HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF MEDFORD, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, FROM ITS FIRST SETTLEMENT, IN 1630, TO THE PRESENT TIME, 1855.
Charles Brooks, Ed.

[274] conference of four neighboring clergymen was called, in March, 1847, to whom were submitted statistics and other facts, showing the necessity of increased church accommodation for the orthodox Congregationalists. At this conference, Rev. Mr. Baker and a large number of the brethren of the Second Church were present. As the result, it was the unanimous opinion of the clergymen from abroad, and nearly as unanimously the opinion of the brethren who were present, that it was highly expedient that a new church and congregation should be formed.

In pursuance of this advice, with the nearly unanimous consent of the Second Church, separate worship was established in the Town Hall, May 9, 1847. A new church, called the Mystic Church, was here organized, with sixty members, by a large ecclesiastical council, the 6th of July. Rev. Abner B. Warner, a nephew of Rev. Professor Warner, the first pastor of the Second Church, was installed over the Mystic Church, Oct. 27 of the same year.

Form of admission.--Address.

Beloved Friends,--You have presented yourselves before God and his people, and the world, to make a public profession of your faith, and to take on you the bonds of an everlasting covenant.

We trust you have well considered the nature of this transaction, the most solemn and momentous in which a mortal can engage; that you are prepared by divine grace to renew in public that consecration to God which you have made in private; and that you deem it a duty, as well as a privilege, thus to unite yourselves with the followers of Christ.

Having been duly examined and propounded, and having given your assent in private to the Articles of Faith, you will now publicly profess the same.

Confession of faith.

art. 1.--You believe that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are given by inspiration of God, and that they contain the only perfect rule of faith and practice.

art. 2.--You believe in the existence of one eternal, unchangeable, and glorious God, subsisting in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; and that these three so exist that they are really and truly God.

art. 3.--You believe that God made all things for himself, and that he governs the universe according to the counsel of his own will, and that all events will be made subservient to his wise and benevolent designs.

art. 4.--You believe that man was created in the image of God, in a state of rectitude and holiness; that he fell from that state by transgressing the divine law; and that, in consequence of the original apostasy, the heart of man, in his natural state, is destitute of holiness, and inclined to evil; and that all men, previous to regeneration, are dead in trespasses and sins.