A53704:86
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.
5. After sundry years, some men, partly silenced and deprived, as unto their Ministry, and partly pursued with other Censures and Penalties began to give place unto severe Thoughts of the Church of England and its Communion, and withdrawing themselves into foreign Parts openly avowed a Separation from it. And if the extremities which many had been put unto for their mere Dissent and Nonconformity unto the Established Rule, which with a good Conscience they could not comply with, were represented, it might, if not excuse, yet alleviate the Evil of that Severity in Separation which they fell into.
5. After sundry years, some men, partly silenced and deprived, as unto their Ministry, and partly pursued with other Censures and Penalties began to give place unto severe Thoughts of the Church of England and its Communion, and withdrawing themselves into forreign Parts openly avowed a Separation from it. And if the extremities which many had been put unto for their meer Dissent and Nonconformity unto the Established Rule, which with a good Conscience they could not comply with, were represented, it might, if not excuse, yet alleviate the Evil of that Severity in Separation which they fell into.
6. But hereon a double Inconvenience, yea, Evil did ensue, whence all the Advantages made use of in this Story, to load the present Cause of the Nonconformists, did arise.
For (1.) Many of those who refused to conform unto the Church in all its Constitutions, yet thought it their Duty to wait quietly for a National Reformation, thinking no other possible, began to oppose and write against them, who utterly Separated from the Church, condemning its Assemblies as Unlawful. And herein, as the manner of men is on such Occasions, they fell into sharp Invectives against them, with severe Censures and Sentences concerning them and their Practice.