Vol. II. 207.
Anno Domini, 1655.
For the following extract from the Records of the Church at Bury St. Edmund's, dating from 1646, I am indebted to the Rev. Alfred Tyler, the present minister.
"Thos. Taylor, sometimes a member of the Church of Christ which is at Norwich, and, afterwards, by dismission from them, a foundation member of the Church which is at Godwick and Stanfield, in the county of Norfolk, being a publick preacher and dispenser of the Gospell, approved therein by both those Churches, was called by the Church to preach and dispense the Gospell of Christ unto them in the year 1653, and after neare two yeares experience and tryall, his dismission being first obtained from the Church of Godwick and Stanfield, was by commendation from the said Church and brethren at Godwick, and also by giving in a relation of the dealings of God with his soul, of the work of grace upon his heart, received into fellowship as a brother upon the 18th day of the 9th month, 16—." (The other figures are worn off.)
After this follows a somewhat lengthy confession of faith, and then:—
"Upon the 3rd day of the eleventh month, commonly called January, the Church did, by election and holding up of hands, and by fasting and prayer, ordain Thomas Taylor, a publick preacher and member of the Church, after neare two yeares tryall and experience, unto the office of a pastor, and John Hayward, a member of the same Church, unto the office of a Deacon, at a very solemn and publick meeting, where were present the messengers sent from nine generall Churches, viz.: 1, Coggeshall, in the county of Essex; 2, Sudbury, that whereof Saml. Crossman is pastor; 3, two Churches in Ipswich, meeting at St. Peters (?) and Hellens; 4,——ham (?); 5, Weston; 6, Rattlesden; 7, Pulham; 8, H——en, both in the county of Norfolk; in which meeting the Church did also make a publick profession of their faith according to the foregoing copy, and had the unanimous, clear, and full concurrence of the spirits, judgments, and approbation of all the messengers, both as to their confession of faith, church-state, and order, not one dissenting; and did, at the same meeting, receive the right hand of fellowship from the Churches of Rattlesden, Weston, and Coggeshall: and the messengers from H——en and Pulham declared that the Church had formerly received the right hand of fellowship from them, at or soone after their first sitting down together in fellowship; and the messengers from ——ham, Sudbury, and Hellens, in Ipswich, promised, on the behalf of those Churches, that they would make report of our faith and order unto the Churches to whom they did belong, and to give us the right hand of fellowship at some convenient time, but could not then doe it because they had received no such power from the Church."