N00779:138
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.
1. The first Synod that ever was in which a Copy and Sampler is left to all Succeeding Generations, did consist not only of Elders but of Brethren, who had their voice therein, namely the Synod at Jerusalem, of which ⟨p. 84⟩Act. 15. giveth us the account. The 4th verse speaketh of the Church as well as of the Apostles and Elders. Now he that was in […] Time the Oracle of the University of Cambridge argueth thus, (m)why was the cause brought to the People and not to the Elders only, if they had not power to judge in the case? And he therefore concludes against Bellarmine, that every Laic in that Synod had a definitive suffrage as much as Peter himself. And whereas Bellarmine objects, that the Brethren did only hear and not speak, in that Assembly Whitaker argues from verse 12 That the Brethr•• had been (not tumultuously but in an order•• manner) declaring their apprehensions on the case under controversy; or however that the Expression in that Verse implies, that the• had a Liberty of Speech granted to them▪ And in verse 22. 'tis said, It pleased the Apostles and Elders with the whole Church, &c. In the Council of Basil, it was argued, that that word, It pleased, being spoken not of the Elders only, but of others, it does Evidently import, that those other, even the Members of the Church had also a power of Judgment and determination in the Question then under debate. From thence likewise does Juel against Harding prove that Laics (as they calls the Brethren in Churches) have this power of right belonging to them, to Sit and Judge in Ecclesiastical Councils. And so does Dr. ⟨p. 85⟩Willet (n)(a Learned and worthy Confor•• ble Divine of the Church of England) from that same Scripture conclude. Moreover, in […] Vers. 23. 'tis said, that the Letters containing the Decrees of that Council were Sent (and consequently signed) in the Name of the Brethren as well as of the Apostles and Elders Which shows that they had something else […] do in at Synod than only to keep silence, and hear what others had to say. Wherefore Dr. Owen might well say,