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Part Five: The Doctrine of the Church and of the Means of Grace
The Church
I. Scriptural Names of the Church and the Doctrine of the Church in History
Introduction
The doctrine of the application of the merits of Christ naturally leads on to the doctrine of the
Church, for the Church consists of those who are partakers of Christ and of the blessings of
salvation that are in Him. The Reformed conception is that Christ, by the operation of the Holy
Spirit, unites men with Himself, endows them with true faith, and thus constitutes the Church
as His body, the communio fidelium or sanctorum. In Roman Catholic theology, however, the
discussion of the Church takes precedence over everything else, preceding even the discussion
of the doctrine of God and of divine revelation. The Church, it is said, has been instrumental in
producing the Bible and therefore takes precedence over it; it is moreover the dispenser of all
supernatural graces. It is not Christ that leads us to the Church, but the Church that leads us to
Christ. All the emphasis falls, not on the invisible Church as the communio fidelium, but on the
visible Church as the mater fidelium. The Reformation broke with this Roman Catholic view of
the Church and centered attention once more on the Church as a spiritual organism. It
emphasized the fact that there is no Church apart from the redemptive work of Christ and from
the renewing operations of the Holy Spirit; and that, therefore, the discussion of these logically
precedes the consideration of the doctrine of the Church.
It seems rather peculiar that practically all the outstanding Presbyterian dogmaticians of our
country, such as the two Hodges, H. B. Smith, Shedd, and Dabney, have no separate locus on
the Church in their dogmatical works and, in fact, devote very little attention to it. Only the
works of Thornwell and Breckenridge form an exception to the rule. This might create the
impression that, in their opinion, the doctrine of the Church should not have a place in
dogmatics. But this is extremely unlikely, since none of them raise a single objection to its
inclusion. Moreover, Turretin and their Scottish forbears, on whose foundation they are
building, devote a great deal of attention to the Church. Walker says: “There is perhaps no
country in the world in which all kinds of Church questions have been so largely discussed as in
our own.”[Scottish Theology and Theologians, p. 95; cf. also McPherson, The Doctrine of the
Church in Scottish Theology, pp. 1 ff.] And, finally, Dr. A. A. Hodge informs us that his father
lectured to his various classes on the subjects of Ecclesiology, practically covered the entire
ground, and intended to complete his Systematic Theology by the publication of a fourth
volume on the Church; but was prevented by the infirmities incident to his advanced
age.[Preface to Hodge’s work on Church Polity.] Dabney says that he omitted the doctrine of