N00779:157
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.
QUESTION XIII. MAY a man be Ordained a Pastor, Except to a particular Church, and in the presence of that Church?
Answ. There are two parts of this Question, which we shall Answer distinctly.
1. We assert that no man ought to be Ordained a Pastor, Except unto a particular Church. For,
1 We have no Instance in the Scripture of ordinary Officers Ordained, Except unto a particular Flock. Act 14 23. They Ordained Elders by E•ection (so does the Geneva Translation read the words truly enough as that Learned Knight, Sir Norton Knat•hbull (†)has critically evinced) in every Church. Paul left it in Charge with Titus, that he should Ordain Elders in every City. Tit. 1.5. He was not to Ordain them to be Individua vaga, but a particular place, a City wherein was some Church was assigned to them to Labour in. He might not (as Mr. Baynes and from him