The Reformation of the Church: A Collection of Reformed on Puritan Documents on Church Issues (Iain H. Murray)

Description

The nature and life of the church is one of the most crucial issues facing Christians today. Questions of ministry and liturgy, authority and freedom, appear in a wide variety of guises throughout the world-wide church. Relativism and uncertainty seem to be as common in the church as in the world. Many Christians wonder whether there is any way forward.

In this context, The Reformation of the Church is an invaluable aid. An anthology of documents, drawn largely but not exclusively from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, it presents in a readily accessible form the finest thinking of the reformed fathers on authority and freedom, the need for reformation, the nature of the government, unity and membership of the church of Jesus Christ.

Warmly welcomed when first published in 1965, and widely used since then, these documents provide invaluable material for ministers, elders, leaders, students and all Christians who are concerned to see Christ's church fulfill her God-given role at a critical juncture in her history .

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION 7

SECTION I

THE NATURE OF THE CHURCH 15

SECTION II

THE RULE FOR REFORMATION - THE WORD OF GOD

1. Liberation from Human Authority 30

Martin Luther

 2. The Reformers and the Regulative Principle 38

William Cunningham

 3. The Regulative Principle and Things Indifferent 55

John Hooper

4. The Abolition of Vestments 63

John a Lasco

 5. Scripture and the Ordering of Worship 75

SECTION III

THE NEED OF REFORMATION

 1. The Necessity for Reformation: The Admonition to Parliament 1572 85

Thomas Wilcox

 2. Concerning a National Church 99

William Ames

3. The Relation of Church and State 107

Charles Hodge

 4. Episcopacy: The Petition for the Prelates Examined 127

 5. The Grounds of Nonconformity 151

Edmund Calamy

SECTION IV

NEW TESTAMENT CHURCH GOVERNMENT

 1. The Book of Discipline 1587 178

 2. A True Description of the Visible Church 1589 196

Henry Barrow

 3. The Form of Presbyterial Church Government 1645 207

Westminster Divines

 4. The Cambridge Platform 1648 234

 5. The Savoy Platform 1658 276

 6. The Difference between Independency and Presbytery 285

Jeremiah Burroughs

 7. A Presbyterian View of the Difference with Independency 294

 8. The Heads of Agreement 1691 301

SECTION V

THE UNITY OF THE CHURCH

 1. The Way to Peace 314

Walter Cradock

 2. What We Are to Bear with in Others 326

Jeremiah Burroughs

 3. Union among Protestants 345

John Owen

 4. The Scandal of Division among the Godly 358

James Durham

APPENDICES

 1. The Church Membership of Children 383

Thomas Shepard

 2. Episcopalian Writers on Church Government 410

Product Details

Title: The Reformation of the Church: A Collection of Reformed on Puritan Documents on Church Issues

Author: Iain H. Murray

Publisher: Banner of Truth

Pages: 475

Binding: Cloth-bound

Size: 22.2 x 14.2 x 2.7 cm

ISBN: 9781800400160