In 1698 he was solemnly set apart to the work of the ministry by the laying on of the hands of Presbyters at Broad Oak in the presence of the people, and the Confession of Faith which he made at that time is so remarkably concise that I think it worth inserting at large, and the rather because we have so little of his remaining in our hands. It is this:—
“Being obliged to confess my faith, I humbly crave leave to do it in that method which had been of singular use to me in confirming of it. First, then, I cannot but be persuaded that in this earthly tabernacle, my human body, I mean, dwells an immortal soul, conscious to itself that it had a beginning, and must needs proceed from a Father of Spirits. I do, therefore, in the next place, firmly believe that there is a God—that is, an Almighty, All-wise, All-good Being, all whose works must needs originally be both like Him, according to the capacity of their nature, and worthy of Him. But sad experience hath effectually taught me that I am naturally an unholy, impure, perverse creature, an ignorant, bestiant, selfish being. I cannot but conclude, therefore, that I am degenerated and no such thing as I was when I came out of my Maker’s hands. I am satisfied that I cannot restore myself, that no creature can restore me, and that the work of restitution being such as could not be effected but by infinite power, it must needs be such as could not be carved but by infinite wisdom, and that I should never have understood the methods of it if God Himself had not revealed them to me. The necessity, therefore, of divine revelation in order to eternal life I am thoroughly persuaded of. And finding a volume in this world, termed by us the Holy Bible, that has in it all the marks of heavenly inspiration that the most inquisitive mind can reasonably imagine or desire, I believe it is the Word of God, and with all my soul embrace it as the revelation I need in order to my everlasting happiness.
According to it therefore, finding that the world by its wisdom knew not God, I form my conception of the first cause of all things, and I embrace heartily the doctrine asserting a Trinity of Persons in the Unity of the Godhead. I believe that infinite wisdom foreordained in eternity whatsoever shall come to pass in time, and that this whole world, according to the particular appointment of its creation, was made exactly in that admirable manner which the sacred history relates to us. The account which the Scripture sets before us of the Fall, wherein it lets us know our first parents, the once perfect representatives of all their posterity, lost their innocence and felicity together, doth entirely satisfy me how sin and misery made their entry into this, ever since, unhappy world, and I believe I fell in them and with them. I believe the report of a Mediator engaging in our cause, appeasing divine justice, reconciling men to God. And hereof I think I have even a demonstration in the present constitution of this world and state of men here differing so vastly from that of the fallen Angels. I believe that this Mediator is the Lord Jesus Christ, Immanuel, who was made perfect by His sufferings that He might bring all those whom purely free grace had chosen to be the sons of God, to eternal glory. For these, I believe, in the highest exaltation, the just reward of his voluntary abasement, He lives to make continual intercession, sending down upon each of them the Spirit, in the most proper seasons and measures, which by the means of grace works faith, hope, and love in them. . . . These means of grace I apprehend to be chiefly the Word and prayer and the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, for the more effectual application of which I believe the great King of the Church hath established in it a settled ministry, which He will own and grace to the end of the world.
At the end of the world I expect a day of universal judgment in order to which I certainly look for a resurrection from the dead, and in which I firmly believe an irreversible doom will be pronounced on every man, determining both his soul and his body to the state of felicity or misery the Former had assigned it by a particular judgment immediately consequent upon his death. These things past, I believe the wicked shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and the glory of His power, and that they that be wise shall shine as the firmament and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.”
This was the confession of his faith. His ordination vows, in answer to the questions solemnly put to him, were likewise very serious and devout and affecting to the hearers, but too long to be inserted here. However, in the course of his ministry it was evident he remembered them and transcribed them into his conversation.