A Declaration of the faith and order owned and practiced in the Congregational churches…

The first, is the Temper, (or distemper rather) of the times, during which, these Churches have been gathering, and which they have run through. All do (out of a general sense) complain that the times have been perilous, or difficult times; (as the Apostle foretold) and that in respect to danger from seducing spirits, more perilous then the hottest seasons of Persecution. We have sailed through an Aestuation, Fluxes and Refluxes of great varieties of Spirits, Doctrines, Opinions and Occurrences; and especially in the matter of Opinions, which have been accompanied ⟨image 4⟩in their several seasons, with powerful persuasions and temptations, to seduce those of our way. It is known men have taken the freedom (notwithstanding what Authority hath interposed to the contrary) to vent and vend their own vain and accursed imaginations, contrary to the great and fixed Truths of the Gospel, insomuch, as take the whole round and circle of delusions, the Devil hath in this small time, ran, it will be found, that every truth, of greater or lesser weight, hath by one or other hand, at one time or another, been questioned and called to the Bar amongst Us, yea, and impleaded, under the pretext (which hath some degree of Justice in it) that all should not be bound up to the Traditions of former times, nor take Religion upon trust.

The first, is the Temper, (or distemper rather) of the times, during which, these Churches have been gathering, and which they have run through. All do (out of a general sense) complain that the times have been perillous, or difficult times; (as the Apostle foretold) and that in respect to danger from seducing spirits, more perillous then the hottest seasons of Persecution. We have sailed through an Aestuation, Fluxes and Refluxes of great varieties of Spirits, Doctrines, Opinions and Occurrences; and especially in the matter of Opinions, which have been accompanied ⟨image 4⟩in their several seasons, with powerful perswasions and temptations, to seduce those of our way. It is known men have taken the freedom (notwithstanding what Authority hath interposed to the contrary) to vent and vend their own vain and accursed imaginations, contrary to the great and fixed Truths of the Gospel, insomuch, as take the whole round and circle of delusions, the Devil hath in this small time, ran, it will be found, that every truth, of greater or lesser weight, hath by one or other hand, at one time or another, been questioned and called to the Bar amongst Us, yea, and impleaded, under the pretext (which hath some degree of Justice in it) that all should not be bound up to the Traditions of former times, nor take Religion upon trust.