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

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\nThe nature and life of the church is one of the most crucial issues facing Christians in the closing years of the twentieth century. 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. \n \nIn 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. \n \nWarmly welcomed when first published in 1965, and widely use 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. \n

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	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

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