A41335:276
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
A Weighty Question DISCUSSED. › Question 2: Second Question.
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.
We have heard in the time of our Persecution, that several thousands of the Scots met in one Field, to Administer and partake of the Lords Supper. Tho' it was not a House, it was a Place, yet we do not read that ever the Apostles did so much as once call all the Church together into one place, to Administer the Lords Supper, that they might leave one Example at least, that in every Church there must be but One Table, or one Altar as some call it; which they might easily have done, had one place in their Judgment [men guided by the Spirit] been so essential to a Church as some make it now.
Many thousands of particular Churches make up One Body of Christ: Why then so many particular Congregations [where the Members of one Congregation are known to the others] as there may be Elders sufficient to carry on all Church-work, may not make one particular Church, I know not. It is certain, that where only one Pastor, with a Parochial Congregation make a Church, all the Ends of Churches cannot be attained; not only Reason, but Experience also hath sufficiently proved it.
Where a Congregation is so far remote from others, and so poor that it cannot maintain one Pastor well, such a People must do as well as they can; but where Congregations are nearer, tho' they be poor, [as I know sew that are not] yet they may Coalesce into one Church, to attain all Church-Ends, so far as our Performance of Duties to those Ends may conduce.