THE

ANCIENT PLATFORMS

OF THE

CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES

OF

NEW ENGLAND;

WITH A DIGEST

OF RULES AND USAGES IN CONNECTICUT,

AND AN APPENDIX,

CONTAINING NOTICES OF CONGREGATIONAL BODIES IN OTHER

STATES.

Published by direction of the General Association of Connecticut.

MIDDLETOWN:

EDWIN HUNT.

ENTERED according to Act of Congress, in the year 1842, by

TYLER AND PORTER,

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Connecticut.

BX

7139

.A5 1843

PREFACE.

THE General Association of Connecticut, at New Milford, in 1837, appointed a committee of one from each district association, "to collect from the different associations and consociations the various rules and usages which modify the application of the Platform; and to report to the next General Association a summary or digest of the same, which may be incorporated with a new edition of the Platform.

By the labors of that committee, a beginning was made in the work now completed. But the contemplated edition of the Saybrook Platform having been published without the proposed "summary or digest," the committee supposed that they were released from the service; and by the General Association at Norwalk, in June, 1838, they were, at their request, discharged from the further consideration of the subject.

The design, however, was felt to be too important to be abandoned; and at the same meeting, the subscribers were appointed a committee " to collect from the different associations and consociations, their various rules and usages, and to report a digest of the same to the next General Association."

At Danbury, in 1839, and at New Haven, in 1840, this committee reported the progress they were making in the work, and were directed to proceed. At New Haven, in 1841, they made a final report as follows:

"That in attending to the duty assigned to them, it seemed proper to inquire, first, into the origin and history of the associations and consociations,-secondly, to inquire how far the several