€hap.. HI. The H I·ST O·R Y of th~ PuRITANS".' 507 foon after publiilied in quarto, under the title of a declaration of the O liver · d d d d a;r;,d · h t · l h h · E Protellor; jazth an or er owne an prav,!Je 112 t e congrega zona c urc es zn ng6 8 land, agreed upon and con(ented unto, by their elders and "!eJfengers in their ~] meetings at the Savoy, Otl:ob. 12, 1658..Next year it was tra?flat~~ into Iatin by profetfor Hornbeek, and pubhilied at the end of his epijt.ola ad Durceum de independenti!Jimo. Some imputed their unanimity to the authority and influence of Dr. Owen, Mr. Nye, and the reft of the elder divines over the younger; but they themfelves in their preface, "look " upon it as a great and fpecial work of the holy ghofl, that fo nu- ,, merous a company of minill:ers, and other principal brethren, !hould " fo readily, fpee dily, and jointly give up themfelves to iuch an whole " body of truths as is there colletl:ed." They add further, " that this " agreement of theirs fell out without their having held any correfpond- " ence together, or preJilared confultation, by which they might be advifed " of one anothers minds." Which I confefs is very extraord inary, confidering the confeffion confifl:s of thirty-three chapters, in which are almofl two hundred di£l:inct articles of faith and difcipline; and that tha whole time of the fynod's feffions or continuance, was not abo.ve eleven . or t welve days•. Th<! Savoy coififlion proceeds upon the plan of the Weflmi,yler affembly; which made the work very eafy; and in moll: places retains their very ' words. They tell the world in their preface, that they fully confent ro.J the Wefiminfler conf1Jion for the fubfl:ance of it, but have taken liberty to add a few things, in order to obviate fame erroneous opinions that have oeen more boldly maintained of late than in former times. They h av'l likewife varied the method in fame places, and have here and there ex~ preffed themfelves more clearly, as they found occalion. They have omit~ ted all thofe chapters in the atfembly's confeffion which relate to difci p~ line, as .the 3oth and Jilt, with p.art of the zoth. and 24.th, relating t0 the power of jjnods, councils, church cmjures, marriage and divorce, and the power if the civil magiftrate in matter.r qf religion. Thefe (fay they ) were fuch doubtful atfertions,. and fo unfuited to a confeilion of faith, . that the englifo parliament would never ratify them, there being nothing t hat tends more to heighten ditfenfions among. brethren, than to place thefe doubtful fpecu lations under fa high a·. title . as a coifejjiou if jaith. After the 19th chapter of the atfembly's confeffion, of the law, the Sa– voy divines have added an entire chapter, if the gofpel, in .which what is difperfed up and down the atfemblv's confeffion is colleCted, and put together. U pan the whole, . the:. difference betwee n thefe two con– feffions, in point~ of dotl:rine is fo very fmall, that the modern in~ dep.end.ents have. m a manner laid afide the ufe of it. in their far T t t 2.. miliesJ ,
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