A30189:622
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 5 › Section 1 › ANSWER.Chapter 5 › Section 1 › 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.
This point concerning Lecturers, I have purposely deferred unto this place, because it is distinct from the former in your apprehension, and in this you do not pretend the Nonconformists principles, as you did in the former. The exceptions also which you take against them, are not in respect of gifts, learning, or diligence, nor that they are brought ⟨p. 84⟩into the Church by Antichrist, but chiefly in respect of the office and Ministry it self. That which you object concerning the name, that it is new (as you do before against Parsons, Vicars, and Curates, that they are Popish) is too slight to be insisted upon. For these and divers other names or titles given to the Preachers of the Word, do not note different Ministries for substance and kind, but different accidents whereby the Ministers are distinguished, and sometimes the employment whereabout they are principally exercised. But the Ministry which is exercised under those names, is for substance one and the same, which Christ hath appointed and set his Church. If any man hath not been able to answer this Question when it hath been propounded, what kind of Ministry the Lecturers have taken up, it was from his weakness, not from the difficulty of the matter. And this is no marvel, seeing many Questions seem Riddles to you, which very easily untie themselves, or be knit in conceit only. As to the Papists many Questions touching the certainty of our Religion, the calling of our Ministers, the continuance of the faith, seeming indissoluble, which a true hearted Christian can quickly dissolve. But you write upon certain knowledge, that some have ingenuously confessed, that unless they be Evangelists, they could not see how their Ministry doth accord with any Ministry mentioned in the New Testament.
THis point concerning Lecturers, I have purposely deferred unto this place, because it is distinct from the former in your apprehension, and in this you doe not pretend the Nonconformists principles, as you did in the former. The exceptions also which you take against them, are not in respect of gifts, learning, or diligence, nor that they are brought