Concerning the Holy Ghost. That God the holy Ghost hath fully revealed the Doctrine of Christ and will of God in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament, which are the Word of God, the perfect, perpetuall and only Rule of our Faith and Obedience. Concerning the Benefits we have by Christ. That the same Spirit by Working Faith in Gods Elect, applyeth unto them Christ with all his Benefits of Justification, and Sanctification, unto Salvation, in the use of those Ordinances which God hath appointed in his written word, which therefore ought to be observed by us until the coming of Christ. Concerning the Church of Christ. That all true Believers being united unto Christ as the Head, make up one Misticall Church which is the Body of Christ, the members wherof having fellowship with the Father Son and HolyGhost by Faith, and one with an other in love, doe receive here upon earth forgiveness of Sinnes, with the life of grace, and at the Resurrection of the Body, they shall receive everlasting life. Amen. THE COVENANT: I do heartily take and avouch this one God who is made known to us in the Scripture, by the Name of God the Father, and God the Son even Jesus Christ, and God the Holy Ghost to be my God, according to the tenour of the Covenant of Grace; wherein he hath promised to be a God to the Faithfull and their seed after them in their Generations, and taketh them to be his People, and therefore unfeignedly repenting of all my sins, I do give up myself wholy unto this God to believe in love, serve & Obey him sincerely and faithfully according to his written word, against all the temptations of the Devil, the World, and my own flesh and this unto the death. I do also consent to be a Member of this particular Church, promising to continue steadfastly in fellowship with it, in the publick Worship of God, to submit to the Order Discipline and Government of Christ in it, and to the Ministerial teaching guidance and oversight of the Elders of it, and to the brotherly watch of Fellowship Members: and all this according to Gods Word, and by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ enabling me thereunto. Amen. Questions to be Answered at the Baptizing of Children, or Quest. Doe you present and give up this child, or these children, unto God the Father, Sonne and Holy Ghost, to be baptized in the Faith, and Engaged in the Covinant of God professed by this Church? Quest. Doe you Sollemnly Promise in the Presence of God, that by the grace of Christ, you will discharge your Covinant duty towards your Children, soe as to bring them up in the Nurture and Admonition of the Lord, teaching and commanding them to keep the way of God, that they may be able (through the grace of Christ) to make a personall profession of their Faith and to own the Covinant of God themselves in due time. The clearest exception to the rule that the early Congregational churches had no creeds, is found in the church of Windsor, Conn., in a document prepared by its pastor, Rev. John Warham, in 1647. It is in credal form, and is the oldest creed in Connecticut, and one of the oldest of all Congregational creeds. Yet it will be noted that the doctrinal part is relatively small, being contained in the first three articles which are virtually a preamble to the longer and more fundamental articles, four in number, which constitute and interpret the church covenant. The text is from Walker's "Creeds and Platforms," pp. 157-158. THE WINDSOR CREED-COVENANT, 1647 1. We believe though God made man in an holy and blessed condition, yet by his fall he hath plunged himself and all his posterity into a miserable state.--Rom. iii: 23; v: 12. 2. Yet God hath provided a sufficient remedy in Christ for all broken hearted sinners that are loosened from their sins and selves and world, and are enabled by faith to look to Him in Christ, for mercy, inasmuch as Christ hath done and suffered for such whatever His justice requires to atonement and life; and He doth accept His merits and righteousness for them that believe in Him, and imputeth it to them to their justification, as if they had satisfied and obeyed, themselves.-Heb. vii: 25; Mat. xi: 28; xxii: 24; v: 4, 6; 1 Cor. i: 30; Rom. iv: 3, 5; v: 19. 3. Yet we believe that there is no other name or means to be saved from guilt and the power of sin.-John xiv: 6; Acts iv: 12. 4. We believe God hath made an everlasting covenant in Christ with all penitent sinners that rest on him in Christ, never to reject, or cease to do them good.-Heb. viii: 6; vii: 22; 1 Sam. xii: 22; Jere. xxxii: 40. 5. We believe this covenant to be reciprocal, obliging us to be his people, to love, fear, obey, cleave to him, and serve him with all our heart, mind, and soul; as him to be our God, to love, choose, delight in us, and save and bless us in Christ: yea, as his covenant binds us to love him and his Christ for his own sake, so to love our brethren for his sake.-Deut. x: 12; Hos. iii: 3; ii: 21; Deut. xxvi: 17-19; John iv: 21. 6. We believe that God's people, besides their general covenant with God, to walk in subjection to him, and Christian love to all his people, ought also to join themselves into a church covenant one with another, and to enter into a particular combination together with some of his people to erect a particular ecclesiastical body, and kingdom, and visible family and household of God, for the managing of discipline and public ordinances of Christ in one place in a dutiful way, there to worship God and Christ, as his visible kingdom and subjects, in that place waiting on him for that blessing of his ordinances and promises of his covenant, by holding communion with him and his people, in the doctrine and discipline of that visible kingdom, where it may be attained.-Rom. xii: 4, 5, 6; 1 Cor. xii: 27, 28; Ephes. iv: 11, 12; Acts ii: 47; Exod. xii: 43, 44, 45; Gen. xvii: 13; Isa. xxiii: 4. 7. We for ourselves, in the sense of our misery by the fall and utter helplessness elsewhere, desire to renounce all other saviours but his Christ, and to rest on God in him alone, for all happiness, and salvation from all misery; and to here, bind ourselves, in the presence of men and angels, by his grace assisting us, to choose the Lord, to serve him, and to walk in all his ways, and to keep all his commandments and ordinances, and his Christ to be our king, priest and prophet, and to receive his gospel alone for the rule of our faith and manners, and to [be] subject to the whole will of Christ so far as we shall understand it; and bind ourselves in special to all the members of this body, to walk in reverend subjection in the Lord to all our superiours, and in love, humility, wisdom, peaceableness, meekness, inoffensiveness, mercy, charity, spiritual helpfulness, watchfulness, chastity, justice, truth, self-denial, one to another, and to further the spiritual good one of another, by example, counsel, admonition, comfort, oversight, according to God, and submit or [selves] subject unto all church administration in the Lord. III. THE CONFESSIONS OF 1648 AND 1680 Five times the Congregational churches of the United States or the Colonies in national gatherings have signified a more or less elastic approval of formal confessions of faith. These confessions fell into two groups, separated in time by nearly two hundred years. The first two were the confessions of Westminster and Savoy, affirmed with little modification but with a considerable degree of elasticity, the first in 1648 and the second in 1680. These confessions were reaffirmed with an important preface, at Saybrook, Connecticut, in 1708. (1) THE CAMBRIDGE PLATFORM OF 1648 The Cambridge Synod was convened by call of the General Court of Massachusetts, with particular reference to the formulation of a reply to two sets of questions which had been received by ministers and churches in New England from churches and ministers in England. One of these was addressed to the ministers, and asked for the judgment of the New England brethren concerning "nine positions;" the other, was a communication to the churches of New England from the Puritan churches of England propounding thirtytwo questions relating to church government. A call was issued by the General Court, as follows: That there be a public assembly of the Elders and other messengers of the several churches, within this jurisdiction, who may come together, and meet at Cambridge, upon the first day of September, now next ensuing, then to discuss, dispute, and clear up by the word of God, such questions of church government and discipline, in the things aforementioned or any other, as they shall think needful and meet, and continue so doing till they or the major part of them shall have agreed and consented upon one form of government and discipline, for the main and substantial parts thereof, as that which they judge agreeable to the Holy Scriptures. The Synod convened in Cambridge, Mass., in September, 1646, and continued in session for fourteen days. It held two adjourned meetings in 1647, and a final ten days' session in August, 1648. In the interval between the extended sessions of the Synod, the General Court submitted to the Synod the further responsibility of setting forth "a confession of faith which it professes touching the doctrinal part of the religion also," asking the Synod to consider seven different confessions that had been prepared by different New England ministers and to formulate one which might be printed and commended to the churches. Dr. Walker says, "As the Synod went on, the conception of its possible functions modified. The original thought of the Court had been a settlement of church polity, with special attention to the disputed questions of baptism and church membership. Circumstances had made those questions less pressing, and had brought into greater prominence the broader function of the Synod, that of giving a Constitution to the churches, but it might do even more. The Westminster Assembly had prepared a Confession of Faith in regard to which much secrecy was still observed. It had not yet been adopted by Parliament, though approved August 27, 1647, by the Scotch General Assembly. There was reason to fear that it might not be wholly satisfactory, and therefore at its session on October 27, 1647, the Massachusetts General Court added to the duties of the Synod that of preparing a Confession of Faith."-Creeds and Platforms, pp. 182, 183. By the time the Synod met again in 1648, copies of the Westminster Confession were in the hands of the members of that body. It offered a convenient way out of a more or less difficult situation. It saved the Synod any trouble in the way of choosing among the confessions that had been prepared for other purposes by the different ministers within its membership, and what was more important, it enabled the Puritans of |