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

It was then proposed, whether it was not expedient that a paper should be read which was said to contain a narrative of some affairs in Boxford in which Mr. Osgood was concerned, or some remarks upon the result of a council there. The reading of said paper was urged by some members of Medford church who call themselves aggrieved. The council refused to hear it, for reasons offered by Mr. Osgood.

It was desired by the aggrieved that a certain contest between Mr. Osgood and Captain Adams should be considered; but this was refused, as it appeared to be an article which had been laid before the council at Boxford, and concerning which they had judged and determined.

It was then voted by the council to hear a sermon of Mr. Osgood's on Eph. II. 2; which was objected against, as containing doctrines of pernicious tendency. The council, upon hearing it, judged it to be sound and orthodox.

Mr. Osgood then delivered the following confession of his faith, which was well approved:--

I believe that there is one only living and true God, whose being and perfections are eternally and necessarily existent, immutable, and independent; of whom as their primary efficient cause, and through whom as their sole preserver, governor, and absolute disposer, and to whom as their ultimate scope and issue, are all things and events which ever have or shall take place in the universe; that this God is the alone proper and fit object of religious worship; and that he is, on account of his own moral beauty and excellence, infinitely worthy of the supreme love and entire obedience of all created intelligences.

I believe that the books of the Old and New Testament are an exhibition of the mind and will of God to man, in which are comprised all those doctrines and instructions which are necessary to guide and direct men in the way to happiness and eternal life; that in these books God has revealed himself as existing (though in a manner above my comprehension) in a triplicity of persons,--Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.