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

The whole, and every of these things when put together, do cause us (whatever men of prejudiced and opposite spirits may find out to slight them) with a holy admiration, to say, That this is no other then the Lords doing; and which we with thanksgiving do take from his hand as a special token upon us for good, and doth show that God is faithful and upright towards those that are planted in his house: And that as the Faith was but once for all, and intentionally first delivered unto the Saints; so the Saints, when not abiding scattered, but gathered under their respective Pastors according to Gods heart into an house, and Churches unto the living God, such together are, as Paul forespake it, the most steady and firm pillar and seat of Truth that God hath anywhere appointed to himself on earth, where his truth is best conserved, and publicly held forth; there being in such Assemblies weekly a rich dwelling of the Word amongst them, that is, a daily open house kept by the means of those good Householders, their Teachers and other Instructors respectively appropriated to them, whom Christ in the virtue of his Ascension, continues to give as gifts to his people, himself dwelling amongst them; to the end that by this, as the most sure standing permanent means, the Saints might be perfected, till we all (even all the Saints in present and future ages) do come by this constant and daily Ordinance of his unto the unity of the Faith and Knowledge of the ⟨image 8⟩Son of God unto a perfect man,¹ unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (which though growing on by parts and piecemeal, will yet appear complete, when that great and general Assembly shall be gathered, then when this world is ended, and these dispensations have had their fullness and period) and so that from henceforth (such a provision being made for us) we be no more children tossed ²to and fro, and carried about with every wind of Doctrine.

The whole, and every of these things when put together, do cause us (whatever men of prejudiced and opposite spirits may finde out to slight them) with a holy admiration, to say, That this is no other then the Lords doing; and which we with thanksgiving do take from his hand as a special token upon us for good, and doth show that God is faithful and upright towards those that are planted in his house: And that as the Faith was but once for all, and intentionally first delivered unto the Saints; so the Saints, when not abiding scattered, but gathered under their respective Pastors according to Gods heart into an house, and Churches unto the living God, such together are, as Paul forespake it, the most steady and firm pillar and seat of Truth that God hath anywhere appointed to himself on earth, where his truth is best conserved, and publiquely held forth; there being in such Assemblies weekly a rich dwelling of the Word amongst them, that is, a daily open house kept by the means of those good Housholders, their Teachers and other Instructers respectively appropriated to them, whom Christ in the vertue of his Ascension, continues to give as gifts to his people, himself dwelling amongst them; to the end that by this, as the most sure standing permanent means, the Saints might be perfected, till we all (even all the Saints in present and future ages) do come by this constant and daily Ordinance of his unto the unity of the Faith and Knowledge of the