Ichabod. Or, A discourse, showing what cause there is to fear that the glory…Ichabod. Or, A discourse, shewing what cause there is to fear that the glory…

IF there is (as who can say their is not?) a Declension in the Churches of New-England, from what once they were, it is not to be wondered at: For in the Primitive Days of Christianity it was so; and this whilst the Apostles were yet Living. In the Churches in Galatia, there was a Superstitious observation of Holy-days, & of Meats and Drinks. And in those in Asia were greater Errors, and a Scandalous neglect of Discipline in several of them. But in the very next Age to the Apostles, the Defection from Primitive Purity, was greater and more general, especially in matters relating to Church-Discipline. Then began the Contest about the Day when Easter should be kept. Polycarp (the Bishop of Smyrna who was an Holy man, ⟨p. 4⟩& Dyed a Martyr) and the Asian Churches with him, pleaded for its Observation on the Fourteenth day of the Month. Anicetus (the Bishop of Rome) and with him the Western Churches, would keep the Fifteenth day: The former pretending the Authority of the Apostle John for their practice, and the latter the Authority of Peter. And how strange is it, that Polycrates the Bishop of Ephesus in his Letter to Victor at Rome, that so he might make John to be of greater Authority then Peter, alleged that he was a Priest, and wore the the High-Priests Golden Crown, when as 'tis known that John was of the Tribe of Judah; nor would any Christian put on those Sacerdotal Ornaments. It is to be admired, that they who lived so near the days of the Apostles, should pretend their Authority for a practice in the Churches which they never taught. Ireneus in Eusebius says that in this, Their Fore-fathers had delivered to their Posterity a Custom which crept into the Churches through Ignorance. And Socrates in his Ecclesiastical History, acknowledgeth truly, that neither our Saviour nor His Apostles, did Ordain the keeping of that