A53704:411
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.
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.
being hidden from them by those who should instruct them in it. And might they be admitted, under the conduct of pious and prudent Officers, unto any part of the practice of this Duty, in their Assemblies, their understanding in it would quickly be increased.
being hidden from them by those who should instruct them in it. And might they be admitted, under the conduct of pious and prudent Officers, unto any part of the practice of this Duty, in their Assemblies, their understanding in it would quickly be encreased.
That Right, Power, or Authority, which we thus assign unto all particular Churches gathered according unto the mind of Christ, is that, and that only, which is necessary to their own preservation, in their state and purity, and unto the discharge of all those Duties which Christ requireth of the Church.
Now although they may not justly by any be deprived hereof, yet it may be enquired, whether there may not an Addition of Ecclesiastical power be made unto that which is of Original Institution, for the good of the whole number of Churches that are of the same Communion. And this may be done, either by the Power and Authority of the Supreme Magistrate, with respect unto all the Churches in his Dominion; or it may be so, by the Churches themselves, erecting a new power in a combination of some, many, or all of them, which they had not in them singly and distinctly before.