A39224:59
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.
V. And unto this Order and Number we may the •ather be induced, because here will be the Twenty four Elder•, who do wait upon, and worship the holy Majesty of God in all the Churches upon earth, as he hath pleased to reveal himself, Rev. 4. where the presence of God among the Churches is reve•led: First, with his glorious Angels next him, represented by the four living Creatures, according to Ezek. 1. & 10. And secondly, with the Communion of Churches about him, represented by the Twenty four Elders, who do represent all the Churches on earth, in Communion: as will anon appear.
VI. For when Twelve Churches are combined to hold Communion together, the least Number that one Church must (by Institution) send forth to that first Council, must be one Teaching Elder, and one Ruling Elder; and then, this Society of Churches is represented by twenty four Elders strictly.
And when Twelve of these first Councils shall, with consent of the particular Churches, elect and send forth▪ one Teaching, and one Ruling Elder, the ablest and fittest among them, to constitute a Provincial Council; that Council will be strictly the Twenty four Elders, representing all the Churches in that Province, concurring in the Election.