N01544:22
A disquisition concerning ecclesiastical councils. Proving, that not only pastors, but brethren delegated by…
A disquisition concerning ecclesiastical councils. Proving, that not only pastors, but brethren delegated by the churches, have equally a right to a decisive vote in such assemblies. : To which is added, proposals concerning consociation of churches, agreed upon by a synod, which convened at Boston, in New-England. : With a preface, containing a further vindication of the Congregational discipline. / By Increase Mather. D.D. ; [Ten lines of quotations]
Boston: printed for N. Boone, 1716
Title page typeset from the transcription.
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.
[…] troubled that I should differ […] many of the present Mini•••r, in New-England, or rather that ⟨p. xvii⟩they differ from me. For I fully concur with our Platform of Church-Discipline, believing that it is (as in the Title Page is expressed) gathered out of the Word of God. I wish all the Ministers in New England could say the same. I likewise concur with the two Synods Convened at Boston, both that in 1662, and that in 1679. That Vindication of the Order of the Gospel, which I wrote Sixteen Years since, had the Approbation of the two most Ancient Ministers then Living among us, viz. the Reverend Mr. Higginson, and Mr. Hubbard, who when they were just leaving the World, were pleased to give a greater Character of that Book, than any thing of mine deserved, and to commend it to the Perusal and Acceptance of the Churches. The Ministers of the First Generation, who were the First Planters of Churches in this Part of the World, are all of them gathered to their Fathers. So are many of the Second Generation. I am now the Eldest in this Province. It may in respect of my Age (being in my Seventy Eighth Year) become me to give a ⟨p. xviii⟩Word of Advice to Younger Ministers, especially considering, that I have been in a peculiar Respect, a Father to many of them, viz. in that they were under my Inspection at the College, when for many years, I presided over that Society.
〈…〉 troubled that I should differ 〈…〉 many of the present Mini•••r, in New-England, or rather that ⟨p. xvii⟩they differ from me. For I fully concurr with our Platform of Church-Discipline, believing that it is (as in the Title Page is expressed) gathered out of the Word of God. I wish all the Ministers in New England could say the same. I likewise concurr with the two Synods Convened at Boston, both that in 1662, and that in 1679. That Vindication of the Order of the Gospel, which I wrote Sixteen Years since, had the Approbation of the two most Ancient Ministers then Living among us, viz. the Reverend Mr. Higginson, and Mr. Hubbard, who when they were just leaving the World, were pleased to give a greater Character of that Book, than any thing of mine deserved, and to commend it to the Perusal and Acceptance of the Churches. The Ministers of the First Generation, who were the First Planters of Churches in this Part of the World, are all of them gathered to their Fathers. So are many of the Second Generation. I am now the Eldest in this Province. It may in respect of my Age (being in my Seventy Eighth Year) become me to give a