The true copy of a letter: written by Mr. Thomas Parker, a learned and godly minister, in New-England, unto a member of the assembly of divines now at Westminster. Declaring his judgement touching the government practised in the churches of New-England. Imprimatur. Ja. Cranford. Parker, Thomas, 1595-1677. This text is an enriched version of the TCP digital transcription A91435 of text xxx in the English Short Title Catalog (Thomason E33_22). Textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. The text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with MorphAdorner. The annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). Textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. This text has not been fully proofread Approx. 3 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 4 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. EarlyPrint Project Evanston,IL, Notre Dame, IN, St. Louis, MO 2018 A91435 Wing P482 Thomason E33_22 ESTC R12427 99859278 99859278 111350 2240868592

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 Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 2, no. A91435) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 111350) Images scanned from microfilm: (Thomason Tracts ; 6:E33[22]) The true copy of a letter: written by Mr. Thomas Parker, a learned and godly minister, in New-England, unto a member of the assembly of divines now at Westminster. Declaring his judgement touching the government practised in the churches of New-England. Imprimatur. Ja. Cranford. Parker, Thomas, 1595-1677. [2], 4 p. Printed by Richard Cotes, for Ralph Smith, and are to bee sold at his shop, at the sign of the Bible in Cornhill, neere the Royall Exchange, London : 1644. Annotation on Thomason copy: the 4 in the imprint date is crossed out;"Feb: 19 1643". Reproduction of the original in the British Library. eng Dissenters, Religious -- New England -- Early works to 1800. Church polity -- Early works to 1800. eebo The true copy of a letter: written by Mr. Thomas Parker, a learned and godly minister, in New-England, unto a member of the assembly of divines now at Parker, Thomas, 1644 6 534 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 A This text has no known defects that were recorded as gap elements at the time of transcription. 2010-08 Assigned for keying and markup 2010-08 Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2010-09 Sampled and proofread 2010-09 Text and markup reviewed and edited 2011-06 Batch review (QC) and XML conversion

THE TRVE COPY OF A LETTER : Written By Mr. Thomas Parker , a learned and godly Minister , in New-England , unto a Member of the Assembly of Divines now at Westminster .

Declaring his judgement touching the Government practised in the Churches of NEW-ENGLAND .

Imprimatur .

Ja. Cranford

feb : 19 LONDON , Printed by Richard Cotes , for Ralph Smith , and are to bee sold at his shop , at the sign of the Bible in Cornhill , neere the Royall Exchange . 1644. 1643

THE COPY OF A LETTER . Loving Brother ,

MY eyes do yet serve mee , though with much difficulty ; and therefore I will spend some part of their last strength in writing a word or two unto you . I desire to mourn with you , for the sore afflictions of the Church , and for those in particular which you have suffered , and my poore Sister , and Mother , with you . I hope the Lord doth beare up your hearts by Faith and Patience , and that you do rejoyce under hope of the glory that shall follow He that shall come will come , according to promise .

I presume you are in the number of those , which are gathered into a Synod now at London ; and therfore I write unto you as being there .

I suppose you are so prepared and qualifyed by these present afflictions , beside all your learning and sufficiency of parts , that God will discover great things by you .

I assure you wee have great need of help in the way of discipline , and wee hope that wee shall receive much light from you . My cousin Noyse and my self , have seen such confusion of necessity depending on the government which hath been practised by us here , that wee have been forced much to search into it within these two or three yeeres .

And although wee hold a fundamentall power of government in the people , in respect of election of Ministers , and of some acts in cases extraordinary , as in the want of Ministers ; yet wee judge , upon mature deliberation , that the ordinary exercise of government must be so in the Presbyters , as not to depend upon the expresse votes and suffrages of the people . There hath been a Convent , or meeting , of the Ministers of these parts , about this question , at Cambridge , in the Bay ; and there wee have proposed our arguments , and answered theirs ; and they proposed theirs , and answered ours : and so the point is left to consideration . Also concerning admission of Members , wee hold , the rule must bee so large , that the weakest Christians may bee received ; and there was , according to appearance , much conjunction in this particular : Pray for us , as wee do for you .

From Newbury in New-England , Decem. 17. 1643. Your Brother , true and faithfull in the Lord , THOMAS PARKER . FINIS .