N00779:201
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.
Let not him that Eateth, despise him that Eateth not, and let not him that Eateth not, judge him which Eateth, for God has received him. So let not him who depends on the way of Classical Subordination, despise him that dependeth not, and let not him that dependeth no•, judge him that dependeth, for the Lord has received them both.
Amongst those who go under the name of Congregational, there is a variety of apprehension in some Disciplinary Controversies. Some of them have thought that no Children should ⟨p. 140⟩be admitted to Baptism whose Parents are not admitted to the Lords Table. This was the opinion of our Learned Mr. Chauncey, who was many years President of the College, and of Mr. Davenport, and some few others of the first Ministers in these Churches. But Mr. Cotton, my Father Mather, Mr. Norton, Mr. Rogers, Mr. Mitchel, and the generality of our New-England Divines were for a greater Latitude as to the subject of Baptism. Some esteem none to be Members of the Visible Church, excepting those that belong to Particular Churches: So Mr. Hooker, Mr. Stone, and most of our Ministers. But in this the generality of Congregationals in England vary from them. They suppose that all the men in the world, who deserve the name of Christians, or that make a profession of the true Religion, and do not destroy that profession by any Error in Judgment, or Scandal in Conversation, are the Catholic Visible Church, of which number th•re are many who are not in full Communion wi•h any particular Instituted Church. Some limit Baptism to Membership in a particular Church. So has it been with us in New England for the most part. But other Congregationals differ from us in this point Dr. Goodwin has strenuously asserted, that a Particular Church is the Subject of that Ordinance of the Lords Supper, but not of Baptism. And of this Judgment were Dr Owen, and Mr. Greenhill, as both of them did many […] since in Letters I received from them, signify to me; & Dr. Owen in divers of his printed Books, declares ⟨p. 141⟩