A53704:304
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 5: The Sate of the First Churches after the Apostles to the end of the Second Century.
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.
Before I proceed unto the Confirmation of this Assertion by particular Testimonies, I shall premise some things which are needful unto the right understanding of what it is that I intend to prove by them. As
1. All the Churches at first planted by the Apostles, whether in the greatest Cities as Jerusalem, Antioch, Corinth, Rome, &c. or those in the meanest Villages of Judea, Galilee, or Samaria, were, as unto their Church-State, in Order, Power, Privilege, and Duty every way equal, not Superior or Inferior, not ruling over, or subject unto, one another. No Institution of any Inequality between them, no Instance of any Practice Supposing it, no Direction for any compliance with it, no one word of intimation of it, can be produced from the Scripture; nor is it consistent ⟨p. 83⟩with the nature of the Gospel▪ Church-State.
1. All the Churches at first planted by the Apostles, whether in the greatest Cities as Jerusalem, Antioch, Corinth, Rome, &c. or those in the meanest Villages of Judea, Galilee, or Samaria, were, as unto their Church-State, in Order, Power, Priviledge, and Duty every way equal, not Superior or Inferior, not ruling over, or subject unto, one another. No Institution of any Inequality between them, no Instance of any Practice Supposing it, no Direction for any compliance with it, no one word of intimation of it, can be produced from the Scripture; nor is it consistent ⟨p. 83⟩with the nature of the Gospel▪ Church-State.