In this Repentance, the Churches of New-England require not all the Ceremonies mentioned by Tertullian, A lying in Sackcloth and Ashes, having a squalid Body and a dejected Soul; Fasting, Praying, Weeping, Groaning, and Roaring Night and Day, and throwing themselves at the Feet of the Elders, and kneeling before the Faithful, begging their Prayers and their Pardon; But yet they require the Essence and Substance of what is mentioned in the Letters of the Ministers to Cyprian; *In Sum, Humility, Modesty, Patience, Petition, Tears, with Reformation, are expected in the Penitent; and none of those Vanities or Levities which are mentioned by Cyprian, in his Book, De Lapsu, as Confutations of a professed Repentance, are to be indulged with them. There's no such Complete and Legal Time of Satisfaction limited in the Churches of New-England, ⟨p. 157⟩as the rigider among the Ancients called, The Time of Penance, which with an arbitrary Severity they sometimes imposed. But wherever there are seen Rational Demonstrations of Repentance in an Excommunicate, the Pastor soon brings him to the Church, [For the Repenting and the Absolving of the Fallen, is in these Churches, as it was required in Austin's Time, *Let him not refuse to express his Repentance, even before all the People: Or as that of Natalius, mentioned by Eusebius, when he melted the whole Church into the Tears of Compassion for him,] who upon the View thereof do Vote the Restoration of the Penitent, (with an uplifted Hand;) and the Pastor pronounces him restored; with solemn Charges unto him, to walk worthy of the Divine Goodness;— whereto he adds Prayers, and Praises, and Speeches that may suit the Grateful Occasion. And thus the Person is as Jerome speaks, 3Restored in the Presence of the whole Church, with Pastor and People together weeping over him.
In this Repentance, the Churches of New-England require not all the Ceremonies mentioned by Tertullian, A lying in Sackcloth and Ashes, having a squalid Body and a dejected Soul; Fasting, Praying, Weeping, Groaning, and Roaring Night and Day, and throwing themselves at the Feet of the Elders, and kneeling before the Faithful, begging their Prayers and their Pardon; But yet they require the Essence and Substance of what is mentioned in the Letters of the Ministers to Cyprian; *In Sum, Humility, Modesty, Patience, Petition, Tears, with Reformation, are expected in the Penitent; and none of those Vanities or Levities which are mentioned by Cyprian, in his Book, De Lapsu, as Confutations of a professed Repentance, are to be indulged with them. There's no such Compleat and Legal Time of Satisfaction limited in the Churches of New-England, ⟨p. 157⟩as the rigider among the Ancients called, The Time of Penance, which with an arbitrary Severity they sometimes imposed. But wherever there are seen Rational Demonstrations of Repentance in an Excommunicate, the Pastor soon brings him to the Church, [For the Repenting and the Absolving of the Fallen, is in these Churches, as it was required in Austin's Time, *Let him not refuse to express his Repentance, even before all the People: Or as that of Natalius, mentioned by Eusebius, when he melted the whole Church into the Tears of Compassion for him,] who upon the View thereof do Vote the Restoration of the Penitent, (with an uplifted Hand;) and the Pastor pronounces him restored; with solemn Charges unto him, to walk worthy of the Divine Goodness;— whereto he adds Prayers, and Praises, and Speeches that may suit the Grateful Occasion. And thus the Person is as Jerom speaks, 3Restored in the Presence of the whole Church, with Pastor and People together weeping over him.
- *[Pulsent sane fores sed non utique confringant: Castrorum Caelestium excubent portis, sed armati Modestia, qua intelligant se desertores suisse. Resumant precum suarum Tubam: Sed non q• Bellicum clangant. Multum illis proficiet Petitio Modesta, Postulatio verecunda, Humilitas necessaria, Patientia non otiosa Mittant Legatos pro suis Doloribus, Lacrymas; Advocatione fungantur ex intimo pectore prolati Gemitus, delorent probantes commiss• Criminis, •t […];][Pulsent sane fores sed non utique confringant: Castrorum Caelestium excubent portis, sed armati Modestia, qua intelligant se desertores suisse. Resumant precum suarum Tubam: Sed non q• Bellicum clangant. Multum illis proficiet Petitio Modesta, Postulatio verecunda, Humilitas necessaria, Patientia non otiosa Mittant Legatos pro suis Doloribus, Lacrymas; Advocatione fungantur ex intimo pectore prolati Gemitus, delorent probantes commiss• Criminis, •t 〈…〉;]
- *[In Notiti• Multorum, vel etiam totius Plebis agere Penitentiam non recuset;]
- 3[† Episcopo et omni Populo collacrymantibus, Receptus, sub oculis omnis Ecclesiae, ad Communionem]
