Follows Queries to be Put to Elders at their admission.

Query 1. Do you not own, that there is but one true and Living God, and that there is three Persons in the Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost: and that Jesus Christ, and Holy spirit, is God Equal with the Father, in Power and Glory?

Q. 2. Do you not own the Scriptures of the old and New Testament, to be the word of God, and the only rule of faith and manners, and the Supreme and Infallible Judge of all Controversies?

Q. 3. Do you not own that Jesus Christ, hath two Distinct {43} natures, Divine and Human, and that he hath a threefold office of Prophet, Priest and King?

Q. 4. Do you not own that the Purchase, and application of Christ’s Death, are of an Equal Extent; that is, that Christ’s Death and Merits are only made Effectual to these for whom he suffered and Died?

Q. 5. Do you not own faith to be the Condition of the Covenant of Grace in a Gospel sense, as it Denotes a fixed, and Prescribed order, and method of Receiving the Blessings purchased by Christ, with a firm and fixed connection, betwixt the performance of the Condition, and the Granting of the thing Promised thereupon? (or if you will) Is not faith such a Condition, of the Gospel Covenant wrought in a sinner, by the Grace of Christ, without which he is neither Justified nor saved? {44}

Q. 6. Is Christ to be held forth to all hearers of the Gospel in the preaching of it, as a Saviour to save them and Pardon their sins, whether they Profess Christ, and believe in him or not, and Repent of their sins or not?

Q. 7. Do you not own that the Sufficiency of Christ’s Death, and merits of it according to the Covenant of Redemption, betwixt the Father and the Son, are Restricted and Limited to these who were Given of the Father to the Son, to be Redeemed by him; and these only for whom Jesus Christ the Eternal Son of God undertook to save?

Q. 8. Hath Christ a twofold Kingdom, one General as God equal with the Father over all things; and one special as mediator over his Elect?[1]

Q. 9. Do you adhere to the Westminster Confession of Faith, approven by the Church of Scotland, as the Confession of your faith; and to our Catechisms Larger and Shorter, and to our Covenants National and Solemn League, and the Acts of Assembly from 1638, to 1649?

Q. 10. Do you not in a Consistency with the word of God, and our Standards, Disown Popery, Prelacy, Erastianism, Arianism, Arminianism, Antinomianism, Independency, Schism, and Defection: and in short all Heresies, and Errors, inconsistent with the foresaid word, &c.; inasfar as they are, or shall be Discovered to you to be so?

Q. 11. Do you not own the Suffering of our Late Martyrs in the Late times, and the Cause and Testimony for which they suffered, as agreeable to the word of God {46} and our Covenants, and the Testimony of their Day?

Q. 12. Do you not purpose through the assisting Grace of God, not to turn aside through the terrors or persuasions of men, to a Deserting of Called-for Duty, or into a Compliance with the Sins, Defections, and Errors of the Day?

Q. 13. Do you willingly undertake the office of Ruling Elders in the House of God, and solemnly Engage before the Lord that you shall be faithful, Diligent, and watchful over the flock committed to your charge, in all the Dutys of that holy and Honourable Employment?

At Henshellwood.

April 16th. 1732.

Footnotes:

1. For a more detailed description of the Kingdom of the Mediator, and the power which pertains to the Lord Jesus Christ as such, the reader is referred to the Act, Declaration, and Testimony, Part 4, section 7, on The Mediator, first published by the Reformed Presbytery in 1761.—JTKer.