A39224:70
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.
If then Twenty three Churches should be in a Combination, their Messengers sent to the first Council will be a great Number; but still they are the Twenty four Elders before the Lord, by their fundamental Constitution.
So a like Number of Provincial Councils, and a like Number of National Councils, though their Messengers are many, yet they are still the Twenty four Elders, growing up, through grace, and increasing unto more Orders of Councils, for the greater glory of Christ.
And when (through grace) there shall be Twenty four Churches, or first Councils, or Provincial, or National Councils▪ then they must be compacted into two Orders of those Councils, because Twelve is the Foundation Number, by which they are multiplied, and compacted. And when this is done, they are reduced to be Twenty four Elders strictly; the Foundation Number.
As in the Order of that Civill Government set up by Moses; ⟨p. 10⟩the Orders of Ten, and of fifty, &c. are denominated b• the least and constituting Number: though those Orders may consist (when they are full of people and blessing) of many more, even any number under Twenty and an hundred, &c. But when Ten are become Twenty, and when Fifty are become an hundred, then they must be multiplied into more Orders, because these Numbers are Foundation Numbers, by which the Orders of the Government are multiplied and compacted; and when that is transacted, they are reduced unto their Foundation Numbers.