A53704:229
An enquiry into the original, nature, institution, power, order and communion of evangelical churches.…
An enquiry into the original, nature, institution, power, order and communion of evangelical churches. The first part with an answer to the discourse of the unreasonableness of separation written by Dr. Edward Stillingfleet, Dean of Pauls, and in defence of the vindication of non-conformists from the guilt of schism / by John Owen.An enquiry into the original, nature, institution, power, order and communion of evangelical churches. The first part with an answer to the discourse of the unreasonableness of separation written by Dr. Edward Stillingfleet, Dean of Pauls, and in defence of the vindication of non-conformists from the guilt of schisme / by John Owen.
London: printed by J. Richardson for Nath. Ponder, 1681
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Chapter 3: The Continuation of a Church-State and of Churches unto the end of the world; what are…
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.
The Reasons and Causes appointing and securing this Continuation, are of various sorts, the principal whereof, are these that follow.
1. The supreme Cause hereof, is the Father's Grant of a perpetual Kingdom in this World unto Jesus Christ, the Mediator and Head of the Church. Psal. 72.5, 7, 15, 16, 17. Isa 9.7. Zech. 6.13. This Grant of the Father, our Lord Jesus Christ pleaded as his Warranty for the Foundation and Continuation of the Church. Mat. 28 17, 18, 19, 20. This Everlasting Kingdom of Jesus Christ, given him by the irrevocable Grant of the Father, may be considered three ways. (1) As unto the real Subjects of it, true Believers, which are the Object of the Internal, Spiritual Power, and Rule of Christ. Of these it is necessary, by virtue of this Grant and Divine Constitution of the Kingdom of Christ, that in every Age there should be some in the World, and those perhaps no small multitude, but such as the Internal Rule ⟨p. 44⟩over them, may be Rightly and Honourably termed a Kingdom. For as that which formally makes them such Subjects of Christs, gives them no outward Appearance or Visibility, so if in a time of the universal prevalency of Idolatry, there were Seven thousand of these in the small Kingdom of Israel, undiscerned and invisible unto the most Eagle-eyed Prophet who lived in their days; what number may we justly suppose to have been within the limits of Christs Dominions, which is the whole World, in the worst, darkest, most profligate and idolatrous times, that have passed over the Earth, since the first Erection of this Kingdom. This therefore is a fundamental Article of our Faith, that by virtue of this Grant of the Father, Christ ever had, hath, and will have in all Ages, some, yea a Multitude, that are the True, Real, Spiritual Subjects of his Kingdom. Neither the Power of Satan, nor the Rage or fury of the World, nor the Accursed Apostasy of many, or of all visible Churches, from the purity and Holiness of his Laws can hinder, but that the Church of Christ in this sense, must have a perpetual continuation in this World.