N00779:142
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.
4. The Questions which are handled and decided in Synods are commonly such as Brethren and not Elders only are concerned in. This Reason is urged by our Juel (a great light in the English Church) in his defence of the Church of England. Yea, some Learned Papists have been so ingenuous as to confess there is weight in it. That which pertains to all is not valid, if some of all sorts have not a consent in it; which assertion (says Dr. Field writing against the Romanists) ha's its foundation in nature and in reason.
4. The Questions which are handled and decided in Synods are commonly such as Brethren and not Elders only are concerned in. This Reason is urged by our Juel (a great light in the English Church) in his defence of the Church of England. Yea, some Learned Papists have been so ingenuous as to confess there is weight in it. That which pertains to all is not valid, if some of all sorts have not a consent in it; which assertion (sayes Dr. Fyeld writing against the Romanists) ha's its foundation in nature and in reason.
5. In some Churches there are Brethren whose gifts and abilities are beyond their Pastors. And why should not such be Members of Ecclesiastical Councils, and have a suffrage therein equal with any others? In some ⟨p. 88⟩Monasteries of old there were Readers of Divinity, whose work it was (as the incomparable (q)Usher has observed) to instruct Clergy men. There are at this day in some Universities, Learned professors of Theology (who are not Pastors of any Church) perhaps more able to give light in a difficult Controversy than any Elder in the Synod What reason can be given why Churches should not delegate such, or why they should not have decisive Votes as well as any others?
5. In some Churches there are Brethren whose gifts and abilities are beyond their Pastors. And why should not such be Members of Ecclesiastical Councils, and have a suffrage therein equal with any others? In some