Selected quad for the lemma: act_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
act_n	apostle_n	church_n	elder_n	5,779	5	10.2377	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50170	The triumphs of the reformed religion in America the life of the renowned John Eliot, a person justly famous in the church of God, not only as an eminent Christian and an excellant minister among the English, but also as a memorable evangelist amoung the Indians of New-England : with some account concerning the late and strange success of the Gospel in those parts of the world which for many ages have lain buried in pagan ignorance / written by Cotton Mather.	Mather, Cotton, 1663-1728.; Mather, Increase, 1639-1723. De successu Evangelii apud Indos in Nova-Anglia epistola. English.	1691 (1691)	Wing M1163; ESTC W479490	74,580	162

to this Exercise and by the upholding of it the Churches are still filled with Noble Vines it mightily maintains purity of Churches 'T is the duty of every Christian With the mouth Confession is made unto Salvation As among the Jews usually most men did once in their life celebrate a Jubilee thus this Confession of Christ is methinks a sort of Jubilee and every good man among us is at least once in his life call'd unto it It is a thing that gives great glory to the Lord Jesus Christ and younger Converts are thereby exceedingly Ed●fy'd and the Souls of Devout Christians are hereby very much ingratiated one unto another The Devil knows what he does when he thrusts so hard to get this Custom out of our Churches For my part I would say in this case Get thee behind me Satan thou givest an horrible offence unto the Lord Jesus Christ Let us keep up this Ordinance with all gentleness and where we see the least spark of Grace held forth let us prize it more than all the Wit in the world There were especially two things which he was loth to see and yet fear'd he saw falling in the Churches of New-England One was 〈◊〉 thorough Establishment of Ruling-Elders in our Churches which he thought sufficiently warranted by the Apostles mention of Elders that Rule well who yet labour not in Word and Doctrine He was very desirous to have prudent and gracious men set over our Churches for the Assistence of their Pastors in the Church acts that concern the Admission and Excl● s●n of Members and the Inspection of the Conversation led by the Communicants and the Instruction of their several Families and the Visitation of the Afflicted in the Flock over which they should preside Such Helps in Government had he himself been blessed withal the last of which was the well-deserving Elder Bowles and of him did this good man in a Speech to a Synod of all the Churches in this Colony take occasion to say There is my Brother Bowles the godly Elder of our Church at Roxbury God helps him to do great things among us Had all our Pastors been so well accommodated it is possible there would be more encouragement given to such an Office as that of Ruling Elders But the mention of a Synod brings to mind another thing which he was Concerned that we might never want and that is a frequent Repetition of Needful Synods in our Churches For tho' he had a deep and a due care to preserve the Rights of particular Churches yet he thought all the Churches of the Lord Jesus by their Vnion in what they profess in what they intend and in what they enioy so compacted into one Body Mystical as that all the several particular Churches every where should act with a regard unto the good of the whole and unto the common Advice and Counsil of the Neighbourhood which cannot be done always by Letters missive like those that passed between Corinth and Rome in the early dayes of Christianity but it requires a Convention of the Churches in Synods by their Delegates and Messengers He did not count Churches to be so Independent as that they can always discharge their whole Duty and yet not act in a conjunction with Neighbour-Churches nor would he be of any Church that will not acknowledge it self accountable to rightly composed Synods which may have occasion to enquire into the circumstances of it he saw the main Interest and Business of Churches might quickly come to be utterly lost if Synods were not often called for the Repairing of Inconveniences and he was much in contriving for the regular and repeated meeting of such Assemblies He wish'd for Councils to suppress all damnable Heresies or pernicious Opinions that might ever arise among us for Councils to extinguish all dangerous Divisions scandalous Contentions which might ever begin to flame in our Borders for Councils to rectify all Male-Administrations in the midst of us or to Recover any particular Churches out of any Disorders which they may be plung'd into for Councils to enquire into the Love the Peace the Holiness ma●ntained by the several Churches in fine for Councils to send forth fit Labourers into those parts of our Lords Harvest which are without the Gospel of God He beheld an Apostolical Precept and Pattern for such Councils and when such Councils convened in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ by the consent of several Churches concerned in mutual Communion have Declared Explained Recommended the mind of God from his word unto us he reckoned a truth so delivered challenged an Observation from the particular Churches with a very great Authority He therefore Printed an ingenious little Book wearing this Title The Divine Management of Gospel-Churches by the Ordinance of Councils constituted in order according to the Scriptures which may be a means of uniting those two holy and eminent Parties the Presbyterians the Congregational It is a remarkable Concession made by the Incomparable Jurieu who is not reckoned a Congregational man in his Traite de L'Vnite de L'Eglise That the Apostolical Churches lived not in any Confederation for mutual Dependence The grand Equipage of Metropolitans of Primates of Exarchs of Patriarks was yet unknown nor does it any more appear to us that the Churches then had their Provincial National and Oecumenical Synods every Church was its own Mistress and independent on any other But on the other side our Eliot who was no Presbyterian conceived Synods to be the Institutions of our Lord Jesus Christ the Apostolical Churches themselves acknowledging a Stamp of Divine Right upon them Such as these were the sentiments of our Eliot his deserved Reputation in the Churches of New-England is that which has caused me to foresee some Advantage and Benefit arising unto the concerns of the Gospel by so large a Recitation as I have now made thereof The Reader has now seen An able Minister of the New-Testament Part III. Or Eliot as an Evangelist THe Titles of a Christian and of a Minister have rendred our Eliot considerable but there is one memorable Title more by which he has been signalized unto us An honourable person did once in Print put the Name of an Evangelist upon him whereupon in a Letter of his to that person afterwards Printed his Expressions were There is a Redundancy where you put the Title of Evangelist upon me I beseech you to suppress all such thing● let us do and speak and carry all things with Humility it is the Lord who hath done what is done and it is most becoming the Spirit of Jesus Christ to lift up him and say ourselves low I wish that word could be obliterated My Reader sees what a caution Mr. Eliot long-since entred against our giving him the Title of an Evangelist but his Death has now made it safe as his Life had long made it just for us to acknowledge him with such a Title I know not whether that of an