A53704:60
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.
Justin Martyr in the Account he gives of the Church, its Order, Rule, Worship, and Discipline in his Days, mentions one singular Person in one Church, whom he calls [Greek or Hebrew], who presided in all the Affairs of the Church, and himself administered all the sacred Ordinances every Lords Day, unto the whole Body of the Church gathered and met, out of the City and the Villages about. This was the Bishop; and if any one desired this Office, he desired a good work, as the Apostle speaks. Whatever Accessions were made unto the Church, these [Greek or Hebrew], which were either the first converted to the Faith, or the first ordained Presbyters, or obtained their Preheminence, non pretio, sed Testimonio, as Tertullian speaks, upon the account of their Eminency in Gifts and Holiness, were yet quickly sensible of their own Dignity and Prelation, and by all means sought the enlargement of it, supposing that it belonged unto the Honour and Order of the Church it self.
Justin Martyr in the Account he gives of the Church, its Order, Rule, Worship, and Discipline in his Days, mentions one singular Person in one Church, whom he calls 〈non-Latin alphabet〉, who presided in all the Affairs of the Church, and himself administred all the sacred Ordinances every Lords Day, unto the whole Body of the Church gathered and met, out of the City and the Villages about. This was the Bishop; and if any one desired this Office, he desired a good work, as the Apostle speaks. Whatever Accessions were made unto the Church, these 〈non-Latin alphabet〉, which were either the first converted to the Faith, or the first ordained Presbyters, or obtained their Preheminence, non pretio, sed Testimonio, as Tertullian speaks, upon the account of their Eminency in Gifts and Holiness, were yet quickly sensible of their own Dignity and Praelation, and by all means sought the enlargement of it, supposing that it belonged unto the Honour and Order of the Church it self.
Under this State of things, the Churches increasing every day in Number and Wealth, growing insensibly more and more (indies magis magisque decrescente disciplina) into a form, and state exceeding the bounds of their Original Institution, and becoming unwieldy as unto the Pursuit of their Ends unto mutual Edification, it is not