A53704:333
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.
6. I shall add no more from this excellent Epistle, but only the account given in it, of the first constitution of Officers in the Churches. [Greek or Hebrew]. Our Apostles therefore, knowing by our Lord Jesus Christ, that there would contention arise about the name of ⟨p. 98⟩Episcopacy, (that is, Episcopacy itself;) For this cause being endued with a perfect foresight of things, they appointed those fore-mentioned (their first Converts, unto the Office of the Ministry) for the future describing or giving order about the course of the Ministry, that other approved men might succeed them in their Ministry. These (Elders) therefore who were so appointed by them, and afterwards by other famous men, with the consent of the whole Church, &c.
6. I shall add no more from this excellent Epistle, but only the account given in it, of the first constitution of Officers in the Churches. 〈non-Latin alphabet〉. Our Apostles therefore, knowing by our Lord Jesus Christ, that there would contention arise about the name of ⟨p. 98⟩Episcopacy, (that is, Episcopacy itself;) For this cause being indued with a perfect foresight of things, they appointed those fore-mentioned (their first Converts, unto the Office of the Ministry) for the future describing or giving order about the course of the Ministry, that other approved men might succeed them in their Ministry. These (Elders) therefore who were so appointed by them, and afterwards by other famous men, with the consent of the whole Church, &c.
Sundry things we may observe in this Discourse. (1.) The Apostles foresaw there would be strife and contention about the name of Episcopacy; that is, the Office itself, and those who should possess it. This Episcopacy was that Office which the deposed Elders had well discharged in the Church of Corinth. This they might foresee from the nature of the thing itself, the inclination of men unto preeminence, and the instance they had seen in their own days, in such as Diotrephes, with the former Divisions that had been in this very Church about their Teachers,