“We consider a christian church to be a congregation of believers, voluntarily assembling together, and submitting, in all things, to Jesus Christ, their only Lord and Master. Such a church we desire to become; recognizing a pastor and deacons as our only officers, and asserting our exclusive right to make our own independent choice of a minister, to watch over us in the Lord, and of deacons, to attend to our temporal concerns. “The ordinances of the church we consider to be Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. The former to be administered to unbaptized and believing adults, and also to their infant offspring; and the latter to be administered to those only who profess their faith in Jesus Christ, and are joined in fellowship with his people. “Having made this declaration of our faith and practice, in which we all most cordially unite, we confess that, as guilty sinners, our only hope is in the righteousness of Jesus Christ; and having, we trust, first given ourselves to the Lord, we desire now in your presence, and in the presence of Almighty God, to unite together in church fellowship, that we may enjoy the communion of saints, and walk in the ordinances and commandments of the Lord blamelessly.” This declaration having been read, the ministers present acknowledged the persons assembled to be a church of Christ, and gave to them the right hand of fellowship; after which, the members shook hands with each other. My dismission from the Independent Church in Liverpool, under the pastoral care of the Rev. P. S. Charrier, was then read, on which I was received into membership with the newly-formed church. Of the fourteen persons who thus composed this infant church, seven are alive and remain unto this day: six hundred and sixty-eight persons have since been added to them making the whole number six hundred and eighty-two; an increase, for which devout gratitude is due to Him by whose gracious power alone sinners are constrained first to give themselves to the Lord, and then to his people according to his will. But though a church had thus been formed and recognized by the pastoral representatives of other churches, and though I had become united with it, my membership did not, of course, constitute me its pastor; but, on receiving an invitation from the church to sustain that office among them, I at once accepted it, and it was agreed that my ordination should take place at the end of May. The independent ministers in the county, and some of those in the neighbouring counties, were invited to attend on the occasion, as the representatives of their churches, in order that their sanction might be given to our proceedings; and the following extract from the Church Book will shew the manner in which the service was conducted.