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All Church power is, therefore, properly ministerial and administrative. Everything is to be done in the name of Christ, and in accordance with his directions. The Church, however, is a self-governing society, distinct from the State, having its officers and laws, and, therefore, an administrative government of its own. The power of the Church relates, 1. To matters of doctrine. She had the right to set forth a public declaration of the truths which she believes, and which are to be acknowledged by all who enter her communion.
That is, she has the right to frame creeds or confessions of faith, as her testimony for the truth, and her protest against error. And as she has been commissioned to teach all nations, she has the right of selecting teachers, of judging their fitness, of ordaining and sending them forth into the field, and of recalling and deposing them when unfaithful.
The Church has power to set down rules for the ordering of public worship. She has power to receive into fellowship, and to exclude the unworthy from her own communion. Now, the question is, Where does this power vest? Does it, as Romanists and Prelatists affirm, belong exclusively to the clergy? Have they the right to determine for the Church what she is to believe, what she is to profess, what she is to do, and whom she is to receive as members, and whom she is to reject?
If all Church power vests in the clergy, then the people are practically bound to passive obedience in all matters of faith and practice; for all right of private judgment is then denied. If it vests in the whole Church, then the people have a right to a substantive part in the decision of all questions relating to doctrine, worship, order, and discipline. The public assertion of this right of the people, at the time of the Reformation, roused all Europe. It was an apocalyptic trumpet, i. This was the end of Church tyranny in all truly Protestant countries. It was the end of the theory that the people were bound to passive submission in matters of faith and practice.
It was deliverance to the captive, the opening of the prison to those who were bound; the introduction of the people of God into the liberty wherewith Christ has made them free. This is the reason why civil liberty follows religious liberty. The theory that all Church power vests in a divinely constituted hierarchy, begets the theory that all civil power vests, of divine right, in kings and nobles. And the theory that Church power vests in the Church itself, and all Church officers are servants of the Church, of necessity begets the theory that civil power vests in the people, and that civil magistrates are servants of the people.
These theories God has joined together, and no man can put them asunder. But this great Protestant and Presbyterian principle is not only a principle of liberty, it is also a principle of order. Because this power of the people is subject to the infallible authority of the word; and 2d. Because the exercise of it is in the hands of duly constituted officers. Presbyterianism does not dissolve the bands of authority, and resolve the Church into a mob. Though delivered from the autocratic authority of the hierarchy, it remains under the law to Christ.
It is restricted in the exercise of its power by the word of God, which bends the reason, heart, and conscience. We only cease to be the servants of men, that we may be the servants of God. We are raised into a higher sphere, where perfect liberty is merged in absolute subjection. As the Church is the aggregate of believers, there is an intimate analogy between the experience of the individual believer, and of the Church as a whole.
The believer ceases to be the servant of sin, that he may be the servant of righteousness; he is redeemed from the law, that he may be the servant of Christ. So the Church is delivered from an illegitimate authority, not that she may be lawless, but subject to an authority legitimate and divine. The Reformers, therefore, as instruments in the hands of God, in delivering the Church from bondage to prelates, did not make it a tumultuous multitude, in which every man was a law to himself, free to believe, and free to do what he pleased.
The Church, in all the exercise of her power, in reference either to doctrine or discipline, acts under the written law of God, as recorded in his word.
But besides this, the power of the Church is not only thus limited and guided by the Scriptures, but the exercise of it is in the hands of legitimate officers. The Church is not a vast democracy, where everything is decided by the popular voice. Nor is it inconsistent with the doctrine that the authority of the civil magistrate is jure divino. So the doctrine that Church power vests in the Church itself, is not inconsistent with the doctrine that there is a divinely appointed class of officers, through whom that power is to be exercised. It thus appears that the principle of liberty and the principle of order are perfectly harmonious.
In denying that all Church power vests exclusively in the clergy, whom the people have nothing to do but to believe and to obey, and in affirming that it vests in the Church itself, while we assert the great principle of Christian liberty, we assert the no less important principle of evangelical order. It is not necessary to occupy your time in quoting either from the Reformed Confessions or from standard Presbyterian writers, that the principle just stated is one of the radical principles of our system. It is enough to advert to the recognition of it involved in the office of ruling elder.
Ruling elders are declared to be the representatives of the people. They are chosen by them to act in their name in the government of the Church. The functions of these elders, therefore, determine the power of the people; for a representative is one chosen by others to do in their name what they are entitled to do in their own persons; or rather to exercise the powers which radically inhere in those for whom they act.
The members of a State Legislature, or of Congress, for example, can exercise only those powers which are inherent in the people. The powers, therefore, exercised by our ruling elders, are powers which belong to the lay members of the Church. What then are the powers of our ruling elders?
As to matters of doctrine and the great office of teaching, they have an equal voice with the clergy in the formation and adoption of all symbols of faith. According to Presbyterianism, it is not competent for the clergy to frame and authoritatively set forth a creed to be embraced by the Church, and to be made a condition of either ministerial or Christian communion, without the consent of the people. Such creeds profess to express the mind of the Church. But the ministry are not the Church, and, therefore, cannot declare the faith of the Church, without the cooperation of the Church itself.
Such Confessions, at the time of the Reformation, proceeded from the whole Church. And all the Confessions now in authority in the different branches of the great Presbyterian family, were adopted by the people through their representatives, as the expression of their faith. So, too, in the selection of preachers of the word, in judging of their fitness for the sacred office, in deciding whether they shall be ordained, in judging them when arraigned for heresy, the people have, in fact, an equal vote with the clergy.
The same thing is true as to the jus liturgicum , as it is called, of the Church. The ministry cannot frame a ritual, or liturgy, or directory for public worship, and enjoin its use on the people to whom they preach. All such regulations are of force only so far as the people themselves, in conjunction with their ministers, see fit to sanction and adopt them. So too, in forming a constitution, or in enacting rules of procedure, or making canons, the people do not merely passively assent, but actively cooperate.
They have, in all these matters, the same authority as the clergy. And finally, in the exercise of the power of the keys, in opening and shutting the door of the communion with the Church, the people have a decisive voice.
In all cases of discipline, they are called upon to judge and to decide. There can, therefore, be no doubt that Presbyterians do carry out the principle that Church power vests in the Church itself, and that the people have a right to a substantive part in its discipline and government. In other words, we do not hold that all power vests in the clergy, and that the people have only to listen and obey.
But is this a scriptural principle? Is it a matter of concession and courtesy, or is it a matter of divine right? Is our office of ruling elder only one of expediency, or is it an essential element of our system, arising out of the very nature of the Church as constituted by God, and, therefore, of divine authority? This, in the last resort, is, after all, only the question, Whether the clergy are the Church, or whether the people are the Church. But if the people are the State, civil power vests in them; and if the people are the Church, power vests in the people.
If the clergy are priests and mediators, the channel of all divine communications, and the only medium of access to God, then all power is in their hands; but if all believers are priests and kings, then they have something more to do than merely passively to submit.
So abhorrent is this idea of the clergy being the Church to the consciousness of Christians, that no definition of the Church for the first fifteen centuries after Christ, was ever framed that even mentioned the clergy. This is said to have been first done by Canisius and Bellarmine. Now, as a definition is the statement of the essential attributes or characteristics of a subject; and as, by the common consent of Protestants, the definition of the Church is complete without even mentioning the clergy, it is evidently the renunciation of the radical principles of Protestantism, and, of course, of Presbyterianism, to maintain that all Church power vests in the clergy.
The first argument, therefore, in support of the doctrine that the people have a right to a substantive part in the government of the Church is derived from the fact that they, according to the Scriptures and all Protestant Confessions, constitute the Church. A second argument is this.
All Church power arises from the indwelling of the Spirit; therefore those in whom the Spirit dwells are the seat of Church power. But the Spirit dwells in the whole Church, and therefore the whole Church is the seat of Church power. The first member of this syllogism is not disputed. The ground on which Romanists hold that Church power vests in the bishops, to the exclusion of the people, is that they hold that the Spirit was promised and given to the bishops as a class.
If this is true, then, of course, all Church power vests in these apostle-bishops. But on the other hand, if it is true that the Spirit dwells in the whole Church; if he guides the people as well as the clergy into the knowledge of the truth; if he animates the whole body, and makes it the representative of Christ on earth so that they who hear the Church hear Christ, and so that what the Church binds on earth is bound in heaven, then, of course, Church power vests in the Church itself, and not exclusively in the clergy.
If there be anything plain from the whole tenor of the New Testament, and from innumerable explicit declarations of the word of God, it is that the Spirit dwells in the whole body of Christ; that he guides all his people into the knowledge of the truth; that every believer is taught of God, and has the witness in himself, and has no need that any should teach him, but the anointing which abideth in him teacheth him all things. It is, therefore, the teaching of the Church, and not of the clergy exclusively, which is ministerially the teaching of the Spirit, and the judgment of the Spirit.
It is a thoroughly anti-christian doctrine that the Spirit of God, and therefore the life and governing power of the Church, resides in the ministry, to the exclusion of the people. When the great promise of the Spirit was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost, it was fulfilled not in reference to the apostles only. Having, therefore, gifts differing according to the grace given unto us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith; or ministry, let us wait on our ministering; or he that teacheth, on teaching.
To one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit. The Spirit dwells in the whole Church, animates, guides, and instructs the whole. If, therefore, it be true, as all admit, that Church power goes with the Spirit, and arises out of his presence, it cannot belong exclusively to the clergy.
The duty is to spread and to maintain the gospel in its purity over the whole earth. The powers are those required for the accomplishment of that object, i. It wakens a thrill in every heart. Every Christian feels that the command is addressed to a body of which he is a member, and that he has a personal obligation to discharge. It was not the ministry alone to whom this commission was given, and therefore it is not to them alone that the powers which it conveys belong.
The right of the people to a substantive part in the government of the Church is recognized and sanctioned by the apostles in almost every conceivable way. And they prayed and cast lots, and the lot fell on Matthias, and he was numbered with the apostles. So, when deacons were to be appointed, the whole multitude chose the seven men who were to be invested with the office. When the question arose as to the continued obligation of the Mosaic law, the authoritative decision proceeded from the whole Church. Most of the apostolic epistles are addressed to churches, i.
They are required not to believe every spirit, but to try the spirits; to sit in judgment on the question whether those who came to them as religious teachers were really sent of God. The Galatians are severely censured for giving heed to false doctrines, and are called to pronounce even an apostle anathema, if he preached another gospel.
The Corinthians are censured for allowing an incestuous person to remain in their communion; they are commanded to excommunicate him, and afterwards, on his repentance, to restore him to their fellowship. These and other cases of the kind determine nothing as to the way in which the power of the people was exercised; but they prove conclusively that such power existed. The command to watch over the orthodoxy of ministers and the purity of members, was not addressed exclusively to the clergy, but to the whole Church. We believe that, as in the Synogogue, and in every well ordered society, the powers inherent in the society are exercised through appropriate organs.
But the fact that these commands are addressed to the people, or to the whole Church, proves that they were responsible, and that they had a substantive part in the government of the Church. It would be absurd in other nations to address any complaints or exhortations to the people of Russia in reference to national affairs, because they have no part in the government. It would be no less absurd to address Roman Catholics as a self-governing body. But such addresses may well be made by the people of one of our States to the people of another, because the people have the power, though it is exercised through legitimate organs.
While, therefore, the epistles of the apostles do not prove that the churches whom they addressed had not regular officers through whom the power of the Church was to be exercised, they abundantly prove that such power vested in the people; that they had a right and were bound to take part in the government of the Church, and in the preservation of its purity. It was only gradually, through a course of ages, that the power thus pertaining to the people was absorbed by the clergy. The progress of this absorption kept pace with the corruption of the Church, until the entire domination of the hierarchy was finally established.
The first great principle, then, of Presbyterianism is the re-assertion of the primitive doctrine that Church power belongs to the whole Church; that that power is exercised through legitimate officers, and therefore that the office of ruling elders as the representatives of the people, is not a matter of expediency, but an essential element of our system, arising out of the nature of the Church, and resting on the authority of Christ.
The second great principle of Presbyterianism is, that presbyters who minister in word and doctrine are the highest permanent officers of the Church. Our first remark on this subject is that the ministry is an office, and not merely a work. An office is a station to which the incumbent must be appointed, which implies certain prerogatives, which it is the duty of those concerned to recognize and submit to.
A work, on the other hand, is something which any man who has the ability may undertake. This is an obvious distinction. It is not every man who has the qualifications for a Governor of a State, who has the right to act as such. He must be regularly appointed to the post. So it is not every one who has the qualifications for the work of the ministry, who can assume the office of the ministry. He must be regularly appointed.
We need not further argue this point, as it is not denied, except by the Quakers, and a few such writers as Neander, who ignore all distinction between the clergy and laity, except what arises from diversity of gifts. Lacy Moffett and the Jiangyin Station. The Beloved Mother of Chinatown. The Whole Gospel for the Whole Community: The Legacy of Matthew Anderson. A Reckoning in Princeton. Where Did the Confession of Come From?
Birmingham's Independent Presbyterian Church at Calder Conservation Project Update. A Century of Presbyterian Response to Immigrants. PHS Presents at Portland's policon Notes on First Presbyterians in the American Colonies. God Guide My Love. Samuel Barber's "Chorale for a New Organ". The Jan Hus Gavel. Announcing "Journeys of Faith: Artifacts from the Mission Field".
Syria-Lebanon Mission Records Processed. A Good Kind Sister: Machle Letters from Lien Chow. Preserving your Church's Digital Records. Staff Spotlight - Beth Hessel. Board of National Missions crossword puzzle contest. June 10, to June 12, Processing the Edmiston Papers. Mary Miles in Modern Japan. April 17, to August 4, Blake and Barnes Go To Moscow.
All Church power arises from the indwelling of the Spirit; therefore those in whom the Spirit dwells are the seat of Church power. A number of new Presbyterian Churches were founded by Scottish immigrants to England in the 19th century and later. A Reckoning in Princeton. No stained glass, no elaborate furnishings, and no images were to be found in the meeting-house. Armenian Presbyterians in the United States. In recent years a number of smaller denominations adopting Presbyterian forms of church government have organised in England, including the International Presbyterian Church planted by evangelical theologian Francis Schaeffer of L'Abri Fellowship in the s, and the Evangelical Presbyterian Church in England and Wales founded in the North of England in the late s. A Time to Stand Firm.
The Presbyterian Beginnings of Fundamentalism. One Baby and One Thousand Emails. April 8, to September 6, April 3, to October 4, April 1, to September 6, Symposium on Hidden Collections. March 17, to August 4, March 4, to September 7, March 1, to August 28, February 25, to September 7, February 23, to October 2, February 22, to September 28, February 20, to August 28, Visions and Voices from Selma to Montgomery.
Peace Comes to My Heart. First Presbyterian Church of Bridesburg, Philadelphia. January 17, to July 17, Making Digital Changes Together. Looking Back at a Great Year. Papers Into the Sea. How Christmas Came Back to Leeds. John Knox and the Monstrous Regiment of Women. Let Me Ever Be Learning. The Matters of This World. A Test of Time. August 15, to September 25, O for the Gift of Tongues. Tombstones at the Historical Society. Will God So Honor Me? Marriage, Divorce, and Presbyterian Mariners. A Tale of Two Cities. Serpent on the Seal.
The Matrix of Occupation. May 4, to September 12, May 1, to October 2, April 17, to August 14, Christian Education for the Now Generation. April 12, to September 11, On the Third Day. General Assembly Resources. March 17, to September 6, The Cowboy Sunday School Minister. March 1, to October 2, February 23, to October 6, February 17, to June 30, A Time to Stand Firm. New Staff at PHS. Presbyterians, Apartheid, and Divestment. Christmas in the Mission Field. A Standard You Can Trust. Kennedy and Eugene Carson Blake. Delectable Dishes from the Archives. Our Year-Old National Tradition.
Thankful to Give Back. Have you been to PHS? October 27 is Reformation Sunday. Presbyterian stewardship in four stories.
Atkins Flegley and molar theology. Eugene Carson Blake arrested, July 4, Presbyterians Reunite on Atlanta's Channel Nanking and the Presbyterian Helpers. New Stated Clerks Orientation Roundup. Memories of Youth and the Westminster Fellowship. The Presbyterian Church has a strong view of the majesty, power, and omnipotence of God. This informs many things we do. Our worship is reverent and seeks to focus our hearts and minds on God.
The belief in a sovereign God is also foundational to the difficult and often misunderstood doctrine of predestination. Predestination states, simply put, that God chooses us first before we ever even think about responding to God. Presbyterians are formed and reformed by the Bible. Presbyterians believe in the Bible and use it as the unique and authoritative guide for how to live and what to believe. We encourage people to read the Bible in their own devotional times and participate in group-settings such as Sunday School and Wednesday evening classes.
For Presbyterians the Bible is not just to be read by preachers and scholars. We believe that the Bible is so clear, in its major themes and principles, that everybody can understand the story of salvation, primarily by reading the Bible in a regular and consistent discipline. Presbyterians are a people of communit y. Presbyterians believe that you cannot live the Christian life effectively apart from other people. God has given us the church for our mutual support, correction, and encouragement.
We need a relationship with other Christians in order to be all that God intends us to be. This is one of the reasons the Presbyterian Church has a connectional form of church government. Through the Presbyteries, Synods, and the General Assembly each local congregation stays connected to the larger church. It is also one of the reasons we work together in teams for ministry.
Presbyterianism is a part of the reformed tradition within Protestantism which traces its origins to Britain, particularly Scotland, and Ireland. Presbyterian churches. The polity of Presbyterian churches calls for local congregations to elect a board called the session or consistory. Congregations also elect presbyters who form.
We need to do the work of Christ with other people. We believe God calls people to be connected with a local congregation and church membership is the way we recognize and celebrate that calling.
Presbyterians are a people of mission. Presbyterians believe that we cannot simply live in our own sheltered world. God has called us to take the gospel to the entire world. God has called us to exhibit the kingdom of Christ to our community. The Presbyterian Church sends missionaries into all corners of the globe, through the regular offerings of local churches.
Our denomination has been instrumental in taking the gospel to many other countries in this century. Each local congregation participates in mission activities in its specific community, on a national level, and on a global scale. Presbyterians are a people of the mind.