The Book of Religions / Comprising the Views, Creeds, Sentiments, or Opinions, of All the Principal Religious Sects in the World, Particularly of All Christian Denominations in Europe and America, to Which are Added Church and Missionary Statistics, Together With Biographical Sketches

by John Hayward

High-Churchmen.

A term first given to the Nonjurors, who refused to acknowledge William III. as their lawful king, and who had very proud notions of church power; but it is now commonly used in a more extensive signification, and is applied to all those who, though far from being Nonjurors, yet form high conceptions of the authority and jurisdiction of the church.

Ancient American Covenant Or Confession Of Faith.

Copy of the first Covenant, or Confession of Faith, of the First Church in Salem, Massachusetts.

The first ordination to the pastoral office, and the first complete organization and erection of a Protestant church, in North America, took place in that town, in the year 1629.

The First Covenant, Or Confession Of Faith, Of The First Church In Salem.

“We covenant with our Lord, and one with another, and we do bind ourselves, in the presence of God, to walk together in all his ways, according as he is pleased to reveal himself unto us in his blessed word of truth; and do explicitly, [pg 309] in the name and fear of God, profess and protest to walk as followeth, through the power and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ:—

“We avouch the Lord to be our God, and ourselves to be his people, in the truth and simplicity of our spirits.