A30189:601
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
Chapter 4 › Section 5 › ANSWER.Chapter 4 › Section 5 › ANSVVER.
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.
ANSWER.
ANSVVER.
You please your self with the same Song, which here we have over again and again, tuned with the same art. But that which you talk of the Conformists Majors and the Inconformists Minors (your slanders set aside:) is idle and toyish. For in that matter there is no difference betwixt the Conformists and the Inconsormists. The Conformists Majors as they are truly meant, the Inconformists do assent unto: And the abuse of ignorance, idleness, profaneness, both of Ministers & people, whereof the Nonconformists complain; the Conformists do acknowledge and bewail. And your ⟨p. 78⟩self a little after in a matter of the same nature affirm, that herein you say no more, than what in effect is fully acknowledged, 1by the Nonconformists, Conformists, the Church of England, the learned generally, and all the reformed Churches upon earth: and for proof you quote the same Authors you here all edge. And why then do you trifle thus with the Conformists Major, and Inconformists Minor? Did the sound of those words please you so well? But let the Majors and Minors be whose they will, no entire or perfect Syllogisms of Separatism can be made up of them, but such as ignorance in not understanding, or an evil conscience in perverting or falsifying their sayings, doth conclude. They may well stand to their grounds and unloose those knots, and if they understand their own principles, they cannot but untie them. But how you can free your self from the guilt of an evil conscience, unless you recant what you have written, repent of your Separation, and acknowledge the wrong you have done to the Nonconformists, by misreporting, perverting and falsifying their principles, as you call them; I leave to your serious consideration, and the reexamination of what you have done.
YOu please your selfe with the same Song, which here we have over againe and againe, tuned with the same art. But that which you talke of the Conformists Majors and the Inconformists Minors (your slanders set aside:) is idle and toyish. For in that matter there is no difference betwixt the Conformists and the Inconsormists. The Conformists Majors as they are truely meant, the Inconformists doe assent unto: And the abuse of ignorance, idlenesse, prophanenesse, both of Ministers & people, whereof the Nonconformists complaine; the Conformists doe acknowledge and bewaile. And your