N02341:466
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.
They never had yet any General SYNODS of all the Churches in a Colony, but such as were convened upon a Motion from the Civil Magistrate, upon Matters wherein all the Churches were concerned; and this has been four Times done in the Massachusett-Colony. Nevertheless, they suppose a Liberty to meet in Synods, without the Direction of the Civil Magistrate. Why not, they say, as well as the Primitive Churches before the Days of Constantine?
The Synods of New-England know no Weapons, but what are purely Spiritual. They pretend unto no Juridical Power; nor any significancy, but what is merely •ive and Suasory. They are nothing but some Wise and Good Men meeting ⟨p. 173⟩together to advise the Churches how to observe the Rules of the most Inoffensive Piety. When they have done all, the Churches are at Liberty, to judge how far their Advice is to be followed. They have no Secular Arm to enforce any Canons; They ask none; They want none. And they cannot believe, that any Protestant Secular Arm would upon a due Information any more Forbid their Meeting, than they would any of the Religious Assemblies upheld in the Country. No body forbids the General Synods [or, Conventions] of the Dissenters, in England and Ireland, [or the other American Provinces.] Nay, The Quakers themselves hold their General Meetings without any Commands of Governors for the Dispersing of them.
The Synods of New-England know no Weapons, but what are purely Spiritual. They pretend unto no Juridical Power; nor any significancy, but what is meerly •ive and Suasory. They are nothing but some Wise and Good Men meeting ⟨p. 173⟩together to advise the Churches how to observe the Rules of the most Inoffensive Piety. When they have done all, the Churches are at Liberty, to judge how far their Advice is to be followed. They have no Secular Arm to enforce any Canons; They ask none; They want none. And they cannot believe, that any Protestant Secular Arm would upon a due Information any more Forbid their Meeting, than they would any of the Religious Assemblies upheld in the Country. No body forbids the General Synods [or, Conventions] of the Dissenters, in England and Ireland, [or the other American Provinces.] Nay, The Quakers themselves hold their General Meetings without any Commands of Governours for the Dispersing of them.