INTRODUCTORY. What is the Church? "The invisible Church is the whole number of the elect, that have been, are, or shall be gathered into one under Christ the Head." "The visible Church is a society made up of all such as in all ages and places of the world do profess the true religion, and of their children.” * What is the present condition of the visible Church? It is composed of various denominations, or churches, which, while holding to Christ the Head, and receiving the Scriptures as the inspired revelation of his truth and will, are distinguished from each other by their creeds, forms of worship and polities. What are the principal kinds of church government? 1. THE PAPAL. Its characteristics are, "a vicar of Christ, a perpetual college of Apostles, and the people subject to their infallible control." 2. THE PRELATICAL, which teaches "the perpetuity of the apostleship as the governing power in the Church, which therefore consists of those who profess the true. religion and are subject to apostle-bishops." Its Low Church form asserts that "there was originally a threefold order in the ministry, and that there should be now. * Larger Catechism, Qq. 62 and 64. But it does not affirm that mode of organization to be essential." 3. THE INDEPENDENT, which holds that "the governing and executive power in the Church is in the brotherhood," and "that the church organization is complete in each worshiping assembly, which is independent of every other."* 4. THE CONGREGATIONAL, which maintains that “all ecclesiastical power resides in the church, or the associated body of the brethren," and that the churches, which "live in close fraternal union, are associated together in bodies, and often ask and receive advice and help from each other; but all this is the result of mutual confidence and affection, not of any superior power." The independence of the churches is claimed in the right of each to choose its own officers, determine its creed, judge its members and formulate its worship. The community of the churches is expressed in Councils, called in emergencies, and which have only advisory power.† THE PRESBYTERIAN, which holds that "the people have a right to a substantial part in the government of the Church," by representatives generally called Ruling Elders; that "the Presbyters who minister in word and doctrine are the highest permanent officers of the Church, and all belong to the same order;" and that "the outward and visible Church is, or should be, one, in the sense that a smaller part is subject to a larger, and a larger to the whole," as in courts of appeal. What portions of the Reformed Church are Presbyterian? *What is Presbyterianism, pp. 5, 6. Switzerland, Scotland, Ireland and portions of the dissenting churches of England, and those in this country and Canada planted by them.* This list is very imperfect, as may be seen in the list of churches in the Presbyterian Alliance. To it should be added the Presbyterian Church of Wales, Mission Church of Belgium, Waldensian Church of Italy, Reformed Church of East Friesland, Evangelical Church of Spain, the Reformed churches of Bohemia and Moravia, in the Netherlands, in Russia, the Free Italian Church, Reformed Dutch Church in Cape Colony, in Orange Free State, in Natal, in South Africa, in Australia, in New Zealand, in Otago, in Ceylon and in New Hebrides. To this list should be added also the various mission churches established in heathen lands. Did Presbyterianism originate with the Reformers ? The three great principles of Presbyterianism-viz. government by Elders, the parity of the ministry and courts of appeals-have always been recognized in the Church of God. (See Ex. 3:16; 18: 25, 26; Num. 11:16.) For the ceremonial services (which were typical and temporary) there were Priests of various orders. But the teaching Elders, or Scribes, or Doctors of the law, were of the same order. The Apostles, who were extraordinary and temporary officers, ordained Elders in every church, and in their Epistles distinguished between those who "rule well" and those who "labor in word and doctrine" (Acts 15: 25; 1 Tim. 5:17). The. most ancient churches still extant, or of whose government we have information, were Presbyterian; as the * Miller on Presbyterianism, p. 20. Report of Second General Council of the Presbyterian Alliance, pp 5, 9. + See p. 42. Waldensian and Bohemian churches, the Syrian in the far East, the ancient British churches, and the Culdee Church in Iona, Scotland, which land had received Christianity, according to Tertullian and Baronius, before the death of John. These churches claim to have received their form of government from the Apostles' teaching and practice. Calvin and the other Reformers derived their principles of ecclesiastical polity and discipline from the Scriptures, and from the practice of these ancient churches.* What is the earliest record of a Presbytery in England? In 1572 a Presbytery was formed at Wandsworth, near London. Travers in 1574 printed a Form of Government called "The Discipline of the Church as described in the Word of God." This was republished in 1644, and subscribed by about five hundred clergymen.† What book of polity was adopted by the Church of Scotland at the Reformation ? "Previous to the legal establishment of the Protestant religion in 1560, the Book of Common Order,' used by the English church at Geneva, was generally followed as the rule of worship and discipline by the Scotch Reformers; but that being found inadequate to the regulation of a Church consisting of numerous congregations, a 'Book of Discipline' adapted to the state of the Church was soon after that event urged upon Parliament," but it dissolved without action. The same year a "Book of Policy," or "First Book of Discipline," was approved by the Gen * Name, Nature and Function of Ruling Elder, p. 78; The Culdee Church, pp. 33-51 and 65-72; Miller on Presbyterianism, pp. 9-22; Primitive Church Offices, pp. 1-67. + Constitutional History of the Presbyterian Church, by Charles Hodge, p. 23. eral Assembly. This, while sanctioned by the Church, was never formally approved by the civil authorities. "The Second Book of Discipline" was adopted by the General Assembly in 1578; and according to it the church government was established in 1592.* When did the Westminster Assembly of Divines meet? By the direction of Parliament this convocation of Ministers and laymen met at Westminster, England, July 1, 1643, and continued in session until February 22, 1649. Great dissatisfaction had prevailed in England and Scotland, caused by the efforts of Charles I. to force upon the Scottish churches the liturgy of the Church of England, and this Assembly was called "to be consulted with by Parliament for settling of the government and the liturgy of the Church of England, and for the vindication of the doctrine of the said Church from false aspersions and interpretations." In October of the same year Parliament ordered the members to "confer and treat among themselves of such discipline and government as may be most agreeable to God's holy word, etc., to be settled in this Church, in stead and place of the present church government by Archbishops, Bishops, etc., which is resolved to be taken away, and touching and concerning the directory of worship, or liturgy, hereafter to be in the Church." The Assembly had not power to enact anything or to exercise any ecclesiastical authority, but was to confer with Parliament on these subjects. Of those appointed members of the Assembly, twenty were Ministers of the Church of England; many of these were prevented from taking their seats by a proclamation from the king forbidding the meeting of the Assembly. At the open *The Church of God, by Stuart Robinson, Appendix, pp. iv., xvii. |