A53704:324
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.
2. This Epistle is written, as unto the whole Church at Corinth, so in the name of the whole Church of Rome. [Greek or Hebrew]. The Church of God which dwelleth (or sojourneth ⟨p. 91⟩as a stranger) at Rome, in the City of Rome; to the Church of God that dwelleth or sojourneth at Corinth. For although that Church was then in disorder, under no certain Rule, having cast off all their Elders, &c. yet the Church of Rome not only allows it to be a sister-Church, but salutes the Brethren of it in the following words; [Greek or Hebrew]: called and sanctified through the will of God by our Lord Jesus Christ. The Churches of Christ were not so ready in those days to condemn the persons, nor to judge the Church-state and condition of others, on every miscarriage real or supposed, as some have been and are in these latter Ages.
2. This Epistle is written, as unto the whole Church at Corinth, so in the name of the whole Church of Rome. 〈non-Latin alphabet〉. The Church of God which dwelleth (or sojourneth ⟨p. 91⟩as a stranger) at Rome, in the City of Rome; to the Church of God that dwelleth or sojourneth at Corinth. For although that Church was then in disorder, under no certain Rule, having cast off all their Elders, &c. yet the Church of Rome not only allows it to be a sister-Church, but salutes the Brethren of it in the following words; 〈non-Latin alphabet〉: called and sanctified through the will of God by our Lord Jesus Christ. The Churches of Christ were not so ready in those days to condemn the persons, nor to judge the Church-state and condition of others, on every miscarriage real or supposed, as some have been and are in these latter Ages.
2. This Address being from the body of the Church at Rome unto that at Corinth, without the least mention of the Officers of them in particular; it is evident that the Churches themselves, that is, the whole entire Community of them, had Communion with one another, as they were sister-Churches; and that they had themselves the transaction of all Affairs wherein they were concerned; as they had in the days of the Apostles,