A30189:547
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.
SECT. II.
IF we take a strict view of all the Churches which the Lord hath constituted since the beginning of the world, 1it will appear, that ⟨p. 51⟩at the orderly gathering and planting, the members of them were all holy and good. I here intend of visible and external holiness, and so far as me• may judge, and not of that which is within, and hid from us. For I doubt not, but in Gods sight the purest Congregation on earth, might consist at first of good and bad, and yet of men, every person to be judged truly faithful and sanctified, until any one by his iniquity (outwardly committed) appeared otherwise. Not to speak of the Church of the Angels, 2which God created in heaven, and were all good and holy, till some by transgression fell away. Neither of it in Paradise, consisting of two persons, and both true believers. After the fall the constitution of the first, Church, in the covenant of grace, was of good matters, and such was the Lord care to have the purity of it still preserved, that he th•••st out Cain from the same, for the great wickedness which he fell into. The Lord gave not Circumcision to Abraham, 3the seal of the righteousness of faith, until he left his Fathers house, and that idolatrous place wherein he had lived; which signifieth to us, that all men must necessarily come out of the world, and from worldly corruptions, or else they are uncapable to have a Church covenant in Christ, confirmed unto them of Cod. As for the visible Churches planted by the Apostles, it is evident, that in their collection, they consisted of such and none other, as were called by the Gospel, confessed their sins, believed, walked in the spirit, and separated themselves from the false state, in which they stood members before. Such a beginning had the Congregations in Rome, Corinth, Galatia, Ephesus, Philippi, Coloss, Thessalonica, &c. And who dares affirm, that there was one man or woman admitted a member at the constitution of any of these churches, which had been known to be an ill liver, and did not first manifest sound repentance thereof.