The history of Lynn - Lynn Massachusetts Genealogy Project

1817.] HISTORY OF LYNN. 215The following is the covenant adopted this year." You declare your belief in one God in three persons,Father, Son, and Holy Ghost ; that Jesus Christ is the onlyRedeemer and Savior of men ; that he died to make atonement,and rose, and ascended into heaven to make intercessionwith the Father for sinners. You do now, in the presenceof God, his holy angels, and these witnesses, give upyourself to Him, in an everlasting covenant, through the mediationof his Son. You believe the scriptures to have beengiven by the inspiration of God ; that they are profitable fordoctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction inrighteousness. You do sincerely repent of all your sins, andhumbly ask forgiveness of God ; resolving, in reliance onhis gracious assistance, and the sanctifying influence of hisspirit, unfeignedly to forsake them. You promise seriously toread the word of God, and by the help of his divine grace, topractice all the duties enjoined therein ; that forsaking the vicesand follies of the world, you will endeavor to walk in the commandmentsand ordinances of the Lord blameless. You acknowledgeus to be a church of Christ, and that, while in communionwith us, you will attend upon the ordinances, and submitto the discipline of the church, as experienced among us,and as far as it is in your power promote its increase and welfare.These things you believe and promise. We then, thechurch of our Lord Jesus Christ in this place, do admit andreceive you into our fellowship to watch over you in the Lord,to walk together in brotherly love, and to conduct towards youas becometh our sacred relation. In token of which, we commendyou to God, and to the word of his Grace, which isable to build you up, and to give you an inheritance amongthose who are sanctified."1817.Friday the fourteenth of February, was one of the coldestdays that happened for many years. The thermometerwas eighteen degrees below zero.The incorporation of Lynn Academy was dissolved, by anact of the General Court, on the sixteenth of June.A marine animal, of a very singular appearance, is said tohave been first observed this year, on the nineteenth of August,in the waters of Gloucester harbour.It was represented