9. If any church, one or more, shall grow schismatical, rending itself from the communion of other churches, or shall walk incorrigibly or obstinately in any corrupt way of their own, contrary to the rule of the word; in such case the magistrate is to put forth his coercive power, as the matter shall require. The tribes on this side Jordan intended to make war against the other tribes, for building the altar of witness, whom they suspected to have turned away therein from following of the LORD.* Josh. xxii. This chapter may be compared with Heads of Agreement, Chap. VII. The difference between the two may be partly because the Cambridge Platform was framed in New England, under a puritan magistracy, while the Heads of Agreement were drawn up in old England, after the restoration, under a government which was enforcing conformity to the established church of England. B. A CONFESSION OF FAITH, OWNED AND CONSENTED TO BY THE ELDERS AND MESSENGERS OE THE Churches in the Colony of Connecticut, IN NEW ENGLAND; ASSEMBLED BY DELEGATION AT SAYBROOK, SEPTEMBER 9, 1708. Eph. 4: 5. One Faith. Col. 2: 5. Joying and beholding your order, and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ. NEW LONDON, CONN. PRINTed, 1710. THE FOLLOWING MEMORANDUM IS INSERTED IN THIS PLACE, BY THE ORDer of the GENERAL ASSOCIATION OF CONNECTICUT, AT THEIR SESSION AT WETHERSFIELD, JUNE, 1842. N. B. For the right understanding of the relation which the following Confession of Faith has to the Congregational ministers and churches of Connecticut, the attention of the reader is directed to the eighth article of the Heads of Agreement, and the practice of the associations and churches based on that article. PREFACE. AMONG the memorable Providences relating to our English Nation in the last century, must be acknowledged the settling of English Colonies in the American parts of the world; among all which this hath been peculiar unto and to the distinguishing glory of that tract called New-England, that the colonies there were originally formed, not for the advantage of trade, and a worldly interest; but upon the most noble foundation, even of religion, and the Liberty of their Consciences, with respect unto the ordinances of the Gospel administered in the purity and power of them; a happiness then not to be enjoyed in their native soil. We joyfully congratulate the religious liberty of our brethren, in the late auspicious reign of K. William and Q. Mary, of blessed memory, and in the present glorious reign, and from the bottom of our hearts bless the Lord, whose perogative it is to reserve the times and seasons in his own hand; who also hath inspired the pious mind of her most sacred Majesty, whose reign we constantly and unfeignedly pray may be long and glorious, with royal resolutions, inviolably to maintain the toleration. Deus enim-hæe Otia fecit. Undoubtedly if the same had been the liber ty of those times, our fathers would have been far from exchanging a most pleasant land) dulce solum patria) for a vast and howling wilderness; since for the enjoyment of so desirable liberty, a considerable number of learned, worthy, and pious persons, were, by divine impulse and extraordinary concurrence of dispositions, engaged to adventure their lives, families, and estates, upon the vast ocean, following the Lord into a wilderness, a land then not sown wherein innumerable difficulties staring them in the face, were outbid by heroic resolution, magnanimity, and confidence in the Lord alone. Our fathers trusted in the Lord and were delivered, they trusted in him and were not confounded. It was their care to be with the Lord, and their indulgence, that the Lord was with them, to a wonder, preserving, supporting, protecting, and animating them; dispatching and destroying the pagan natives by extraordinary sickness and mortality, that there might be room for his people to serve the Lord our God in. It was the glory of our fathers, that they heartily professed the only rule of their religion, from the very first, to be the Holy Scripture, according whereunto, so far as they were persuaded, upon diligent inquiry, solicitous search, and faithful prayer, conformed was their faith, their worship, to * Jer. 2: 2. + Psalms 22: 4, 5. Psalms 80: 8, 9. |