The doctrine of the covenant of works, finally, contains a third idea, an idea of the richest religious and ethical significance. Adam was not created alone. As a man and by himself he was incomplete. He lacked something that no lower creature could make up (Gen. 2:20). As a man by himself, accordingly, neither was he yet the fully unfolded image of God. The creation of humankind in God’s image was only completed on the sixth day, when God created both man and woman in union with each other (cf. Gen. 1:27), in his image. Still, even this creation in God’s image of man and woman in conjunction is not the end but the beginning of God’s journey with mankind. It is not good that man should be alone (Gen. 2:18); nor is it good that the man and the woman should be alone. Upon the two of them God immediately pronounced the blessing of multiplication (Gen. 1:28). Not the man alone, nor the man and woman together, but only the whole of humanity is the fully developed image of God, his children, his offspring. The image of God is much too rich for it to be fully realize din a single human being, however, richly gifted that human being may be. It can only be somewhat unfolded in its depth and riches in a humanity counting billions of members. Just as the traces of God (vestigia Dei) are spread over many, many works, in both space and time, so also the image of God can only be displayed din all its dimensions and characteristic features in a humanity whose members exist both successively one after the other and contemporaneously side by side. But just as the cosmos is a unity and receives its head and master in humankind; and just as the traces of God (vestigia Dei) scattered throughout the entire world are bundled and raised up into the image of God of humankind; so also that humanity in turn is to be conceived as an organism that, precisely as such, is finally the only fully developed image of God. Not as a heap of souls on a tract of land, not as a loose aggregate of individuals, but as having been created out of one blood; as one household and one family, humanity is the image of and likeness of God. Belonging to that humanity is also its development, its history, its ever expanding dominion over the earth, its progress in science and art, its subjugation of all creatures. All these things as well constitute the unfolding of the image and likeness of God in keeping with which humanity was created. Just as God did not reveal himself all at once at the creation, but continues and expands that revelation form day to day and form age to age, so also the image of God is not a static entity but extends and unfolds itself in the forms of space and time. It is both a gift (Gabe) and a mandate (Aufgabe). It is an undeserved gift of grace that was given to the first human being immediately at the creation but at the same time is the grounding principle and germ of an altogether rich rand glorious development. Only humanity in its entirety–as one complete organism, summed up under a single head, spread out over the whole earth, as prophet proclaiming the truth of God, as priest dedicating itself to God, as ruler controlling the earth and the whole of creation–only it is the fully finished image, the most telling and striking likeness of God (Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, Vol. 2, 576-577).

For prayer is the true sacrifice of praise: by which one gives honor and glory to God, to Him alone we have cried for help (Ps. 50:14-15). And yet He wishes to be honored by this honor, and does not want it to be given to another (Isa. 42:8): as it appears by His first commandment. It is then great idolatry and very displeasing to God if one resorts to another than to Him (William Farel’s Summary (1529) in 16th & 17th Century Reformed Confessions, Vol. 1, 75).

Protestants believe, as a matter of unquestionable historical certainty, that at a very early period error and corruption — i.e., deviations from the scriptural standard in matters of doctrine, government, worship, and discipline — manifested themselves in the visible church gradually, but rapidly; that this corruption deepened and increased, till it issued at length in a grand apostasy — in a widely extended and well-digested system of heresy, idolatry, and tyranny, which involved in gross darkness nearly the whole of the visible church for almost a thousand years, until it was to some extent dispelled by the light of the Reformation. They believe that the soundness of this general view of the history of the church can be fully established by undoubted matters of fact, viewed in connection with the plain statements of Scripture (William Cunningham, Historical Theology, Vol. 1, 34-35).

The Church of Rome makes the ministry the end, and the church the means; Protestants reverse this order, and make the ministry the means, and the church the end. Ministers are indeed the rulers of churches or congregations, invested in conjunction with other  ecclesiastical office-bearers, with a certain ministerial, not lordly, authority over them. But while this is true of actual ministers and congregations, it is not the less true that the ministry in the abstract may be said to occupy a position of subordination, and not of superiority, to the church, inasmuch as the formation of a church by calling men out of the world, and preparing them for heaven, was God’s great design in sending His Son into the world, and in all His dealings with men; and as the institution of a ministry, and the raising up and qualifying of a ministrs, was just one of the means which He has been graciously pleased to employ for effecting that great end. And this is in substance the idea intended to be conveyed by the declaration in the Confession [WCF, XXV], that Christ has given the ministry to the church. This doctrine is not in the least inconsistent with that of the divine institution of the ministry, or with that of the due rights and authority of ministers, as rulers, distinguished from the ordinary members of the church.

. . .

First, that the absence of a regular ministry, appointed in the ordinary prescribed way, or even the absence of a ministry altogether for a time, is not necessarily, and in all circumstances, a sufficient proof of itself that a society of professing Christians is not a church of Christ: — and secondly, that any company of faithful or believing men is entitled to a ministry, since Christ has given the ministry to the church; and if they are so placed in providence that they cannot have a ministry in the ordinary, regular, prescribed way, are entitled to make a ministry for themselves, and that that ministry, though not regular, is a valid one (William Cunningham, Historical Theology, Vol. 1, 27-28 & 30-31).

Let us turn to every age that has passed, and learn that, from generation to generation, the Lord has granted a place of repentance to all such as would be converted unto Him (The First Epistle of Clement, 7).

And to this end is the word of God revealed to men, that it may teach them what, and what manner one God is towards men; that he would have them to be saved; and that, by faith in Christ: what Christ is, and by what means salvation cometh: what becometh the true worshipers of God, what they ought to fly, and what to ensue. Neither is it sufficient to know the will of God, unless we do the same and be saved (The Decades of Henry Bullinger, Sermon II, 60).

The law of God is the royal law of liberty and liberty consists in being captive to the Word and law of God. All other liberty is not liberty but the thraldom of servitude to sin (John Murray, Collected Writings, Vol. 1, 215).

If we once allow expediency to dictate law then we are on the road to tyranny and conscience is no longer captive to the law of God but to the variable fancies of men (John Murray, Collected Writings, Vol. 1, 205).

As early as 1541 the Ecclesiastical Ordinances had declared that it was desirable that schools should be established to provide an education in Christian piety and eloquence and to produce a supply of godly men for the ministry and for leading positions in public life. It was not until 1559 that Calvin’s detailed plans became a reality. In the preparatory school pupils were to read morally acceptable classical texts, gaining thereby a general literary education and an introduction to rhetoric. This in turn was to lead to logic and dialectic. In the more advanced schola publica, students were to be given long hours of daily tuition in Latin, Green [sic, i.e., Greek], and Hebrew for the purpose of the close textual study of the Old and New Testaments. The preaching of dogmatics was not a separate item. It was incorporated into the teaching of exegesis (Gillian Lewis’ “Geneva 1541-1608” in International Calvinism 1541-1715, edited by Menna Prestwich, 63).

Can you say that there is no relation between a man’s position in the realm of doctrine and his principles of life and conduct? No; they are one because they concern truth and the sanctity of truth. Truth is one, and it is a moral and psychological impossibility for a man’s belief with respect to what constitutes Christianity to be heterodox and his beliefs with respect to what constitutes the norm of Christian life to be orthodox (John Murray, Collected Writings, 195).