N00779:190
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.
Presently after Polycarp, Christians used every year to observe a day in Commemoration of the Death Days which they called the Birth Days of their Martyrs. I have mentioned these particulars to show that the Argument from the practice of Churches after the • postles Days, is not conclusive except it can be proved that the Scripture does warrant such a practice, and then it is ex abundanti, recommended to us, 1 Cor. 11.16.
Presently after Polycarp, Christians used every year to observe a day in Commemoration of the Death Dayes which they called the Birth Dayes of their Martyrs. I have mentioned these particulars to shew that the Argument from the practice of Churches after the • postles Dayes, is not conclusive except it can be proved that the Scripture does warrant such a practice, and then it is ex abundanti, recommended to us, 1 Cor. 11.16.
6. Other Arguments besides that of Ancient Custom which are commonly alleged for using the Lords Prayer as a Form, do not carry Conviction with them. It is pleaded, that our Prayers are Imperfect, when as this Form contains in it all that we are to pray for, therefore to make up the Defects of our Prayers, we must subjoin this. To which has been replied, that the Decalogue does contain in it, all the Duties which God requires of men, Matth 22 40. But it does not therefore follow that Ministers should conclude their Imperfect Sermons, with a Recitation of the Ten Commandment. No more are they bound ⟨p. 128⟩to a Repetition of the Lords Prayer, at the Conclusion of their own imperfect ones. Moreover, we may not think that Words and Syllables will make amends for the Defect of our Prayers; for that is (as shall be further said) to give to them what is proper to the Merit and Intercession of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is also pretended that every Rabbi or Master amongst the Jews delivered a Form of Prayer, to his Disciples. That John Baptist did so: And that in Conformity hereunto, the Disciples Petitioned Christ to give them a Form, which he granted their desires in: And that he took every Sentence of this which we call the Lords Prayer out of the Jews Common Prayer-Book at that time used amongst them, and willed his Disciples to use it as a Form. Thus do some say. And all this is sooner said than proved. Some have told us of things in the Jewish Rituals which others could never find there. Baronius, Casaubon and many besides, say, that it was usual amongst the Jews to wash thr feet before they sat down to eat the Passover, and that therefore what is recorded,