periments in agriculture, and you will make constant improvement in the management of your woodlands, in the tillage of your fields, in rebuilding your stone walls, and clearing up the hedges around them, in breaking up fallow ground, which is now unproductive and in the breeding and culture of flocks & herds! On the whole you possess by your local advantages and by nature resources, which few towns can boast; and nothing is wanting to render your situation eligible, and to make you a prosperous, affluent and respectable town, but industry and economy in employing and managing your resources; and public spirit, virtue and piety, without which no community can flourish.

In every society the weight of property and influence is in the hands of a few. On the enterprise, public spirit and religious example of the more wealthy and influential the prosperous state of society depends. They work the secret springs, which keep the life blood of community in motion and communicate vital warmth to the extremities of the body politic.

To whom much is given, from them will much be required.

Το you the picture of a happy society, drawn by Doctor Belknap, is partially applicable, and may be made fully so by your exertions and improvements. "A town consisting of a due mixture of hills, vallies, and streams of water. The land well fenced and cultivated; the roads and bridges in good repair. Decent inns for the refreshment of travellers, and for public entertainment. The inhabitants mostly husbandmen; their wives and daughters domestic manufacturers; a suitable proportion of handicraft workmen and two or three traders; a physician and a lawyer; a clergyman of good understanding, candid disposition and exemplary morals; not a metaphysical, nor a polemic, but a serious practical preach

er. A school master, who should understand his business, and teach his pupils to govern themselves. A social Library annually increasing, and under good regulations. A decent musical society. No intriguing politician, horse-jockey, gambler, or sot. Such a situation may be considered as the most favorable to local happiness, of any which this world can af ford."

May your virtues like those of your ancestors, send down your names with honor to posterity; and blending the glory of the children with that of the fathers, enlighten the dark vista of future years, till time shall be no more.

HISTORICAL SKETCH

OF THE CHURCH OF

CHELMSFORD.

Nihil sine, nihil contra, nihil praeter, nihil ultra, divinam scripturam, admittendum."

THE origin of the Church in Chelmsford, is not certainly known. Its existence probably commenced about the time of the arrival of the Rev. Mr. Fiske and a part of his church from Wenham in 1654 or 1655. As a majority of his Church is said to have come with him, their establishment here, may be considered as the removal of that body to a new place, not the gathering of a new church.

The church at Wenham, was formed in 1644.— The only form of government and discipline then in general use, was that drawn up by the Rev. Mr. Cotton, in 1633. This platform was adopted by nearly all the churches in New England, and took the name of Congregational. It was the basis and ground work of the Cambridge platform, which was published in 1648, and contains the true principles of Congregationalism. The substance of which will be found in the following abstract.

1. "The subject matter of the visible church is saints by calling, i. e. such as are acquainted with the principles of religion and profess their faith in Christ.

II. "The constitutive part of a particular church, ought to be a mutual covenanting to walk together in christian communion, according to the rule of the gospel.

III. "No church ought to be greater in extent or number, than may ordinarily meet together in one place for the enjoyment of the same numerical ordinances and for the celebrating of divine worship5 nor fewer than can conveniently carry on religious worship and ordinances.

IV. "There is no jurisdiction to which particular churches are or ought to be subject by way of authoritative censure; or any other church power extrinsical to such churches, on which they ought to depend.

Doct. Mosheim, says, "the churches in apostolic times, were entirely independent, none of them subject to any foreing jurisdiction; but each one governed by its own rulers and its own laws. For though the churches founded by the Apostles, had this peculiar difference shewr them, that they consulted in doubtful and difficult cases; yet they had no juridical authority, no sort of supremacy, nor the least right to enact laws for them. Nothing is more evident than the perfect equality, which reigned among the primitive churches. Nor does there even appear the smallest trace of that association of provincial churches, from which councils and metropolitans derive their origin."

VOL. 1. P. 105.

Mr. Cotton's plan perfectly harmonizes with Mosheim's account of the apostolic & primitive churches.

On these principles the church of Chelmsford was formed. It has always endeavored to maintain them, as the genuine principles of congregationalism. It adheres steadfastly to them. It considers itself competent to administer discipline and do every thing, necessary for its own preservation, peace and edification. It holds to the social nature of religion, the fellows ip of the churches, the expediency of advisory councils in cases of disagreement and difficulty. It rejects, as unscriptural and subversive of religious liberty, all preconcerted tribunals, whether consociations, synods, or general associations as having

any jurisdiction or authority, or even a right to advise, except on special invitation and request.

The Church covenant, which Mr. Fiske used, is irrecoverably lost, unless it be substantially the same with that, adopted in 1629 by the church in Salem. This covenant was sanctioned by the civil and eccle siastical authorities then extant in the country. When Mr. Fiske gathered the church in Salem village, afterwards Wenham, there is scarcely room for a doubt that he adopted it either in form or substance, or both, and retained its use in the church, at Chelmsford. With this impression we shall insert it at length. It deserves the attentive perusal of those, who would form correct ideas of the nature and design of a protestant church, and of a proper instrument to form individuals into a church state.

The people, who arrived in Salem 1629, consultcd with their brethren at Plymouth, what steps to take in order to form themselves into a church state "according to the written word of God." On the sixth day of August soon after their arrival they kept a fast and sought divine direction" in settling a church-state and entering into a holy covenant."

Messengers from the church of Plymouth attended and assisted in this solemn transaction. The covenant by which the first church in Massachusetts colony was formed, was the following.

"We covenant with our Lord and one with anoth er; and we do bind ourselves in the presence of God to walk together in all his ways according as he is pleased to reveal himself unto us in his blessed word of truth, and do explicitly profess to walk as follow: eth, through the power and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We avouch the Lord to be our God and ourselves to be his people in the truth and simplicitly of our spirits.