*

fact, all the churches in New England. Other difficulties, arising in different churches, afflicted them also. The Legislature were so annoyed by these, that in 1668, "they conceived the design of uniting the churches of Connecticut in some general plan of church government and discipline, by which they might walk, notwithstanding their different sentiments in points of less importance." With this view an act passed, authorizing four distinguished clergymen in different parts of the colony, viz.: the Reverend Messrs. James Fitch of Norwich, Gershom Buckley of Wethersfield, Joseph Elliot of Guilford, and Samuel Wakeman of Fairfield, "to meet at Saybrook, and devise a way in which this desirable purpose might be effected. This appears to have been," Trumbull remarks, "the first step towards forming a religious constitution," and though he does not inform us what those clergymen did, yet he adds, "From this time it became more and more a general object of desire and pursuit,-though many years elapsed before the work could be accomplished."t The occurrence of new difficulties from time to time, showed that it was necessary something should be done. "For the want of a more general and energetic government," the same writer observes, many churches ran into confusion: councils were not sufficient to relieve the aggrieved and restore peace. As *Trumbull, Vol. I. p. 297. Savage's Winthrop, Vol. I. p. 142. + Trumbull, Vol. I. p. 461.

there was no general rule for the calling of councils, council was called against council, and opposite results were given upon the same cases to the reproach of councils and the wounding of religion. Aggrieved churches and brethren were discouraged, as in this way their case seemed to be without remedy. There was no such thing in this way, as bringing their difficulties to a final issue."* The substance of all this appears from the act of the Legislature appointing those conventions in 1708, in the different counties then in Connecticut, whose delegates formed the Saybrook Platform. "This assembly, from their own observation, and the complaint of many others, being made sensible of the defects of the discipline of the churches of this government, arising from the want of a more explicit asserting of the rules given for that end in the Holy Scriptures, from which would arise a permanent establishment among ourselves, a good and regular issue in cases subject to ecclesiastical discipline, glory to Christ our head, and edification to his members; hath seen fit to ordain and require, and it is by the authority of the same, ordained and required, that the ministers of the several counties in this government, shall meet together at their respective county towns, with such messengers as the churches to which they belong shall see cause to send with them, on

* Trumbull, Vol. I. p. 480.

the last Monday in June next; there to consider and agree upon those methods and rules for the management of ecclesiastical discipline, which by them shall be adjudged agreeable to the word of God, and shall at the same meeting appoint two or more of their number to be their delegates, who shall all meet together at Saybrook, at the next commencement to be held there, where they shall compare the results of the meetings of the several counties, and out and from them, draw a form of ecclesiastical discipline."

Agreeably to this order, the ministers and messengers of the churches met and drafted four models of church discipline, and appointed delegates to the convention at Saybrook. The delegates met and adopted the Confession of Faith which has been spoken of, and the Heads of Agreement, and Articles for the Administration of Discipline.

The Heads of Agreement were not drafted in the conventions, though they may have been the subject of consideration for they were previously circulated in the country, "and in general were highly approved." They were drawn up and assented to by the ministers in England, formerly called Presbyterian and Congregational, and were probably adopted by the delegates at Saybrook for the sake of ef fecting greater union and harmony among

Trumbull, Vol. I. p. 481, 2. Ibid, p. 481.

themselves, and the churches they represented; though the declaration they contain respecting the examination of candidates for the ministry, by pastors of known ability, had its influence: for young men for a time had been permitted to preach hastily and irregularly, and there was no existing remedy for the evil. From this the inference is not to be drawn that any of the delegates were Presbyterians themselves. Such was not the fact: nor is there any evidence that any churches then or before in Connecticut, acknowledged Presbyterian principles, though there may have been before a very few ministers and professors who embraced them, as there have been a few since.* What Trumbull states about the different views of the del

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egates is this: Though the council were unanimous in passing the Platform of Discipline, yet they were not all of one opinion. Some were for high consociational government, and in their sentiments, nearly Presbyterians; others were much more moderate and rather verging on independency; but exceedingly desirous of keeping the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. They exercised great Christian condescension and amiableness towards each other."+

This desire of unison and peace, which so far as we know, was the principal reason for

* Trumbull, Vol. I. p. 468. † Trumbull, Vol. I. p. 487.

the adoption of these Heads at Saybrook, operated upon those who originally drafted and adopted them in England; who, for the sake of accomplishing their object, cheerfully made concessions to each other. These concessions appear in various sections: in the second and fourth, under the first head, concerning churches and church members: in the sixth section, under the second head, concerning the ministry; in the section, constituting the fifth head, concerning deacons and ruling elders, and in the section constituting the eighth head, concerning a confession of faith.

Adopted in such a spirit, the Heads of Agreement effected a union among the Presbyterians and Congregationalists in England. "The brethren of the Presbyterian way in England," says Cotton Mather, " are lately come into such a happy union with those of the Congregational, that all former names of distinction are lost in that blessed one of United Brethren."* With like spirit the "Heads" were adopted at Saybrook. The delegates appended proof-texts to the sections as they did to the articles of the Confession of Faith.

These Heads, to use their language, "hold forth the power of particular churches in the management of discipline among themselves. They refer also to the relations of such churches to each other, and to their communion. Had