N02341:433
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.
'Tis no rare thing for a Temper to be found on these Occasions.
Oftentimes an aggrieved Party applying to One or Two, wiser Ministers in the Neighbourhood, they do by their private and prudent Methods, bring Matters to such an Issue, as to supersede the necessity of a Council.
It has been thought, an aggrieved Party is allowed by the New-English Platform, to apply unto one single Church in the Vicinity; who by their Delegates may, after due Preliminaries, come to the Church complained of, and ask for some Account of their Proceedings. And if they cannot put into Joint, what was out of it, this Church which had been applied unto, may then pray a competent Number of other Churches, to unite their Delegates with them, in a larger Council, to use further Endeavours for the Rectifying of what is out of Order. And then! — Something of this Way has been sometimes practised.
§. 2. But what shall be done when the Pastor himself becomes an Offender? A Deplorable Case this! And yet what sometimes has happened.