53. — All these powers are the attributes of Church discipline proper, which the Church herself exercises. But parallel to them is to be considered the power which belongs to the State in Church matters, the State or worldly government; the gubernatio ecclesiae civilis [civil government of the church = “that power which the civil magistrate exercises with respect to the church within his jurisdiction; specifically, a responsibility to protect true worship and the law of God. The power of the magistrate is defined as circa sacra, around the holy, not in sacra, in the holy” (Richard A. Muller, Dictionary of Latin and Greek Theological Terms, 133). — [Johann Heinrich] Heidegger (Med. XXVII, 43): “The government of the Church has been ecclesiastical in the past. It is civil, so far as the believing magistrate, armed with the sword, also cares for the Church along with the State and furthers and protects the pure worship of God, as the custodian of the two tables.”

54. — The State has the right to make laws and to watch over their observance; and all that the State ordains without conflicting with the Law of God, obligates the individual to obey and binds him in his conscience, because government is of God. — [Benedict] Pictet (XIII, 13, 2): “What are the functions of the magistrate? Ans. (1) To institute equitable and just laws and to sanction them with penalties that fit the crime; (2) to administer justice according to the law.” — [Johann Heinrich] Heidegger (Med. XXVII, 46): “The power of the magistrate consists in legislation and in the dispensing of judgments. — But the human laws of the civil power have no validity at all in regard to anything enjoined or forbidden by divine law. They are only valid for things which, where divine laws are not explicit, make for the preservation of order in human society. And so long as they do not sanction anything base or dishonorable, any laws of this kind bind conscience, because obedience depends not only on wrath but also on conscience, Rom. 13. 5 (not only because of the wrath, but also for conscience’ sake). Not because conscience of itself is subject to human laws, but because the magistracy is a divine ordinance and so receive from God who ordains it the power to pass laws. And since the power to legislate is invalid without judgments, judicial power also belongs to the magistrate.”

55. — But the government’s power extends still further. It comprises not only the sphere of civic life but also extends into the Church sphere — but here within quite definite limits, which the government must not pass without hurting the Church. — [Benedict] Pictet (XIII, xiii, 3): “The magistrate deals not only with things civil but also with things sacred, whence to him is entrusted the custody of God’s law.” — [Francis] Turretin (XVIII, xxxiv, 3): “The orthodox — lay it down, that the godly and believing magistrate cannot and ought not to be excluded from all care of religion and things sacred; such care is demanded of him by God; but that this right must be circumscribed within certain limits, to avoid confusion between the functions of ecclesiastical and political order.” — The Christian government, as all dogmaticians agree, is the “custodian of the two tables.”

56. — Church government proper does not belong to the State. — [Francis] Turretin (XVIII, xxix, 20): “The power of the magistrate in sacred things ought not to abrogate the power which belongs to the rulers of the Church, because although they deal with the same object materially, it is not the same formally. The power of the magistrate is outward, that of the pastor inward. The former is compulsory and corporal, armed as it is with the right and power of the sword; the latter is spiritual, coercing and convincing with spiritual weapons, i.e., with the word of God, and with censures applied to conscience. The former includes dominium, the latter only ministerium. The former is concerned with the Church and holy things kata to exo [according outside], the latter resides in the actual Church and is concerned kata to eso [according inside]. The former is called ecclesiastical objectively only and improperly; the latter formally and strictly.”

57. — The civil government’s power extends only circa sacra (not in sacra); as God’s servant it is entitled, or more correctly, bound to further the well-being of the Church in every connection; especially to give her the outward means for achieving her purposes, to support the Church’s outward means for achieving her purposes, to support the Church’s servants in the exercise of their office, to take measures for upholding Church order, to remove unworthy servants of the Church, to lead the more comprehensive Synods, to found schools, to take up oppressed communions of related faith: on the other hand to prevent the outcropping of false doctrines, and also to give protection against the misuses of Church authority. — [Johann Heinrich] Heidegger (Med. XXVII, 52): “Anything but simple is the care and power which belongs to the magistrate in religion and the Church. In that case the magistrate’s power as such regarding the Church consists in his being able and not able only but also bound to do that, by which he can serve Christ and His kingdom by the power granted him by God and to expand that kingdom. He is God’s minister alike to the individuals under him and also to the Church subjected to his imperium. — Therefor as regards Christ it is not power but diakonia [service] and kedemonia [guardianship] (ministerium et procuratio, ministry and delegated rule).

Heinrich Heppe, Reformed Dogmatics, 691-694.