A52591:53
A Declaration of the faith and order owned and practiced in the Congregational churches…
A Declaration of the faith and order owned and practiced in the Congregational churches in England agreed upon and consented unto by their elders and messengers in their meeting at the Savoy, October 12, 1658.
London: printed by John Field, 1659
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
And we trust there is no just cause why any man, either for our differing from the present settlement, it being out of conscience, and not out of contempt, or our differences one from another, being not wilful, should charge either of us with that odious reproach of Schism. And indeed, if not for our differing from the State-settlement, much less because we differ from our Brethren, our differences being in some lesser things, 1and circumstances only, as themselves acknowledge. And let it be further considered, that we have not broken from them or their Order by these differences (but rather they from us) and in that respect we less deserve their censure; our practise being no other then what it was in our breaking from Episcopacy, and long before Presbytery, or any such form as now they are in, was taken up by them; and we will not say how probable it is that the yoke of Episcopacy had been upon our neck to this day, if some such way (as formerly, and now is, and hath been termed Schism) had not with much suffering bin then practised & since continued in.
And we trust there is no just cause why any man, either for our differing from the present settlement, it being out of conscience, and not out of contempt, or our differences one from another, being not wilful, should charge either of us with that odious reproach of Schism. And indeed, if not for our differing from the State-settlement, much less because we differ from our Brethren, our differences being in some lesser things, 1and circumstances onely, as themselves acknowledge. And let it be further considered, that we have not broken from them or their Order by these differences (but rather they from us) and in that respect we less deserve their censure; our practise being no other then what it was in our breaking from Episcopacy, and long before Presbytery, or any such form as now they are in, was taken up by them; and we will not say how probable it is that the yoke of Episcopacy had been upon our neck to this day, if some such way (as formerly, and now is, and hath been termed Schism) had not with much suffering bin then practised & since continued in.
- 1Jus divinum Minist. pub. by the Provost of London, in the Preface.