Formula of Subscription
(This formula of subscription must be signed by
all the ministers, professors of theology, elders and deacons in the
Protestant Reformed Churches when they are installed in office.)
We, the undersigned, professors of the Protestant
Reformed Churches, ministers of the Gospel, elders, and deacons of the
Protestant Reformed congregations of ................, of Classis
.........., do hereby sincerely and in good conscience before the
Lord, declare by this, our subscription, that we heartily believe and
are persuaded that all the articles and points of doctrine, contained in
the Confession and Catechism of the Reformed Churches, together with the
explanation of some points of the aforesaid doctrine, made by the
National Synod of Dordrecht, 1618-'19, do fully agree with the Word of
God.
We promise therefore diligently to teach and
faithfully to defend the aforesaid doctrine, without either directly or
indirectly contradicting the same, by our public preaching or writing.
We declare, moreover, that we not only reject all
errors that militate against this doctrine and particularly those which
were condemned by the above mentioned synod, but that we are disposed to
refute and contradict these, and to exert ourselves in keeping the
church free from such errors. And if hereafter any difficulties or
different sentiments respecting the aforesaid doctrines should arise in
our minds, we promise that we will neither publicly nor privately
propose, teach, or defend the same, either by preaching or writing,
until we have first revealed such sentiments to the consistory, classis,
and synod, that the same may be there examined, being ready always
cheerfully to submit to the judgment of the consistory, classis, and
synod, under the penalty in case of refusal to be, by that very fact,
suspended from our office.
And further, if at any time the consistory, classis,
or synod, upon sufficient grounds of suspicion and to preserve the
uniformity and purity of doctrine, may deem it proper to require of us a
further explanation of our sentiments respecting any particular article
of the Confession of Faith, the Catechism, or the explanation of the
National Synod, we do hereby promise always to be willing and ready to
comply with such requisition, under the penalty above mentioned,
reserving for ourselves, however, the right of an appeal, whenever we
shall believe ourselves aggrieved by the sentence of the consistory, the
classis, or the synod, and until a decision is made upon such an appeal,
we will acquiesce in the determination and judgment already passed.
