N00779:13
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.
My Brethren, and the Lords People.
It is not my own Cause, but Yours, which I have here undertaken and plead for. Did I say Yours? Nay, it is Christs Cause. The defence of these Truths is now become the Cause of Christ and of his Churches in New-England I am also very sensible that Young Divines, who have not Studied these Controversies, are apt to think, that what has been Ordinarily professed and practised in the Churches of New England, is Novelty and Singularity. It may in that respect be a Service to the Churches that something be written, which may be for the Information and Illumination of such, in Questions of this nature, ⟨p. 10⟩by means whereof they may be the more fit to Serve the Churches of God wherever the Divine Providence shall see good to dispose of them.
New-England (I mean the Churches in it) was Planted a Noble Vine wholly a right seed. We are all concerned in our several Capacities (Ministers in theirs and People in theirs) to Labour what in us lies, that they who shall come after us, may not prove Degenerate Plants; much more should we Endeavour that they may not be so in our Days. It is a sad Observation often Verified by Experience, That Religion in the Purity and Power of it, seldom continues long in the same place. When the Church of Israel was in a Settled State, They Served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and of the Elders that out lived Joshua; that Generation was gathered to their Fathers, and there arose another Generation after them which knew not the Lord. They turned quickly out of the way which their Fathers walked in, obeying the Voice of the Lord, but they did not so. It was the Third Generation of Church Members which proved Degenerate and Apostate: Pray God it be not so in New-England. The First Generation of his Servants whom he brought into this Wilderness are gathered to their Fathers. And many of the Second Generation, such of them as are yet living are now in years, and soon will be all gone. The Third Generation are coming to take their turn: