A53704:358
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.
Some few things we may observe from the Testimonies insisted on. As,
1. There is in them a true and full representation of the State, Order, Rule, and Discipline of the Churches in the first Ages. It is a sufficient demonstration that all those things wherein at the present the State and Order of the Church are supposed to consist, are indeed later Inventions; not merely because they are not mentioned by them, but because they are not so, when they avowedly profess to give an account of that State and Order of the Church which was then in use and practice. Had there been then among Christians Metropolitan Archbishops, or Bishops Diocesan, Churches National or Provincial, an enclosure of Church-power, or Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction in and for the whole rule of the Church, unto Bishops and Officers utterly foreign unto any pretence of Apostolical Institution or countenance; had many Churches, or many hundreds of Churches, been without Rule in or among themselves, subject to the rule of any one man, standing in no especial relation unto any of them, with other things of the like nature, been then invented, known, and in use, how could they possibly be excused in passing them over without the least taking notice of them, or giving them the honour of being once mentioned by them? How easy had it been for their Pagan Rulers, unto whom they presented their accounts (some of them) of the state of their Churches, to have replied, that they knew well enough there were other Dignities, Orders, and practises, than what they did acknowledge, which they were either afraid or ashamed to own? But besides this silence, on the other hand, they assert such things of the Officers appointed in the Church, of the way of their appointment, of ⟨p. 114⟩the Duty of Officers in the Church, of the Power and Liberty of the people, of the nature and exercise of Discipline, as are utterly inconsistent with that state of these things which is by some pleaded for. Yea, as we have showed, whatever they write or speak about Churches, or their Order, can have no Being or Exercise in any other form of Churches, but of particular Congregations.