N02341:363
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.
§. 2. When the Communicants in these Churches have Occasion for to Travel, the Pastors give them LETTERS OF RECOMMENDATION ⟨p. 137⟩(perhaps not unlike the Pacific Letters without which the Primitive Churches would not receive travelling Strangers,) Or, Testimonials of this Importance? That — the Bearer hereof having been admitted into the Fellowship of the Church [in the Place mentioned] and behaved himself inoffensively therein, is upon that Account recommended unto Communion in special Ordinances, with any Churches of our LORD, walking in the Faith and Order of the Gospel, wheresoever he may have Opportunity in the Travels now before him, to desire it.
§. 2. When the Communicants in these Churches have Occasion for to Travel, the Pastors give them LETTERS OF RECOMMENDATION ⟨p. 137⟩(perhaps not unlike the Pacific Letters without which the Primitive Churches would not receive travelling Strangers,) Or, Testimonials of this Importance? That — the Bearer hereof having been admitted into the Fellowship of the Church [in the Place mentioned] and behaved himself inoffensively therein, is upon that Account recommended unto Communion in special Ordinances, with any Churches of our LORD, walking in the Faith and Order of the Gospel, wherefoever he may have Opportunity in the Travels now before him, to desire it.
Indeed we find, it was a Decree of a Carthaginian Council, That no one should communicate in another Church, without a Letter from the Bishop of his own Church. The Churches of New-England require it not, from such as are otherwise known sufficiently, but where Persons cannot be well known without it.