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

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Feb. 11, 1713: This day was set apart as a day of fasting and prayer, in order to separate or ordain me to the sacred office of a minister of the gospel. The reverend elders sent to assist in this solemn action were these following: scil., the Rev. Mr. Samuel Angier, of Watertown; Mr. William Brattle, of Cambridge; Mr. John Hancock, of Lexington; Mr. Simon Bradstreet, of Charlestown; Mr. John Fox, of Woburn; and Mr. David Parsons, of Malden; all of whom (except the Rev. Mr. Wm. Brattle and Mr. John Fox, who at this time labored under bodily indispositions) were present, with other delegates of the churches.

The reverend elders and messengers being assembled at the house of Br. John Bradshaw, the first thing they did was the gathering a church; which was done by a number of the brethren's signing to a covenant prepared for that purpose.

By a law of the General Court, passed March 3, 1636, each church must be recognized and approved by the magistrates soon after its organization; otherwise its members cannot be admitted as freemen of the Commonwealth. The Medford church was so approved. Maiden was fined, in 1651, for settling a minister “without the consent of the neighboring churches or the allowance of the magistrates.”

Covenant.--We, whose names are hereunto subscribed, apprehending ourselves called of God to join together in church communion (acknowledging ourselves unworthy of such a privilege, and our inability to keep covenant with God, or to perform any spiritual duty, unless Christ shall enable thereunto), in humble dependence on free grace for divine assistance and acceptance, we do, in the name of Christ Jesus our Lord, freely covenant, and bind ourselves solemnly, in the presence of God himself; his holy angels, and all his servants here present, to serve the God whose name alone is Jehovah, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, the only true and living God; cleaving to him, our chief good, and unto our Lord Jesus Christ, as our only Saviour, Prophet, Priest, and King of our souls in a way of gospel obedience; avouching the Lord to be our God, and the God of our children, whom we give unto him, counting it as our highest honor that the Lord will accept of us, and our children with us, to be his people. We do also give ourselves one unto another in the Lord, covenanting to walk together as a church of Christ in all the ways of his worship, according to the holy rules of his word; promising in brotherly love faithfully to watch over one another's souls, and to submit ourselves to the discipline and power of Christ in the church, and duly to attend the seals and censures, or whatever ordinances Christ has commanded to be observed by his people, so far as the Lord by his word and spirit has or shall reveal unto us to be our duty; beseeching the Lord to own us for his people, and delight to dwell in the midst of us. And,