall faults; for they are neither performed for the people unto God, nor from God unto the people, as the Church professeth. But I have stood too long about these things, because in the first Chapter the contrary hath been shewed at large.
And if Mr Bates be truly alleged in this particular, that bare presence in his conceit was approbation, yet this is a piece of cunning in you not very commendable, that you bring the private judgement of one man, as if it was the common principle of the chiefest Inconformists. For so you do in this place, and so a little hbefore you say, the strictest Inconformists affirm, that it is utterly unlawful for Parents to bring their children to be crossed, for which you cite only the testimony of the forenamed Author: And yet within a few leaves, you are not ashamed to say in the names of many at least