N02341:92
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.
To express the Condescension, in the close of these Conclusions, the Churches, do sometimes, by their Vote, make a Nomination of Three or Four Candidates; For every One of which the Majority of the Brethren have so Voted, that whomsoever of these the Choice falls upon, it may still be said, The Church has Chosen him.
To express the Condescention, in the close of these Conclusions, the Churches, do sometimes, by their Vote, make a Nomination of Three or Four Candidates; For every One of which the Majority of the Brethren have so Voted, that whomsoever of these the Choice falls upon, it may still be said, The Church has Chosen him.
And then they bring this Nomination unto the other Inhabitants, to join with them, in a Vote that shall determine, which of them shall be the Man.
But what must be the Age of the Candidate?
Without any Information from the Gentlemen who have (like Bartholomaeus Agricola) written, De Aetate ineuntium Officia; We know, not only what was the Age of Admission to the Exercise the Priesthood under the Mosaic Law; but also, how critical the Gentiles were about it; Alexander ab Alexandro sets the Age, when One would think it fitter to lay down than to take up an Office; And we have Cicero's Exclamation; Quae major Contumelia est, quam venire in Sacerdotium imberbem Adolescentulum? Nevertheless, in these Days of the New-Testament, there is nothing certain defined about the Number of Years, which a Minister of the Gospel, must have passed before he be ordained. Some Councils have set a Number of Years for it; But the learned Reizius passes a Censure on them, as having done Incautelously; and he brings the Instance of Timothy, who while he was but a Young Man, so discharged the Evangelical Ministry, as to be no dishonour to it: And the Words of Bullinger have their Weight in them; Hominem Ingenia, non a Vetustate, ut Vina, aestimanda sunt; sed ab ipsa probitate et Eruditione. Accordingly the Churches of New-England, consider not so much the Age, as the Worth of a Candidate for an Ordination in them. And their Glorious Lord often blesses them with Elihu's; They often see very Young Ministers, who give