520 THE GERMAN REFORMATION. A.D. 1517 To 1580.
their congregational affairs. The Lutheran prince took the place of the bishop or pope; the Lutheran pastor (Pfarrherr), the place of the Romish priest, but instead of obeying the bishop he had to obey his secular patron.?
§ 85. Enlarged Conception of the Church. Augustin, Wiclif, Hus, Luther.
ΚΟΒΤΙΙΝ: Luthers Lehre von der Kirche. Stuttgart, 1853. Comp. his Luthers Theologie in ihrer geschichtl. Entwicklung, II. 534 sqq.; and his Martin Luther, Bk. VI. ch. iii. (II. 23 sqq.). Jou. GoTttscuick: Hus’, Luther’s und Zwingli’s Lehre von der Kirche, in Brieger’s ‘‘ Zeitschrift fir Kirchengeschichte,”’ Bd. VIII., Gotha, 1886, pp. 345 sqq. and 543 sqq. (Very elaborate, but he ought to have gone back to Wiclif and Augustin. Hus merely repeated Wiclif.)
Comp. also on the general subject MUNCHMEYER: Das Dogma von der sichtbaren und unsichtbaren Kirche, 1854. RirscHu: Ueber die Begriffe sichtbare und unsichtbare Kirche, in the ‘‘Studien und Kritiken”’ for 1859. JuL. MULLER: Die unsichtbare Kirche, in his ‘* Dogmatische Abhandlungen,’’ Bremen, 1870, pp. 278-403 (an able defense of the idea of the invisible church against Rothe, Minchmeyer, and others who oppose the term invisible as inapplicable to the church. See especially Rothe’s Anftnge der christl. Kirche, 1837, vol. I. 99 sqq.). ALFRED Krauss: Das protestantische Dogma von der unsichtbaren Kirche, Gotha, 1876. SEEBERG: Der Begriff der christlichen Kirche, Part I., 1885. JAMES 5. CANDLISH: The Kingdom of God. Edinburgh, 1884.
Separation from Rome led to a more spiritual and more liberal conception of the church, and to a distinction between the one universal church of the elect children of God of all ages and countries, under the sole headship of Christ, and the several visible church organizations of all nominal Christians. We must trace the gradual growth of this distinction.
In the New Testament the term ἐκκλησία (a popular assem-
1 Friedberg, Kirchenrecht, Ὁ. 57, correctly says, ‘‘ Die Reformation hat Schliesslich wohl Pfarrsprengel geschaffen, aber keine Gemeinden.” This is true even now of the Lutheran churches in Northern Germany; but in Westphalia, on the Rhine, and in America, the congregational life is more or less developed, partly through contact with Reformed churches.
§ 85. ENLARGED CONCEPTION OF THE CHURCH. 521
bly, congregation) is used in two senses (when applied to religion): 1, in the general sense of the whole body of Christian believers (by our Lord, Matt. 16:18); and 2, in the particular sense of a local congregation of Christians (also by our Lord, Matt. 18:17). We use the equivalent term “church” (from κυριακόν, belonging to the Lord) in two additional senses: of a denomination (e.g., the Greek, the Roman, the Anglican, the Lutheran Church), and of a church edifice. The word ἐκκλησία occurs only twice in the Gospels (in Matthew), but very often in the Acts and Epistles; while the terms “ kingdom of God” and “kingdom of heaven” are used very often in the Gospels, but rarely in the other books. This indicates a difference. The kingdom of God precedes the institution of the church, and will outlast it. The kingdom has come, is constantly coming, and will come in glory. It includes the government of God, and all the religious and moral activities of man. The visible church is a trainingschool for the kingdom. In many instances the terms may be interchanged, while in others we could not substitute the church for the kingdom without impropriety: e.g., in the phrase “of such is the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. ὃ: 3; Mark 10:14); or, “thy kingdom come” (Matt. 6:10); or, “the kingdom of God cometh not with observation, . . . the king~ dom of God is within you” (Luke 17: 20, 21); or, “to inherit the kingdom” (Matt. 25:34; 1 Cor. 6:10; 15: 380; Gal. 5:21); or, “the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.” A distinction between nominal and real, or outward and inward, membership of the church, is indicated in the words of our Lord, “ Many are called, but few are chosen” (Matt. 22:14), and by Paul when he speaks of a circumcision of the flesh and a circumcision of the heart (Rom. 2: 28, 29). Here is the germ of the doctrine of the visible and invisible church.
The Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds include the holy catholic