N00779:50
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.
3 They that have power to Judge whether a person Excommunicated, is fit to be restored to the Communion of the Church, have power to Judge whether persons never yet received into the Communion of the Church are duly ⟨p. 25⟩qualified for that Communion. But the Apostle writes to the Brethren as well as to the Elders of the Church in Corinth to restore a penitent, whom they had according to the discipline of Christ laid under a Church ••nsure, 2 Cor. 2.6. If the Brethren are competent Judges concerning the Repentance of a Lapsed Communicant, they are not incompetent Judges of the Repentance of other persons that may offer themselves to their Communion.
3 They that have power to Judge whether a person Excommunicated, is fit to be restored to the Communion of the Church, have power to Judge whether persons never yet received into the Communion of the Church are duely ⟨p. 25⟩qualified for that Communion. But the Apostle writes to the Brethren as well as to the Elders of the Church in Corinth to restore a penitent, whom they had according to the discipline of Christ laid under a Church ••nsure, 2 Cor. 2.6. If the Brethren are competent Judges cencerning the Repentance of a Lapsed Communicant, they are not incompetent Judges of the Repentance of other persons that may offer themselves to their Communion.
4 When Saul desired to join to the Church at Jerusalem, he was not admitted until the Brethren were by the Testimony of Barnabas, together with his own Declaration, satisfied concerning the reality of his Faith and Repentance. Act 9 26, 27.