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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.
Cotton asserts in his Book of the Keys of the Kingdom, he would meet them half way. Mr. Baxter, not long before he went to his Everlasting Rest, said to me, If all Independents were like New-England Independents, we should soon be one. Our Congregational Brethren in England who met at the Savoy, Anno 1658. Have this for the last Article of their Discipline, Churches gathered and walking according to the mind of Christ, judging other Churches (though less pure) to be true Churches, may receive to occasional Communion with them, such Members of those Churches as are credibly testified to be Godly, and to live without offence. The practice of the Churches in New-England ha's been according to this profession. For we have received to our Communion those that have come to us with Testimonials from Presbyterian Ministers in England, and divers that have come to us from Scotland Yea, and some French Refugees of whose sincere Piety we have had Testimonials. And (which is more) several worthy Ministers known to be of the Presbyterian Judgment who came to us from England, particularly Mr. Morton and Mr. Bayly, were received among us with the greatest respects that the Elders and Churches in New-England could manifest towards them. And whereas they did scruple a Re•ordination by Imposition of hands (which is usual in these Churches) that as […] urged upon them, but they were established in the ⟨p. 139⟩Churches who Elected them with fasting and prayer, without any laying on of hands. Mr. Cotton not long before his departure to a better World, drew up some proposals for the Accommodation and Union of these two Reforming Persuasions, in which his Spirit was very much engaged. My most dear Brother Samuel Mather (who was well known to the Churches in New-England above forty years ago, and after that in England and in Ireland, where he ended his days) not long before he finished his Course, wrote a small Book which beareth the Title of Irenicum, or an Essay for Union; wherein he shows how inconsiderable the Differences are between those of the Presbyterian and Congregational Judgment, and that they may without any selling of Truth to purchase peace, mutually own and give the Right Hand of Fellowship to each other, as true Churches and Ministers of Jesus Christ, that they should lay aside all their Animosities, and remember that Golden Rule, Rom. 14.3.