N00779:167
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. When Ordinations at large did wi•h other Corruptions creep into the Churches, […] ⟨p. 104⟩whole Synod found it necessary not only to bear witness against that practice, but to declare such Ordinations to be void and null, and the Ordainers liable to Censure. It is well observed by the Ingenuous Writer of the History of the Council of Trent (i)that in the Golden Times of Christianity, no Persons were Ordained but to a particular Ministry; but that this pious Institution was soon Corrupted, Bishops Ordaining men that had no Election by any Church. This caused great Confusion as the Magdeburgensian Historians have noted. As a Remedy, the Council of Calcedon made a decree against all such Ordinations. The Sixth Canon of that Synod declares, That if any man shall be Ordained absolutely, that is to the Catholic without relation to a particular Church, the Imposition of Hands which he has received shall be null, and that he shall not Serve in the Church, to the dishonour of them that have Ordained him. This Decree was Confirmed by other Synods afterwards, so that it became a general Rule in the Church, that no man should be Ordained without a Title. But the forementioned Historian (with many others) takes notice that this Rule was in process of time perverted▪ For whereas at first to have a Title was to have a particular Church, afterwards to have a Title was to have Money. The Canons of the Church of England will not permit any one to be Ordained without a Title, but they too much comply ⟨p. 105⟩with the Papists in allowing those to have Titles who have none such as the Chalcedonian Council intended.
5. When Ordinations at large did wi•h other Corruptions creep into the Church•s, 〈…〉 ⟨p. 104⟩whole Synod found it necessary not only to bear witness against that practice, but to declare such Ordinations to be void and null, and the Ordainers liable to Censure. It is well observed by the Ingenuous Writer of the History of the Council of Trent