The Fundamental Principles of Reformed Church Polity (2)

We now pass on to the second principle, the divine origin of the authority of the ruling and teaching ministry. Authority, here, is the right to rule and to administer the word and the sacraments. This authority does not originate and inhere in the congregation to be delegated by the latter to the officebearers in the church; but it originates, does this authority, in God, its creative source, was given to Christ, who bestows it upon the servants of His choosing. Thus, as was said, the church...