 All the reasons which require the subjection of a believer to the brethren of a particular church, require his subjection to all his brethren in the Lord. |
| Ruling elders are declared to be the representatives of the people. |
| Our first remark on this subject is that the ministry is an office, and not merely a work. |
| Romanists tell us that the Pope is the vicar of Christ; that he is his successor as the universal head and ruler of the Church on earth. If this is so, he must be a Christ. |
| The Church is everywhere represented as one. It is one body, one family, one fold, one kingdom. It is one because pervaded by one Spirit. We are all baptized into one Spirit so as to become, says the apostle, on body. Topics: Christianity |
| 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 ultimate ground of faith and knowledge is confidence in God. |
| 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 Church, however, is a self-governing society, distinct from the State, having its officers and laws, and, therefore, an administrative government of its own. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| The office of presbyters is a permanent one. |
| That the apostolic office is temporary, is a plain historical fact. |
| 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 Galatians are severely censured for giving heed to false doctrines, and are called to pronounce even an apostle anathema, if he preached another gospel. |
| 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. |
| 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 Popish theory, which assumes that Christ, the Apostles and believers, constituted the Church while our Saviour was on earth, and this organization was designed to be perpetual. |
| 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. |
| Christ has not only ordained that there shall be such officers in his Church - he has not only specified their duties and prerogatives - but he gives the requisite qualifications, and calls those thus qualified, and by that call gives them their official authority. |
