“That Christ is King in Zion — the only king whose right it is to prescribe what doctrines are to be taught and believed, what ordinances are to be observed, and what offices are needful for the welfare or the extension of the church — is not only important as a correct theological principle, but it is momentous also in the consequences which flow from it.

Whatever the doctrines, the ordinances, and the offices may be, which Christ has instituted in his church, his people have received them from him, to be held as a sacred deposit, for the ends for which they have been given. The members of the church are not at liberty to surrender these doctrines, to yield up these ordinances, or to change or abolish these offices. To do either would constitute a breach of trust, and manifest a contempt for the privileges with which they were endowed. It would indicate a disparagement of the wisdom of the church’s Head, and would further involve a usurpation of the authority with which he alone is clothed. If the members of the church — as individuals or in their collective capacity — dare not act in this manner without flagrant sin, neither have those who are invested with office a similar liberty. They hold their office from Christ, to whom they are responsible, and who demands of them that they shall be faithful in the administration of all their functions. They are not at liberty to increase or to diminish the number of the institutions which Christ has appointed. They are not legislators, to enact new laws, enjoin ordinances or doctrines which are not already given by Him whose right it is to rule. Their office is executive and declarative, not legislative. And, consequently, they are not at liberty — either at the suggestion of their own wisdom, or in order to please any party, within or without the pale of the church — to change or surrender what Christ has ordained.

If speculative men, who are fond of novelty or changes in religion, — if worldly men, who dislike holiness of doctrine, — if civil rulers, who are ambitious of authority in the household of faith, should suggest or demand any change or surrender of these trusts, then the reply of every enlightened and faithful servant must be, ‘These are not ours, but Christ’s. They have been committed to our hands, to be held for his glory ; to be retained, amid all perils, in their integrity, for the ends of their institution, and thus to be transmitted to coming ages. It is His prerogative who gave them to modify or abrogate them, not ours.’ — Richard Webster, A History of the Presbyterian Church in America (1857), pp. 47-48