CONSTITUTION OF THE REFORMED DUTCH CHURCH OF NORTH AMERICA: WITH AN APPENDIX, CONTAINING FORMULARIES FOR THE USE OF THE CHURCHES; THE CATECHISM, ARTICLES OF FAITH, CANONS OF Koninklik te's Mäge. PHILADELPHIA: PUBLISHED BY G. W. MENTZ & SON, No. 53 North Third Street. 1840 Extract from the Minutes of the General Synod, at their Session in June, 1840. "Resolved, That the publication of the Constitution, by Messrs. Montz, be under the supervision of the Rev. John Ludlow, D.D. George W. Bethune, D.D., and James B. Hardenbergh, D.D." We certify that this Book has been published under our inspection, agreeably to the above order of General Synod. JOHN LUDLOW, GEO. W. BETHUNE, JAS. B. HARDENBERGH. For the maintenance of good order in the Church of Christ, it is necessary there should be certain Offices and Assemblies, and a strict attention to Doctrines, Sacraments, Usages, and Christian Dis. cipline; of all which the following ecclesiastical ordinances particularly treat. CHAPTER I. OF THE OFFICES IN THE CHURCH. The Offices in the Church of Christ are fourfold, viz. 1. The Office of Ministers of the Word. 4. The Office of Deacons. ARTICLE I. Of Ministers of the Word. SEC. 1. No person shall be allowed to exercise the office of a Minister, without being thereinto regularly inducted, according to the word of God, and the order established by the Church. SEC. 2. Every person contemplating the work of the ministry, before he commences his course of Theological studies, shall furnish satisfactory evidence of his being a member in full communion and in good standing of a Reformed Protestant Church; of his piety, abilities, and literary attainments, and thereupon shall be admitted into the |