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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 XVII. MAY the Churches under the Presbyterian and Congregational Discipline maintain Communion with one another, notwithstanding their differing Sentiments as to Church Government?
Answ. They may and ought to do so. In the Apostolical Churches there were as great and greater differences in Judgment then are those between the Brethren of these two Persuasions; who nevertheless did maintain a Christian Communion with each other, as it was their Duty to do. Rom. 14.1, 2. Phil. 3.15, 16. They have been Confessors, and Fellow-Sufferers for bearing witness to the same Cause of Truth, which should Endear them to each other. In matters of Faith they all agree. Yea, and in the Substantials of Church Order. They all say, that there ought to be nothing in the Worship of God, besides what Himself has appointed. No Officers in the Church, nor Sacraments, nor Censures ⟨p. 137⟩but what are the Institutions of Christ. A moderate Presbyterian, and a solid Congregational man agree in so many things, and differ in so few and small things, that it would be a shame for them to divide and break Communion about them. A man that giveth himself to Reading and Searching after Truth, may in a few years time, see cause to differ from himself as much as a Presbyterian and Congregational man differ from one another. The Provincial Assembly of London in their Treatise of the Divine Right of the Gospel Ministry. Part 1. p. 191. Speak respectfully of the New-England Platform of Church Discipline, although they concur not therewith in some particulars, they say concerning the Ministers […] New England, that they agree with them wholly in the same Confession of Faith, and in many things of the greatest concernment in the matter of Church Discipline. And that those things wherein we differ, are not of such consequence as to make a Schism between us. They further add, that they can truly say as their Brethren in New-England do in the Preface to the Platform, (which Preface was written by Mr. Cotton, and approved of by other Elders) that it is far from us so to attest the Discipline of Christ as to detest the Disciples of Christ. Dr. Arrowsmith sometimes Regius Professor of Divinity in the University of Cambridge, notwithstanding his being a Presbyterian, calls the Ministers in New-England, Fratres nostrs jure nobis dilectissis; Our Brethren deservedly most dear unto us. V. Tactica sacra. p. 115. The Godly