N00779:172
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 XIV. IS the Practice of the Churches of New-England in granting Letters of Recommendation or Dismission from one Church to another according to Scripture and the Example of other Churches?
Answ. It is so. See Act. 18▪ 27. Rom. 16.1, 2 That this was an usual Practice in the Churches in the Apostolical Times, is plain from 1 Cor. 16.3. and 3.1. Col. 4 10, 11.3 Job. 3.8, 9, 10. This practice was continued in the Churches after the Apostolical Times. Polycarp in his Epistle to the Church at Philippi recommends Crescens with his Sister to their Communion, testifying that their Conversation had been blameless. The Greek Churches called such Letters as the Scriptures do Systatick Epistles or Letters of Recommendation. ⟨p. 110⟩In the Latin Churches they were called Literae Communicatoriae. Tertullian calls them Literas pacis. That in the Primitive Times such Letters were in use may be seen in (s)Baronius. And that something of this nature was practised in the Fourth Century is manifest from a decree of the first Council in Carthage (t)That no one shall Communicate in another Church without a Letter from the Bishop of his own Church. Nazianzene in one of his Orations against Julian the Apostate speaks of these Letters And several Ancient Synods make mention both of Literal Commendatitiae, and Literae dimisseriae And some of the Protestant Reformed Churches practice as the Churches of New England do as to th matter. So in