N02341:143
Ratio disciplinae fratrum Nov-Anglorum. A faithful account of the discipline professed and practised; in…
Ratio disciplinae fratrum Nov-Anglorum. A faithful account of the discipline professed and practised; in the churches of New-England. : With interspersed and instructive reflections on the discipline of the primitive churches. : [Seven lines from Ezekiel]
Boston: printed for S. Gerrish, 1726
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.
The Council with other Strangers of Note retire, according to a Direction then given; where (to use the Words of the Bohemian Discipline) Coenatur modeste, cum Timore Domini, piis et amicu Colloquiis.
For these things the Churches of New-England have no Forms among them; and being well established in the Things they find the less want of any Forms. They are instructed & united in the Substance, and their not being tied unto ⟨p. 41⟩Forms, does but give them the Delight of the more Variety, in Expressions and in Circumstances. They may say, as Comenius of the Rites in the Bohemian Churches*. If we should only recite prescribed Forms, what would there be to excite Attention? We are free, to stir up Zeal, by varying upon Occasion, with Treasures taken out of the Holy Scriptures; whence it comes to pass, that the pious Auditors continually find new Affections raised in their Hearts, when they are present at the Transactions among us.
- *S• praescripta tantnm recitantur semper, quid erit quod attentionem excitet? Liberum est apud nos, quicquid ad excitatum Zelum faciat, juxta Occasionum Varietatem, e Sapientiae Mysticae Thesauris depromptum adhibere. Unde fit, ut sine novo Cordis Affectu, sacris Mysteriis vix unquam intersint pii Audltores.
§. 10. In some Churches of the Reformation, (bordering upon Switzerland) the People, after the public Performances of a Candidate have recommended him to them, Choose him for their Pastor; Whereupon the Minister only preaches an Inauguration-Sermon, and so without any further Ceremonies of Ordination, goes on with the Exercise of his Ministry. 'Tis not so in the Churches of New-England; Except a Person has been once already ordained. But in this Case, a Minister (suppose Removing from a Church here, or in some other Country, where he has been already ordained) being Elected and Invited unto the Pastoral Charge in any of these Churches, a Day of Prayer is kept, and the Choice renewed, and the Charge accepted, in the Presence of