A50170:112
The triumphs of the reformed religion in America the life of the renowned John…
The triumphs of the reformed religion in America the life of the renowned John Eliot, a person justly famous in the church of God, not only as an eminent Christian and an excellent minister among the English, but also as a memorable evangelist among the Indians of New-England : with some account concerning the late and strange success of the Gospel in those parts of the world which for many ages have lain buried in pagan ignorance / written by Cotton Mather.The triumphs of the reformed religion in America the life of the renowned John Eliot, a person justly famous in the church of God, not only as an eminent Christian and an excellant minister among the English, but also as a memorable evangelist amoung the Indians of New-England : with some account concerning the late and strange success of the Gospel in those parts of the world which for many ages have lain buried in pagan ignorance / written by Cotton Mather.
Boston: printed by Benjamin Harris and John Allen for Joseph Brunning, 1691
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.
But the mention of a Synod brings to mind another thing, which he was Concerned, that we might never want; and that is, a frequent Repetition of Needful Synods in our Churches. For tho' he had a deep and a due care to preserve the Rights of particular Churches, yet he thought all the Churches of the Lord Jesus by their Union in what they profess, in what they intend, and in what they enjoy, so compacted into one Body Mystical, as that all the several particular Churches every where should act with a regard unto the good of the whole, and unto the common Advice and Counsel of the Neighbourhood; which cannot be done always by Letters missive, like those that passed between Corinth and Rome in the early days of Christianity; but it requires a Convention of the Churches in Synods, by their Delegates and Messengers. He did not count Churches to be so Independent, as that they can always discharge their whole Duty, and yet not act in a conjunction with Neighbour-Churches; nor would he be of any Church that will not acknowledge it self accountable to rightly composed Synods, which may have occasion to enquire into the ⟨p. 71⟩circumstances of it; he saw the main Interest and Business of Churches might quickly come to be utterly lost, if Synods were not often called for the Repairing of Inconveniences, and he was much in contriving for the regular and repeated meeting of such Assemblies.
But the mention of a Synod brings to mind another thing, which he was Concerned, that we might never want; and that is, a frequent Repetition of Needful Synods in our Churches. For tho' he had a deep and a due care to preserve the Rights of particular Churches, yet he thought all the Churches of the Lord Jesus by their Ʋnion in what they profess, in what they intend, and in what they enioy, so compacted into one Body Mystical, as that all the several particular Churches every where should act with a regard unto the good of the whole, and unto the common Advice and Counsil of the Neighbourhood; which cannot be done always by Letters missive, like those that passed between Corinth and Rome in the early dayes of Christianity; but it requires a Convention of the Churches in Synods, by their Delegates and Messengers. He did not count Churches to be so Independent, as that they can always discharge their whole Duty, and yet not act in a conjunction with Neighbour-Churches; nor would he be of any Church that will not acknowledge it self accountable to rightly composed Synods, which may have occasion to enquire into the ⟨p. 71⟩