those of Saybrook, Lyme, and Middletown, not represented in the conventions for adopting the Platform, were present by their delegates in the Synod at Saybrook, and may not therefore have deemed their presence important in the conventions. The Rev. Mr. Buckingham of Saybrook may have been sick when the convention met in New London, as he died at the close of the succeeding month. That the church acceded early to the Platform is evident, because the following June it consulted the Association, agreeably to one of its articles, about a candidate. The minister of Lyme was a member of that Association in September, and the minister of Plainfield the next Spring, and afterwards. Mr. Street of Wallingford was probably infirm when the convention met at Branford, as from about a month from that time he had the constant assistance of the candidate who became his colleague. Mr. Hobart of Haddam, was 78 years old when the convention met in Hartford. These and other circumstances may show why ten churches were not represented in the conventions, though they felt a disposition to adopt the Platform. PLATFORM, OF CHURCH DISCIPLINE, GATHERED OUT OF THE WORD OF GOD, AND AGREED UPON BY THE ELDERS AND MESSENGERS OF THE CHURCHES ASSEMBLED IN THE SYNOD ÁT CAMBRIDGE, IN NEW ENGLAND; TO BE PRESENTED TO THE CHURCHES AND GENERAL COURT FOR How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of Hosts. PSAL LXXXIV. 1. LORD I have loved the habitation of thy house, and the place where thine honor dwelleth. PSAL. XXVI. 8. One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord, all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple. PEAL. XXVII. 4. PREFACE. THE setting forth of the public Confession of the Faith of churches hath a double end, and both tending to public edification: First, the maintenance of the faith entire within itself: Secondly, the holding forth of unity and harmony, both amongst and with other churches. Our churches here, as, by the grace of Christ, we believe and profess the same doctrine of the truth of the gospel, which generally is received in all the reformed churches of Christ in Europe, so especially we desire not to vary from the doctrine of faith and truth held forth by the churches of our native country. For though it be not one native country that can breed us all of one mind; nor ought we to have the glorious faith of our Lord Jesus with respect to persons, yet as Paul, who was himself a Jew, professed to hold forth the doctrine of justification by faith, and of the resurrection of the dead, according as he knew his godly countrymen did, who were Jews by nature, (Gal. ii. 15, Acts xxvi. 6, 7,) so we who are by nature Englishmen, do desire to hold forth the same doctrine of religion, especially in fundamentals, which we see and know to be held by the churches of England, according to the truth of the gospel. The more we discern (that which we do, and have causes to do with incessant mourning and trembling) the unkind, and unbrotherly, and unchristian contentions of our godly brethren and countrymen, in matters of church government, the more earnestly do we desire to see them join together in one common faith, and ourselves with them. For this end, having perused the public Confession of the Faith, agreed upon by the reverend assembly of divines at Westminster, and finding the sum and substance thereof, in matters of doctrine, to express not their own judgment only, but ours also; and being likewise called upon by our godly magistrates, to draw up a public confession of that faith which is constantly taught, and generally professed amongst us; we thought good to present unto them, and with them to our churches, and with them to all the churches of Christ abroad, our professed and hearty assent and attestation to the whole confession of faith (for substance of doctrine) which the reverend assembly presented to the religious and honorable parliament of England:* excepting only some sections in the 25, 30, and 31, chapters *Reference is here made to the Westminster Confession of Faith, from which the Savoy Confession inserted in this volume, differs only in the omission of the chapters on church discipline and in some unimportant variations in respect to doctrine. As the New England churches differed from the then dominant party in England on the great subject of Church government, the Synod were the more earnest to profess the agreement of New England with old England in respect to doctrines. B. |