A

DICTIONARY

OF

CONGREGATIONAL USAGES AND PRINCIPLES

ACCORDING TO ANCIENT AND MODERN AUTHORS;

TO WHICH ARE ADDED

BRIEF NOTICES OF SOME OF THE PRINCIPAL WRITERS, ASSEMBLIES, AND

TREATISES REFERRED TO IN THE COMPILATION.

BY

PRESTON CUMMINGS,

OF LEICESTER, MASS., LATE PASTOR OF THE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH,

BUCKLAND, MASS.

BOSTON:

S. K. WHIPPLE AND CO.

100, WASHINGTON STREET.

1852.

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1852, by

PRESTON CUMMINGS,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.

AUG 3 305

Y

56,480

BOSTON:

PRINTED BY JOHN WILSON AND SON,

No. 22, SCHOOL STREET.

PREFACE.

IT has been said that a good book needs no Preface. Had this fewer defects, it would require less apology. The origin of this work was a supposed want of copious references to many points of frequent practical use in councils, church-meetings, and private duties. It was undertaken at the request of the Franklin Association, but without a due counting of the cost by the compiler.

Three full years of close daily application has sufficed only to discover the magnitude of that subject, which lies at the foundation of the whole fabric of our civil as well as religious liberties. Even Hume, with all his scorn, admits that to the principles and efforts of the Puritans the English owe the whole freedom of their Constitution.

The reader will make no new discovery, when he finds that there are many and great defects in this work. The necessary hurry of consulting so many treatises, creates a constant liability of giving a wrong shade to the views