“Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife…”

Rev. 21:9

“…even as Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself for it; That He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.”

Eph. 5:25-27

“Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King.  God is known in her palaces for a refuge…  Walk about Zion, and go round about her: tell the towers thereof.  Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces; that ye may tell it to the generation following.”

Ps. 48:2-3, 12-13

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Subsections

Church Membership
Church-State Relations
Ladies in Church
Apostolic Succession
Works Against Bellarmine: Church
Visible Church: Outwardly in Covenant of Grace
“No Salvation Outside of the Church”

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Order of Contents

Articles  8+
Books  6
Quotes  6

Head of Church  2
Invisible Church  3
Visible Church
.      Apostles’ Creed: Visible Christian
National Church
catholic Church
Marks of  6+
3 Kinds of Church Communion  1
True & False Churches  6+
Church Only has Power unto Edification  1
Latin  3

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Articles

See also ‘Commentaries on the Apostles’ Creed’ on ‘I believe in the holy catholic church’.

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Anthology of

Heppe, Heinrich – ch. 27, ‘The Church’  in Reformed Dogmatics  ed. Ernst Bizer, tr. G.T. Thomson  (1861; Wipf & Stock, 2007), pp. 657-95

Heppe (1820–1879) was a German reformed theologian.

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1500’s

Zwingli, Ulrich – Commentary on True & False Religion  eds. Jackson & Heller  (1525; Labyrinth Press, 1981)

‘The Church, I’  176-366
‘The Church, II (Reply Emser)’  366-88

Bullinger, Henry – 2^nd Sermon, ‘That there is One catholic Church; that without the Church there is no light or salvation; against schismatics; wherefore we depart from the upstart Church of Rome; that the Church of God is the house, vineyard and Kingdom of God; and the body, sheepfold and spouse of Christ; a mother and a virgin’  in The Decades  ed. Thomas Harding  (Cambridge: Parker Society, 1850), vol. 4, 5^th Decade, pp. 49-92

Melanchthon, Philip – Melanchthon on Christian Doctrine, Loci Communes, 1555  tr. Clyde L. Manschreck  (1555; NY: Oxford Univ. Press, 1965)

ch. 29. ‘Of the Church’  266-74
ch. 30. ‘Of the Kingdom of Christ’  274-80

Calvin, John – Institutes of the Christian Religion  tr. Henry Beveridge  (1559; Edinburgh: Calvin Translation Society, 1845), vol. 3, bk. 4

1. ‘Of the True Church.  Duty of cultivating Unity with her, as the mother of all the godly’  7
2. ‘Comparison between the False Church and the True’  41

Bullinger, Henry – 2. ‘Of the Holy Christian Church & of the Church of Rome’  in Questions of Religion Cast Abroad in Helvetia [Switzerland] by the Adversaries of the Same, & Answered…  tr. John Coxe  (1560; London, 1572), pp. 1-30

Musculus, Wolfgang – Common Places of the Christian Religion  (1560; London, 1563)

‘Church’  253.b

What the Church is  254.a
How many sorts of churches there be  255.a
What is the true Church of Christ  256.a
Of the catholic Church  258.a
That the prelates of the Church of Rome be not the true Church  258.b
Of the knowledge of the true Church  259.a
What is the head of the Church  260.a
Of the unity of the Church  262.a
That the unity of the Church does not consist in ceremonies  264.a
Of the faith of the catholic Church  264.a
On the Apostles’ Creed  264.b
Of the Power of the Church  265.b
Whether the Church may err  266.a
Whether a Christian man may depart from the Church without blame  277.b

de Brès, Guy – ‘Of the Assemblies and Congregations of the Faithful’  in The Staff of Christian Faith…  for to Know the Antiquity of our Holy Faith…  gathered out of the Works of the Ancient Doctors of the Church…  (d. 1567; London, 1577), pp. 340-46

de Bres (1522-1567) was a Walloon pastor, Protestant reformer and theologian, a student of Calvin and Beza in Geneva.

Zanchi, Girolamo – Confession of the Christian Religion…  (1586; Cambridge, 1599)

ch. 23, ’Of Christ’s Church in General’  174-80
ch. 24, ’Of the Militant Church’  181-205

Vermigli, Peter Martyr – The Common Places…  (d. 1562; London: Henrie Denham et al., 1583), pt. 4

ch. 1, ‘Of the catholic Church’  1

‘Of Sundry Ministers of the Church’  3
‘Of Calling, & Especially unto the Ministry’  9
‘Of the Authority or Contempt of Ministers’  15
‘Of the Office of Pastors’  16
‘Of the Efficacy of the Ministry’  21
‘Of the Mighty Simpleness of the Ministry’  25

Viret, Pierre – A Christian Instruction…  (d. 1571; London: Veale, 1573)

The Sum of the Principal Points of the Christian Faith

49. Of the Church and of the foundation of the same, and of her head  50-51
53. Of the doctrine of the Church, and of man’s traditions, and of those which she does acknowledge for true or false ministers  54

The Summary of the Christian Doctrine, set forth in Form of Dialogue & of Catechism

Of the Church
Of the things which we ought to believe of the Church
Of the benefits of Jesus Christ towards his Church
Of the possession of the benefits of Jesus Christ in the Church during this life

A Familiar Exposition of the Principal Points of the Catechism, and of the Christian Doctrine, made in Form of Dialogue

13^th Dialogue: Of the Church & of the Ministry of the Same

Of the Sanctifying of the Church, and of the members of the same

Of the Ministry of the Church, and of the gifts necessary to the same

How that the Gift of preaching is at all times necessary in the Church, and of the ordinary ministry of the same

How that the Ministry of the Word of God is perpetually necessary to the Church in this world

Of other Gifts of God which are not so necessary for the Church as the gift of preaching

How the Lord takes the ministers of his Church of his very people, and not of a strange people

18^th Dialogue: Of the Presence of Jesus Christ in Heaven, & in the Supper & in his Church

Of the Invisible coming of the body of Jesus Christ

Of the Spiritual coming of Jesus Christ

How that the Corporal presence of Jesus Christ in the Supper is contrary to the divine virtue that is in him to communicate his gifts and graces to his Church

Of the Spiritual & Divine presence of Jesus Christ in his Church, and of the virtue of the same

Ursinus, Zachary – The Sum of Christian Religion: Delivered…  in his Lectures upon the Catechism…  tr. Henrie Parrie  (Oxford, 1587)

Of the Church

1. What the Church is
2. How many ways the Church is taken
3. What are the tokens or marks of the Church
4. Why the Church is called holy and Catholic
5. In what the Church differs from the commonweal
6. Whence arises the difference of the Church from the rest of mankind
7. Whether anyone may be saved out of the Church

Beza, Theodore, Anthony Faius & Students – 50. ‘Upon the Article, ‘I believe that there is an holy catholic 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. 139-44

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1600’s

Bucanus, William – 41. ‘Of the Church’  in Institutions of Christian Religion...  (London: Snowdon, 1606), pp. 501-30

Whence is the word ecclesia, ‘Church,’ derived?
How many ways is the name of ‘Church’ used in the scriptures?
What is a Church?
How manifold is the Church?
But is not that one only Church divided?
Why is it called the catholic Church?
How is the catholic Church again divided?
But is there any visible Church, seeing we say in the Apostles’ Creed, ‘I believe the Church,’ and faith is of things which are not seen, Heb. 11:2; 2 Cor. 5:7, and Augustine says it is an action of faith to believe what thou seest not,’ for if thou seest it is not faith?
Is there, or has there been always a glorious visible state of God’s Church on earth among all men and all the world over?
The invisible Church does either openly profess the faith, or not profess it at all: If she profess it, then is she not the invisible Church; if she do not, then is she not the true Church because she confesses not the faith?
But where and how was the Church so many ages past in Popery, seeing Popery is not the Church?
May the catholic Church fall away?
When began the Church to fall from the truth?
Where then was the Church?
What are the causes of a Church?
Are not the blessed angels likewise a material part of the true Church?
Has the Church an head?
Has the Church any foundation?
What are the true and inward properties of the Church?
What are the manifest tokens of a visible Church, whereunto we may safely join ourselves?
Whether: 1. antiquity, 2. multitude of followers of some one doctrine, 3. succession in some one company of bishops, chiefly of Rome, 4. miracles, 5. continuance, 6. unity and concord, 7. efficacy of doctrine, 8. holiness of life in the authors and fathers of the religion, 9. the gift of prophesy, 10. temporal felicity, 11. the title of Church apostolical, or that it is one, holy, catholic, apostolic Church, are the notes of a true Church?
Does the Church cease to be a Church by reason of some blemish or fault in doctrine and administration of sacraments?
Is everyone bound to join himself to the assembly of that Church which has those true notes?
Can the Church err from the truth, or fall away therefrom?
May the godly, by reason of some men’s vices and evil manners, sever themselves from the outward congregation of those that profess the doctrine of Christ?
What are the conditions of the Church?
What epithets are attributed to the Church on earth?
Why is it called an holy Church?
What is the final cause of the Church?
What is the effect or office of the Church?
What is the fruit and use of the article of the Church?
What be the contraries to this doctrine?

Ames, William – The Marrow of Theology  tr. John D. Eusden  (1623; Baker, 1997), bk. 1, pp. 171-75

ch. 31, ‘The Church Mystically Considered’, pp. 175-78
ch. 32, ‘The Church Instituted’, pp. 178-82

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. 2

40. ‘On the Church’, pp. 558-88
41. ‘On Christ as Head of the Church & on the Antichrist’, pp. 588-620

Maccovius, John – ch. 16, ‘On the Church’  in Scholastic Discourse: Johannes Maccovius (1588-1644) on Theological & Philosophical Distinctions & Rules  (1644; Apeldoorn: Instituut voor Reformatieonderzoek, 2009), pp. 253-59

Maccovius (1588–1644) was a Polish, reformed theologian.

Leigh, Edward – ch. 1. Of the Church of Christ  in A System or Body of Divinity…  (London, A.M., 1654), bk. 6, pp. 447-54

Rijssen, Leonard – ch. 16, ‘The Church’  in A Complete Summary of Elenctic Theology & of as Much Didactic Theology as is Necessary  trans. J. Wesley White  MTh thesis  (Bern, 1676; GPTS, 2009), pp. 197-222

Rijssen (1636?-1700?) was a prominent Dutch reformed minister and theologian, active in theological controversies.

Turretin, Francis – Institutes of Elenctic Theology, tr. George M. Giger, ed. James Dennison Jr.  (1679–1685; P&R, 1994), vol. 3

18th Topic

1. ‘The necessity of the discussion concerning the church, and whether the knowledge of the church ought to precede the knowledge of doctrine.’  1

2. ‘The word ‘church’–its homonyms and definition.’ 6

3. ‘Besides the elect, are reprobates and infidels (whether secret or open) also true members of the church of Christ?  We deny against the Romanists.’  11

4. ‘Do unbaptized catechumens, the excommunicated and schismatics belong to the church?  We distinguish.’  23

5. ‘In what sense may the church be called one?  27

6. ‘In what sense is the church called catholic?  30

7. ‘Is the true church rightly said to be invisible?  We affirm against the Romanists.’  32

8. ‘Is the true church indefectible, which always was and always ought to be in the world until the consummation of the ages?  We affirm against the Socinians.’  41

9. ‘Ought the church to enjoy perpetual splendor and eminence; or can it be at times so obscured and lessened that no assembly of it appears publicly on earth?  The former we deny; the latter we affirm against the Romanists.’  47

20th Topic

12. ‘What is the difference between the church militant and the church triumphant?’  86

van Mastricht, Peter – ch. 1, ‘The Nature of the Church’  in Theoretical Practical Theology  (2nd ed. 1698; RHB), vol. 5, pt. 1, bk. 7

Heidegger, Johann H. – 26. ‘On the Church’  in The Concise Marrow of Theology  tr. Casey Carmichael  in Classic Reformed Theology, vol. 4  (1697; RHB, 2019), pp. 185-91

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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. 24, ‘Concerning the Church’, pp. 3-55
ch. 25, ‘The Duty to Join the Church & to Remain with Her’, pp. 55-87
ch. 26, ‘The Communion of Believers with Christ & with Each Other’, pp. 87-107
ch. 43, Proposition 2, ‘A Christian must have great love and esteem for the church’, pp. 648-53

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

Hodge, Charles – ‘The Revised Book of Discipline’  (1858)  30 pp.

Cunningham, William

‘The Church’ & ‘The Council at Jerusalem [Acts 15]’  (1863), p. 9 and 43 respectively, 32 pp. and 35 pp. respectively, Chs. 1 & 2 from his Historical Theology, vol. 1.

Church Power: the Power of the Keys  (1863), p. 235, 20 pp.   being ch. 9 from his Discussions on Church Principles

Dabney, Robert – The Changes Proposed in our Book of Discipline  (1859)  48 pp.

Vos, Geerhardus – ch. 1, ‘Essence’  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. 847-76

Girardeau, John

The Discretionary Power of the Church, a Sermon on Matt 28:20, (d. 1898; 1907), extracted from Sermons, ed. Rev. George A. Blackburn.

What is the discretionary power of the church?  It is that she only has the authority given to her by Christ and no more, “she can utter no new doctrine, make no new laws, ordain no new forms of government, and invent no new modes of worship.”

The editor of these sermons says, “This is not the most eloquent, but it is the most valuable and the most timely sermon in this volume. It was preached before the General Assembly, at St. Louis, May 20, 1875.  The author called it a testimony.”

Individual Liberty & Church Authority, a Sermon on Rom. 14:12  (1889) 18 pp.

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1900’s

Berkhof, Louis – Systematic Theology  (1950)

‘Nature of the Church’  31 paragraphs

‘Scriptural Names of the Church and the Doctrine of the Church in History’  13 paragraphs

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Books 

1800’s

Miller, Samuel – Letters to Presbyterians, on the Present Crisis in the Presbyterian Church in the United States  (1833)  340 pp.

Buchanan, James – On the “Tracts for the Times”  (1843)  112 pp.  being seven letters critiquing the Tractarian Movement at Oxford, England

Very relevant today as many people are being attracted to “High Church” Christianity.  Read here why High Church views are unBiblical.

Cunningham, William – Discussions on Church Principles: Popish, Erastian and Presbyterian  Buy  (1863)  565 pp., with a four page preface by James Buchanan & James Bannerman

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 the Church.

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.

Essays & Reviews  (1857)  661 pp.

In this you will find Hodge taking up the interesting subjects of Regeneration, the Atonement, Theories of the Church, that the Roman Church is part of the Visible Church, the Lord’s Supper, Slavery (which he is against) and Emancipation, amongst others.

Binnie, William – The Church  Buy  (1882)  188 pp.

An excellent short work on doctrine of the Church.  If the two volumes of Bannerman are too long for you, this is the next best thing.

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Quotes

John ‘Rabbi’ Duncan

“Jesus is present – present in his church, as He is not in the world.  As eternal God, He filleth immensity with his presence; but as Mediator…  He is peculiarly, mystically, but really with his church.”

“Those who love the Lamb must love the Bride, the Lamb’s wife.  They have no true love to the Lamb who have no true love to the Bride, the Lamb’s wife.”

“To cleave to the Lamb – that’s the heart of the Bride.”

“He loved her!  And why?  I cannot tell: she cannot tell: angels cannot tell: He knows Himself.”

“The pulse of the Christian church beats from its heart in heaven.”

“We forget the best part of the church when we forget the church triumphant [already in Heaven].”

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On the Head of the Church

1500’s

Musculus, Wolfgang – Common Places of the Christian Religion  (1560; London, 1563)

‘What is the head of the Church’  260.a

Beza, Theodore – A Brief & Pithy Sum of the Christian Faith made in Form of a Confession  (London, 1565)

Ch. 5, 5. The church has but one Head, that is to say Jesus Christ, to whom there needs no lieutenant
Ch. 7, 6. The papists spoil Jesus Christ of his office of Head of the Church

Viret, Pierre – A Christian Instruction…  (d. 1571; London: Veale, 1573)

The Sum of the Principal Points of the Christian Faith

49. Of the Church and of the foundation of the same, and of her head  50-51

A Familiar Exposition of the Principal Points of the Catechism

‘Of the True Head of the Church and…’

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1600’s

Bucanus, William – ‘Has the Church an head?’  in 41. ‘Of the Church’  in Institutions of Christian Religion...  (London: Snowdon, 1606), pp. 501-30

Leiden Professors – 41. ‘On Christ as Head of the Church & on the Antichrist’  in Synopsis of a Purer Theology: Latin Text & English Translation  Buy  (1625; Brill, 2016), vol. 2, pp. 588-620

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Belgic Confession

Article 29, ‘The Marks of the True Church’

“The true church can be recognized if it has the following marks: The church engages in the pure preaching of the gospel; it makes use of the pure administration of the sacraments as Christ instituted them; it practices church discipline for correcting faults.  In short, it governs itself according to the pure Word of God, rejecting all things contrary to it and holding Jesus Christ as the only Head.  By these marks one can be assured of recognizing the true church– and no one ought to be separated from it.”

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Latin Articles

Voet, Gisbert – Syllabus of Theological Problems  (Utrecht, 1643), pt. 1, section 2, tract 4, I. Of the Church  Abbr.

2. The Head of the Church, the Roman Pope & The Antichrist

Of Christ the Sole Head of the Church, & of the Roman Pope

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On the Invisible Church

1600’s

Davenant, John – The Determinations, or Resolutions of Certain Theological Questions, Publicly Discussed in the University of Cambridge  trans. Josiah Allport  (1634; 1846)  bound at the end of John Davenant, A Treatise on Justification, or the Disputatio de Justitia...  trans. Josiah Allport  (1631; London, 1846), vol. 2

Question 35, ‘The Invisible Church is Not a Platonic Idea’, pp. 400-404

Question 46, ‘The Holy Catholic Church which We Believe, Consists of the Elect Alone’, pp. 474-79

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On the Visible Church

Article

1600’s

Wolleb, Johannes – 25. ‘The Nature of the Visible 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. 135-41

Wolleb (1589–1629) was a Swiss reformed theologian.  He was a student of Amandus Polanus.

Rutherford, Samuel – Pt. 1, ‘Of the Communion of the Visible Catholic Church’  in ‘Independent Churches do not have the Authority for Greater Excommunication’  (1644; RBO, 2014), pp. 5-31  from The Due Right of Presbyteries  (London, 1644), ch. 10, section 10, pp. 289-323

Apollonius, Wilhelm – Point III, pp. 33-36  in ch. 3, ‘Of an Institute Visible Church’  in A Consideration of Certain Controversies at this Time Agitated in the Kingdom of England concerning the Government of the Church of God  (London: 1645)

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Wilhelm Apollonius

A Consideration of Certain Controversies at this Time Agitated in the Kingdom of England concerning the Government of the Church of God  (London: 1645), ch. 3, ‘Of an Institute Visible Church’, p. 25

“…we also conceive that the visible Church described in the holy Scripture is not only a parochial or particular Church, but that there is also a national and universal Church, dispersed through a whole kingdom, yea through the whole world; which does in ecclesiastical communion make up one body catholic.”

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Rutherford’s 7 Arguments that there is a catholic, Visible Church

Intro

For these arguments fleshed out in detail, see pp. 5-17 of ‘Independent Churches do not have the Authority for Greater Excommunication’ (RBO).  Three objections with Rutherford’s responses follow in the document.

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The Due Right of Presbyteries...  (London, 1644), pt. 1, ch. 10, section 10, ‘Of the Communion of the Visible, catholic Church’, pp. 289-98

1. Christ gave ministerial power to the apostles as representatives of the officers of the visible catholic Church (Jn. 20:21-23).

2. Christ gave ministerial power and officers to the visible catholic Church, not to a specific congregation (Eph. 4:11-13; 1 Cor. 12:28; Rom. 12:5; etc.).

3. The whole visible catholic Church is one body (Song 6:4-9; Gal. 4:26).

4. Christ has given the ministry and ordinances to that Church which He intends to perfect and bring to a unity of faith (Eph. 4:11-13), namely, the visible catholic Church.

5. Christ gives gifts primarily to the whole of his Church and only secondarily to particular saints or congregations (Jn. 3:16; Eph. 5:25; Jn. 10:11; Lk. 19:10; etc.).

6. The ‘Spouse,’ ‘Body,’ ’Sheep,’ etc. that Christ gives gifts to is the visible catholic Church, not a single congregation (Eph. 1:22; Col. 1:18).

7. A church member is excommunicated out of the visible catholic Church, and hence he was previously a member of the visible catholic Church. Therefore, the visible catholic Church has the power of excommunication (1 Cor. 5:4; Eph. 4:11).

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Rutherford’s Distinctions & Conclusions on the Visible Church

A Peaceable & Temperate Plea…  (London, 1642), ch. 9, ‘What members are necessarily required for the right and lawful constitution of a true politic visible Church, to the which we may join in God’s worship’, pp. 92-94

10 Distinctions

1. There be some saints by external calling, but not chosen; some saints by internal and effectual calling, called and chosen of God.

2. There be some members of a visible Church, who, de jure, by right and obligation should be such; there be other members of a visible Church, de facto, and in practice, who are such and such members.

3. There is a moral obligation, and so all the members of a visible Church are obliged to be saints by effectual calling; There is a physical obligation, and so that persons may be members of a visible Church as visible: it is not essentially required that they be effectually called.

4. …a true Church and a visible Church (as visible) may… for a time be opposed by way of contradiction, as a believing Church and a non-believing Church…

5. It is one thing to be wicked and scandalous, indeed and really, and another thing to be scandalous juridice [judicially], and in the court of the Church and notarily [by public demarcation].

6. A known and openly scandalous person and a well-lustered and dyed hypocrite are to be differenced in the Church.

7. …the preaching of the Word be… in diverse considerations: 1. A mean of constituting and making a visible Church; 2. A true note of a visible Church; 3. A mean of saving the believing Church, now visibly professing the Faith.

8. …the magistrate and king may… compel men [who have professed Christianity] to the confessing and professing of the faith, actu imperato, by an external forcing power, and yet neither magistrate nor pastor can compel to heart-believing, actu elicito, by an inward moving of the heart.

9. Let it be considered if a visible Church may not be a true Church by reason of some few sound believers and sincere seekers of God, and that same whole body [be] an infected lump and whorish in respect of some visible professors who are hypocrites and proud despisers of the Lord.

10. Let it be considered if a Church may not be termed by God’s Spirit an whore, no Church, no Spouse, jure et merito et quod vocationem passivam, in respect of bad deserving and their not answering on their parts to the call of God, and yet that same Church remain de facto, formaliter et quoad vocationem Dei activam, formally and in regard of God’s part and his active vocation and calling the Spouse and bride of Christ.

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6 Conclusions

1. The saints by external calling are the true matter of a visible Church.

2. All the members of the visible Church de jure, and by right, or by moral obligation ought to be saints effectually called.

3. But, de facto, as the visible Church is in the field of the world, all the members of the visible Church are not effectually called, justified, sanctified, neither is it needful by a physical obligation for the true nature and essence of a visible Church that all the members of it be inwardly called and sanctified; every professor is obliged to believe, else the wrath of God abides on him… But to make a man a visible professor, and a member of the true visible Church as visible, saving faith is not essentially required, so as he should be no member of the Church visible, if he believe not.

…the visible Church falls under a two-fold consideration: 1. in concreto, as a Church. 2. in abstracto, as visible. The visible Church considered in concreto is a part of the universal, catholic and unvisible Church, which partakes of the nature and essence of a true Church, and Christ’s mystical body, in which consideration we deny reprobates and unbelievers to be members of the visible Church.

Whence I infer these conclusions: 1. Separatists’ arguments must be weak, for they all conclude that which we deny not, and no other thing, to wit, that heretics, adulterers, sorcerers, blasphemers be no parts of Christ’s visible Church, as it is a Church.

2. Preaching of the Gospel is called a note of the Church, and profession of faith a note of the Church both; the former is a note of the teaching Church or ministerial Church called, Ecclesia docens. The latter is a note of the professing Church, who professes the faith, which we may call Ecclesia utens, or Ecclesia practice consideram [the Church practically considered].

3. Profession of the faith is thought to be true, either subjectively, 2. objectively, or 3. both, subjectively and objectively. Profession-subjectively is true when the professor does indeed profess and avow the truth, and does not only seem to avow and profess the truth; and this is no note of a true Church, because it may be in hypocrites, who really go to church, really hear the Word and partake of the sacraments, but not sincerely. Profession true objectively is when the professor does profess that faith which is indeed sound and orthodox. And this is a mark of the true teaching or ministerial Church, and may be in a visible company of professors who for the time are not sincere believers. But a profession of the faith both objectively true and subjectively is, when the object is orthodox and sound truth, and the professor sincerely and graciously, and with an honest heart believes and professes the truth, and this way profession of the truth is a true and essential note of a visible Church as it is a true Church and body of Christ, and so are our divines to be expounded in this doctrine about the notes of the visible Church.

But withal, the visible Church is to be considered in abstracto, under the notion of visibility, and as visible, and as performing all the external acts of professing, governing, hearing, preaching, praising, administrating the seals of the covenant, binding and loosing in the external and visible court of Christ, and under this reduplication as obvious to men’s eyes, and therefore in this notion all external professors who are not manifestly and openly scandalous are to be reputed members of the true visible Church, and therefore this term, would be considered, a true visible Church. For the adjective ‘true’ may either be referred to the subject, Church, and so signifies the true mystical body of Christ visibly, and with all sincerely professing the sound faith. Or it may be referred to the other adjective ‘visible’, and so it is no other but a company of professors visible to our senses, and so truly visible, whose members may be unsound and false professors:

…the company that we are to join ourselves unto, as visible members, have in it these true marks of a visible Church, The pure word of God purely preached, and the sacraments duly administered, with discipline according to God’s Word, and withal a people externally professing the fore-said faith…

4. That howbeit openly and grossly profane wicked persons, as known atheists and mockers of religion, idolaters, papists, heretics, sorcerers, witches, thieves, adulterers, etc. are not to be kept in the Church, but [are] to be excommunicated, nor yet to be received into the Church as members thereof, until they give evidences of their repentance: Yet we say that there is nothing required more as touching the essential properties and nature of being members of a Church, as visible, but that they profess before men the faith, and desire the seals of the Covenant, and crave fellowship with the visible Church…

5. The preaching of the Word and seals thereof ordinarily settled in a visible society is the essential note and mark of a true Church… we distinguish three things here:

There is 1. The single and occasional preaching of the Word. 2. The settled preaching of the Word, the settling of the candlestick and Kingdom to dwell amongst a people. 3. The preached Word, with the seals, especially the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper.

The single and occasional preaching, or by concomitancy as to a people unconverted and unbelievers, and so it is not an essential note of the true Church, but a mean to gather a Church to God…

2. The settled preaching of the Word established and remaining in a Church, as the standing candlestick, the fixed kingdom of God is the essential mark of the true Church, and preached in God’s blessed decree of election only for, and to the chosen believers, and as it were in the bie to the profane reprobates amongst them, and this they cannot be able to improve.

3. The preaching of the Word, and the seals of the settled covenant is a means of confirming those that are already converted: Neither is it much against us that the Word is preached to the reprobate; for the preaching of the Word is considered either in itself, and actu primo, and so it is a mark of the visible Church. Or. 2. As it is effectual by the Spirit of Jesus, and actu secundo, and so it is an essential mark of the true Church and lively body of Christ…

6. Seeing then the Church has no other mark and rule to look unto in the receiving in of members into a visible Church, but external profession, which is no infallible mark of a true convert, the Church is rightly constitute where all born within the visible Church and professing the Faith are received, suppose many wicked persons be there. Now seeing time, favor of men, prosperity accompanying the Gospel, bring many into the Church, so the magistrate [in such a Christian land] may compel men [born in, or otherwise in the visible Church] to adjoin themselves to the true Church.

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Profession of the Apostles’ Creed makes a Visible Christian

Quote

1600’s

Samuel Rutherford

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On National Churches

Article

1600’s

Apollonius, Wilhelm – Point II, pp. 28-33  in ch. 3, ‘Of an Institute Visible Church’  in A Consideration of Certain Controversies at this Time Agitated in the Kingdom of England concerning the Government of the Church of God  (London: 1645)

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On the catholic (Universal) Church of Christ

See also ‘Rutherford’s 7 Arguments that there is a catholic Visible Church’ and ‘Commentaries on the Apostles’ Creed’ on ‘I believe in the holy, catholic Church’.

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Articles

1500’s

Bullinger, Henry – 2^nd Sermon, ‘That there is One catholic Church; that without the Church there is no light or salvation; against schismatics; wherefore we depart from the upstart Church of Rome; that the Church of God is the house, vineyard and Kingdom of God; and the body, sheepfold and spouse of Christ; a mother and a virgin’  in The Decades  ed. Thomas Harding  (1549; Cambridge: Parker Society, 1850), vol. 4, 5^th Decade, pp. 49-92

Vermigli, Peter Martyr – ch. 1, ‘Of the catholic Church’  in The Common Places…  (London: Henrie Denham et al., 1583), pt. 4, pp. 1-28

Musculus, Wolfgang – Common Places of the Christian Religion  (1560; London, 1563), ‘Church’

Of the catholic Church  258.a
Of the faith of the catholic Church  264.a

Beza, Theodore – 3. Wherefore we call the Church catholic  in A Brief & Pithy Sum of the Christian Faith made in Form of a Confession  (London, 1562), Ch. 5

Olevian, Caspar

An Exposition of the Apostle’s Creed  (London, 1581), pt. 2

’I believe the Holy catholic Church, the communion of saints’

Testimonies out of the prophets and apostles
What this part contains
The meaning of these words, ‘I believe the catholic or universal Church’
Why the Church is called ‘holy’
Why the Church is called catholic

Olevian (1536–1587) was a significant German reformed theologian, and has been said to be a co-author of the Heidelberg Catechism along with Zacharias Ursinus (though this has been questioned).

‘Of the Holy catholic Church’  in A Catechism, or Brief Instruction in the Principles & Grounds of the True Christian Religion…  (d. 1587; London, 1617), pp. 16-19

Ursinus, Zachary – 4. ‘Why the Church is called holy and Catholic’  in The Sum of Christian Religion: Delivered…  in his Lectures upon the Catechism…  tr. Henrie Parrie  (Oxford, 1587), Of the Church

Beza, Theodore, Anthony Faius & Students – 50. ‘Upon the Article, ‘I believe that there is an holy catholic 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. 139-44

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1600’s

Bucanus, William – Institutions of Christian Religion...  (London: Snowdon, 1606), 41. ‘Of the Church’, pp. 501-30

But is not that one only Church divided?
Why is it called the catholic Church?
How is the catholic Church again divided?
Is there, or has there been always a glorious visible state of God’s Church on earth among all men and all the world over?
But where and how was the Church so many ages past in Popery, seeing Popery is not the Church?
May the catholic Church fall away?

Davenant, John – The Determinations, or Resolutions of Certain Theological Questions, Publicly Discussed in the University of Cambridge  trans. Josiah Allport  (1634; 1846)  bound at the end of John Davenant, A Treatise on Justification, or the Disputatio de Justitia...  trans. Josiah Allport  (1631; London, 1846), vol. 2

Question 46, ‘The Holy Catholic Church which We Believe, Consists of the Elect Alone’, pp. 474-79

Rutherford, Samuel – Pt. 1, ‘Of the Communion of the Visible Catholic Church’  in ‘Independent Churches do not have the Authority for Greater Excommunication’  (1644; RBO, 2014), pp. 5-31  from The Due Right of Presbyteries  (London, 1644), ch. 10, section 10, pp. 289-323

Apollonius, Wilhelm – pp. 36-37  in ch. 3, ‘Of an Institute Visible Church’  in A Consideration of Certain Controversies at this Time Agitated in the Kingdom of England concerning the Government of the Church of God  (London: 1645)

Turretin, Francis – 6. ‘In what sense is the church called catholic?’  in Institutes of Elenctic Theology, tr. George M. Giger, ed. James Dennison Jr.  (1679–1685; P&R, 1994), vol. 3, 18th Topic, pp. 30-32

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1800’s

Smyth, Thomas – An Ecclesiastical Catechism of the Presbyterian Church…  (NY: 1843), ch. 1

section IV, ‘Of the Church catholic’

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Quotes

1600’s

Wilhelm Apollonius

A Consideration of Certain Controversies at this Time Agitated in the Kingdom of England concerning the Government of the Church of God  (London: 1645), ch. 3, ‘Of an Institute Visible Church’, p. 25

“…we also conceive that the visible Church described in the holy Scripture is not only a parochial or particular Church, but that there is also a national and universal Church, dispersed through a whole kingdom, yea through the whole world; which does in ecclesiastical communion make up one body catholic.”

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1800’s

John ‘Rabbi’ Duncan

“Seas and continents separate in space, but the church of Christ is one in Him.”

“It would be well for Christendom if all the members of Christ’s catholic church would endeavor to preserve the unity of the Spirit, and think oftener of the many and major points in which they agree than the few and minor ones in which they differ.”

“That is a fine saying of Sack of Bonn [Germany] in his history of the Scottish Church: ‘In Scotland there are no sects, only parties.’ That is a fine testimony from a foreigner.”

“I rejoice in being a member of a Free Church [of Scotland], but I rejoice still more in being a member of the catholic church of the Lord Jesus.”

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On the Marks of the Church

See also ‘Rutherford’s 7 Arguments that there is a catholic Visible Church’ and ‘Discipline: Not a Necessary Mark of the Essence of the Visible Church’.

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Articles

1500’s

Beza, Theodore – A Brief & Pithy Sum of the Christian Faith made in Form of a Confession  (London, 1565), Ch. 5

7. The marks whereby we may discern the False Church from the True
9. The marks or tokens of the Church be not always in one estate, and how it ought to be governed

de Brès, Guy – ‘Of the Church, and how it may be known and of her Authority’  in The Staff of Christian Faith…  for to Know the Antiquity of our Holy Faith…  gathered out of the Works of the Ancient Doctors of the Church…  (London, 1577), pp. 258-93

de Bres (1522-1567) was a Walloon pastor, Protestant reformer and theologian, a student of Calvin and Beza in Geneva.

Viret, Pierre – A Christian Instruction…  (d. 1571; London: Veale, 1573), The Sum of the Principal Points of the Christian Faith

50. Of the marks whereby to know in this world which is the true Church and who are to be accoumpted for true members of the same  51-52

Ursinus, Zachary – The Sum of Christian Religion: Delivered…  in his Lectures upon the Catechism…  tr. Henrie Parrie  (Oxford, 1587)

Of the Church, 3. What are the tokens or marks of the Church
Of the Holy Scripture, 2. What Religion, delivered in the Scriptures, differs from other religions…, Certain notes or marks by which the Church is distinguished from others

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1600’s

Bucanus, William – 41. ‘Of the Church’  in Institutions of Christian Religion...  (London: Snowdon, 1606), pp. 501-30

Is there, or has there been always a glorious visible state of God’s Church on Earth, among all men, and all the world over?
What are the true and inward properties of the Church?
What are the manifest tokens of a visible Church, whereunto we may safely join ourselves?
Whether: 1. antiquity, 2. multitude of followers of some one doctrine, 3. succession in some one company of bishops, chiefly of Rome, 4. miracles, 5. continuance, 6. unity and concord, 7. efficacy of doctrine, 8. holiness of life in the authors and fathers of the religion, 9. the gift of prophesy, 10. temporal felicity, 11. the title of Church apostolical, or that it is one, holy, catholic, apostolic Church, are the notes of a true Church?
Does the Church cease to be a Church by reason of some blemish or fault in doctrine and administration of sacraments?
Is everyone bound to join himself to the assembly of that Church which has those true notes?
Can the Church err from the truth, or fall away therefrom?

Rutherford, Samuel – ch. 15, section 5, ‘Whether the doctrine of the marks of the Church is useless and harmful?  We deny against the Remonstrants.’  in Rutherford’s Examination of Arminianism: the Tables of Contents with Excerpts from Every Chapter  tr. Charles Johnson & Travis Fentiman  (1638-1642; 1668; RBO, 2019), pp. 119-20

Turretin, Francis – Institutes of Elenctic Theology, tr. George M. Giger, ed. James Dennison Jr.  (1679–1685; P&R, 1994), vol. 3, 18^th Topic

12. ‘Is the truth of doctrine which is held in any assembly, or its conformity with the Word of God by the pure preaching and profession of the Word, and the lawful administration and use of the sacraments, a mark of the true visible church?  We affirm against the Romanists.’  86

13. ‘Are the name ‘catholic’, antiquity, continued duration, amplitude, the succession of bishops, harmony in doctrine with the ancient church, union of the members with each other and with the head, holiness of doctrine, the efficacy of the same, holiness of life, the glory of miracles, prophetic light, the confession of adversaries, the unhappy end of the persecutors of the church and the temporal happiness of those who have defended it, marks of the true church?  We deny against the Romanists.’  96

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Quote

Belgic Confession

Article 29, ‘The Marks of the True Church’

“We believe that we ought to discern diligently and very carefully, by the Word of God, what is the true church– for all sects in the world today claim for themselves the name of ‘the church.’

We are not speaking here of the company of hypocrites who are mixed among the good in the church and who nonetheless are not part of it, even though they are physically there. But we are speaking of distinguishing the body and fellowship of the true church from all sects that call themselves “the church.”

The true church can be recognized if it has the following marks: The church engages in the pure preaching of the gospel; it makes use of the pure administration of the sacraments as Christ instituted them; it practices church discipline for correcting faults. In short, it governs itself according to the pure Word of God, rejecting all things contrary to it and holding Jesus Christ as the only Head. By these marks one can be assured of recognizing the true church– and no one ought to be separated from it.

As for those who can belong to the church, we can recognize them by the distinguishing marks of Christians: namely by faith, and by their fleeing from sin and pursuing righteousness, once they have received the one and only Savior, Jesus Christ. They love the true God and their neighbors, without turning to the right or left, and they crucify the flesh and its works.

Though great weakness remains in them, they fight against it by the Spirit all the days of their lives, appealing constantly to the blood, suffering, death, and obedience of the Lord Jesus, in whom they have forgiveness of their sins, through faith in him.

As for the false church, it assigns more authority to itself and its ordinances than to the Word of God; it does not want to subject itself to the yoke of Christ; it does not administer the sacraments as Christ commanded in his Word; it rather adds to them or subtracts from them as it pleases; it bases itself on men, more than on Jesus Christ; it persecutes those who live holy lives according to the Word of God and who rebuke it for its faults, greed, and idolatry.

These two churches are easy to recognize and thus to distinguish from each other.”

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Latin Article

1600’s

Voet, Gisbert – 3. Of the Visible Church & its Marks  in Syllabus of Theological Problems  (Utrecht, 1643), pt. 1, section 2, tract 4   Abbr.

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On 3 Kinds of Communion with the Church

Samuel Rutherford

A Peaceable & Temperate Plea…  (London, 1642), ch. 10, p. 132

“4th Conclusion:  There be three sorts that have communion rightly with our Church:

1. Infants baptized, for baptism is a seal of their fellowship with Christ, and therefore of communion with the Church.  Because Separatists will have none members of the Church while [except] they can give proofs thereof by signs of regeneration, infants must be without the Church, as infidels and Turks, for none are the Church to them but the royal generation, partakers of the holy faith, taught of God, called and separated from the world: the rest are without.  Hence baptism shall either seal no entering of infants in the Church, contrary to God’s Word, or the baptizing of infants is not lawful, as Anabaptists teach.

2. The hearers of the Word have a communion with the Church, as is clear seeing these that eat of one bread are one body, these that profess in the hearing of the Word, that same faith, are also that same body in profession; yet excommunicated persons are admitted as hearers of the Word.  Hence only the extreme and great excommunication, 1 Cor. 16:22, cuts off men from being simply no members of the Church, that excommunication that makes the party as a heathen and publican supposes him still to be a brother and hearer of the Word, 2 Thess. 3:14-15.  And all these are members of the Church and yet not necessarily converted.

3. The regenerate and believers that communicate of one bread and one cup at the Lord’s Table, are most nearly and properly members of one visible body, and none of these are to separate from Christ’s body.”

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On the Reformation & Puritan Categories of the True Church & False Churches

Order of Contents

Belgic Confession
Articles
Quote

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Belgic Confession

Article 29, ‘The Marks of the True Church’

“We believe that we ought to discern diligently and very carefully, by the Word of God, what is the true church– for all sects in the world today claim for themselves the name of ‘the church.’

We are not speaking here of the company of hypocrites who are mixed among the good in the church and who nonetheless are not part of it, even though they are physically there. But we are speaking of distinguishing the body and fellowship of the true church from all sects that call themselves “the church.”

The true church can be recognized if it has the following marks: The church engages in the pure preaching of the gospel; it makes use of the pure administration of the sacraments as Christ instituted them; it practices church discipline for correcting faults. In short, it governs itself according to the pure Word of God, rejecting all things contrary to it and holding Jesus Christ as the only Head. By these marks one can be assured of recognizing the true church– and no one ought to be separated from it.

As for those who can belong to the church, we can recognize them by the distinguishing marks of Christians: namely by faith, and by their fleeing from sin and pursuing righteousness, once they have received the one and only Savior, Jesus Christ. They love the true God and their neighbors, without turning to the right or left, and they crucify the flesh and its works.

Though great weakness remains in them, they fight against it by the Spirit all the days of their lives, appealing constantly to the blood, suffering, death, and obedience of the Lord Jesus, in whom they have forgiveness of their sins, through faith in him.

As for the false church, it assigns more authority to itself and its ordinances than to the Word of God; it does not want to subject itself to the yoke of Christ; it does not administer the sacraments as Christ commanded in his Word; it rather adds to them or subtracts from them as it pleases; it bases itself on men, more than on Jesus Christ; it persecutes those who live holy lives according to the Word of God and who rebuke it for its faults, greed, and idolatry.

These two churches are easy to recognize and thus to distinguish from each other.”

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Articles

1500’s

Calvin, John – Institutes of the Christian Religion  tr. Henry Beveridge  (1559; Edinburgh: Calvin Translation Society, 1845), vol. 3, bk. 4

1. ‘Of the True Church.  Duty of cultivating Unity with her, as the mother of all the godly’ 7
2. ‘Comparison between the False Church and the True’ 41

Musculus, Wolfgang – Common Places of the Christian Religion  (1560; London, 1563), ‘Church’

What is the true Church of Christ  256.a
That the prelates of the Church of Rome be not the true Church  258.b
Of the knowledge of the true Church  259.a

Beza, Theodore – A Brief & Pithy Sum of the Christian Faith made in Form of a Confession  (London, 1562), Ch. 5

2. There can be but one true Church
7. The marks whereby we may discern the False Church from the True
8. Which be the true members of the Church

Viret, Pierre – A Christian Instruction…  (d. 1571; London: Veale, 1573), The Sum of the Principal Points of the Christian Faith

50. Of the marks whereby to know in this world which is the true Church and who are to be accoumpted for true members of the same  51-52
53. Of the doctrine of the Church, and of man’s traditions, and of those which she does acknowledge for true or false ministers  54

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1600’s

Perkins, William – ‘Rome is Not a True Church’  in Reformed Catholic  in Works (RHB), vol. 7, pp. 149-52

Note that Perkins holds that the Roman Church has lawful ministers and a valid baptism (which logically necessitates that Romanism as a whole is a Church in some sense) in his Treatise of Conscience, ch. 8; see pp. 19-22 of The Reformed Chuches & Roman Catholic Baptism.

Cameron, John – ch. 37, ‘In what sense we yield that the Church of Rome has the substance of true religion, and how she ceases not for all that to be a false Chuch’  in An Examination of those Plausible Appearances which seem most to commend the Romish Church, and to Prejudice the Reformed…  (Oxford, 1626), pp. 146-50

Wolleb, Johannes – 27. ‘The False 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. 150-57

Wolleb (1589–1629) was a Swiss reformed theologian.  He was a student of Amandus Polanus.

Turretin, Francis – Institutes of Elenctic Theology, tr. George M. Giger, ed. James Dennison Jr.  (1679–1685; P&R, 1994), vol. 3, 18^th Topic

14. ‘Can the church of Rome of today be called a true church of Christ?  We deny against the Romanists.’  121

15. Are the evangelical and Reformed churches true churches of Christ?  We affirm.’  137

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Quote

Samuel Rutherford

The Due Right of Presbyteries…  (London, 1644), pt. 2, ch. 4, section 5, p. 219

“…nor is it inconvenient to say that Papists as baptized and under that reduplication are members of the visible Church, though as baptized thus and thus they be not members of the true, visible Church, professing the sound faith.”

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That the Church Only has Power & Authority from Christ unto Edification, & None Else

See also All Authority Given of God is Only Unto Good.

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The Tetrapolitan Confession  1530

in ed. Dennison, Reformed Confessions of the 16th & 17th Centuries…  vol. 1 (2008), p. 153

Ch. 13, ‘Of the Office, Dignity & Power of Ministers in the Church

“Concerning the ministry and the dignity of the ecclesiastical order we teach: first, that there is no power in the Church except for edification.”

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Latin

1600’s

Alsted, Johann H.

ch. 19, ‘Church’  in Distinctions through Universal Theology, taken out of the Canon of the Sacred Letters & Classical Theologians  (Frankfurt: 1626), pp. 83-91

ch. 19, ‘On the Church’  in Theological Common Places Illustrated by Perpetual Similitudes  (Frankfurt, 1630), pp. 111-20

Voet, Gisbert

Syllabus of Theological Problems  (Utrecht, 1643), pt. 1, section 2, tract 4   Abbr.

I. Of the Church

1. Of the Church in General

Of its Definition & Nature
Of the Cause & Subject, or Material of the
.        Church
Of the Adjuncts & Properties
Of the Divisions or Distinctions of the Church

2. The Head of the Church, the Roman Pope & The Antichrist

Of Christ the Sole Head of the Church, & of
.       the Roman Pope
Of The Antichrist

3. Of the Visible Church & its Marks
.         Appendix: Of the Parts & Members of the
.               Visible Church, even of Ecclesiastical
.               Ministers, Government, Censures, etc.

4. Of the Church Before the Fall & After the Fall in the O.T.

Of the Church Before the Fall
From the Fall to Christ in General
Of the Church of the Patriarchs Until Moses
In Specific, Under Moses, the Judges, the
.     Kings & After the Captivity

5. The New Testament Church

In General
Of the Apostolic Church
Of the Ancient Church
Of the Medieval [Intermedia] Church
Of the 3rd Age [Aetate]

6. The Roman Church

7. The Church Having Been Reforming

In General
Of the Ancient: of the Waldenses & the
.      Bohemians
Of Recent Times, from Luther, in General
Of the Ancient, Protestant German Church, unto the Schism through the Book of Concord
Of the Anglican Church
Of the Swiss, French, Scottish, Belgic, Polish, Bohemian, Hungarian, Transylvanian & Numerous German Churches

8. The Modern Churches Beyond: the Western, Greek, of Moscow, Armenia, Egypt, Iberia, Syria, Jacobite, of Georgia, Ethiopia & the Indies.

II. Of the Tyrannical & Violent Enemies of the Church

III. Of the Opposites of the Church: of the Heterodox & Other Turbulent Persons

1. Of Apostates & Heretics in General
2. Of Atheism & Atheists
3. Of Heathenism & the Conversion of the Heathens
.      Of Heathenism in General
.      Of the Heathenism of the Ancient Time, or of
.          the O.T.
.            Before the Flood & From There unto Moses
.            From Moses to the Apostles
.       Of the Calling & Conversion of the Heathens

4. Judaism

Of the Defection & State of the Jews
Of the Adjuncts & Cognates of Judaism
Of the Distinction of Judaism
Of the Conversion of the Jews
Appendices:

(1) Of the Samaritans
(2) Of the Ancient Sects of the Jews
(3) Of the Ancient & Modern Semi-Judaizers

5. Of Mohommedism
6. Of the Ancient Heretics (Ebionites, Cerenthians, Valentinians, Marcionites, Manichees; Arians, Eunomians, Nestorians, Pelagians, etc.)

7. Of the Modern Enthusiasts & Libertines

In General
Of the Henry-Nicolatians
Of the David-Jorists
Of the Zwenckfeldians
Of the Franckists, of Ezekiel Metz, etc.
Appendix: On the Semi-Libertines, the
.        Libertine Sects & the German Interim &
.        the Intermisters

8. Of the Modern Anti-Trinitarians, or Anti-Christians, or Anti-Evangelicals, or of All Simultaneously, whether Concealed or Open

Of the Anabaptists
Of the Neo-Arians, named the Socinians
Of the Remonstrants in Belgium
Appendix: On the Doctrine of Conrad Vorsti

IV. Of Some, which, while They Openly Recede from the Papacy & Heresies, yet Cause an Uproar & Bring on Trouble Through Errors, Schisms & Scandals

1. Of Schism & Schismatics, by whatever way they
.     Illegitimately Secede

In General
Of the Errors & Schism of the Neo-Lutherans
.       On Some Intestine Contentions
Of the English Separatists, commonly called
.       Brownists or Barrowists

2. Of Moderates, the Tepid & Syncretists

In General

Of Those which Unduly Approve or Admit of Lukewarmness, Moderation & Toleration of Certain Dogmas of the Papists, the Remonstrants or the Anabaptists

Of Them which are either Tepid or Approve of Lukewarmness, Moderation & Toleration about the Government & Ceremonies, named Heirarchics [Formalists] in Disputes in England

3. Of the Disorderly, those Lax in Discipline, of
.       Scandalizers & those Scandalized

‘Some Determinations on the Church’  in Select Theological Disputations  (1669), pp. 383-87

Wettstein, Gernler & Buxtorf – 19. Nature 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. 68-75

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“Here are the treasures of Christ’s Church.”

The reply of Lawrence (258 A.D.), the treasurer of the church at Rome, as he presented the sick, the poor, and the lame to Emperor Valerian who had demanded of him to produce the treasures of the church, with the intent of confiscating it. For the remark Lawrence was slow roasted to death on a grid-iron.

“The true visible church, where God’s ordinances are set up as he hath appointed, where his word is purely preached, is the most beautiful thing under heaven, and there is God’s glory set forth and manifested more clearly than in all the Lord’s handiwork beside in heaven or earth.”

David Dickson

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Related Pages

One May Miss Services & Leave a Church due to Providence without Permission, & a Letter of Transfer is Not Necessary