THE CHURCH OF CHRIST

A Treatise
on the Nature, Powers, Ordinances, Discipline,
and Government of the Christian Church

by

James Bannerman, D.D.

THE BANNER OF TRUTH TRUST

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THE CHURCH OF CHRIST

THE BANNER OF TRUTH TRUST

The Grey House, 3 Murrayfield Road, Edinburgh, EH12 6EL, UK
P.O. Box 621, Carlisle, PA 17013, USA

*
First published 1869
Reprinted by the Banner of Truth Trust 1960, 1974
New, retypeset, and revised edition 2014
© The Banner of Truth Trust 2014

*
ISBN:

*
Typeset in Adobe Garamond pro 11/13pt at
The Banner of Truth Trust, Edinburgh
Printed in the USA by
Versa Press Inc.,
East Peoria, IL

iv
 Contents

Foreword by Carl R. Trueman xi

Editor’s Preface xvii
Preface by Principal Candlish xxiii

Introduction 1

PART I.—THE NATURE OF THE CHURCH

I. The Church as Defined by Scripture 5
II. The Church a Divine and Spiritual Institution 19
III. The Church as Visible and Invisible 31
IV. The Church as Catholic and Local 45
V. The ‘Notes’ of the Church 59
VI. The Members of the Church 73
VII. The Church in Its Relation to the World 87
VIII. The Church in Its Relation to the State 101
Sec. I. Essential Distinction and Mutual Dependence of
Church and State 104
Sec. II. Lawfulness of the Connection of Church and State 114
Subsec. The Non-Identity of Church and State among
the Jews 127
Sec. III. Duty of Connection of Church and State 132
Sec. IV. Necessity of Connection between Church and State 143
Sec. V. Spiritual Independence and Principles of Toleration 157
Sec. VI. Liberty of Conscience; its Extent and Limits 168
Sec. VII. Doctrine of the Westminster Confession on Church
and State 180

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PART II.—POWER OF THE CHURCH

I. The Source of Church Power 195
Sec. I. The Headship of Christ 195
Sec. II. Opposing Theories—Erastian and Popish 209
II. The Rule or Law of Church Power 221
III. The Nature and Character of Church Power 233
IV. The Extent and Limits of Church Power 247
V. The End and Design of Church Power 263
VI. The Primary Subjects of Church Power 277

PART III.—MATTERS IN REGARD TO WHICH

CHURCH POWER IS EXERCISED
Div. I—Church Power Exercised
in Regard to Doctrine

I. The Power and Duty of the Church in Regard to Matters

of Faith 291
II. Church Creeds and Confessions; or, Subordinate
Standards, and their Lawfulness and Use 305
III. Objections to Creeds and Confessions 319

Div. II—Church Power Exercised

in Regard to Ordinances

Subdiv. I—The Provision for Public Worship

I. The Divine Origin, Permanent Obligation, and
Legitimate Parts of Public Worship 339
II. Rites and Ceremonies in Public Worship 353
Sec. I. Extent of Church Power as Regards the Public
Worship of God 359
Sec. II. Limits of Church Power as Regards the Public
Worship of God 380

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III. Liturgies, or Prescribed and Imposed Forms of Prayer 397

Subdiv. II.—The Time for Public Worship
I. The Christian Sabbath 413
II. Ecclesiastical Holidays 427

Subdiv. III.—The Instrument for Public Worship,

or the Christian Ministry
I. The Ministry a Divine and Standing Ordinance in the
Church—the Ministerial and Pastoral Ttitle 443
II. Apostolical Succession 459
III. The Independent Theory of the Ministry 477
IV. Ordination 493

Subdiv. IV—Positive Divine Institutions in Addition to

the ordinary Public Worship of the Lord’s Day, or
the Sacraments
I. The Sacraments in General 509
Sec. I. Nature and Efficacy of the Sacraments in the
New Testament, and Difference between Them
and Non-Sacramental Ordinances 513
Sec. II. Unscriptural and Defective Views of the
Sacraments 528
II. The Sacrament of Baptism 551
Sec. I. Nature of the Ordinance 551
Sec. II. The Subjects of Baptism as Regards Adults 564
Sec. III. Infant Baptism 577
Sec. IV. Objections to Infant Baptism 605
Sec. V. Efficacy of Infant Baptism 618
Sec. VI. The Modes of Baptism 634
III. The Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper 641
Sec. I. Nature of the Ordinance 641

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Sec. II. Transubstantiation 654

Sec. III. The Doctrine of the Real Presence and
the Priestly Theory 670
Sec. IV. The Sacrifice of the Mass, and Other Forms
of the Sacrificial Theory 685

Div. III.—Church Power Exercised

in Regard to Discipline

I. Nature, Design, and Limits of the Discipline of

the Christian Church 703

PART IV.—PARTIES IN WHOM THE RIGHT TO

EXERCISE CHURCH POWER IS VESTED

I. Divine Appointment of a Form of Church Government 719

II. The Extraordinary Office-Bearers of the Christian 733
Church
Sec. I. Office of Apostles 737
Sec. II. Office of Prophets and Evangelists, 748
III. The Popish System of Church Polity 765
IV. The Prelatic System of Church Polity as Opposed to
the Presbyterian 781
Sec. I. No Evidence in Scripture, but the reverse, for the
Appointment by Our Lord or His Apostles of an Order
of Bishops as Distinct from Presbyters 787
Sec. II. No Evidence in Scripture, but the Reverse, of the
Exercise of the Powers of a Diocesan Bishop by any
Distinct and Permanent Order of Office-Bearers,
apart from that of Presbyters 800

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V. The Independent System of Church Polity as Opposed

to the Presbyterian 819
Sec. I. The Congregational Principle as Opposed to
Presbyterianism 823
Sec. II. The Independent Principle as Opposed to
Presbyterianism 837

Appendix
A. Bearing of Scriptural Principles on the Lawfulness
and Duty of Union between Separate Churches 857
B. Doctrine of the Confession of Faith as to Recognition
and Endowment of the Church by the State; Articles of
Agreement and Distinctive Articles of the Churches
now Negotiating for Union in Scotland, with respect
to the Civil Magistrate 871
C. Note on the History of Voluntaryism 881
D. Practical Aspects of the Relation between Church
and State 889
E. Relative Obligation of Scripture Prescept, Example,
and Principle 933
F. Scripture Consequences 939
G. The Book of Common Order 945
H. The Imposition of Hands in Ordination 953
I. Notes on the Literature of the Subject of this Treatise 957

Index 985

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Publisher’s Note

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 Foreword

T
HE church in the West faces a very tough future. In America,
while church attendance remains high compared to Europe,
the de-Christianisation of society is happening at an aggres-
sive pace. In Europe, the church is struggling even for bare existence
in some places. Everywhere, the anti-Christian atmosphere becomes
more hostile. Same-sex marriage is the cultural and legislative wedge
that would appear to guarantee that the church will be socially marg-
inalized, if not actually persecuted, in the coming years.
Like Paul in the first century, we face a transitional point in his-
tory. As he contemplated the end of the apostolic era, where the men
directly appointed by Christ to lead the church were passing away, so
we contemplate the death of a world where the church was at least a
familiar part of the scenery. In the future, society may well not regard
the church as having any obviously legitimate role; and the church
will have no generic capital in the wider culture upon which she
will be able to rely. Biblical illiteracy, indifference, and even active
hostility are likely to be the orders of the day. At such a time, it is
important to reflect upon priorities for the church, for this is not a
moment for muddled thinking or for expending energy on things
which do not count.
Paul laid plans for the transition from apostolic to post-apostolic
Christianity in his Pastoral Epistles. In 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus,
he laid out a normative pattern for the church in the post-apostolic
era. At a basic level, the church needed a stable, orthodox doctrinal
testimony (a form or pattern of sound words) and a form of gov-
ernment, overseers and deacons. In short, Paul saw that the most
important practical thing the church needed was a practical doctrine
of the church herself. To survive after the death of the apostles, the
church needed to be governed well in accordance with agreed doc-
trinal standards.

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The same is true for the church today. As we head into a world
very similar to Paul’s own context, a world of pluralist religion where
Christianity is regarded with intellectual and moral suspicion, we
need a solid grasp of what the church actually is and how she should
be governed. The New Testament places the church at the centre of
its practical vision of the Christian life and at the heart of the Great
Commission. Thus, a clear understanding of the Bible’s teaching on
the church should be a priority for all Christian ministers, elders,
deacons, and indeed informed lay people. Only when one knows
what the church is can one full grasp what her task is and what tools
the Lord has provided for the accomplishment of that task.
It is with this in mind that The Banner of Truth Trust has reprinted
one of the key historic texts in Protestant, Presbyterian ecclesiology:
James Bannerman’s The Church of Christ. Bannerman, along with
others such as Robert Smith Candlish and William Cunningham,
was one of the finest ministerial minds in the generation of Scot-
tish churchmen who lived through the events of the Disruption of
1843. Then, approximately one third of the ministers of the Church
of Scotland left to form the Free Church of Scotland over the issue
of patronage, or the question of who had the right to call a minister
to serve a congregation: the patron or the congregation itself. The
point may now seem for many to be somewhat antiquarian but it
goes to the heart of the issue of ecclesiology: the nature and admin-
istration of church power. Bannerman’s later writings on ecclesiology
thus emerged from his own very practical experience of ecclesiastical
debates and discussions.
The Church of Christ contains the lectures which Bannerman
gave each year at New College, Edinburgh, the pre-eminent edu-
cational foundation of the Free Church. They were thus intended
to be for students who were looking to enter the ministry. While
Practical Theology today often deals with the homiletic aspects of
the theological curriculum, it has also become an umbrella for any-
thing pertaining to the practicalities of the daily life of a minister.
Thus, courses in counselling, management theory, and even finan-
cial competence often populate the PT course load at seminary. In
Bannerman’s day, however, the discipline was much more narrowly
focused, as these lectures indicate. For him, the nature of Practical

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 FOREWORD

Theology as a discipline arose out of the consideration of the church

as an act of God, with Christ as her head and her source of power.
Thus, the modern reader approaching this text and being told it
teaches practical theology might well come away bewildered: the
content is far more exegetical, systematic, and doctrinal than the
Practical Theology curriculum of most, if not all, seminaries in the
twenty-first century.
Yet Bannerman’s approach is surely correct. The church is not a
response to the grace of God but an act of the grace of God. The
structure of the Heidelberg Catechism, placing the church in the sec-
tion on ‘Grace,’ makes this point with implicit power. Calvin, in his
use of the language of motherhood, articulates the matter memorably
in Institutes IV.I.i (Beveridge translation):
I will begin with the Church, into whose bosom God is pleased
to collect his children, not only that by her aid and ministry
they may be nourished so long as they are babes and children,
but may also be guided by her maternal care until they grow up
to manhood, and, finally, attain to the perfection of faith. What
God has thus joined, let not man put asunder (Mark 10:9): to
those to whom he is a Father, the Church must also be a mother.
This was true not merely under the Law, but even now after the
advent of Christ; since Paul declares that we are the children of
a new, even a heavenly Jerusalem (Gal. 4:26).
The church is God’s creature, not the invention of human beings.
Indeed, the analogy between creation and the church which Paul
draws in Colossians 1:15-20 makes this clear. And if the church is
God’s creature, then the message she speak, the rules she lives by, and
the power she exerts are to be regulated by God and thus by God’s
word. Hence, Bannerman’s approach to practical theology is, first and
foremost, theological because it has to do with God’s revelation.
Bannerman’s work is a very thorough treatment of ecclesiology
which repays careful reading and reflection. It is worth noting,
however, that at the very heart of the work lies the vital question of
church power, its nature and extent. It is perhaps not overbold to say
that mistakes made on this particular question will tend to vitiate
the understanding of the church as a whole. Consider these ques-
tions: In what does the ordained ministry consist? Should the church

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micro-manage the lives of her members? How does the church relate
to the state? To what extent should the church campaign as a church
for wider political or social causes? Is the church to be an agent for
the transformation of society as a whole? What tools does the church
have for making disciples and, if necessary, for disciplining them?
These are just a few of the questions which can only be answered cor-
rectly once the matter of the nature and extent of the church’s power
has been settled.
Bannerman’s answer to the nature of the church’s power is straight-
forward: as Christ is head of the church, he is the source of her power.
Because he is the source of her power, he is also determinative of the
character of her power. That power is ministerial and spiritual and
is exercised in three connected areas: the doctrinal, the sacramental,
and the disciplinary. These are, of course, three marks that many in
the Reformed tradition ascribe to the church: the preaching of the
word, the proper administration of the sacraments, and the appropri-
ate implementation of discipline.
A grasp of these basic principles helps to clarify a lot of confu-
sion. First, if the church’s power is spiritual, then the notion that the
civil magistrate should be used to coerce belief is shown to involve
a terrible confusion of categories. To put it bluntly, the sword can-
not be used to impose Christianity. Had the church understood
that throughout history, much bloodshed could have been avoided.
Today, while the stakes may not be as high, this principle should be
a sobering truth to those who use the language of ‘Christian nation’
in too glib a fashion. Churches are Christian; it is hard to see how a
nation might qualify as such.
Second, these principles focus the mind of the church on her
primary task: making disciples. Of course, Christianity makes a dif-
ference to how people behave in their neighbourhoods and in their
workplaces. It no doubt shapes how they think about voting at elec-
tion time. It impacts their response to the great social issues of the
day. But the church as an institution is not directly focused on any of
these things. Her task is to proclaim Jesus Christ and him crucified
and to nurture believers and to bring them to maturity in the faith.
In a time of scarce resources, knowing where to focus the church’s
energy is vital. A sound ecclesiology, which connects the church’s

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power to the church’s mission, is a prerequisite to correct priorities.

Third, these principles highlight the tools for achieving this dis-
cipleship: word, sacraments, and discipline. There is a vast number
of books written on how to grow the church, how to ‘do’ church (a
ghastly phrase, if ever there was one), and how to disciple people.
Some years ago, I sat on a panel with a free-will Baptist pastor and a
number of mega-church pastors. When asked by the audience about
matters pertaining to church policy, myself and the free-will Bap-
tists found ourselves unexpectedly on the same side. Our response
to any question was first to go back to the New Testament princi-
ples of word, sacrament and discipline. The mega-church pastors all
seemed to offer versions of a different refrain: yes, we see what the
Bible says, but we have tried these other approaches, and they seem
to work better. The problem, of course, is that such responses are
ultimately pragmatic and operate with a malleable definition of the
means of grace. One might also add that they tended to be spectacu-
lar and expensive. The ordinary means of grace, word and sacrament
enriched by prayer, are inexpensive, available to all, and entirely con-
sonant with the New Testament vision of the church.
I doubt that any reader will agree with everything Bannerman has
to say. Baptists and Congregationalists will repudiate his Presbyteri-
anism. Many Presbyterians will now struggle with his advocacy of
the Establishment Principle which seems today at best a pious hope,
at worst a hang-over from an outdated and now impractical model
of church and state. Yet the great thing about the book is that it will
stimulate the reader to reflect on the nature of the church in a pro-
foundly biblical and historically sensitive way. At a point in history
when the church in the West is finding herself for the first time in
1,500 years to be marginal often unwelcome, clear thinking on the
nature and purpose of the church is vital. I do not think there is a
better way to sharpen one’s thinking on these matters than thought-
ful and deep refection upon this work of James Bannerman.
CARL R. TRUEMAN
Pastor, Cornerstone Presbyterian Church (OPC), Ambler, Pa.
Paul Woolley Professor of Church History,
Westminster Theological Seminary, Glenside, Pa.
June 2014.

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 Editor’s Preface

T
HIS treatise is made up of the Lectures delivered by Dr.
Bannerman during each Winter Session of the New College
to the students of the fourth year. The MS. was left by him in
a very perfect state, the course having been fully written out from the
first, and the changes and additions made of late years being, so far
as the Editor is aware, confined to matters of detail. The complete-
ness and symmetry of the plan on which the Lectures were arranged,
and the intimate relation of the several parts to the whole which they
make up, left room for little modification in preparing the work for
the press, save in the way of omitting recapitulations and a few purely
academic allusions. In no case has any freedom been used with the
Author’s language which could in the slightest degree alter or obscure
his meaning. Notes and references added by the Editor are marked
with brackets.
The following analysis of the work may be here inserted, for which
the Editor is indebted to Professor Rainy:—
In this treatise the principles and leading applications of the
doctrine of the Church are discussed; the Church being here
considered chiefly as it becomes visible, and exercises definite
appointed functions; and the fundamental principles laid down
being those commonly received among Scottish Presbyterians.
The importance of the topic, and its eminently practical charac-
ter, will not be disputed. Questions such as those regarding the
sense in which the Church is a Divine institution,—regarding
the powers entrusted to her, the principles on which they are
to be exercised, and the virtue to be ascribed to her action in
the use of them,— the various controversies regarding offices,
discipline, sacraments, schisms, and the like,—these are not
only important at all times, but at the present time they become
continually more urgent. It will perhaps also be admitted, that
those who have to handle them do not always give evidence of

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THE CHURCH OF CHRIST

mature thought and of a consistent scheme of principles. Hence,

the difficulties necessarily arising from conflicts of opinion are
aggravated by those which result merely from perplexity and
confusion. The eminently clear and connected treatment which
the subject here receives, will therefore, it is believed, reward
the attention of careful readers. Even those who belong to other
schools, and do not concur with the Author in his conclusions,
may benefit by the specimen here given of a coherent scheme of
doctrine, and by the obligations which it may be felt to impose
on any one who sets forth a counter scheme.
The arrangement of the course is simple; and a very brief
explanation with respect to it will suffice. In contemplating the
Church, it is natural to ask, first, under what authority this Soci-
ety has been constituted, what is its essential nature, what its
peculiar characteristics. These topics accordingly are first taken
up; and they naturally lead to the inquiry, how this Society
stands related to the other great and permanent forms of human
fellowship, and, in particular, to the State. Next, the functions
of the Church come into view. But before entering upon these
in detail, a preliminary set of questions present themselves as
necessary to be determined. In discharging her functions, the
Church professes to exercise some kind of power and authority.
But much depends on the view that may be taken of the nature
of this power, and of the efficacy to be ascribed to it. The second
general head, therefore, is occupied with the subject of Church
power,—its source, nature, limits, and ends. Nor is this all; for
it is an old, and not in all respects an easy question, in whom,
i.e. in what members of the Church, this power has its primary
residence and seat. The discussion, therefore, of the question
touching the primary subject of Church power follows, and
closes the second head. The principles so far established have
next to be applied in detail to the various kinds of matter in and
about which the Church exercises her powers, and her specific
rights and duties with respect to each have to be considered.
These matters may be reduced to three heads: Doctrine, Ordi-
nances or Worship, and Discipline. Each of these heads involves
a variety of subordinate points. The second of them, Worship,
is especially comprehensive. The Church discharges important
functions with respect to the various parts of worship, the sea-
sons for it, and the agents who ought to conduct it; and, in

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 EDITOR’S PREFACE

particular, the peculiar institutions called Sacraments give rise

to a large class of questions which require separate and detailed
consideration,—so various have been the apprehensions of men
concerning their nature, and the office of the Church in connec-
tion with them. These topics, then, constitute the material of the
third general head. Finally, the question regarding the persons
to whom the exercise of Church power ought to be commit-
ted, leads into the discussion of the Scriptural form of Church
government. This constitutes the fourth general head, and com-
pletes the scheme.
It would not be easy, it is believed, to point to any one work
in which this class of subjects is treated so comprehensively,
and with the unity and thoroughness which characterize these
Lectures. In the older systems, the head De Ecclesiâ compre-
hended topics all of which fall within Dr. Bannerman’s scheme;
but only some of them received full and satisfactory treatment.
Separate works of a more exhaustive kind, such as the Politica
Ecclesiastica of Voetius, did not cover, nor profess to cover, the
whole ground. In modern German writings the discussion of
these matters, though often very learned and able, will not be
regarded in this country as satisfactory, nor even very helpful
as regards the questions which are most important for us. The
condition of the German Churches is not favourable to an equal
and searching survey of the whole field. Moreover, in their Theo-
logical systems, the topics, so far as discussed, are taken up partly
under Systematic and partly under Practical Theology, and the
treatment suffers from this dispersion. In our own country the
discussion of Church questions has been extremely active, and
it is likely to continue. Many able writings have appeared, bear-
ing on larger or smaller sections of the field. Without wishing
to detract from their value and ability, it may perhaps be fairly
said that the objects which the writers had in view have gener-
ally led them to spend their strength chiefly on those questions
which are matters of exciting discussion, and to pass by others,
more recondite perhaps, or less debated, but well entitled to a
place in a full survey of this great subject. A comparison of the
topics dealt with in the volumes of Litton, or of Palmer and
Wordsworth (to name representatives of different theological
schools), with those comprised in this volume, will illustrate the
remark. From the Presbyterian point of view, Dr. Bannerman’s

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THE CHURCH OF CHRIST

work has of course a special interest and value. It is a fresh state-

ment of our fundamental principles in their application to the
whole range of questions; and it is carried through with an eye,
not only to the permanent conditions of the discussion, but also
to the form which recent controversies have assumed.
The Editor’s best acknowledgments are due to the Very Rev.
Principal Candlish for his kindness in undertaking the Preface to
this work. He wishes also to express his warm thanks to the Rev.
John Laing, Acting Librarian, New College, for the labour and pains
bestowed by him upon the Index, and for occasional help in verifying
the few references, to identify which it was necessary to travel beyond
the shelves of Dr. Bannerman’s own library.
In thus ending the task entrusted to him, the Editor cannot
refrain from saying how very greatly the impression, strong as that
was, left upon his mind by these Lectures, when he first had the
privilege of listening to them a few years ago in the New College of
Edinburgh, has been strengthened by a closer study of their contents.
He has been led to appreciate, as he never did before, the depth and
thoroughness and extent of a learning that never encumbers its
possessor, that shows itself not in any purposeless parade of quotation
and authority, but in the unfailing grasp taken of the whole question
at issue in all its bearings, in the clearness and decision with which
all that is central and essential in the controversy is singled out and
separated from what is subordinate or irrelevant, in the ease and
certainty with which the argument is wielded. He has been taught
afresh and more intelligently to recognise the union of high and
rare qualities, not too often brought to bear together on this field
of Theological discussion,—the unvarying fairness and courtesy
to controversial opponents, the calm, judicial wisdom with which
evidence is sifted and reasonings are summed up, the power and
effect with which great leading principles of Divine truth are grasped,
and established, and vindicated in their right to rule the controversy,
the masterly precision and clearness of insight with which the lines
are drawn round some of the most delicate and difficult questions in
all Theology, the reverence for the Word of God. But of these things
it may be more fitting that others should speak.

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 EDITOR’S PREFACE

These Volumes will find acceptance, the Editor believes, with

all who are competent to form a judgment regarding them, and
who, whether agreeing or not with the positions maintained by the
Author, love to see a great subject worthily handled. They will have a
more powerful interest still, he is well assured, to many now scattered
throughout almost all parts of Christendom, who trace some of their
strongest and highest impulses in the work of the ministry to the
Chair in the New College which Dr. Bannerman filled so long, who
learned there, perhaps for the first time, something of the worth
and meaning of Theology, and of the spirit in which the study of
it ought to be pursued, who have cause to remember not only the
weight and power of his public teaching, but words of wise and ready
counsel and deeds of efficient help in times of private difficulty and
questioning, to whom the written argument of these Volumes seems
almost to carry a personal influence, and to whose ears the music of
its grave and stately eloquence is deepened by the memories of a voice
and a bearing not often equalled among men.
D. DOUGLAS BANNERMAN.
Abernyte House, Inchture,
October 1868.

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 Preface by Principal Candlish1

I
HAVE been asked to introduce these Volumes to the Christian
public, and I gladly consent to do so. They do not indeed require
any introduction outside of themselves; nor, if they did, could
mine be of much avail, for I cannot pretend to anything like such a
systematic and scholarly acquaintance with the department of Theo-
logy to which they belong, as might give me a right to speak with
authority. The book, therefore, as to its intrinsic merits, must speak
for itself, so far as I am concerned; it will do so all the better for the
brief analysis of its contents which Dr. Rainy has furnished. I may be
allowed, however, to say that, whether exhaustively or suggestively,
Dr. Bannerman seems to me to have mastered the entire field, not
only in the way of a general survey, but in the way of insight also into
all details.
Exhaustively or suggestively, I have said; for these would seem
to be two different methods of professorial prelection. Of the two,
the suggestive method is clearly the preferable one. To send students
away under the impression that they have got all that needs to be
got for solving every problem and settling every question in the
branch of study to which they have been giving one or two years
of attendance on professorial lectures, is a serious mistake on the
part of the Chair, and a sore evil to its victims,—discovered often
only when it is too late to have it remedied. No such fault can be
found with these Lectures. But a special good can be found in them.
They are exhaustive, in the right way of exhaustively mapping out
the entire ground to be surveyed minutely and particularly; while at
the same time they are not exhaustive, but the reverse, as regards the
actual surveying of the ground thus mapped out. They are suggestive,

1
Robert Smith Candlish (1806–73) was the minister of St George’s Free Church
of Scotland, Edinburgh and succeeded William Cunningham as Principal of New
College, Edinburgh in 1862.

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THE CHURCH OF CHRIST

and highly suggestive, in themselves and in their references, on all

questions of detail, while at the same time they bring out clearly and
fully the entire doctrine as a whole, and the bearing of these detailed
questions upon the entire doctrine as a whole.
But I may be allowed a few words about the Author, if not about
this work of his.
I can testify, with the utmost confidence, to his being com-
petent, and admitted on all hands to be competent, to give a fair
and full representation of the theory of Church polity, all but
unanimously adopted in Scotland at and after the Reformation,—
not under influences from without, such as regal supremacy or papal
dictation; but inwardly and directly from the study of the Divine
Word, and the honest application of its principles to the problems
of Divine Providence as they came up. For that is what we claim to
be the characteristic of our Scottish Reformation,—that in all the
departments of doctrine, worship, and government, it was no mere
modification of the Romish system, in accommodation to altered
circumstances, but a reconstruction of the Divine plan, freshly based
on the old foundation.
For the exposition of the doctrine of the Church upon that footing,
and in that view, Dr. Bannerman was eminently qualified. He was
a close and thorough biblical student; and he was an authority in
ecclesiastical history and law.
I can recall his first public and prominent service rendered to the
Church in the years 1839–41, when it fell to him mainly to conduct a
case of heresy, involving very delicate and difficult points in Theology.
And I can recall also his valuable service rendered in connection with
the gravest question raised in the course of our ‘ten years’ conflict,’—
that of the Strathbogie interdicts. In both instances Dr. Bannerman
won for himself the full confidence and esteem of the whole Church;
and it was felt to be only a suitable acknowledgment of his worth and
his work when he was called to occupy the professorial Chair.
Of his manner of occupying that Chair, I need not speak. But I
must express the deep feeling of regret with which all parties in the
Church received the tidings of his death, at the very time when he was
coming forward more than his special professorial engagements had
previously permitted, in the discussion of matters widely and deeply

xxiv
affecting the general interests of Christian peace and union in the
Church catholic, as well as in our own branch of it. In that view, one
is constrained to wonder, and stand in awe, and say, ‘It is the Lord.’
R. S. C.

xxv
 INTRODUCTION

Introduction

T
HE Bible is a revelation from God of truths immediately
bearing on the state by nature, and the recovery by divine
grace, of individual men. But it is more than that: it is also
a revelation of truths bearing on the character and condition of men
formed into a society of believers, and constituting one collective
body, holding together the faith of Christ. The difference between
these two aspects in which the Bible may be regarded, marks the
point of transition from the departments of Apologetical and Doc-
trinal Theology to the department on which we are now about to
enter,—that, namely, of the nature, powers, and constitution of the
Christian Church. To individual men, whether in a state of sin or a
state of salvation, the Bible is a communication from God, telling
them of truths and doctrines, through the belief and renewing influ-
ence of which they may individually be recovered from the spiritual
ruin of the fall, and made partakers, under the Divine Spirit, of com-
plete and everlasting redemption. But to the body of believers, not
individually, but collectively, the Bible is also a communication from
God, telling them of truths and doctrines, through the right appre-
ciation of which they may be fashioned into a spiritual society, with
divinely authorized powers and ordinances and office-bearers,—an
outward and public witness for God on the earth, and an instrument
for the edification of the people of Christ.
Perhaps there are few who confess Jesus Christ to be the Author
and Finisher of their faith, who do not also confess, in one sense
or other, that He is the Founder and Head of a society destined to
embrace all His followers, and fitted to be of permanent continuance.
Men may differ widely as to their notions of the kind of community
which Christ has actually established; but few, if any, will be found
to deny that Christianity was designed to be something more than
the religion of individuals, bound together by no tie, and gathered

1
THE CHURCH OF CHRIST

into no outward society. In its primary and most important aspect,

indeed, the revelation of God contained in the Bible is a revelation
to me individually. Its discoveries of sin and announcements of
judgment, its intimations of grace and its proclamations of a Saviour,
its offers of an atoning blood to expiate, and a regenerating Spirit to
purge, transgression,—these are addressed to me individually; and
if I deal with them at all, I must deal with them as if there were no
other in the world except myself and God. Alone with God, I must
realize the Bible as if it were a message from Him to my solitary
self, singled out and separated from other men, and feeling my own
individual responsibility in receiving or rejecting it. But the Bible
does not stop here: it deals with man, not only as a solitary unit in his
relation to God, but also as a member of a spiritual society, gathered
together in the name of Jesus. It is not a mere system of doctrines
to be believed and precepts to be observed by each individual
Christian independently of others, and apart from others: it is a
system of doctrines and precepts, designed and adapted for a society
of Christians. This agreement and co-operation of men holding the
same faith and the same Saviour is not an accidental or voluntary
union which has grown up of itself: it is a union designed beforehand,
appointed from the beginning by God, and plainly contemplated
and required in every page of the New Testament Scriptures. There
are precepts in the Bible addressed, not to believers separately, but
to believers associated together into a corporate society; there are
duties that are enjoined upon the body, and not upon the members
of which it is composed; there are powers assigned to the community,
to which the individuals of the community are strangers; there is
a government, an order, a code of laws, a system of ordinances
and officers described in Scripture, which can apply to none other
than a collective association of Christians. Without the existence
of a Church, or of a body of believers, as contradistinguished from
believers individually, very much of what is contained in the Bible
would be unintelligible, and without practical application.
There are two aspects in which the Church, as a society of believers,
in contradistinction from individual believers, is represented in
Scripture, that serve to place it in an important and solemn point
of view.

2
 INTRODUCTION

I. In the first place, the Church is spoken of as ‘the body of Christ,’

in a sense in which the words cannot be applied to the individual
believer.1 It cannot be said of any individual Christian, however
richly endowed with spiritual gifts from the Saviour, that he is ‘the
body of Christ.’ But in some sense, not the same with but similar
to that in which the human nature of Christ was His body during
His life on earth, can the Church, and not individuals, be said to
be His body now. And just as the indwelling of the Son of God in
the human nature of Christ richly endowed and gloriously exalted
that nature with all spiritual graces and gifts and powers unknown
to any other person, so the indwelling of Christ in His Church, in a
way and manner unknown to individual believers, exalts and endows
the Church with gifts and graces and powers which no Christian
individually possesses. The Church is ‘the fulness of Him that filleth
all in all.’2
II. In the second place, the Church is spoken of in Scripture as
the residence or earthly dwelling-place of the Spirit, the Third Person
of the glorious Godhead.3 It is no doubt true that the Spirit of God
dwells in each individual believer, making his soul and body His
temple, and glorifying the place of His presence with all heavenly and
sanctified graces. But, over and above this, and in a higher sense than
can apply to any individual Christian, the Spirit of God makes His
dwelling in the Church, enriching that Church with all the fulness of
life and power and privilege, which no single believer could receive
or contain. As the body of the Son of God, as the earthly dwelling-
place of the Spirit of God, the Church more than the Christian—the
society more than the individual—is set forth to us as the highest and
most glorious embodiment and manifestation of Divine power and
grace upon the earth. And it is in reference to the society, and not
to the individuals of which it is composed—to the Church and not
to its single members—that very much of the language of the Bible
refers.
1
Eph. 1:23; 4:12; 5:23-32; Col. 1:18, 24; 3:15; 1 Cor. 12:12ff. 27.
2
to. plh,rwma tou/ pa,nta evn pa/sin plhroume,nou, Eph. 1:23. Comp. evn auvtw/|
euvdo,khsen pa/n to. plh,rwma katoikh/sai, Col. 1:19; evn auvtw/| katoikei/ pa/n to.
plh,rwma th/j qeo,thtoj swmatikw/j( Col. 2:9
3
Rom. 8:9, 11, 16;1 Cor. 3:16, 17; 6:11, 15-17; Eph. 2:18, 22; 4:4. See the Greek in
all these passages.

3
THE CHURCH OF CHRIST

The field of discussion opened up by a consideration of the Bible,

as a revelation of truths bearing on believers not individually, but as
formed into a collective body and constituting the Church of Christ,
is a very wide and important one. It embraces a vast variety of topics,
many of them involving discussions the most delicate and difficult
within the whole range of theology. It is a field which, in so far as
regards a comprehensive and separate survey of it, is comparatively
new and untrodden. It is indeed briefly adverted to in most of the
ordinary systems of theology, and particular departments of it have
been traversed, to a greater or less extent, on particular occasions of
controversy; yet, as a whole, it has seldom been opened up at length,
and systematically.
It was with no ordinary feelings of doubt and distrust in my own
powers, that I first set myself to cope with this high argument. With
that measure of ability which God has given me, and which the
Church has called upon me to exercise in the Chair in this College
to which the Doctrine of the Church belongs, I have endeavoured to
open up the general principles, of a subject, almost entirely new in
academic prelections, and especially arduous.
I have found the task to be one beset with difficulties neither few
nor small. Not the least of these has been the entire absence of any
adequate guide—or often of any guide at all—to aid me in shaping
my course and forming my opinions with respect to many of the
most difficult and delicate questions connected with my subject. I
have been compelled to take up these opinions very much at my own
hand, and to become myself a learner before I could attempt to teach;
and upon such points as these it would be the very reverse of wisdom
to dogmatize.
I shall be more than rewarded for the time and labour spent upon
this great and arduous subject, if I have been enabled, in however
small a measure, to impart some knowledge of the truths, or to suggest
some of the grand principles, or even to awaken some interest in the
argument of a department in theology, a thorough acquaintance with
which is so essential for those who hope to occupy, or who already
fill, that honourable yet responsible place, held by those who are put
in trust with the work of the ministry in the Church of the Lord Jesus
Christ.

4
Chap. i.] THE CHURCH AS DEFINED IN SCRIPTURE

PART I

THE NATURE OF THE CHURCH

chapter i
The Church as Defined in Scripture

M
ANY, perhaps indeed most, of the controversies which
have arisen in connection with ecclesiastical theology, are
to be traced back to fundamental differences of opinion
regarding the essential nature and character of that society which
Christ has instituted. The different or opposite notions which men
have professed to gather from Scripture, in regard to the origin and
essential principles of the Christian Church, have necessarily led to
conclusions widely different in regard to its functions, its authority,
its ordinances, and its government. It is highly important, therefore,
to lay down at the outset those scriptural principles as to the nature
and character of the Church of Christ, which may prove to us guid-
ing principles in our subsequent investigations into its powers, and
the offices it is appointed to discharge. And the first question which
naturally arises is regarding the meaning which ought to be attached
to the word ‘Church.’ Different societies or associations of Chris-
tians are found claiming to themselves, and denying to others, the
character and privileges of a Church of Christ; and opinions widely
differing from each other are held as to the meaning of the designa-
tion. In such circumstances we must have recourse to the Word of
God, in order that, by an examination of its statements, we may
ascertain in what sense, or in what senses, the term Church is to be
understood by us.

5
THE NATURE OF THE CHURCH [Part i.

The word, evkklhsia, which is translated Church in our version of

the New Testament, in its primary meaning denotes any assembly
gathered together from a promiscuous multitude, whether it be or
be not regularly organized, and whether it be for civil or ecclesiastical
purposes. Examples both in classical and inspired writers are at hand
to prove the extensive meaning of the term;1 and the same wide
signification belongs to the corresponding word in the Hebrew of the
Old Testament.2 In the application of the term to secular assemblies,
we find it used to signify the city council, convened in an orderly
manner by the magistrate for the determination of civil matters; as in
Acts 19, where the town-clerk of Ephesus is represented as addressing
the citizens: ‘If Demetrius, and the craftsmen who are with him, have
a matter against any man, the law is open, and there are deputies: let
them implead one another. But if ye inquire anything concerning
other matters, it shall be determined (evn th/| evnno,mw| evkklhsi,a) in
a lawful convention.’ In a similar application of the term to secular
assemblies, we find it employed to denote a riotous assemblage of
people, gathered together in a disorderly crowd, for purposes of
tumult; as in the same chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, when it is
said, in regard to the mob who assaulted Paul and his companions:
‘Some therefore cried one thing, and some another, for (h` evkklhsia)
the assembly or crowd was confused.’ With this wide use of the
term, as applied to secular assemblies, it is plain that the precise
signification of the word, in any given instance, is to be gathered
from the manner in which it is employed, and from the context. The
same is true in regard to the use of the term evkklhsia, when applied
to sacred or ecclesiastical assemblies of people. Here, too, the range
of its application is a wide one; and the precise meaning of the word,
in any particular case, must be ascertained from the general sense of
the passage and from the context. There are five different but closely

1
See Schleusner, Lexicon Nov. Test. in voc. evkklhsia.
2
lh'q' (from lh;q' = in Hiph. to call together), ‘congregation,’ ‘assembly,’ LXX.
evkklhsia, and sunagwgh, twice to plhqoj, and once sunedrion and hd'[e (from
d[;y' = to appoint, and in Niph. to come together), ‘congregation,’ ‘assembly,’ LXX.
sunagwgh, once parembolh, and once evpisustasij; ar'q.mi, again (from ah'q' = kalew),
‘convocation,’ ‘assembly,’ LXX. klhtoj, evpiklhtoj, is always restricted, in the Old
Testament, to an assembly for religious purposes.

6
Chap. i.] THE CHURCH AS DEFINED IN SCRIPTURE

allied meanings of the term ‘Church’ to be gathered from Scripture.

I. The word Church signifies the whole body of the faithful,
whether in heaven or on earth, who have been or shall be spiritually
united to Christ as their Saviour.
There are many examples in Scripture of the use of the term in this
wide sense. The first occasion on which the word occurs in the New
Testament is one of these, when our Lord declares that ‘the gates of hell
shall not prevail against His Church,’1— language which plainly refers
to the society or association of all those who had believed or should
believe in Him. All history proves that particular and local Churches
may fall away from the faith into complete and final apostasy. The
promise of our Lord can apply to no special community except the
universal Church of Christ, invisible to human eye, and known only
to His, consisting of all true believers, and of none else. Again, in the
Epistle to the Ephesians, we are told that Christ ‘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.’2 That society of men for
whom Christ died, and who shall, each one of them, be presented
at last holy and without spot before God, is plainly a society the
members of which no man can number or declare by any external
mark; which can be restricted to no geographical locality, and can be
recognised by no features visible to the outward eye. It is the society
of the elect, and not identical with any outward Church or Churches
of whatsoever name. It is the spiritual and invisible Church of the
Redeemer, known only to Himself, of which Scripture thus speaks;
and in entire accordance with this use of the term Church in Scripture
to denote a society comprehending the whole body of the elect, and
none else, are other names or titles given to it in the New Testament.
The Church is at one time spoken of under the mysterious name of
the Bride or Spouse of Christ,3—an expression which can apply to no
local or particular Church—to no society, indeed, at all, measured
and recognised by the eye of man under any form, or under all forms,
1
Matt. 16:18
2
Eph. 5:25-27.
3
Song of Sol. 2:10ff.; 4:7, 9ff.; Eph. 5:32; Rev. 21:2, 9; 22:17.

7
THE NATURE OF THE CHURCH [Part i.

of Christian profession,—but must be intended to mark out those,

and those only, who have been espoused to Christ through the holy
union of His Spirit with theirs. At another time it is spoken of as
‘the temple of the Holy Ghost,’ ‘a spiritual house,’ ‘an habitation of
God through the Spirit,’1—language plainly designed to mark out a
society defined by no outward limits, but identical with the whole
number of spiritual Christians of whatsoever society throughout the
world, who have been quickened by the Spirit.
And, finally, the Church is described as ‘the body of Christ,’ all the
members of which are united to Him as the Head of life and influence
and grace to them,2—a description not applicable to any outward
body of professing Christians made up of any or all communions, but
only to be realized in that great multitude which no man has seen or
numbered, who make up the invisible Church of the Redeemer, and
whose names are written in heaven. In these passages, and in many
others, we have a society defined and described, which embraces the
whole number of Christ’s elect, and none but they,—a society not
identical with any known on earth, and not to be recognised by any
local names or notes or boundaries,—a society marked out from any
other by the possession of certain high and mysterious privileges, and
standing in a very close and peculiar relation to Christ, but unseen
and unknown of man,—a society whose members are unreckoned
and unobserved on earth, but all of whom are numbered and known
in heaven. Such is the invisible Church of the Redeemer. ‘The catholic
or universal Church,’ says the Confession of Faith, ‘which is invisible,
consists of the whole number of the elect that have been or shall be
gathered into one under Christ, the Head thereof; and is the spouse,
the body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all.’3
1
Eph. 2:21, 22; 1 Cor. 3:16, 17; 2 Cor. 6:16; 1 Pet. 2:5.
2
1 Cor. 12:27; Eph. 3:6; 4:12, 16; Col. 1:18; 2:19.
3
Conf. chap. xxv. 1. [‘We recognise the head in that man who was born of the
Virgin Mary etc. This is the head of the Church. The body for this head is the Church,
not the Church which is in this place but which is in this place and throughout the
whole world; not the Church which exists at this time, but the Church from Abel
himself to those who are destined to be born right up to the end and to believe in
Christ, the whole population of saints belonging to the one city—the city which is
the body of Christ, whose head is Christ.’ Aug. in Psalm 90:1. Opera, ed. Migne,
tom. iv. Pars ii. p. 1159.]

8
Chap. i.] THE CHURCH AS DEFINED IN SCRIPTURE

II. The term Church is made use of in Scripture to denote the

whole body throughout the world of those that outwardly profess
the faith of Christ.
Over and above that unseen society, consisting of the whole
number of the elect, who are spiritually united to Christ, there is set
forth to us in Scripture another society, externally connected with
Christ, and standing out visibly before the eyes of the world. This is
the visible Church of Christ, known to men by the outward profession
of faith in Him, and by the practice of those Church ordinances and
observances which He has appointed for His worshippers. It is not to
be identified with the invisible Church, for men may belong to the
one society, who do not truly belong to the other; and the relation
in which the one body stands to Christ is different from the relation
occupied by the other. Neither are the two to be wholly placed in
opposition to each other; for they form, not so much two separate
Churches, as one Church under two distinct and different characters
or aspects,—the invisible Church being spiritually united to Christ,
the visible being externally united to Him for the sake of the other.
This outward society of professing Christians is frequently spoken of
and delineated in Scripture under the term Church. It is spoken of in
the Acts of the Apostles, when it is said that ‘the Lord added to the
Church daily such as should be saved.’1 It is spoken of in the Epistle
to the Corinthians, when mention is made by Paul of the outward
provision which God has made for the order and government and
edification of the Church: ‘And God has set some in the Church, first
apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles,
then gifts of healing, helps, governments, diversities of tongues.’2 It
is spoken of again, in reference to the same matter, in the Epistle to
the Ephesians, when the same inspired writer says that Christ ‘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.’3 In such passages,
it is plain that a visible society of professing Christians is referred to,
known and marked out among men by certain outward ordinances
1
Acts 2:47.
2
1 Cor. 12:28.
3
Eph. 4:11, 12.

9
THE NATURE OF THE CHURCH [Part i.

and observances peculiar to them, but not to be confounded with

the invisible Church made up of the elect. Under the outward form
of the visible Church, the invisible society of true believers may to a
great extent lie concealed; but under that outward form there may be
multitudes also, not truly members of the body of Christ, and only
joined to Him by external profession and external ordinances.
That a Church visible and outward, known and recognised by the
profession of the faith of Christ and the administration of Christ’s
ordinances, and yet not to be identified with the invisible society
of true believers, is acknowledged and described in Scripture, may
be distinctly ascertained, from a careful consideration of the various
acceptations in which the word Church is made use of in the New
Testament. But if additional evidence were desired on this point, it
would be found in various parables of our Lord, in which He more
especially describes the visible Church under the expressive title of
‘the kingdom of heaven.’ ‘The kingdom of heaven,’ said our Lord
on one occasion, ‘is like unto a net that was cast into the sea, and
gathered of every kind: which, when it was full, they drew to shore,
and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad
away.’1 This separation of the good from the evil in His kingdom
or visible Church is to take place, as He expressly adds, ‘at the end
of the world,’ when ‘the angels shall sever the wicked from among
the just,’—the visible Church in this world being made up, in the
meantime, of a multitude of true and feigned believers under one
common profession, and yet being recognised by Christ as His
Church. ‘The kingdom of heaven,’ said our Lord in another parable,
‘is like unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: but while men
slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his
way. But when the blade was sprang up, and brought forth fruit, then
appeared the tares also.’ And was this introduction of the tares into
the visible Church inconsistent with its character as a Church, and
immediately to be remedied by their removal? ‘Nay,’ continues the
parable, ‘lest, while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat
with them. Let both grow together until the harvest.’2 To exactly the
same effect is that remarkable similitude, in which our Lord likens
1
Matt. 13:47-49.
2
Matt. 13:24-30, 36-43.

10
Chap. i.] THE CHURCH AS DEFINED IN SCRIPTURE

the relation between Himself and His Church to the union subsisting
between the vine and the branches. ‘I am the true vine,’ said He, ‘and
my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not
fruit He taketh away; and every branch that beareth fruit He purgeth
it, that it may bring forth more fruit.’ ‘I am the vine, ye are the
branches.’ ‘If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and
is withered.’1 It is plain that in such language our Lord recognised
a twofold union to Himself,—one, a living union, like that of the
fruitful branch in the vine; the other, a dead or mere external union,
such as the unfruitful branch in the vine, that was cast forth and
withered; and such precisely is the twofold connection with Christ,
exemplified in the case respectively of the invisible and the visible
Church. Those who are united to the Saviour by a living union,—
unseen indeed of men, but known to Him,—constitute that society
of believers spoken of in Scripture as the spiritual or invisible Church
of Christ. Those, on the other hand, who are united to the Saviour
by an external union of outward profession and outward privileges,
known and seen of men, numbering among them the true believers
in Christ, but not exclusively made up of true believers, constitute
the visible Church. ‘The visible Church,’ says the Confession of Faith,
‘which is also catholic or universal under the gospel (not confined to
one nation as before under the law), consists of all those throughout
the world that profess the true religion, together with their children,
and is the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, the house and family
of God, out of which there is no ordinary possibility of salvation.’2
III. The term Church is frequently employed in Scripture to denote
the body of believers in any particular place, associated together in
the worship of God.
1
John 15:1-8.
2
Conf. chap. xxv. 2. [Comp. also the Second Book of Discipline, chap. i. 1. ‘The
Kirk of God is sumtymes largelie takin for all them that professe the Evangill of
Jesus Christ, and so it is a Company and Fellowship not onely of the Godly, but
also of Hypocrites professing alwayis outwardly ane true Religion; uther Tymes it is
takin for the Godlie and Elect onlie.’—Dunlop’s Collection of Confessions of Faith,
Catechisms, Directories, Books of Discipline, etc. of Publick Authority in the Church of
Scotland, Edinr. 1722, vol. ii. p. 759. ‘The church comprises those persons in whom
there is true knowledge and confession of the faith and truth.’—Nicolas de Lyra (ob.
1340), quoted by Melanchthon in the Apol. Conf Aug. chap. 4.

11
THE NATURE OF THE CHURCH [Part i.

This third meaning of the word lies on the very surface of Scripture,
and requires almost no illustration. Even in the case of two or three
professing Christians, met together for prayer and worship, whether
publicly or in private houses, the term evkklhsia is applied to them in
the New Testament; and that, too, before such a congregation might
be organized, by having regular office-bearers and minister appointed
over them. In the Acts of the Apostles we are told that Paul and
Barnabas ‘ordained them elders in every Church’ as they journeyed
through Lystra and Iconium and Antioch,1—language which plainly
recognises the congregation of professing believers as a Church, even
previously to the ordination of office-bearers among them. The body
of believers in any particular place associating together for worship,
whether numerous or not, have the true character of a Church of
Christ. Thus the Apostle Paul on some occasions recognises as a
Church the meeting of believers in the private house of some one or
other of his converts. ‘Greet,’ says he in the Epistle to the Romans,
‘Priscilla and Aquila, my helpers in Christ Jesus; likewise greet the
Church that is in their house.’2 In his Epistle to the Corinthians
the same apostle sends to his converts, first, the salutation of the
Churches of Asia, and second, the salutation of the congregation
or Church assembling in the house of Aquila and Priscilla. ‘The
Churches of Asia salute you. Aquila and Priscilla salute you much
in the Lord, with the Church that is in their house.’3 In like manner,
in the Epistle to the Colossians, we hear, ‘Salute Nymphas, and the
Church which is in his house;’ and in the Epistle to Philemon, ‘To
the Church in thy house: grace and peace from God our Father, and
from the Lord Jesus Christ;’4—so numerous and distinct are the testi-
monies to this third meaning of the term Church, as a company of
professing Christians, however small, associated together in any one
place for the worship and service of God.
IV. The word Church is applied in the New Testament to a number
of congregations associated together under a common government.

1
Acts 14:23.
2
Rom. 16:3-5.
3
1 Cor. 16:19.
4
Col. 4:15; Philem. 23

12
Chap. i.] THE CHURCH AS DEFINED IN SCRIPTURE

It is not necessary to suppose that the term ‘Church,’ when used

in reference to the society of professing Christians belonging to one
locality, was limited to a single congregation meeting in one building.
On the contrary, there seems to be the strongest evidence for assuming
that a plurality of congregations, meeting for worship in separate
houses, but connected together under one ecclesiastical order, was
designated by the general term of a Church. It is not necessary at this
stage to enter at length into the discussion of a point, which will more
naturally fall to be argued when we come to speak of the government
of the Church. It may be enough at present simply to indicate the
kind of argument by which it can be shown that the word Church
is not restricted in its application to a single congregation, but is
used in reference to more than one connected together under one
common ecclesiastical arrangement. This will sufficiently appear if we
take the case of the converts at Jerusalem, who are spoken of under
the general name of ‘the Church at Jerusalem,’ but who, nevertheless,
must have constituted more than one congregation in that city. There
is enough recorded in the Acts of the Apostles regarding the vast
number of Christians at Jerusalem, to forbid the supposition that
they could have met all together in one congregation, or under one
roof, for their ordinary religious services. On one occasion—that of
the outpouring of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost—we are expressly
told that ‘there were added’ to the number of believers previously at
Jerusalem ‘about three thousand souls.’ After this it is declared that
‘daily the Lord added to the Church such as should be saved.’1 At a
later period still, when Peter had preached after healing the lame man
at the gate of the temple, we are told that ‘many of them that heard
the word believed; and the number of the men (avndrwn) was about
five thousand,’2—a number evidently exclusive of women. Even this
vast number of converts was still further augmented; for in the next
chapter we are told that ‘believers were the more added to the Lord,
multitudes both of men and women.’3 And at a subsequent date we
have the testimony of James, speaking to Paul respecting the converts
at Jerusalem: ‘Thou seest, brother, how many thousands (literally,
1
Acts 2:41, 47.
2
Acts 4:4.
3
Acts 5:14.

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THE NATURE OF THE CHURCH [Part i.

myriads, posai muriadej) of Jews there are which believe.’1 With

such facts as these before us regarding the multitudes of converts at
Jerusalem, it seems impossible to maintain that the Church there
consisted of no more than one solitary congregation, worshipping
together under a single roof. No one building could have contained
the many thousands of believers that crowded Jerusalem at that time
in the fulness of a Pentecostal harvest; nor is it possible, except under
the influence of some misleading theory, to believe that they formed
no more than one congregation. The conclusion, then, seems to be
inevitable, that when we read of the Church at Jerusalem, we find
the term applied, not to a single congregation of believers, but to a
plurality of congregations, connected together as one body or Church
by means of a common government. An examination of the cases of
the Church at Corinth and the Church of Ephesus would lead to a
similar conclusion, and would justify us in affirming that the word
Church in these instances also denotes, not a single congregation of
worshippers, but several congregations associated together by vicinity
of place, but still more by a common ecclesiastical rule and order. I
do not stop at present to inquire under what form of government
separate congregations were thus connected together. The fact that
they were so is all that is necessary for us to know in assigning to the
term Church this fourth signification.
V. The word Church is applied, in the New Testament, to the body
of professing believers in any place, as represented by their rulers and
office-bearers.
The principle of representation is fully and frequently recognised
in Scripture as having a place in the dispensations of God, as well
as in the ordinary transactions of life; nor can it seem anything new
to find the body of believers in any given place represented by their
office-bearers, and the term primarily descriptive of the one applied
to the other. An example of this application of the term Church is to
be found in Matthew 18, when our Lord is laying down the principles
on which a Christian ought to proceed in the case of a brother who
has trespassed against him. If, after dealing with the offender as to his
fault, first in private with himself alone, and then in the presence of

1
Acts 21:20.

14
Chap. i.] THE CHURCH AS DEFINED IN SCRIPTURE

two or three witnesses, he shall still neglect to hear and acknowledge

his offence, the command of our Lord is to ‘tell it to the Church.’ In
such an injunction our Lord referred to the synagogue Court known
and established among the Jews, which had its elders and officers
for the decision of such matters of discipline; and in the expression
‘the Church,’ which He made use of, the Jews who heard Him must
have understood the authorized rulers, as distinct from the ruled,
to be the parties who were to determine in such controversies. An
impartial consideration of this text in its connection seems to justify
the assertion that the word Church is in Scripture, among its other
meanings, employed to denote the rulers or office-bearers of the
Christian society.
Such are the five different senses in which the word Church is used
in the New Testament Scriptures; and it is not unimportant to remark
the connection between them, and the order in which they stand
related to each other. The primary and normal idea of the Church,
as set forth in Scripture, is unquestionably that of a body of men
spiritually united to Christ, and, in consequence of that union, one
with each other, as they are one with Him. From this fundamental
idea of the universal invisible Church of Christ, all the others are
derived. Add to this first idea of a Church, as indicated in Scripture,
an outward provision of government, ordinances, and office-bearers,
appointed for the purpose of ministering to the edification of its
members, and you have the visible Church, as laid down in the
New Testament,—an outward society formed upon the inward and
spiritual one, and established and maintained in the world for its
benefit. Add to this second scriptural idea of a Church the further
notion of locality, so that instead of being viewed in its universal
character as extending over all the world, it is viewed in its local
character as existing in certain places, and limited to them,—and you
learn the third meaning of the term as found in the New Testament,
namely, a body of professing Christians assembling together in one
place for the worship and service of God. Further still, annex to this
third notion of the Church, as existing in particular localities and
congregations, the additional idea of co-operation and union under
some one form of ecclesiastical government, and you arrive at the
fourth meaning of the word Church in Scripture,—a number of

15
THE NATURE OF THE CHURCH [Part i.

particular congregations associated together under one Church order

and authority. And lastly, to this fourth idea of a Church conjoin
the principle of representation, so largely developed both in the
dispensations of God and in the arrangements of civil society, and
you reach the fifth and final use of the term as found in the Bible,
namely, to denote a society or societies of professing Christians, as
represented by their office-bearers and rulers. From the single germ
of one believer or of several believers, vitally united to a Saviour,
and in the enjoyment of the privileges belonging to that union, it
is not difficult to trace the Church of Christ under all the different
yet closely allied characters in which it is defined and delineated in
Scripture.1
It is of great importance, at the outset, to fix with some measure
of precision the different significations in which the word Church
is used in Scripture, because of the opposite opinions entertained
by different parties as to this matter,—opinions which cannot fail
to bear directly or indirectly upon every step in our subsequent
discussions. For example, the Romanist sets himself in opposition
to the first of those meanings which we have found to be attached
in Scripture to the term Church. He is prepared to deny altogether,
or, if not to deny abstractly, yet practically to set aside, the idea
of an invisible Church as the primary and fundamental one, and
to substitute that of a visible Church in its stead. Bossuet, in his
Variations of the Protestant Churches, goes so far as to charge upon
the Reformers the invention of the idea of a Church invisible, with
a view to meet the alleged difficulty, so often urged by Romanists,
of the visible existence of no Church, identical in principles and
character with the Reformed before the Reformation.2 And more
1
Compare with these five meanings of the term Church those given by Mr.
Palmer, who may be taken as a representative of the English High Church party:
Treatise on the Church of Christ, Lond. 1838, vol. i. pp. 4, 5. [Also Wordsworth’s
Theoph. Angl., Lond. 1863, Part i. chaps. i. ii. iii. Nitzsch, System der christl. Lehre, 6te
Ausg. § 187: ‘The church is first, and before it is anything else, the congregation of
saints and even to that extent an object of faith … .’ Comp. Melanchthon in Apol.
Conf. Aug. art. iv.: ‘The church is principally a bond of faith and the Holy Spirit in
people’s hearts.’]
2
Bossuet, Variations of the Protestant Churches, Dublin 1836, vol. ii. pp. 281, 290,
2d ed.

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Chap. i.] THE CHURCH AS DEFINED IN SCRIPTURE

recent Romanist controversialists, if they do not in so many terms

deny the existence of a Church invisible, endeavour to substitute in
its stead that of a visible body as the leading and normal idea of the
Christian society. Now, concede to Romanists the position they are
so anxious to assume, and deny that there is an invisible and spiritual
Church at all, or at least that this is the primary and leading idea of
the Christian society; grant that the outward and visible Church is
the source from which the inward and invisible is derived,—and you
open up the way for some of the worst and most characteristic errors
of Popery. That single admission with respect to the fundamental idea
of the Christian society, prepares the way for making communion
with an outward Church take the place of a spiritual reality, and
substituting the external charm of priestly arts and sacramental grace
for the living union of the soul to the Saviour.1
Or, take another example from the case of the Independents.
Independents deny the second of the five meanings which we have
found ascribed to the word Church in Scripture. They repudiate
altogether the idea of a visible Church, sustaining a real, although
external, relation to Christ, and composed of His professing people.
Now, concede to the Independents this position, and set aside the
idea of a visible Church with its outward order and privileges, and you
concede to them at the same time all that is necessary to determine in
their favour the question regarding the character and qualifications of
Church members, and to establish their principles on the subject of
‘pure communion.’ In like manner the Independents reject the fourth
and fifth meanings of the word Church. They deny that it is ever

1
‘It is our view,’ says Bellarmine, after reviewing the opinions of the Reformers
regarding the Church visible and invisible, ‘that the Church is only one, not two,
and that one and true Church is a congregation of men gathered together through
the profession of the same Christian faith and fellowship in the same Sacraments,
under the direction of legitimate pastors, and especially of the Roman Pontiff, the
one vicar of Christ on earth. From this definition’, he most justly adds, ‘it can easily
be inferred what men belong to the Church and what do not.’ Bell. Opera, tom.
ii. lib. iii. chaps, ii. xi. xii., where he distinctly denies the existence of an invisible
church, and argues against it at length. See also Möhler, Symbolism, Robertson’s
Transl., vol. ii. pp. 5 f. 108; 2d ed. [Comp, also Nitzsch’s protestantische Beantwortung
der Symbolik Möhler’s, pp. 232, 233; Schleiermacher’s christliche Glaube, Berlin 1830,
Band i. p. 145, 2te Ausg.]

17
THE NATURE OF THE CHURCH [Part i.

found in Scripture to signify either a plurality of congregations under

one government, or simply the representatives or office-bearers of
the congregation as contradistinguished from the congregation itself.
Here, too, the difference of opinion in regard to the use and meaning
of the term in Scripture is a fundamental one, giving rise to other
and no less fundamental differences at future stages of the discussion.
Admit the narrow position taken up by the Independents in regard
to the true meaning and nature of a Church as defined in Scripture,
restrict the term to one or other of the two significations of either
the invisible Church at large, or a single congregation of believers
in a particular locality, and you, in fact, concede every principle that
is necessary for them to establish their views as to the form of the
Church, and the nature of its government. There cannot be, in fact,
a more important question, or one in the determination of which
more fundamental principles are involved, than that in regard to the
real nature of the Christian Church, as delineated in Scripture; and if
we have succeeded in discovering the meaning of the term according
to New Testament usage, we shall have done much to prepare the
way for our future discussions.1

1
Principal Cunningham’s Works, Edin. 1863, vol. ii. pp. 9-20. Apollonius,
Consideratio Quarund. Controv. etc., Lond. 1644, cap. iii. pp. 27-51; Engl. Transl.,
Lond. 1645, A Consideration, etc., chap. iii. pp. 24-43. Mastricht, Theologia Theoretico-
Practica, lib. vii. cap. i.

18