N00779:67
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. It is necessary that Churches should know that those whom they admit to their Communion are duly qualified for that Communion. That they have in them (so far as men are able to judge) that which is the matter of Self-Examination, viz. Faith and Repentance. That they have an ability to Examine themselves, and not only Doctrinally but Spiritually to discern the Lords Body. 1 Cor. 11.28, 29. Now one way for the Church to know that they are such, is, by a Relation of Experiences. Nor can it be known except by a Relation, or that which shall be Equivalent thereunto; as our worthy (k)Mr. Mitchel has Evinced.
2. It is necessary that Churches should know that those whom they admit to their Communion are duely qualified for that Communion. That they have in them (so far as men are able to judge) that which is the matter of Self-Examination, viz. Faith and Repentance. That they have an ability to Examine themselves, and not only Doctrinally but Spiritually to discern the Lords Body. 1 Cor. 11.28, 29. Now one way for the Church to know that they are such, is, by a Relation of Experiences. Nor can it be known except by a Relation, or that which shall be Equivalent thereunto; as our worthy (k)Mr. Mitchel has Evinced.
- (k)See his Life. p. 84.
3. This practice of our Churches has a tendency to promote Godliness in the Power ⟨p. 36⟩of it. I bless the Lord, in that there are a• this day in London, several Religious Societies of the Communion of the Church of England, whose design is to promote Religion in the Power of it. Now these Societies require of such as join to them, that they give the Society a Solemn account of their sense of Spiritual things, which they do sometimes Orally and sometimes in Writing. One that has perused some of their Papers, Reports tha they have in them such Pious and sensible Expressions as would mightily affect any Pious Person to read them. But of this I have made a more large Recitation in a lately