A41335:21
Weighty questions discussed I. Whether imposition of hands in separating a person to the…
Weighty questions discussed I. Whether imposition of hands in separating a person to the work of the ministry be necessary?, II. Whether it be essential to the right constitution of a particular church, that the teaching elders and the members meet always in one place? : whereunto is added a prediction of Mr. Daniel Rogers, minister in Essex, long before the beheading King Charles I and Arch-Bishop Laud, foretelling that they should not dye a natural death / by Giles Firmin ...Weighty questions discussed I. Whether imposition of hands in separating a person to the work of the ministry be necessry?, II. Whether it be essential to the right constitution of a particular church, that the teaching elders and the members meet alwayes in one place? : whereunto is added a prediction of Mr. Daniel Rogers, minister in Essex, long before the beheading King Charles I and Arch-Bishop Laud, foretelling that they should not dye a natural death / by Giles Firmin ...
London : Printed for the author, 1692
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.
Grant it, that Imposition of Hands in Ordination be but a Ceremony, yet it is God's Ceremony, appointed first by his express Command, 1Not to confer Gifts, as some would have it, but to Separate to Office. If you then could deny Communion with the Church of England, because of their Addition of Humane Doctrinal Ceremonies to the Worship of God [I doubt not but this was one Cause among others,] may we not then question our Communion with you, in your Administering of the Holy things, for throwing out God's Ceremony.
Grant it, that Imposition of Hands in Ordination be but a Ceremony, yet it is God's Ceremony, appointed first by his express Command, 1Not to conferr Gifts, as some would have it, but to Separate to Office. If you then could deny Communion with the Church of England, because of their Addition of Humane Doctrinal Ceremonies to the Worship of God [I doubt not but this was one Cause among others,] may we not then question our Communion with you, in your Administring of the Holy things, for throwing out God's Ceremony.
It is one thing to hold Communion with a Person as a Christian [which I can do with all my Soul] another thing to hold Communion with the same Person as a Minister, dispensing the Holy things of God: For when, as in Separation to Office, God's Ceremony expressed in five or six Scriptures, is left out, have you not given us just Cause, setting by the Authority of God in those Scriptures, to question the lawfulness of your Ministry? O why do our Brethren lay such Blocks in our way, to hinder that which the Lord hath so Commanded, and we so earnestly desire and seek after, Unity?