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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.
§. 1. Besides the more General CUSTOMS of the Churches, there are a few more Special CUSTOMS in the Churches, whereof a Brief Recitation may be expected.
§. 1. BEsides the more General CUSTOMS of the Churches, there are a few more Special CUSTOMS in the Churches, whereof a Brief Recitation may be expected.
We will begin with the DAYS observed among them.
He that shall read the judicious Discourse of Socrates (written above Twelve Hundred Years ago) in the Twenty First Chapter of his Fifth Book, about HOLY DAYS, will see very much of what is believed in the Churches of New-England; Namely (and briefly,) That the Apostles have set the Churches free from the Yoke of Bondage thereunto. They are far from reviling that excellent Person as an Heretic (which Bellarmine did) for Complaining there, That they who contended for Holy Days, despised the Commandments of GOD. But they are content themselves to be Hereticated, by the popishly affected, for holding, as the Waldenses did, more than Five Hundred Years ago, That Constrained and Prefixed Fasts, bound to Days, and all the Rabblement of Rites and Ceremonies, brought in by Man, ought to be abolished. It was Luther's Desire near Two Hundred Years ago, ⟨p. 187⟩That there were no other Festival Days amongst Christians, but only the LORD's DAY. And it was Calvin's Desire at the same Time, That inasmuch as Christ our Judge, has released us from stated Festival Days, we may not obey any Morsel, that shall go to oblige us thereunto. According to this Desire is the Practice of these American Churches. And if King James once could boast of the Purity in the Church of Scotland, That not so much as Easter or Christmas was observed in it; Even such a Boast may be humbly made about the Churches of New-England. Nor do these Churches hitherto discover any Tendencies towards a Compliance with that which was one of the earliest Apostasies and Superstitions in the Primitive Times, (and as Dr. Ames calls it, The first Weapon wherewith the Bishop of Rome, played his Prizes against other Churches) that is, an imposed HOLY DAY. But they rather Censure it as a very unadvised Speech in Dr. Hammond; That when the Festivals are turned out of the Church, it will not be in the Power of Weekly Sermons, on the Heads of Religion, to keep up the Knowledge of CHRIST in Men's Hearts.