A39224:233
Communion of churches, or, The divine management of gospel-churches
Communion of churches, or, The divine management of gospel-churches by the ordinance of councils constituted in order according to the Scriptures as also the way of bringing all Christian parishes to be particular Reforming Congregational Churches, humbly proposed as ... a means of uniting those two holy and eminent parties the Presbyterians and the Congregationals ... / written by John Eliot.Communion of churches, or, The divine management of gospel-churches by the ordinance of councils constituted in order according to the Scriptures as also the way of bringing all Christian parishes to be particular Reforming Congregationall Churches, humbly proposed as ... a means of uniting those two holy and eminent parties the Presbyterians and the Congregationals ... / written by John Eliot.
printed by Marmaduke Johnson, 1665
Title page typeset from the transcription.
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.
I. Every Parishional Congregation, who solemnly renouncing all their sins and evils, both personal and ecclesiastical, shall willingly (by what ways, means, or motives soever thereunto induced) submit themselves and their children to the Government of Christ, in Gospel-Order; and particularly to be guided in the common concernments of Religion, by the holy advice of the forenamed Orders of Councils; and do (by their pious and prudent counsel and concurrence) orderly elect all Officers, both Elders and Deacons, among themselves, and promise for themselves and their households, to walk in the Christian exercise of all Gods Ordinances, according to Rule, in the Faith and Order of the Gospel: That Parish, or so many of them as shall herein concur. is to be owned a particular Reforming Congregational Church; and is to be received into the Communion of the Churches in this Order of Government. They delivering this act of theirs in writing, unto that first Council with whom they associate, there to be recorded.
I. EVery Parishional Congregation, who solemnly renouncing all their sins and evils, both personal and •cclesiastical, shall willingly (by what wayes, means, or motives soever thereunto induced) submit themselves and their children to the Government of Christ, in Gospel-Order; and particularly to be guided in the common concernments of Religion, by the holy advice of the forenamed Orders of Councils; and do (by their pious and prudent counsel and concurrence) orderly elect all Officers, both Elders and Deacons, among themselves, and promise for themselves and their households, to walk in the Christian exercise of all Gods Ordinances, according to Rule, in the Faith and Order of the Gospel: That Parish, or so many of them as shall herein concurre. is to be owned a particular Reforming Congregational Church; and is to be received into the Communion of the Churches in this Order of Government. They delivering this act of theirs in writing, unto that first Council with whom they associate, there to be recorded.
II. It may, by the good blessing of God, greatly promote Religion, and the Reformation of particular Churches, if such of the godly Gentry of the Land, who are not in Civil Authority, would please to do that honour to Christ, to subject themselves to his service, in accepting of the Offices of Ruling Elders and Deacons, in the urches of Jesus Christ. It would much strengthen the hands of Church-government, and be no small honour to themselves; and they will hereby render themselves great in the Kingdom of Heaven.