“He gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ…”
Eph. 4:11,12
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Subsections
Regulative Principle of Church Government
Views of Church Government
Keys
Church Ministry
Church Offices
Governing of Church
Church Membership
Whether Ladies have the Right to Vote for Church Officers
Extraordinary Acts of Church Government under Necessity
Local Church Membership: Not Necessary to Visible Church or Sacraments
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Order of Contents
Historical
Importance of 1
Power is Wholly Spiritual 2
Government: How Below & Above People
Simony 1
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Articles
1500’s
Calvin, John
15. ‘Of the Power of the Church’ in Institutes of the Christian Religion: 1541 French Edition tr. Elsie A. McKee (1541; Eerdmans, 2009), pp. 628-56
Institutes of the Christian Religion tr. Henry Beveridge (1559; Edinburgh: Calvin Translation Society, 1845), vol. 3, bk. 4
10. ‘Of the Jurisdiction of the church and the Abuses of it, as exemplified in the Papacy’ 226
Bucer, Martin – ch. 12, ‘The Fourth Law: The Restoration of the Ministries of the Church’ in On the Reign of Christ tr. Satre & Pauck in Melanchthon & Bucer in The Library of Christian Classics, vol. 19 (1550; 1557; London: SCM Press LTD, 1969), bk. 2, pp. 283-95
Melanchthon, Philip – 28. ‘Of the Power of the Church, or of the Keys’ in Melanchthon on Christian Doctrine, Loci Communes, 1555 tr. Clyde L. Manschreck (1555; NY: Oxford Univ. Press, 1965), pp. 255-66
Vermigli, Peter Martyr – ch. 13, ‘Of a Magistrate, of the Difference between Civil & Ecclesiastical Power’ in The Common Places… (d. 1562; London: Henrie Denham et al., 1583), pt. 4, pp. 226-45
Musculus, Wolfgang – ‘Of the Power of the Church’ in Common Places of the Christian Religion (1560; London, 1563), ‘Church’, folios 265.b-267.a
Theodore Beza – A Brief & Pithy Sum of the Christian Faith made in Form of a Confession (London, 1565)
ch. 5, 33. To what purpose or end serves the ecclesiastical jurisdiction and which be the parts thereof
ch. 7
12. In the Papistry there is no ecclesiastical government
14. Of the abuse which is committed in the order of Priesthood and in the government of their spiritual jurisdiction
Viret, Pierre – A Christian Instruction… (d. 1571; London: Veale, 1573)
The Summary of the Christian Doctrine, set forth in Form of Dialogue & of Catechism
Of the Ministry of the Church & of the Use of the same
Of the Parts of the Ministry of the Church
The Summary of the Christian Doctrine, set forth in Form of Dialogue & of Catechism
Of the Ministers of the Church & of Magistrates
Zanchi, Girolamo – Confession of the Christian Religion… (1586; Cambridge, 1599), pp. 206-42 & 330-49
Ch. 25, ’Of the Government of the Militant Church & of the Ecclesiastical Ministry’
. On Aphorisms 10-12
. On Clergy Discipline
. Aphorism 12
. Aphorism 21
Finch, Henry – The Sacred Doctrine of Divinity gathered out of the Word of God… (Middelburg: 1589), bk. 3
8. Of Faculties
9. Of Ministries
Finch (d. 1625) was an English lawyer and politician.
Beza, Theodore, Anthony Faius & Students – 76. ‘Of the Power & Authority of the Church’ in Propositions & Principles of Divinity Propounded & Disputed in the University of Geneva by Certain Students of Divinity there, under Mr. Theodore Beza & Mr. Anthony Faius… (Edinburgh: Waldegrave, 1591), pp. 242-51
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1600’s
Bucanus, William – 43. ‘Of the Power & Authority of the Church’ in Institutions of Christian Religion... (London: Snowdon, 1606), pp. 570
Is there any power of the Church?
By what name is it called?
What is the ecclesiastical power?
Whence or from whom is this power?
Does this ecclesiastical authority differ from the civil authority?
Of how many sorts is the ecclesiastical authority or government?
What is the power of ministry?
What is the first part of these keys?
How many keys are there?
Whereon depends this power?
To whom are these keys given?
Which is the other part of ecclesiastical power?
What is the power of the Church concerning doctrine?
Are we simply to hear the voice of the Church, to receive whatsoever it teaches?
Is it in the Church’s power to consign the canon of Scripture?
May not yet the Church be a means to believe that there is a Word written and other things which pertain to salvation?
Whether has the Church authority and full power to interpret the Scriptures?
What power has the Church in traditions or making laws?
Show some examples of those laws which were appointed or those traditions which were to be made by the Church, or these ecclesiastical constitutions delivered by word of mouth
What cautions are to be used and observed in writing those laws and human traditions?
Who can ratify or abolish those laws?
What is a lawful synod?
By whom are synods to be called and appointed?
Are all things which synods decree to be accounted always for true and undoubted?
Is there any authority of the synods?
Does not the apostle command us to obey rulers and governors? Heb. 13:17
By what name were they wont to call the definitions of synods?
Do such constitutions bind the conscience before God?
What is the end of this power?
What effect or use have they?
What things are repugnant to this doctrine?
Ames, William – The Marrow of Theology tr. John D. Eusden (1623; Baker, 1997), bk. 1
ch. 32, ‘The Church Instituted’, pp. 178-82
ch. 37, ‘Ecclesiastical Discipline’, pp. 199-202
Ames (1576-1633) was an English, puritan, congregationalist, minister, philosopher and controversialist. He spent much time in the Netherlands, and is noted for his involvement in the controversy between the reformed and the Arminians. Voet highly commended Ames’s Marrow for learning theology.
Synopsis of a Purer Theology: Latin Text & English Translation Buy (1625; Brill, 2016), vol. 3
48. ‘On Church Discipline’, pp. 372-410
49. ‘On Ecclesiastical Councils or Meetings’, pp. 410-62
Wolleb, Johannes – 26. ‘The External Administration of the Church’ in Abridgment of Christian Divinity (1626) in ed. John Beardslee, Reformed Dogmatics: J. Wollebius, G. Voetius & F. Turretin (Oxford Univ. Press, 1965), bk. 1, pp. 141-50
Wolleb (1589–1629) was a Swiss reformed theologian. He was a student of Amandus Polanus.
Rutherford, Samuel – A Defense of the Government of the Church of Scotland 20 pp. being ch. 20 of his A Peaceable & Temperate Plea for Paul’s Presbytery in Scotland (1642)
Rutherford describes and defends from scripture the church government of the Church of Scotland in his day. It is an excellent, brief, overview and defense of a four office view of church government, the calling and ordination of office bearers, and the Scottish practice of the administration of the Lord’s Supper. It also has helpful articulations of Biblical views of days of fasting, marriage, offering, church censures, private and family worship and spiritual conferencing.
Leigh, Edward – ch. 3. Of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction & Government in A System or Body of Divinity… (London, A.M., 1654), bk. 6, pp. 466-85
Cappell, Louis – ‘On Ecclesiastical Power & Government’, theses 1-10, 11-20 in Syntagma Thesium Theologicarum in Academia Salmuriensi… Pars Prima (Saumur, 1664), pp. 5-7 tr. Michael Lynch
29. ‘Does any spiritual power distinct from the political belong to the church? We affirm.’ 274
30. ‘Is the ecclesiastical power concerned with doctrines, creeds and confessions of faith? We affirm.’ 281
van Mastricht, Peter – ch. 7, ‘Church Government’ in Theoretical Practical Theology (2nd ed. 1698; RHB), vol. 5, pt. 1, bk. 7
Heidegger, Johann H. – 27. ‘On the Government of the Church’ in The Concise Marrow of Theology tr. Casey Carmichael in Classic Reformed Theology, vol. 4 (1697; RHB, 2019), pp. 191-201
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1700’s
à Brakel, Wilhelmus – The Christian’s Reasonable Service, vol. 2 ed. Joel Beeke, trans. Bartel Elshout Buy (1700; RHB, 1992/1999)
ch. 27, ‘The Government of the Church, & Particularly the Commissioning of Ministers’, pp. 107-31
ch. 28, ‘The Offices of Minister, Elder & Deacon’, pp. 131-57
ch. 29, ‘Ecclesiastical Authority & the Use of the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven’, pp. 157-91
a Brakel (1635-1711) was a contemporary of Voet and Witsius and a major representative of the Dutch Further Reformation.
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1800’s
Alexander, Archibald
‘The Faithful Elder’, HTML, no date or source info, 6 paragraphs
‘A Dialogue Between a Presbyterian & a ‘Friend” (1792) 40 pp.
Miller, Samuel – ‘On Ecclesiastical Polity’ (1833), p. 171 ff., 42 pp.
Dabney, Robert – ‘A Speech against the Ecclesiastical Equality of Negro Preachers in our Church and their Right to Rule over White Christians’ (1867) 16 pp.
For the other side of the argument, from a southern white pastor of black slaves, urging their capacity to rule as elders, see John L. Girardeau’s ‘Our Ecclesiastical Relations to Freedmen’ (1867). Girardeau’s position came to prevail and was enacted within a few years.
Girardeau, John – ‘Our Ecclesiastical Relations to Freedmen’ (1867) 18 pp.
Girardeau, a southern white pastor of black slaves, argues that blacks may be elders (governors) in church courts. For an exposition of what Girardeau is arguing against, see Robert Dabney’s ‘A Speech against the Ecclesiastical Equality of Negro Preachers in our Church and their Right to Rule over White Christians’ (1867) 16 pp. Girardeau’s position came to prevail and was enacted in the southern church a few years later.
Hodge, Charles – What is Presbyterianism? An Address, Re-typeset PDF (1855) 80 pp.
Vos, Geerhardus – ch. 2, ‘Organization, Discipline, Offices’ in Reformed Dogmatics tr: Richard Gaffin 1 vol. ed. Buy (1896; Lexham Press, 2020), vol. 5, ‘Ecclesiology, the Means of Grace, Eschatology’, pt. 1, ‘Ecclesiology’, pp. 876-919
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1900’s
Berkhof, Louis – ‘The Power of the Church’ (1950) 21 paragraphs in Systematic Theology
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2000
Isbell, Sherman – ‘The Church in Relation to its Constitution’ (April, 2006) 12 pp. in Master’s Trumpet, vol. 3
Isbell describes the European understanding of a constitution and argues that a church’s constitution is inviolable and cannot be changed.
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Books
1800’s
Cunningham, William – Discussions on Church Principles: Popish, Erastian & Presbyterian Buy (1863) 565 pp.
Many people are aware of Bannerman’s Church of Christ, which positively expounds the doctrine of the Church from scripture. Cunningham’s work is more polemical, against the errors of alternative views. Both are needed. This is his main work on Church writings, a subject too often neglected in our day.
Hodge, Charles – Discussions in Church Polity Buy (1878) 560 pp.
This and his Essays and Reviews are the main source for Hodge’s important and influential writings in church theory and practice, especially in the context of the 1800′s debates between the northern and southern presbyterians. In it you will find him defending the historic reformed view that the Roman Catholic Church is part of the Visible church, that her baptism is valid, and that baptized infants are under the discipline of the church. On the other hand he argues against the historic reformed view of the Establishment Principle for a Voluntary position with regard to Church and State, and for an Americanized three office view of church government. In his day the new issue came up of church boards, which he defends, as opposed to the more rigorously Biblical view of Thornwell against them. Many other interesting points of polity are also discussed.
Miller, Samuel
Letters Concerning the Constitution & Order of the Christian Ministry… with a Prefatory Letter on the Episcopal Controversy (1830) 558 pp. The Letters are systematically laid out in the table of contents starting with the testimony of scripture concerning church government, then the testimony of the history of the church, followed by the rise and progress of prelacy and its practical problems.
Miller became heavily involved in public debates about prelacy (top-down church government by bishops) due to the rise of the influence of Episcopalians in his area. This is must reading for a defense of presbyterianism from scripture and history, and for showing the Biblical and historical errors of episcopalian government.
Letters to Presbyterians, on the Present Crisis in the Presbyterian Church in the United States (1833) 340 pp.
The Primitive & Apostolical Order of the Church of Christ Vindicated (1840) 398 pp.
The Ruling Elder: respecting the Warrant, Nature & Duties of the Office, HTML Buy (1840) 335 pp.
The best American book on the subject preserving the historic reformed view that the Ruling Elder is a distinct office from the Minister and that the Ruling Elder is also a “presbyter” (“elder” in the English) along with the Minister. Thornwell would come along and claim that the Ruling Elder holds the same office as the Minister. Hodge in the North then rightly distinguished the Ruling Elder as a separate office, but excluded the Ruling Elder from the category of “presbyter” (“elder” in English), as do the Episcopalians.
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Latin Articles
1600’s
Voet, Gisbert
Appendix: Of the Parts & Members of the Visible Church, even of Ecclesiastical Ministers, Government, Censures, etc. in Syllabus of Theological Problems (Utrecht, 1643), pt. 1, section 2, tract 4 Abbr.
Ecclesiastical Politics (Amsterdam: Waesberge, 1663)
vol. 1, pt. 1, bk. 1
Prolegomena to Ecclesiastical Polity
Of the Knowledge, or Discipline, which Ecclesiastical Polity Describes [Dicitur]. Of the 1. Nature, 2. Causes, 3. Relations, 4. Division, 5. Study and of the Apparatus to this Study. 1
Tract 1, Of the Instituted Church
1. The Nature of the Instituted Church Explained, with Respect to its Genus, Material, Form, Efficient and Final Causes, Relations, Opposites and Divisions. 11
2. The First Class of Problems, or Questions, about the Genus, Material, Form, Object and Ends of the Instituted Church. 26
3. The Second Class of Questions, about Efficient Causes. 42
4. Questions about the Relations of the Instituted Church. 55
5. Containing the Fourth Class of Questions about Divisions of the Instituted Church, where is treated of the Parochial, Village or Rural, Domestic, Princely, Camp, Nautical, Scholastic and Provincial Church. 71
[?] 6. Of Ecclesiastical Colleges, Cathedrals or Dioceses, Archbishops or Metropolitans, Patriarchs and Ecumenics. 80
Tract 2, Of the Power, Polity & Canons of the Churches
1. The Term ‘Ecclesiastical Power’ is Distinguished. The Proper Power itself, as it is Used in Speech, is Defined. 114
5. Some Particular Questions are Determined about the Subject of Ecclesiastical Power [Who may Hold and Exercise it]: Is it of the Magistrate and other Political Confederations? At Least During a Corrupt or Turbulent State of the Church? [Is it held by] The Pope, Bishops, etc. Courts of them, Cathedrals of the Church, Councils; or of Solely the Ministry, a Court of Them, or an Ecumentical or Catholic Church; or the Populus? 211
6. Of the Object of the Ecclesiastical Power, even Personal and of Things. 235
7. Of the Polity or Government of Churches. 241
8. Of Ecclesiastical Canons, Decrees, Ordinances and Custom. 254
. Custom 261
9. Some Thesis Questions about Ecclesiastical Canons are Explained. 262
10. Contains Chronicles of Some Questions, even General and Particular. 272
11. Contains Questions on Ecclesiastical Decrees and on Custom. 288
12. Ecclesiastical Law or Canon in General and Historical Explained. 295
13. An Explication of the Historical Body of Canon Law. 309
14. Of the Judgment of the Body of Canons, or of the Pontifical Right, and of the Study of Them. 325
15. Some Questions on Canon Law. 332
vol. 4, pt. 3
bk. 3, Of the Government of the Church with Respect to a State of Turbulence, Tract 1, Of the Dispersion and Regathering of the Church
6. Of Reformation in the Government and Discipline of the Church 446
bk. 4, Of Ecclesiastical Discipline, tract 1, Of Ecclesiastical Power
1. Of the Necessity and Use of the Doctrine of Ecclesiastical Power 770
2. Whether there is any Ecclesiastical Power? 778
3. Of the Distinction of Ecclesiastical Power from Political Power, etc. 781
4. Of the Spirituality of the Power and Polity, or of the Ecclesiastical Government 783
5. Of the Mandatory Power and Mandates [Greek] or [Greek] of the Churches 787
6. Of Ecclesiastical Government, or of the Sacredness of the Underpinnings of the Church, being distinct from the Political Government, etc. 792
7. Of the Legislative Power of the Churches 795
8. Of the Jurisdiction or the Judicial Power of the Church 798
9. Of Ecclesiastical Punishment or Correction, and Censure 800
10. Of the Sacredness or Sanctity of Ministers under the New Testament 801
12. Whether the Ecclesiastical Power Imparted by Churches having been Reformed is a Papal Mastery [Imperium]? 805
12. Another Certain Mode is Shaken Off, of Another Method of Sacred Power and Government which Ought to be Refused, and of those Church Magistrates which Ought to be Allotted 806
13. Another Method to the Building of Caesaro-Papism is Examined 817
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Wettstein, Gernler & Buxtorf – 20. External Government of the Church in A Syllabus of Controversies in Religion which come between the Orthodox Churches & whatever other Adversaries, for material for the regular disputations… customarily held in the theological school of the academy at Basil (Basil, 1662), pp. 75-
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Historical
On the Early Church
Calvin, John – Institutes of the Christian Religion tr. Henry Beveridge (1559; Edinburgh: Calvin Translation Society, 1845), vol. 3, bk. 4
4. ‘Of the State of the Primitive Church, and the Mode of Government in use before the Papacy’ 73
5. ‘The Ancient Form of Government utterly corrupted by the tyranny of the Papacy’ 89
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On the Importance of Church Government
Around Westminster
Quote
Kirsteen M. MacKenzie, The Solemn League & Covenant of the Three Kingdoms & the Cromwellian Union, 1643-1663 (Routledge, 2018), ch. 1
p. 45
“In August 1645, the Independents withdrew from the Assembly, and English members who were well disposed towards Presbyterian Church government accepted Scottish advice to continue to set up Presbyteries and synods, despite the lack of support from the [civil] Houses of Parliament. By December 1645… the drafting of the Confession was delayed due to days of thanksgivings and debates over church government…
Indeed, Baillie commented that without a system of church government, the catechism would be of little use.”
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p. 46
“London Presbyterians took a positive approach [in 1645], arguing for the existence of a well-ordered, structured and inclusive national church as outlined in Jus Divinum Regiminis Regiminis Ecclesiastici, or the Divine Right of Church Government.
This weighty book argued that toleration was but human decree and not divinely sanctioned. No one can claim exemption from divinely appointed church government, as it applies to everyone. Therefore, from this perspective, separate, self-governing congregations [such as the Independents advocated for] look elitist. A national church must have an orderly and fully accountable structure; otherwise, confusion and chaos will reign.”
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The Power of Church Government is Wholly Spiritual
Article
1600’s
Davenant, John – ‘The Power of the Priesthood is Wholly Spiritual’ in The Determinations, or Resolutions of Certain Theological Questions, Publicly Discussed in the University of Cambridge trans. Josiah Allport (1634; 1846), pp. 294-301 bound at the end of John Davenant, A Treatise on Justification, or the Disputatio de Justitia... trans. Josiah Allport (1631; London, 1846), vol. 2 Davenant’s chief antagonist is Romanism.
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Book
1300’s
Dante – The De Monarchia of Dante Alighieri trans. Aurelia Henry (Boston, 1904)
Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), who eulogized Pope Boniface VIII as being cast into the 8th circle of Hell, also wrote a treatise against papal usurpation of civil power. This is on the long list of banned books by the Papal church.
Dante defended the reign of a single monarch ruling over a universal empire. He believed that peace was only achievable when a single monarch replaced divisive and squabbling princes and kings. However, he also believed in a separation of powers in that the Emperor has jurisdiction over temporal matters, whilst the Pope administered over things spiritual.
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How Church Governors are Above & Below the People in Various Respects in Worth, Function & Authority
As Church government is founded significantly upon natural law, common to society, so also see the very relevant and enlightening materials in ‘The Relations of the People to their Civil Government’.
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Quote
1600’s
Samuel Rutherford
A Peaceable & Temperate Plea for Paul’s Presbytery in Scotland... (London, 1642), ch. 3, pp. 33-35
3. The Church of believers in eminence and primacy of Christian dignity is above the Church ministerial as ministerial: 1. in dignity. 2. stability. 3. causality.
In dignity 1. Because the Church of believers is the redeemed and conquested purchase of our Lord Jesus, but all the office-bearers, or the ministerial Churches of pastors and elders on earth, are not his redeemed ones, in so far as they are no more but officers and mini∣sters Page 34 of the house, except they be believers, and so they fall in to the redeemed Church which is a better world, than to be naked pulpit-men.
2. In stability, because the advocation of Christ that the gates of hell shall not prevail against the Church of believers, and the promises of the Covenant for perseverance stands good for them: But no such promises of stability are made to naked Church guides; but if they guide well, they fare the better; only common gifts are promised to them which cannot take them to heaven.
3. In causality, the Church of believers are superior, and above the Church of Church-guides, because rulers and officers are servants and means employed by Christ for the Church of believers, as for the end, office-bearers are for believers, as the means for the end, but believers are not for office-bearers. Medicine is for our health, and meat for our life, and the end is the cause, and so excellenter than the means.
Because of these three respects, and of the necessity of consent of believers in all acts of government, Christ’s kingdom being a willing people, the fathers, Tertullian, Origen, Cyprian, Chrysostom, Augustine, Epiphanius, Jerome, Cyril, Hilary, and our late divines, Junius, Chemnitius, Martyr, Calvin, Beza, Willet, Fulke, Bucer, and our brethren Baynes and Ames, do ascribe a superiority, and so an authority to believers, as to the fountain and cause of jurisdiction above ministers, and give the exercise of juris∣diction only to officers, not because officers have not the power, as well as the exercise, but because the being and operation of officers is all for the Church. Gerson also in this subjects the Pope (and we every pastor, suppone he were a double lord prelate) to the Church, that is, to the council or assembly of the Church, and that in a fourfold respect:
1. Ratione indeviabilitatis, because the ports of hell shall not prevail against the Church, but the Pope or the pastor is a man; [he] may nod and totter.
2. Ratione regulabilitatis; because the Church in a synod may regulate and line the Pope or pastor when he crooks, because he is not essentially a right line.
3. Ratione multiplicitatis, because the Church contains in it the the Pope’s or pastor’s power, but the pastor contains not in his bosom the Church’s power.
4. Ratione obligabilitatis, because the Church may appoint laws to oblige both Pope and pastor, but the Pope or pastor cannot oblige the Church.
Now as the Church of believers is above the Church guides in Christian dignity and excellency of grace: forasmuch as the saving grace of faith is more excellent than the common graces of the power of the keys, yet in another respect the Church guides are a Church ministerial in authority and jurisdiction above the believers. Therefore Junius says, the pastor and the flock are in diverse relations above and inferior to one another.
Hence, 1. Every one of these two Churches are first and highest each in their own kind: the Church of believers is the highest and most supreme Church (I speak of a Christian supremacy and dignity) in the one kind. Also a ministerial Church is the highest and most supreme Church in its kind, to wit, in a ministerial authority.
But that which we prove [in the rest of the chapter] is that we see not in God’s Word a Church of sole believers that is a governing and ministerial Church having the keys and power and exercise of jurisdiction over the eldership and Church-guides, whatever our [congregationalist] brethren say on the contrary.”
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On Simony
Latin Articles
Voet, Gisbert – Select Theological Disputations (1667), vol. 4
33. ‘On Simony’, pt. 1 515
34. pt. 2 523
35. pt. 3 533
36. pt. 4 540-55
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Related Pages