N00779:143
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.
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 ⟨p. 88⟩Monasteries of old there were Readers of Divinity, whose work it was (as the incomparable (q)Vsher has observed) to instruct Clergy men. There are at this day in some Vniversities, Learned professors of Theology (who are not Pastors of any Church) perhap• 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?
- (q)de Success Eccles. c. 7. s 24.