What is a church? How should it be ordered and governed? What makes a church disorderly or orderly, fit or unfit? Does the Bible have anything to say about how churches should be constituted?
The Glory of a True Church is arguably the first work on church polity from a Baptist ever. Keach writes in the preface,
"Many revered divines of the Congregational way have written most excellently upon this subject....but the books are so voluminous that the poorer sort can't purchase them, and many others have not time or learning enough to improve them to their profit. And our brethren, the Baptists, have not written (as I can gather) on this subject by itself. Therefore, I have been earnestly desired by our members and also by one of our pastors to write a small and plain tract concerning the rules of the discipline of a gospel church, that all men may not only know our faith, but see our order in this case also."
This book is a helpful introduction to the basic tenets of Baptist congregational polity, not only because of its brevity and readibility, but because it is written by one of the finest pastor-theologians of the Baptist tradition, Benjamin Keach. Attached to this book in part three is the articles of faith Keach wrote for his congregation shortly before his death.