N00779:131
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
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.
If it shall be said, surely they do not come up to these six things mentioned. To that I Answer (says Mr. Burroughs) I do not in these deliver only my own Judgment, but by what I know of the Judgment of all those Brethren with whom I have occasion to converse by Conference both before and since, I stand charged to make it good to be their Judgment also; ye•, it has been theirs and mine for divers years, even the• when we never thought to have enjoyed our own Land again. We see by these Testimonies that Congregational men in general, as well as the Churches of New England in special, are no such Independents, no such B•ownists, no such M•rellians, as some have represented them to be.
If it shall be said, surely they do not come up to these six things mentioned. To that I Answer (sayes Mr. Burroughs) I do not in these deliver only my own Judgment, but by what I know of the Judgment of all those Brethren with whom I have occasion to converse by Conferance both before and since, I stand charged to make it good to be their Judgment also; ye•, it has been theirs and mine for divers years, even the• when we never thought to have enjoyed our own Land again. We see by these Testimonies that Congregational men in general, as well as the Churches of New England in special, are no such Independents, no such B•ownists, no such M•rellians, as some have represented them to be.
5. If we admit not a Consociation of Churches, there will be no Remedy against the Male Administrations of Particular Churches; nor any cure of Schisms, or Errors that may happen in our Churches. This has been objected (but injuriously) as a Scandal attending the Congregational Church discipline, and that therefore it is a way not practicable. Indeed, if we refuse this part of Church Communion, the objection would be unanswerable. And who would be willing to be a Member of that Church, in which although he should be never so much wronged, there will be no relief for him upon Earth? There was once a Church in New-England, which having censured one of