Ratio disciplinae fratrum Nov-Anglorum. A faithful account of the discipline professed and practised; in…

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 ⟨p. 19⟩them Occasion to think on the Jewish Maxim, Sapiens appellatur Senex, etiamsi Diebus sit Exiguus.

§. 4. Now they proceed unto a Salary, to be offered unto the Minister, whom they have chosen. [To which there is usually added somewhat also, which they call, A Settlement, in order to some Subsistence of his Family, in Case he die among them.] This no doubt, will be moderate enough: But such as they may think will suffice a Divine of that Order, which Erasmus has described in his Preface to his New Testament. Is mihi THEOLOGUS est, qui non Syllogismis Arte contortis, sed Affectu, sed ipso Vultu atque Oculis, sed ipsa Vita doceat, aspernandas esse opes Christiano, non esse fidendum hujus Mundi Praesidiis, sed totum oportere pendere de Caelo.

§. 4. Now they proceed unto a Salary, to be offered unto the Minister, whom they have chosen. [To which there is usually added somewhat also, which they call, A Settlement, in order to some Subsistence of his Family, in Case he dy among them.] This no doubt, will be moderate enough: But such as they may think will suffice a Divine of that Order, which Erasmus has described in his Preface to his New Testament. Is mihi THEOLOGUS est, qui non Syllogismis Arte contortis, sed Affectu, sed ipso Vultu atque Oculis, sed ipsa Vita doceat, aspernandas esse opes Christiano, non esse fidendum hujus Mundi Praesidiis, sed totum oportere pendere de Caelo.