N00779:60
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. 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.
4. I am the more flow to pronounce th• practi•• in Question to be Absolutely necessary, for that, Good and wise men have not been ⟨p. 31⟩satisfied neither with the necessity nor yet with the Expediency of it. True it is, that the reason of that Opposition against it which is in the minds of some, proceeds from their own want of Experience. The American Apostle, (as Mr. Baxter calls him) good old Mr. Eliot, who was very Zealous for public Relations, has sometimes told us of a man that Joined himself to the Church in Roxbury, who had been a very bitter Enemy to this Holy practice of the Churches in New-England, until the Lord changed his Heart: And then when he offered himself to the Communion of the Church, he began his public Relation after this manner. It may be it will be wondered at that I who have been such an Enemy to these Relations, and have so often inveighed against that practice of the Churches, should now be willing my self to Relate what impressions the Word and Spirit of God has made upon me. I must Confess, that when I was against that Practice, the true reason was because I had nothing to say; but it has pleased the Lord to Open my eyes, and to Change my heart: and now I am willing to Declare unto all you that fear the Lord, what God has done for my Soul. After this manner did that Converted man Express himself. Yet nevertheless, some who have had Experience of the Regenerating Grace of God in their own Souls, have not thought it necessary, to declare this Publicly, when they Join in Church-fellowship. I remember my Worthy Friend