A53704:459
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 9: The Continuation of a Church-state, and of the Administration of Evangelical Ordinances…
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.
And hereon it follows, that if it be not in the power of men, to appoint any thing that shall be a means of communication between God and his People, as unto the Grace of the Covenant, on the one hand, or the Duties of Obedience which it requires, on the other; they have no Power to erect any new Church state, or enact any thing in Divine Worship, not of his Institution. This being the state of Churches and their Ordinances, they cannot be altered, they cannot be liable unto any decay, unless the Covenant whereunto they are annexed, be altered or decayed. And therefore the Apostle to put finally and absolutely his Argument unto an issue, to prove that the Mosaical Church-State and Ordinances were changed, because useless and ineffectual, doth it on this ground, that the Covenant whereunto they were annexed, was changed and become useless. This I suppose at present will not be said concerning the New Covenant, whereunto all Ordinances of Divine Worship are inseparably annexed.
Men might at a cheaper rate, as unto the eternal interest of their own Souls, provide another Covering for their sloth, negligence, unbelief, and indulgence unto proud foolish imaginations, whereby they render the Churches and Ordinances of the Gospel useless and ineffectual unto themselves; thereby charging them with a decay and uselessness, and so reflecting on the honour and faithfulness of Christ himself.
Men might at a cheaper rate, as unto the eternal interest of their own Souls, provide another Covering for their sloth, negligence, unbelief, and indulgence unto proud foolish imaginations, whereby they render the Churches and Ordinances of the Gospel useless and ineffectual unto themselves; thereby charging them with a decay and uselesness, and so reflecting on the honour and faithfulness of Christ himself.