Ecclesiastical History. 41 



walk in his ways, and to keep his statutes, and his commandments and his 

 judgments, and to hearken unto his voice. We declare our serious belief 

 of the christian religion, as it is taught in the Bible, which we take for a 

 perfect rule of faith, worship, and manners. 



" We acknowledge the Lord Jesus Christ as the head of his people in 

 the covenant of grace, and accept him as our prophet, priest, and king, 

 and depend on him in the way which he hath prescribed for instruction, 

 pardon, and eternal life. 



" We profess our serious resolution to deny, as the grace of God teach- 

 eth us, all ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously, 

 and godly in this present world, to endeavor that our conversation may be 

 such as becomes and adorns the gospel. 



" We promise to walk together in all ways of holy communion as 

 brethren in the family of Christ and children of our Father, who is in 

 heaven, to keep the faith and observe the order of the gospel, chearfully 

 to support and conscientiously to attend the public worship of God in all 

 the instituted duties thereof; and to submit to the discipline of his -king- 

 dom, to watch over one another with christian tenderness and circumspec- 

 tion, to avoid sinful stumbling blocks and contentions, and to endeavor 

 our mutual edification in holiness and comfort. 



" Farthermore, We dedicate our offspring, with ourselves, unto the 

 Lord, engaging to bring them up in his nurture and admonition, to serve 

 him with our household, and command them to keep the way of the Lord ; 

 and, as far as in us lieth, to transmit the ordinances of Christ pure and 

 entire to them who shall come after us. 



" All this we do in the presence and fear of God, with a deep sense of 

 our unworthiness to be admitted into covenant with him, and to enjoy the 

 privilidges of the evangelical Church state, and our own insufficiency to 

 perform the duties of it, and do therefore rely on and pray to the God 

 of grace and peace, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus 

 Christ, that great Shepherd of the Sheep, through the blood of the ever- 

 lasting covenant, to pardon our many sins and to make us perfect in every 

 good work, to do his will, working in us that which is well pleasing in his 

 sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen." 



The record says : — 



" Decern b r 10 th , 1746. Daniel Shute was ordained Pastor of the third 

 Church of Christ, in Hingham." 



The following letter, sent on the day before the ordination, by 

 Rev. Ebenezer Gay to the Third Church in Hingham, indicates 

 the state of feeling in the town towards the new parish : — 



Beloved Brethren : — 



I communicated to the Church under my pastoral care the letter you 

 sent to us desiring our presence and assistance at the Ordination you are 

 proceeding to. By withholding the vote of compliance with your request, 

 the greater part of the Brethren by far signified their unwillingness to 

 grant it : whence, and by what I can since learn, 't is plain to me that I 

 cannot attend the ordination of your minister as a Delegate from the 

 Church, it being the mind of the generality of them not to send any. I 

 am sorry that matters are so circumstanced betwixt you and your brethren 

 here that they are not free to countenance and assist you more in the set- 

 tlement of the Gospel Ministry among you. I meddle not with what has 



