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

However, such hath been the powerful hand of Gods Providence in these, which have been the worst of our Trials, That out of an approved experience and observation ⟨image 11⟩of the issue, we are able to add that other part of the Apostles Prediction, That therefore such rents must be, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you; which holy issue God (as having aimed at it therein) doth frequently and certainly bring about in Churches, as he doth bring upon them that other fate of division. Let them therefore look unto it, that are the Authors of such disturbances, as the Apostle warneth, Gal. 5.10. The experiment is this, That we have seen, and do daily see, that multitudes of holy and precious souls, and (in the holy Ghosts word) approved Saints, have been, and are the more rooted and grounded by means of these shakings, and do continue to cleave the faster to Christ, and the purity of his Ordinances, and value them the more by this cost God hath put them to for the enjoying of them, who having been planted in the House of the Lord, have flourished in the Courts of our God, in these evil times, to show that the Lord is upright. And this experimented event from out of such divisions, hath more confirmed us, and is a louder Apology for us, then all that our opposites are able from our breaches to allege to prejudice us.

However, such hath been the powerful hand of Gods Providence in these, which have been the worst of our Tryals, That out of an approved experience and observation ⟨image 11⟩of the issue, we are able to add that other part of the Apostles Prediction, That therefore such rents must be, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you; which holy issue God (as having aimed at it therein) doth frequently and certainly bring about in Churches, as he doth bring upon them that other fate of division. Let them therefore look unto it, that are the Authors of such disturbances, as the Apostle warneth, Gal. 5.10. The experiment is this, That we have seen, and do daily see, that multitudes of holy and precious souls, and (in the holy Ghosts word) approved Saints, have been, and are the more rooted and grounded by means of these shakings, and do continue to cleave the faster to Christ, and the purity of his Ordinances, and value them the more by this cost God hath put them to for the enjoying of them, who having been planted in the House of the Lord, have flourished in the Courts of our God, in these evil times, to shew that the Lord is upright. And this experimented event from out of such divisions, hath more confirmed us, and is a lowder Apologie for us, then all that our opposites are able from our breaches to alleadge to prejudice us.