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NOTICES.

The friends of the Associate Fund are respectfully informed that Rev. E. Parsons, of Halifax, will preach a sermon in its behalf, at the Poultry Chapel, on Monday, the 19th of June. Service to commence at 6 o'clock; after which the proceedings of the Society will be reported.

The New English Reformed Church

recently erected in the city of Hamburgh, and to which many Christians of various denominations, in England and Scotland, have kindly contributed, will be opened on the last Sabbath in July. Rev. Dr. Raffles has engaged to preach. Should any of our readers intend to visit the Continent this year, they will perhaps be induced to make it part of their plan to be present on that interesting occasion.

ACKNOWLEDgments and minor corrESPONDENCE.

COMMUNICATIONS have been received this month from the Rev. Dr. Harris-Dr. W. Brown--J. A. James--Henry Grey-G. Redford--C. N. Davies-J. Fletcher-J. Gilbart-W. Orme-J. Bulmer-J. Yockney.

Also from Messrs. J. Proctor--G. T. Angas-Pellatt and Wilks.

Communications have been also received from Preston--Paignton--and Macclesfield.

We are sorry that the valuable papers from our esteemed correspondent J. were too late for insertion in the present number. They will appear in our Magazine for July and August.

The letter from the Rev. Henry Grey, of Edinburgh, respecting the visit of the Deputation from the Scottish Missionary Society in which he was concerned, will appear in our next; with which we hope to close a very disagreeable controversy, which was not commenced by us.

We will make room as soon as possible for a Protestant Dissenter.

We are glad to find (e) in good humour, notwithstanding the tittle-tattle of Will. Reporter. He will see from this number, that he is not the only correspondent we have had on the subject. We thank him for his lines, which our readers will be glad to

see.

SHEBNA is thanked for his trouble, but his extracts are not sufficiently interesting to justify our using them.

We agree with JOANNES on the impropriety of baptising the children of such persons, as the Country Pastor's Query" related to; but his paper would not be considered as fully meeting the case.

We are glad the disputes about instrumental music in the congregation at Teignmouth are at an end; and should be glad to find, that all the fiddle-strings in Dissenting congregations were cracked under the influence of the same sentiments and feelings which characterise the musicians of Teignmouth; but we must decline inserting their declaration.

W. * informs no Sceptic, first, that the Priests and Levites did not join in the revolt of the Ten Tribes, 2 Chron. xi. 13-16.; and secondly, that in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, it is not implied but plainly expressed that the Priests and Levites were partakers of the captivity of Judah and Benjamin, Ezra vii. 7, and viii. 1, 2, and chap. x. passim.

We cordially thank Theognis for his faithful advice, which shall not be lost upon us. Our loving friend Tom Reporter, of St. Flummery's, cannot expect us to insert his communication. In fact, we do not intend to trouble our readers with the future communications of any member of his family.

We have received communications from Imus-Vir Canus-and Beta, upon the much controverted article "On Ministers' Sons ;" but we must decline the further discussion on that subject in our pages; could our respected friend Imus know from how many quarters we have been addressed respecting it, he would, we doubt not, acquiesce in our resolution.

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Pablished July 1.1826 for the Congregational Magazine, by J. B. Holdsworth, 18 St Paul's Church Yard?

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GOVERNOR OF THE COLONY OF PLYMOUTH, NORTH AMERICA.

BIOGRAPHY is deeply in arrear to the eminent private Christians, who have lived in the communion, and who have suffered for the principles, of the nonconformist churches; a circumstance which is much to be regretted, both as time is obliterating the memory of many whose names were once fragrant on earth, and as the lives of eminent private Christians are adapted to excite the attention, and to advance the piety of them, who are pursuing the active concerns of the world. Protestant dissent is sometimes represented as at best the cause of a too scrupulous ministry; memoirs of the description in view, would show that, by many religious and thinking men, nonconformity has been felt as the cause of the people. Of the number of the eminent private members of our churches, of whom some memorials remain, is the subject of the following lines.

William Bradford was born at Ansterfield, in the county of York, in the year 1588; from his parents, who died in his childhood, he inherited a competent estate. The care of his youth devolved first on his grand parents, and then on his uncles.

The circumstances of Mr. Bradford's early life, were very unfavourable to the formation of real piety. The neighbourhood in which he lived was grossly ignorant and profane; nor do his NEW SERIES, No. 19.

relatives appear to have been exceptions to the general character of the vicinity; but notwithstanding these unfavourable circumstances, divine wisdom and mercy brought him to an early acquaintance with true religion. Sickness withheld him from the vanities of youth; and at the age of twelve years, the reading of the Bible, a book at that time very little known in his neighbourhood, deeply impressed his mind; this impression was strengthened and improved by the ministry of Mr. Richard Clifton, who at that time preached in the vicinity of Ansterfield. The obligations of the heathenish population of England, to the puritans, who sought a refuge from tyranny in the obscurest corners of the land, will never be fully known in the present state.

Mr. Bradford had not been long the subject of impressions of piety, when he was introduced to the society and friendship of some religious people; it is worthy of remark, that the young man who introduced him to their notice, and who was thus the instrument of confirming his religious character, became a notorious apostate; but his friend had entered on a path which he never deserted; he had "joined himself to the Lord in a perpetual covenant."

The greater part of the puritans, a class of persons to which this pious youth must now be consi2 X

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