The German Reformation did not stimulate the duty of self-support, nor develop the faculty
of self-government. It threw the church into the arms of the state, from whose bondage she has
never been able as yet to emancipate herself. The princes, nobles, and city magistrates were willing
and anxious to take the benefit, but reluctant to perform the duties, of their new priestly dignity;
while the common people remained as passive as before, without a voice in the election of their
pastor, or any share in the administration of 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.^675
§85. Enlarged Conception of the Church. Augustin, Wiclif, Hus, Luther.
Köstlin: 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.). Joh.
Gottschick: Hus’, Luther’s und Zwingli’s Lehre von der Kirche, in Brieger’s "Zeitschrift für
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 Münchmeyer: Das Dogma von der sichtbaren und unsichtbaren
Kirche, 1854. Ritschl: Ueber die Begriffe sichtbare und unsichtbare Kirche, in the "Studien und
Kritiken" for 1859. Jul. Müller: Die unsichtbare Kirche, in his "Dogmatische Abhandlungen."
Bremen, 1870, pp. 278–403 (an able defense of the idea of the invisible church against Rothe,
Münchmeyer, and others who oppose the term invisible as inapplicable to the church. See
especially Rothe’s Anfänge 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 S. 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 ejkklhsiva (a popular assembly, 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 kuriakovn, 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 ejkklhsiva 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 training-school for
(^675) Friedberg, Kirchenrecht, p. 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.