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“The Proposals of 1705”
in Williston Walker’s The Creeds and Platforms of Congregationalism
(Pilgrim, 1964 – original 1893) pp. 486-89
The proposals with part of Walker’s commentary indicate how some issues would not lie fallow. After over 40 years, the proper admission to church membership and the privileges and rights thereunto attached were still not a settled matter. In 1698, the Brattle Street Church in Boston began and soon had called a minister, who was ordain 3d in London, and the organization of the church was initiated without a council of neighboring churches. Some of the surrounding churches refused to recognize the new church and a teapot tempest ensued until wiser and more moderate influences intervened to create peace.
Walker’s comments are also helpful in delineating the way in which ministerial organizations began, died, and were born anew.
The full text of “The Proposals of 1705” is available on Google Books, here.
