The

and that the pastors were associated. number of churches reported to the General Association the present year, [1841,] is 246; the number of pastors 190, and of stated supplies 21 total 211. All the churches are represented as consociated excepting 15: almost all the pastors and stated supplies belong to the district associations, together with other ministers who are without charge.

NOTES.

NOTE A, p. 35.

"THE principal alteration," says President Stiles, "which they [the churches] deemed [to have been made] was this, that whereas the congregational councils were elected promiscuously from the churches, the churches were now limited to the consociated council, as a standing council on matters of discipline, which they vested with a decisive power on matters which they submitted to them; and which they might on all other matters repair to, advise with, and consult as congregational councils."* This view is far more agreeable to the letter of the articles, than the construction which he undertakes to make out might be put upon them. The President, however, errs in supposing "that for the first forty years after the Platform there was not a single instance of consociated ordinations." "In the three western consociations," the Rev. Moses Dickinson affirms, "it always has been the practice ever since the first formation, for the whole consociation to be convened at every ordination. How it has been," he adds, "in the county of Fairfield," will appear from the following letter:

REV. SIR,

Agreeable to your request, I have examined the records of consociations for the western district in Fairfield county, from which it appears that the con

* Christian Union, p. 79.

sociation was divided Aug. 29, 1734. Since which, there have been nine ordinations in this district; in every [one] of which, the council assisting, consisted of the consociation, as such. And from the old book of records, reaching back to the year 1725, it appears, that all the ordinations, and all the installments, except one, were in like manner performed by councils consisting of the consociation of said county. Dated in Stamford, March 21, 1761.

NOAH WELLES, Register of the Consociation.

The other consociation to which Mr. Dickinson refers is the original consociation of Litchfield county.*

Ordinations in Connecticut now, in the greater proportion of instances, are performed by consociation, or by councils called from the consociations, within whose limits they take place; and so long ago as 1759, the year before Dr. Stiles made the supposition just mentioned, the General Association recommended that ordinations be performed universally by consociation.

NOTE B, p. 36.

This was deemed a defect by the members of a General Association in 1728, and a remedy was proposed to the district association for adoption, as appears from the following letter sent to them as a circular :

"At a General Association of the colony of Connecticut, convened at Hartford, May 10, 1728.

This association, taking into consideration that in the articles of agreement made and concluded at Saybrook,

* Answer to the letter of an aged layman, p. 17.

1708, there is no particular business assigned to the General Association, nor are they thereby expressly invested with any powers, which we apprehend a disadvantage to their being serviceable. We therefore refer it to the particular associations to concur and to consent that the General Association have power and capacity to act and do in the particulars following, viz.

I. To receive appeals from particular associations, and to hear and do thereupon in weighty cases as the particular associations are empowered to do in cases orderly brought to them.

II. To act, advise, and do in matters ecclesiastical which are of such a general nature as cannot be managed in particular associations.

III. As also to propose and offer to the particular associations what they apprehend may be of general benefit to the interest of religion and the service of the churches.

IV. That the delegates chosen for the General Association, to be convened in May, shall stand delegates for the General Association in September following, also annually.

V. That the moderator of the General Association last convened shall have power to call together the General Association when he judgeth the same needful; and the General Association so occasionally convened, shall have the same powers as in the stated conventions of the same.

And desire the particular associations to send their thoughts and determinations upon the premises by their delegates unto the next General Association.

A true copy.

Attest, NATHANIEL CHAUNCEY, Scribe."

The original association of New London, from whose records the foregoing is taken, voted at their meeting, May 29, 1728, "that copies of it [the letter] be taken for a mature thought on them, [the articles,] and [that] the full consideration of them be reserved to the next association." At the next association, Aug. 20, the following answer was prepared, which deserves insertion here.

I. "With respect to the first article, we cannot find by the constitution that any appeals do properly lie from particular associations, inasmuch as they are only to advise and not to determine; and then further, if any matters do go from the particular associations, they are directed to be brought before the council or consociation of the churches of the county.

II. With respect to the second, we do not fully understand the meaning and extent of the proposal, and therefore don't judge it proper for us to comply with it.

III. With respect to the third, we are of opinion that the General Associations are already possessed of that power.

IV. With respect to the fourth, we think it to be too great an imposition upon the delegates, that they be obliged to stand for the year, and that some impropriety might attend such a practice.

V. And with respect to the last, we are of opinion that the moderator had better advise with two or three of the neighboring elders in calling the association together, as the moderator of the council is directed to do."

As no change was effected in the Platform, the proposed remedy must have been deemed unnecessary by the associations generally.