Christian Classics
‹ Brief Instruction in the Worship of God
Contents
Prefatory note.Question 1 — What doth God require of us in our dependence on him, that he may be glorified by us, and we accepted with him?Question 2 — By what means do we come to know that God will thus be worshipped?Question 3 — How, then, are these ways and means of the worship of God made known unto us?Question 4 — Have these ways and means been always the same from the beginning?Question 5 — Is there any farther alteration to be expected in or of those institutions and ordinances of worship which are revealed and appointed in the gospel?Question 6 — May not such an estate of faith and perfection in obedience be attained in this life, as wherein believers may be freed from all obligation unto the observation of gospel institutions?Question 7 — What are the chief things that we ought to aim at in our observation of the institutions of Christ in the gospel?Question 8 — How may we sanctify the name of God in the use of gospel institutions?Question 9 — How do we in our observation profess our subjection unto the Lord Jesus Christ and his gospel?Question 10 — How do we in and by them build up ourselves in our most holy faith?Question 11 — How are mutual love and communion among believers testified and confirmed in their observation?Question 12 — What is principally to be attended unto by us in the manner of the celebration of the worship of God, and observation of the institutions and ordinances of the gospel?Question 13 — Are not some institutions of the New Testament ceased as to any obligation unto their observation, and therefore now rightly disused?Question 14 — May not the church find out, and appoint to be observed, such religious rites as, being adjoined unto the celebration of God’s instituted worship, may further the devotion of the worshippers, and render the worship itself in its performance more decent, beautiful, and orderly, as the appointing of images, and the like?Question 15 — Whence may it appear that the right and due observation of instituted worship is of great importance unto the glory of God, and of high concernment unto the souls of men?Question 16 — Is there yet any consideration that may stir up believers to a holy and religious care about the due observation of the institutions of the gospel?Question 17 — Which are the principal institutions of the gospel to be observed in the worship of God?Question 18 — Whereas sundry of these things are founded in the light and law of nature, as requisite unto all solemn worship, and are, moreover, commanded in the moral law, and explications of it in the Old Testament, how do you look upon them as evangelical institutions, to be observed principally on the authority of Jesus Christ?Question 19 — What is an instituted church of the gospel?Question 20 — By what means do persons so called become a church of Christ?Question 21 — Seeing the church is a society or spiritual incorporation of persons under rule, government, or discipline, declare who or what are the rulers, governors, or officers therein under Jesus Christ?Question 22 — Who are the extraordinary officers, or rulers, or ministers of the church, appointed to serve the Lord Jesus Christ therein for a season only?Question 23 — Who are the ordinary officers or ministers of Christ in the church, to be always continued therein?Question 24 — What are the principal differences between these two sorts of officers or rulers in the church, extraordinary and ordinary?Question 25 — What is required unto the due constitution of an elder, pastor, or teacher of the church?Question 26 — May a person be called to, or be employed in, a part only of the office or work of the ministry; or may he hold the relation and exercise the duty of an elder or minister unto more churches than one at the same time?Question 27 — What are the principal duties of the pastors or teachers of the church?Question 28 — Wherein principally doth the authority of the elders of the church consist?Question 29 — What is the duty of the church towards their elders, pastors, or teachers?Question 30 — Are there any differences in the office or offices of the guides, rulers, elders, or ministers of the church?Question 31 — Are there appointed any elders in the church whose office and duty consist in rule and government only?Question 32 — Is there no other ordinary office in the church but only that of elders?Question 33 — What are the deacons of the church?Question 34 — Wherein consists the general duty of the whole church, and every member thereof, in their proper station and condition?Question 35 — Whence do you reckon prayer, which is a part of moral and natural worship, among the institutions of Christ in his church?Question 36 — May not the church, in the solemn worship of God, and celebration of the ordinances of the gospel, make use of and content itself in the use of forms of prayer in an unknown tongue composed by others, and prescribed unto them?Question 37 — Is the constant work of preaching the gospel by the elders of the church necessary?Question 38 — Who are the principal subjects of baptism?Question 39 — Where and to whom is the ordinance of the Lord’s supper to be administered?Question 40 — How often is that ordinance to be administered?Question 41 — What is the discipline of the church?Question 42 — Unto whom is the power and administration of this discipline committed by Jesus Christ?Question 43 — Wherein doth the exercise of the authority for discipline committed unto the elders of the church consist?Question 44 — May the church cast any person out of its communion without previous admonition?Question 45 — Wherein doth the liberty and duty of the whole brotherhood in the exercise of discipline in the church in particular consist?Question 46 — What is the duty of private members in reference unto the discipline appointed by Christ in his church?Question 47 — The preservation of the church in purity, order, and holiness, being provided for, by what way is it to be continued and increased?Question 48 — What is required of them who desire to join themselves unto the church?Question 49 — What is the duty of the elders of the church towards persons desiring to be admitted unto the fellowship of the church?Question 50 — What is the duty of the whole church in reference unto such persons?Question 51 — Wherein doth the especial form of a particular church, whereby it becomes such, and is distinguished as such from all others, consist?Question 52 — Wherein consists the duty of any church of Christ towards other churches?Question 53 — What are the ends of all this dispensation and order of things in the church?

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Question 49 — What is the duty of the elders of the church towards persons desiring to be admitted unto the fellowship of the church?

Question 49 — What is the duty of the elders of the church towards persons desiring to be admitted unto the fellowship of the church?

Answer — aTo discern and judge by the rule of truth, applied in love, between sincere professors and hypocritical pretenders; bto influence, direct, comfort, and encourage in the way, such as they judge to love the Lord Jesus in sincerity; cto propose and recommend them unto the whole church, with prayers and to God for them; dto admit them, being approved, into the order and fellowship of the gospel in the church. aActs viii. 20, 23; Titus i. 10; Rev. ii. 2; Jer. xv. 19. bActs xviii. 26; 1 Thess. ii. 7, 8, 11. cActs ix. 27, 28. dRom. xiv. 1.