ly to the change, omission or supply of a word, phrase, or clause in a sentence; to the transposition of the parts of a sentence, or to the reconstruction or division of a section in some the alterations are greater.

From these statements and references, it is clear the churches of Connecticut have had either the Savoy or the Westminster Confession for nearly two hundred years, and that these are for the most part one and the same, in language as well as signification. Our ancestors regarded the three Confessions which have been named as meaning the same, so far as doctrines are concerned, and all, of course, as agreeable to the sacred oracles. Accordingly it is said in the ninth head of agreement: "As to what appertains to soundness of judgment. in matters of faith, we esteem it sufficient that a church acknowledge the Scriptures to be the Word of God, the perfect and only rule of faith and practice, and own either the doctrinal part of those commonly called the Articles of the Church of England, or the Confession, or Catechisms, shorter or larger, compiled by the Assembly at Westminster, or the Confession agreed on at the Savoy, to be agreeable to said rule."

Agreeably to these views, Cotton Mather, in his preface to the "Faith professed by the churches of New England," says: "It was once an unrighteous and injurious aspersion

cast upon the churches of New England, that the world knew not their principles: whereas they took all the occasions imaginable to make all the world know, that in the doctrinal part of religion they have agreed entirely with the Reformed Churches of Europe. And that they desired most particularly to maintain the faith professed by the churches of Old England, whereunto was owing their original. Few pastors of mankind ever took such pains at catechising as have been taken by our New English Divines: now let any man living read the most judicious and elaborate catechisms published, [of which a large number are referred to] and say whether true divinity was ever better handled, or whether they were not the truest sons of the Church of England, who thus maintained its fundamental articles."*

The New England ministers proclaimed their faith in various ways; and the churches of Connecticut have had general and coincident Confessions of Faith from the beginning.

It should, however, be said here, that these churches, when the Saybrook Platform was adopted, did not consider their general Confession as setting aside their particular Confessions; these were retained: nor did they, nor their sister churches before, consider their general Confessions as superseding particular ones. All that could have been claimed was, that the par*Magnalia, Book V. page 3.

ticular confessions should not clash with those which were general. Dr. Mather, in the preface just referred to, says: "It is true that particular churches in the country have confessions by themselves, drawn up in their own forms; nor indeed were the symbols in the most primitive times ipsissimis verbis' [in precisely the same language.] It is also true that few learned men have been admitted as members of our churches, but what have, at their admission, entertained them with notable confessions of their own composing; insomuch that if the Protestants have been by the Papists called the Confessionists, the Protestants of New England have of all, given the most laudable occasion to be called so. Nevertheless all this variety has been the exactest unity: all those confessions have been but so many derivations from, and explanations and confirmations of that confession, which the Synod had voted for them all: for ut plures rivuli ab uno fonte, ita plures fidei confessiones ab una eademque fidei veritate manare possunt: [many confessions may be formed from one and the same system of truth, as many little streams may flow from a single fountain"]

The churches in Connecticut have generally had particular confessions, though the associated churches in Litchfield South, in 1828, adopted common articles of faith, and a common covenant. And assuredly, if particular churches

may have a brief confession of their own, associated churches may have a common confession of this description.

It has been mentioned that the compilers at Saybrook appended to the articles of faith which they adopted, proof-texts from the Scriptures; and here seems to be the place for noticing that they did not consider these articles, nor any other formularies, binding, as the productions of men, by their own authority, but as expressing concisely and happily the great truths of the Word of God. They counted it the glory of their fathers, "that they heartily professed the only rule of their religion, from the very first, to be the Holy Scriptures, according whereunto, so far as they were persuaded, upon diligent inquiry, 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."

In offering the Savoy Confession, they doubted not that the same had been "the constant faith of the churches of Connecticut from the first foundation of them." They offered it as being, in their firm persuasion, "well and fully grounded upon the Holy Scriptures," and they commended the same unto all, and particularly the people of Connecticut, "to be examined, accepted and constantly maintained." They

did not assume that any thing should be taken upon trust from themselves, "but commended to the people several counsels," concerning the articles of Faith, in which the authority of Scripture is strongly urged.*

The Second Part of the Platform consists of the Heads of Agreement, and Articles for the Administration of Discipline.

The Puritans were not at first as fully settled and agreed upon church government and discipline as upon doctrines : and in this fact there is nothing at which we need to marvel. Doctrines are more clearly and fully revealed in the Scriptures, than matters pertaining to government and discipline, and the latter were subjects of much controversy when New England was settled. While some principles of government are obvious, the formation of a system of government, whether ecclesiastical or civil, defining the rights and duties of different classes of officers, their relations to each other, and the privileges of the people, has always been found a difficult work and then, when a system of government is formed, to sustain it, and to carry all its principles and provisions, even in the church of God, into harmonious and full execution, is a work of greater difficulty. "The Pœdobaptist part of the dissenting interest in England," in the language of President Stiles, "was

* See Preface to the Platform.