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CONFESSION OF FAITH,

OWNED AND CONSENTED TO, BY THE

Elders and Messengers.

OF THE CHURCHES IN THE COLONY OF CONNECTICUT, IN NEW-ENGLAND,

Assembled by Delegation at Saybrook, September 9th, 1708.

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Col. ii. 5. Joying and beholding your order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ.

NEW-LONDON, (CON.) PRINTKD-1710. BRIDGEPORT, RE-PRINTED BY LOCKWOOD &

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PUBLIC LIBRARY

ASTOR, LENOX AND

TILDEN FOUNDATIONS.
1897.

THE General Association being informed that Messrs. Lockwood & Backus propose printing a nero Edition of the Confession of Faith, agreed upon at Saybrook, A. D. 1708, together with the heads of agreement formerly assented to by the United Minis ters called Presbyterian and Congregational: and the Articles for the administration of Church discipline as adopted by the General Assembly at New-Hathe 14th of October A. D. 1708,

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Voted-That Rev. Messrs. Stephen W. Stebbins, Elijah Waterman, and Heman Humphrey, be a Committee to superintend the publication, and see to the correctness of the same according to the first edition. A true extract of the minutes of the Association held at Ellington, June 19th 1810.

Attest, SAMUEL MERWIN, Scribe.

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PREFACE.

MONG 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 respec* 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 libertv 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 prerogative it is to reserve the times and season's in his own hand, who also hath inspired the pious mind of her most sacred Majesty, whose reign we constantly and unfeignedly pray may

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be long and glorious, with royal resolutions, inviolably to maintain the toleration.

Deus enim hæc Otia fecit.

Undoubtedly if the same had been the liberty 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 a divine impulse and extraordinary concurrence of dis positions, 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 heroick 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 hem, 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

* Jer. ii. 2. † Psal. xxii. 4,5. II Chron. xv. 2. Psal. lxxx. 8, 9.

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 enquiry, solicitous search, and faithful prayer conformed, was their faith, their worship, together with the whole administration of the house of Christ, and their manners, allowance being given to human failures and imperfections.

That which they were most solicitous about, and wherein their liberty had been restrained, respected the worship of God, and the Government of the Church of Christ, according to his own appointment, their faith and profession of religion being the same which was generally received in all the reformed churches of Europe, and in substance the Assembly's Confes sion, as shall be shewn anon..

It cannot be denied, that the usage of the Christian Church, whose faith wholly rested upon the word of God respecting Confessions of Faith, is very ancient, and that which is universally acknowledged to be most so, and of universal acceptance and consent, is commonly called the Apostles' Creed, a symbol, sign, or badge of the christian religion, called the Apostles, not because they composed it, for then it must have been received into the canon of the Holy Bible, but because the matter of it agreeth with the doctrine, and is taken out of the writings of the Apostles. Conseqent hereunto, as the necessity of the Church for the correcting, condemn

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