N00779:59
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.
2. The natural Tempers and Infirmities of some are such as make them uncapable of relating publicly what God has done for them. Some have a natural Hesitancy of Speech. Others are of very bashful Tempers. Others are of such weak Intellectuals as that they can Scarce speak sense. To put such upon Public Declarations of their Experiences, would be to expose Sacred things to be Contemned and Ridiculed by m•n of profane Spirits.
2. The natural Tempers and Infirmities of some are such as make them uncapable of relating publickly what God has done for them. Some have a natural Hesitancy of Speech. Others are of very bashful Tempers. Others are of such weak Intellectuals as that they can Scarce speak sence. To put such upon Publick Declarations of their Experiences, would be to expose Sacred things to be Contemned and Ridiculed by m•n of profane Spirits.
3. It is possible that the Occasion of a mans Conversion may have been something not fit to be publicly related. It may be the words of some persecuted Saint who is in obscurity. It may be some signal Judgment on some of his Relations: Nay, it may be some Secret Sin which himself has been guilty of, may have so wounded his Conscience as to occasion his true Repentance for all his other Sins: but this he ought not to tell the World of.
3. It is possible that the Occasion of a mans Conversion may have been something not fit to be publickly related. It may be the words of some persecuted Saint who is in obscurity. It may be some signal Judgment on some of his Relations: Nay, it may be some Secret Sin which himself has been guilty of, may have so wounded his Conscience as to occasion his true Repentance for all his other Sins: but this he ought not to tell the World of.