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The Glory of a True Church
The Glory of a True Church presents a concise summary of important aspects of Christ’s glorious institution, with a focus on church order and discipline. It gives abiding instruction for dealing with practical issues that both officers and members still wrestle with today, including the work of pastors and deacons, duties of the members toward their pastors, reception of new members, church discipline, a member’s moving to another church, and biblical motives for public worship.
123 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 17, 2018
About the author
Benjamin Keach
152 books14 followersBenjamin Keach (1640-1704) was a Particular Baptist preacher in London whose name was given to Keach’s Catechism.
Originally from Buckinghamshire, Keach worked as a tailor during his early years. He was baptized at the age of 15 and began preaching at 18. He was the minister of the congregation at Winslow before moving in 1668 to the church at Horse-lie-down, Southwark where he remained for 36 years as pastor (1668-1704). This congregation later became the New Park Street Church and then moved to the Metropolitan Tabernacle under the pastorship of Charles Spurgeon. It was as representative of this church that Keach went to the 1689 General Assembly and subscribed the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith. Keach was one of the seven men who sent out the invitation to the 1689 General Assembly. The signing of the confession was no mute doctrinal assent on the part of the church, for in the same year they entered into a Solemn Covenant which reflected, at the practical and congregational level, some of the doctrines of the confession. There was a secession from Horse-lie-down in 1673 and the Old Kent Road congregation was formed. Spurgeon later republished the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith for use in the congregation.
Keach wrote 43 works, of which his “Parables and Metaphors of Scripture” may be the best known. He wrote a work entitled “The Child’s Instructor” which immediately brought him under persecution and he was fined and pilloried in 1664. He is attributed with the writing of a catechism commonly known as “Keach’s Catechism”, although it is most likely that the original was compiled by William Collins. (From The Digital Puritan)
Originally from Buckinghamshire, Keach worked as a tailor during his early years. He was baptized at the age of 15 and began preaching at 18. He was the minister of the congregation at Winslow before moving in 1668 to the church at Horse-lie-down, Southwark where he remained for 36 years as pastor (1668-1704). This congregation later became the New Park Street Church and then moved to the Metropolitan Tabernacle under the pastorship of Charles Spurgeon. It was as representative of this church that Keach went to the 1689 General Assembly and subscribed the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith. Keach was one of the seven men who sent out the invitation to the 1689 General Assembly. The signing of the confession was no mute doctrinal assent on the part of the church, for in the same year they entered into a Solemn Covenant which reflected, at the practical and congregational level, some of the doctrines of the confession. There was a secession from Horse-lie-down in 1673 and the Old Kent Road congregation was formed. Spurgeon later republished the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith for use in the congregation.
Keach wrote 43 works, of which his “Parables and Metaphors of Scripture” may be the best known. He wrote a work entitled “The Child’s Instructor” which immediately brought him under persecution and he was fined and pilloried in 1664. He is attributed with the writing of a catechism commonly known as “Keach’s Catechism”, although it is most likely that the original was compiled by William Collins. (From The Digital Puritan)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews
February 4, 2026
Fantastic little book. Keach spends most of the work discussing church discipline, a foreign concept to modern Christians, even in many Reformed churches. According to Keach, "One cause of discord is through the ignorance in some members of the rules of discipline, and right government." Indeed! I've observed that play out, not just in others but in how I deal with fellow members. For Keach and the Puritans/PBs, church discipline is positive, despite its negative connotation (forgetting that discipline is spoken of as a good gift from God throughout the Scriptures). While I can't agree to all of Keach's applications, this work is an excellent and pastoral resource. I'm now convicted to regularly read through my own church membership vows in order that God's glory would shine brighter in my church.
April 5, 2026
I really enjoyed this introduction to one of the original Baptist thinkers! I also read his catechism. Really appreciate his soberness about church membership.
November 11, 2023
Very good book by one of the early Particular Baptist pastors on the nature and life of the church, especially the duties of officers to members and of Christians to each other.
July 14, 2023
Really good! Fairly easy to read and understand, perhaps down to the doctrinal clarity I’ve been blessed with at Church. I particularly enjoyed the emphasis on the duties of the congregation, as well as the biblical handling of Church discipline, sin, and repentance; something that is sadly lacking in churches today. Overall, a very convicting read that reinforces the necessity of order and structure for the sake of upholding the purity of Christ’s bride.
August 3, 2026
Despite its age, Keach’s work here could easily be found among most of the books today published on the church, church membership, and discipline.
March 19, 2025
This is a good primer on church government. It reads much like a church constitution, with its focus on the conduct of pastors & church members. Therefore, this short book interacts often with the structure of church discipline, how we are to live at peace with one another, & how we are to conduct ourselves in the household of God, as we seek to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
June 27, 2022
Classic and extremely important!
March 10, 2024
Why can’t your average Joe Christian explain what a church is today? Allow me to answer with a historical narrative.
In England during the seventeenth century, the Puritans arose as an informal movement concerned with the lack of purity in the Church of England. While the 39 Articles had formally brought a significant amount of right doctrine to the Church of England, practice throughout the country still retained large holdovers from Rome. When the Westminster Assembly was convened, it was commissioned to revise the 39 Articles in order to reform church polity. Despite the insistence of Congregationalists, Presbyterians had the day and eventually drafted a new document entirely, the Westminster Confession of Faith. At the same time, another unrepresented group was growing in England, namely Baptists. While this group found much agreement with Congregationalists, they disagreed as to what the Bible taught in regard to baptism. One of the leaders of these 17th Century Baptists was none other than Benjamin Keach. Keach with others taught against the pragmatism and tradition that defined Anglican church governance and order, and he instead insisted that God had prescribed a polity for church’s in His word. For roughly another two hundred years, Keach’s understanding was basic to Baptists.
Yet at the beginning of the twentieth century, things began to change. Modernism, otherwise known as Liberalism, was on the rise. In America, every large denomination with the exception of Southern Baptists would eventually split over the lines of Orthodox Christianity and the novel religion wearing the old Orthodox trappings. In the second half of the century with wars being waged over defending Evangelical Christianity from parasitic liberalism, something happened…at least I’m suggesting that it did. Secondary and tertiary doctrines became less important including the doctrine of the church. At the same time, churches and leaders like Robert Schuller, Bill Hybels, and Rick Warren offered new ways to “do church” that were designed to attract the masses. When Baptist evangelicals saw the apparent “success” of these “new measures“ (sorry, the ghost of Charles Finney just appeared), they un-discerningly embraced them as a method of conveying the historic faith in new modern vestments. Unfortunately now, like in Finney’s New England, what was once basic has been lost to a generation or generations not knowing a world in which such novelty didn’t exist in churches.
What then is there to be done? Return to God’s word? Absolutely. And maybe, read old books that witness to how former generations understood the Scriptures. A starting place (for church polity)? The First London Baptist Confession (1646) and Keach’s The Glory of a True Church (1697). Notice what Keach says about regenerate church membership, the assembling of the saints, church discipline, members responsibilities to one another and the elders, elders responsibility for members, and more. It may at times sound foreign to many churches, but it may sound peculiarly New Testament-y. So, “tolle lege.”
In England during the seventeenth century, the Puritans arose as an informal movement concerned with the lack of purity in the Church of England. While the 39 Articles had formally brought a significant amount of right doctrine to the Church of England, practice throughout the country still retained large holdovers from Rome. When the Westminster Assembly was convened, it was commissioned to revise the 39 Articles in order to reform church polity. Despite the insistence of Congregationalists, Presbyterians had the day and eventually drafted a new document entirely, the Westminster Confession of Faith. At the same time, another unrepresented group was growing in England, namely Baptists. While this group found much agreement with Congregationalists, they disagreed as to what the Bible taught in regard to baptism. One of the leaders of these 17th Century Baptists was none other than Benjamin Keach. Keach with others taught against the pragmatism and tradition that defined Anglican church governance and order, and he instead insisted that God had prescribed a polity for church’s in His word. For roughly another two hundred years, Keach’s understanding was basic to Baptists.
Yet at the beginning of the twentieth century, things began to change. Modernism, otherwise known as Liberalism, was on the rise. In America, every large denomination with the exception of Southern Baptists would eventually split over the lines of Orthodox Christianity and the novel religion wearing the old Orthodox trappings. In the second half of the century with wars being waged over defending Evangelical Christianity from parasitic liberalism, something happened…at least I’m suggesting that it did. Secondary and tertiary doctrines became less important including the doctrine of the church. At the same time, churches and leaders like Robert Schuller, Bill Hybels, and Rick Warren offered new ways to “do church” that were designed to attract the masses. When Baptist evangelicals saw the apparent “success” of these “new measures“ (sorry, the ghost of Charles Finney just appeared), they un-discerningly embraced them as a method of conveying the historic faith in new modern vestments. Unfortunately now, like in Finney’s New England, what was once basic has been lost to a generation or generations not knowing a world in which such novelty didn’t exist in churches.
What then is there to be done? Return to God’s word? Absolutely. And maybe, read old books that witness to how former generations understood the Scriptures. A starting place (for church polity)? The First London Baptist Confession (1646) and Keach’s The Glory of a True Church (1697). Notice what Keach says about regenerate church membership, the assembling of the saints, church discipline, members responsibilities to one another and the elders, elders responsibility for members, and more. It may at times sound foreign to many churches, but it may sound peculiarly New Testament-y. So, “tolle lege.”
May 26, 2023
Solid little book on the doctrine of the church and all therein.
Heavy Congregationalist emphasis, but to be expected with a solid particular Baptist such as Keach.
It was good to read in detail on the ‘causes of discord’ within the church in the section on Church discipline particularly. I found this helpful.
It is a great tragedy that the church today, indeed a good many conservative churches do not insist vigorously on church membership and enacting church discipline.
It seems that many men in ministerial positions do not know how to do so, and are too busy affirming sola scriptura and other glorious doctrines, to the complete neglect of the very gritty and practical need of church discipline.
Perhaps their tithes might drop, perhaps they might lose their reputation for winsomeness (topical just now), perhaps they would be perceived as tyrannical!
What folly and how sad this is. It is a necessity for the purity, beauty and glory of Christ’s bride.
Heavy Congregationalist emphasis, but to be expected with a solid particular Baptist such as Keach.
It was good to read in detail on the ‘causes of discord’ within the church in the section on Church discipline particularly. I found this helpful.
It is a great tragedy that the church today, indeed a good many conservative churches do not insist vigorously on church membership and enacting church discipline.
It seems that many men in ministerial positions do not know how to do so, and are too busy affirming sola scriptura and other glorious doctrines, to the complete neglect of the very gritty and practical need of church discipline.
Perhaps their tithes might drop, perhaps they might lose their reputation for winsomeness (topical just now), perhaps they would be perceived as tyrannical!
What folly and how sad this is. It is a necessity for the purity, beauty and glory of Christ’s bride.
January 27, 2026
Mandatory reading for any congregationalists. Keach clearly and pastorally defines a church and how discipline and Order should operate. I don't agree with every point, but this is extremely helpful.
Some standouts:
1. The deacons job is to serve tables: the Lord’s Table, the Pastor's table, the table of the poor and the widow.
2. The pastor is to preach, pray for, pray with, visit, and care for the sheep.
3. The possibility of withdrawal (exclusion) from a member without it being excommunication (handing over to Satan).
Some standouts:
1. The deacons job is to serve tables: the Lord’s Table, the Pastor's table, the table of the poor and the widow.
2. The pastor is to preach, pray for, pray with, visit, and care for the sheep.
3. The possibility of withdrawal (exclusion) from a member without it being excommunication (handing over to Satan).
April 22, 2023
Great little book on the church that was timely written during its day for the edification of many English Congregationalists and Baptists. Keach describes what a church is, how it ought to function, how it ought to disciple and discipline, and what it’s built on. This is a quick and easy read that’s worth the time.
June 2, 2024
Very helpful and convicting. Some excellent points on the duties of church members to one another and to their leaders, the practice of church discipline and the importance of maintaining the purity of the church. Definitely one I’ll come back to in the future for reminders of these important matters.
January 6, 2023
Great book on how church membership and discipline should happen in Christ’s church. Practical and easy to apply. A tad bit difficult to understand in the older language.
June 19, 2023
Great and challenging!
December 1, 2023
Very edifying short read
August 19, 2024
An interesting work on early Baptist polity. I found the discussion on church leadership helpful, but the majority of this book is dedicated to church discipline and the causes for such discipline. This makes for dry and at times perplexing reading. Gregory Wills shows historic Baptist fixation on church discipline and its decline in America after the civil war in his “Democratic Religion.” I am intrigued by the over fixation on discipline in this work. For example, telling people outside of the church about church meetings can be a cause for rebuke and discipline. One is also unable to leave a church unless granted permission by the church. Such practices are un-replicable today, and it’s understandable why many Baptists abandoned such rigorous discipline. All in all, it is an interesting work in the name of historical interest, but many readers may find some of his prescriptions extreme and even off-putting.
February 26, 2026
3/5 I softly recommend
A short book on the responsibilities of church members and discipline from a Baptist perspective. There is gold scattered throughout, but its points of difficulty lie in theological tensions that I think are developed later.
I would recommend this book for Baptists who want to read an early development of our ecclesiology. I think there is a lot here that one will read and say, “Oh yeah, that could have been said more simply this way.”
Don’t let the 3/5 fool you into thinking I don’t believe this is essential to Baptist retrievalism either. I think anyone who wants to write on (or teach, for that matter) our ecclesiology should read this book. But it has to be supplemented with a more developed Baptist ecclesiology book, which makes this book hard to simply recommend on its own merit.
A short book on the responsibilities of church members and discipline from a Baptist perspective. There is gold scattered throughout, but its points of difficulty lie in theological tensions that I think are developed later.
I would recommend this book for Baptists who want to read an early development of our ecclesiology. I think there is a lot here that one will read and say, “Oh yeah, that could have been said more simply this way.”
Don’t let the 3/5 fool you into thinking I don’t believe this is essential to Baptist retrievalism either. I think anyone who wants to write on (or teach, for that matter) our ecclesiology should read this book. But it has to be supplemented with a more developed Baptist ecclesiology book, which makes this book hard to simply recommend on its own merit.
December 19, 2022
Keach is one of the most important figures in English Baptist history. He was one of the authors of 1689 London Baptist Confession, and the authors it The Baptist Catechism.
In this little book he lays out a very practical Particular Baptist ecclesiology. He offers a basic articulation of what a church is, how it ought to function, the duties of elders and members, the meaning and practice of church discipline, and the biblical pattern for maintaining peace and unity in the church.
I strongly recommend this book especially for young pastors and church planters. It stands head and shoulders above almost every popular book on the church that has been recently published. Definitely worth a pastors time to read this book.
May 22, 2026
4.5/5
Very short but very good work. If I were writing a new constitution for a Baptist church, I’d start with much of the information in this book.
Also, Keach would be very disappointed with the state of the Western church today, particularly in the flightiness of members and pastors alike. The 2nd Great Awakening realized and popularized many of the disorders Keach warns about. All that’s left for us at this point is baby steps.
Very short but very good work. If I were writing a new constitution for a Baptist church, I’d start with much of the information in this book.
Also, Keach would be very disappointed with the state of the Western church today, particularly in the flightiness of members and pastors alike. The 2nd Great Awakening realized and popularized many of the disorders Keach warns about. All that’s left for us at this point is baby steps.
June 17, 2023
A neat, tidy little timely book. This is a book that may/must be returned to, despite some of its concepts being completely alien to the modern church. Keach reminds his readers of the vital roles that each part plays in the glory of the church, and what those role look like. Though few in pages, each packs a dose of wisdom and Biblical truth. Recommend.
January 3, 2020
An excellent booklet from Benjamin Keach written in the 1600s. Baptists would do well to examine such old writings, particularly in the subject of discipline. He even covers some “new” questions like the question of the plurality of elders. Definitely recommended.
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January 15, 2023Good read
Very informative about how church should be done. It seems that in this day and time church is not anything but a social club. But in an earlier time, church was your life and there is a specific order to the keeping in it.
Very informative about how church should be done. It seems that in this day and time church is not anything but a social club. But in an earlier time, church was your life and there is a specific order to the keeping in it.
March 28, 2018
Concise look at the church through the lens of a Particular Baptist.
January 7, 2019
A wonderful and convicting book challenging how seriously you take your church membership. A must read for ever believer.
September 13, 2019
I could see this proving useful as a helpful supplement for the topic of Church Discipline and the purity of the church.
March 7, 2020
A good look at Baptist polity in the seventeenth century. Spoiler alert: he does mention dismembering people and loose livers. Probably not what you're thinking.
March 2, 2022
Excellent little book on Baptistic, congregationalist church polity.
September 13, 2023
This is the best primer on church polity I’ve ever read. I’d love to get every member of every church to read and and apply it.
February 10, 2024
This is a helpful introduction to Baptist polity. The old language has been updated and it's quite easy to read.
March 29, 2024
Simple and straightforward manual-like work for the church and church membership. It lays out good practices and ways in which the church should be overseen and cared for.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews