A61661:13
The doctrine of instituted churches explained and proved from the word of God
The doctrine of instituted churches explained and proved from the word of God by Solomon Stoddard ...
London: printed for Ralph Smith, 1700
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.
1. There be many things necessary which there is no Institution about: God was more particular with the Jews, because the Church then was in its Infancy, than he is with us: So we have no institution, how many Elders to have in a Church, how often to Pray or Sing on the Sabbath: How often to partake of the Lords Supper, 1 Cor. 11.26. So there is no particular institution for Moderators in Churches, in case of a vacancy of Elders: About Preaching without ordination: About the Limits and Bounds of particular Churches: There be abundance of other particulars, about Fasts, matters of ⟨p. 3⟩Discipline, the Age of Persons to be admitted to the Lords Supper; which are to be determined by Moral Rules.
2. Many things that are commanded in Church Affairs are the proper consequences of Moral Rules: And so don't need an institution: There be many things occasionally commanded: Which do not properly belong to Divine institutions, that are not Branches of the second Commandment, but proper deduction from Moral Rules; So that about Reconciliation to an offended Brother, Matth. 5.23,24. For Christ did not now make new Jewish institutions: So that about private dealing with an offending Brother, Matth. 18.15,16. So those Rules, 1 Tim. 5.17,19. 1 Cor. 11.28. And many others are plain Moral Duties.