N00779:11
The order of the Gospel, professed and practised by the churches of Christ in…
The order of the Gospel, professed and practised by the churches of Christ in New England, justified, by the Scripture, and by the writings of many learned men, both ancient and modern divines; in answer to several questions, relating to church discipline / by Increase Mather, president of Harvard College in Cambridge, and teacher of a church at Boston in New England. ; [Five lines of Scripture texts]The order of the Gospel, professed and practised by the churches of Christ in New England, justified, by the Scripture, and by the writings of many learned men, both ancient and modern divines; in answer to several questions, relating to church discipline / by Increase Mather, president of Harvard Colledge in Cambridge, and teacher of a church at Boston in New England. ; [Five lines of Scripture texts]
Boston: printed by B. Green for Benjamin Eliot, 1700
Dedication: The Epistle Dedicatory. TO THE Churches of CHRIST IN New-England.
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.
And should not the dear Churches of New-England, be awakened by such awful Examples to take heed l•ast it be thus with them? And therefore to beware of Declensions, either from the Faith or from the Order of the Gospel. There is that which the Scripture call, the present Truth, in which in a special manner we ought to be Established 2 Pet. 1.12. viz. That which is very Peculiarly the Truth of the Age or the Place where the Divine Providence has cast our Lot. And this is N•w the Truth which do• concern Ecclesiastical ⟨p. 7⟩Polity. That is it, for which our Fathers suffered a Voluntary Exile into this Wilderness, when it was a Land not Sown. Here God rewarded them with showing to them the form of his House, with all the outgoings thereof, and all the comings in thereof. Mr Brightman, before ever there was a New-England, Conjectured that there would be some Faithful Servants of Christ in a Wilderness, unto whom he should make Singular Discoveries of Truth; which several Judicious Authors have Esteemed as a Prophetical Passage fulfilled in what has come to pass in this American Desert. However, The Truths which respect Church Order are they which these Churches above any other are concerned to maintain: And an Apostasy from them would in New-England be a greater Sin and Provocation to Christ, then in any Place in the whole world. Regenvolscius in his Ecclesiastical History of the Slavonian Churches, relates that Lucas Brugensis, (a man famous for his Learning and Piety amongst the Bohemians,) was wont to say, that he did not so much dread all the Enemies and Persecutors whom they were continually endangered by, as he was afraid least remissness in their Holy Discipline would prove the ruin of their Churches. His Prediction was sadly verified: I pray God the like fate may never attend these Churches, in too many of which there is an amazing Relaxation of Discipline. Sure I am, that to depart from the Order of the Gospel established in these Churches in ⟨p. 8⟩the days of our Fathers, and declared in the Platform of Discipline, is not the way to obtain such signal Divine protections as they were favoured with.