More than four years have passed since the writer was requested, by the councillors of the Backus Historical Society, to prepare for the press a new edition of the Ecclesiastical History of New England, by the Rev. Isaac Backus. Several considerations, some of which may be specified, led him to attempt a compliance with this request.
It seemed quite possible for one who was entrusted with the department of Church History in this Institution, to perform such a task, not only without detriment to his special work, but even with some prospect of advantage, as it would prepare him, partially at least, to satisfy a desire which had been expressed by friends of Newton, that the history of baptized Christians in modern times might enter more largely into the course of instruction.
And further, it seemed desirable that a new edition of the history mentioned above should be published with all convenient despatch, inasmuch as it had become very rare and almost inaccessible, while at the same time it was of great value, both as a storehouse of important facts not elsewhere preserved, and as a record of sentiments worthy of attention at the present day. It was felt that it would be a great oversight in the Baptist denomination to suffer this memorial of their New England fathers to perish, and that the time which might be consumed in preparing a new edition would be wisely spent in the Master’s service.
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