A30189:97
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.
ANSWER.
HANNIBAL said once (saith M. Parker) There was not so much as one in all the enemies camp, that was called Gisco: 1So may it truly be said now, Not so much as one of the Godly Ministers, that suffer in England about the Discipline, that may deservedly be called a Brownist. And the Nonconformists do no more lay the grounds of Separation, than the Reformed Churches sow the seed of Libertinism, and Anabaptistrie, which of all others they have most soundly confuted, and judiciously laid open to the world, without seeking to justify ought, that elsewhere upon good reason they condemned to be evil. But it is no new thing to reproach them as the Authors of errors, heresies, or schisms, who principally laboured the suppressing of them. No man cried down the Error of the Manichees concerning a good God and an evil, so much as Austine: and yet their opinion is charged upon them that hold his opinion of absolute Predestination. The positions of the Stoics answer to the opinions ⟨p. 21⟩of the Remonstrants concerning Free Will and power in Man: but the contrary side is burdened therewith. The grounds of the Nonconformists stand directly opposite to the special grounds of Separation, and yet they hear from some, that they be Separatists in heart, from others, that they have laid the foundation, and the Separatists build upon it, and that such as have made answer to the Separatists, do against conscience put out the light, which hath been by themselves chiefly revealed.
HANNIBAL said once (saith M. Parker) There was not so much as one in all the enemies campe, that was called Gisco: 1So may it truly be said now, Not so much as one of the Godly Ministers, that suffer in England about the Discipline, that may deservedly be called a Brownist. And the Nonconformists doe no more lay the grounds of Separation, than the Reformed Churches sowe the seede of Libertimisme, and Anabaptistrie, which of all others they have most soundly confuted, and judiciously laid open to the world, without seeking to justifie ought, that elsewhere upon good reason they condemned to be evill. But it is no new thing to reproach them as the Authors of errors, heresies, or schismes, who principally laboured the suppressing of them. No man cryed downe the Errour of the Manichees concerning a good God and an evill, so much as Austine: and yet their opinion is charged upon them that hold his opinion of absolute Predestination. The positions of the Stoicks answere to the opinions