Calvin the presbyterian (Calvin's Institutes, Battles edition: p. 1179, vol. 2)

In his discussion of the power of the Church to make laws (or rules of conduct and worship) for Christians, John Calvin writes,

This is the power now to be discussed, whether the church may lawfully bind consciences by its laws. In this discussion we are… only concerned with how God is to be duly worshiped according to the rule laid down by him, and how the spiritual freedom which looks to God may remain unimpaired for us. (Institutes IV.X.1)

A few years ago there was a bit of a controversy in my presbytery over worship practices, and I was surprised when a fellow minister stated that the regulative principle of worship (God is to be worshiped only as he has commanded in Scripture) is rooted in the holiness of God. While God’s holiness is certainly germane to the question, our regulations for worship are grounded in another doctrinal area entirely, as the above quote from Calvin shows. For Calvin, liturgical practice is an exercise of Church power, which in turn is constrained by Christian liberty (that is, the freedom the individual believer has received through Christ). A discussion of any one of these subjects has necessary implications for the others.

Due perhaps to historical contingencies on the British Isles, presbyterianism is the branch of the Reformed tradition which has most fully laid hold of Calvin’s insight, as is demonstrated by these selections from the Westminster Confession of Faith.

The whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for His own glory, man's salvation, faith and life, is either expressly set down in Scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture: unto which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by new revelations of the Spirit, or traditions of men. (WCF 1.6, “Of Holy Scripture”)

God alone is Lord of the conscience, and has left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men, which are, in any thing, contrary to His Word; or beside it, if matters of faith, or worship. (WCF 20.2, “Of Christian Liberty:” the clearest articulation of the regulative principle of worship in the Westminster Standards)

But the acceptable way of worshipping the true God is instituted by Himself, and so limited by His own revealed will, that He may not be worshipped according to the imaginations and devices of men, or the suggestions of Satan, under any visible representation, or any other way not prescribed in the holy Scripture. (WCF 21.1, “Of Religious Worship”) 

It belongs to synods and councils, ministerially to determine controversies of faith, and cases of conscience; to set down rules and directions for the better ordering of the public worship of God, and government of his Church; to receive complaints in cases of maladministration, and authoritatively to determine the same; which decrees and determinations, if consonant to the Word of God, are to be received with reverence and submission; not only for their agreement with the Word, but also for the power whereby they are made, as being an ordinance of God appointed thereunto in His Word. (WCF 31.2, “Of Synods and Councils”)

With respect to my Dutch brethren, I continue to believe presbyterianism, over against the continental reformed tradition, has best captured the peculiar genius of Calvinsim.