The Rev. Mr. Simper, having resigned the office of Principal, the Committee have chosen the Rev. Mr. Hope, formerly Classical Tutor for three years of the Independent Academy at Blackburn, in Lancashire; and the Committee are led by a combination of circumstances to believe, that useful as the Institution has been already, it will be more abundantly so if the ministers and churches in the country will assist to supply the means of carrying it on. This address is not a matter of course, but arises from the urgent necessity of the case. At the last meeting of the Committee, there was not cash enough in the hands of the Treasurer to pay all the bills which were presented; the Treasurer is £100. in advance, and not one single farthing in the funds. The call, therefore, for aid, for immediate aid, is clear and powerful, and confident of now receiving it, the Committee have ventured to increase the number of pupils from 20 to 25. JOHN TOWNSEND. Bermondsey, April 10, 1823. Itinerating Village Libraries.-This is an Institution which we conceive will be of immense advantage to the rising generation. The plan of itinerating libraries was first tried in East Lothian, and we are informed has been attended in that quarter with complete success. Divisions of 50 books each are placed in all the villages of the county, under the superintendance of any respectable householder, (frequently the parochial schoolmaster.) A constant and regular exchange of these divisions is maintained, and the most useful religious and scientific new publications are from time to time added to the general library in addition, from which the branch itinerating libraries are supplied. The plan of a library on the principle of itineracy, is so simple, that we sanguinely look forward to their establishment in every village in the kingdom: all that is necessary is, that a few private families in the neighbourhood should place the spare volumes of their libraries under the charge of any decent villager, with permission to circulate them under a few necessary regulations. Gloucestershire Congregational Association.---The half-yearly meeting of Congregational Ministers and Churches in Gloucestershire will be held at Chalford, on the 21st instant, instead of the 28th, as formerly intended. On Wednesday, the 28th of this month, (May,) the annual sermons for the benefit of the Independent Church at Hindon, Wilts, will be preached in that town. Messrs. Murch and Tidman, of Frome, and Mr. Good, of Salisbury, are expected to preach on the occasion. Death of the Rev. John Bryan.---On Thursday, April 10, 1823, died, in the 72d year of his age, that zealous and eminently pious minister the Rev. John Bryan, for many years the beloved pastor of the Independent Church and Congregation meeting at Sion Chapel, Fletcher Gate, Nottingham. This useful and respected minister was a most zealous friend of the missionary cause, which will be readily admitted by all who have heard him plead its cause. His labour amongst his affectionate people was eminently blessed. About three years ago, they exerted themselves, with the utmost liberality, to provide a more commodious chapel for the exercise of his ministry, which was opened by the Rev. Dr. Raffles, of Liverpool, and the Rev. Mr. James, of Birmingham. His death is deeply felt in the town where he resided, and by an extensive circle of friends. March 20, the Rev. Joseph Denton was set apart to the pastoral office over the Independent Church at Mill Wall, London. Mr. Vautin commenced the services by reading the Scriptures and prayer Mr. Hooper, Classical Tutor, Hoxton, delivered the introductory discourse. Mr. Evans asked the usual questions, and received the confession, &c. Mr. Williams offered the ordination prayer. Mr. Joseph Fletcher delivered the charge, from 1 Tim. vi. 20: "Keep that which is committed to thy trust.' Mr. Andrew Reed preached to the people, from Deut. i. 38: "Encourage him."---In the evening the Rev. Rowland Hill preached to a crowded congregation, when a collection was made on behalf of the Sabbath School. Wednesday, Jan. 29, the Rev. John Arundel, one of the Secretaries of the London Missionary Society, was separated to the pastoral charge of the ancient Church of Christ in Union-street, Borough. The service was commenced by the Society's other respected Secretary, the Rev. George Burder. Dr. Winter delivered an emphatic address. The Rev. George Clayton put the questions to the deacons and pastor. The Rev. John Humphreys, formerly pastor of the church, affectionately commended it to the guidance and guardianship of the Holy Spirit. Dr. Collyer preached from Philippians ii. 15; and the Rev. Rowland Hill, M. A. fervently and suitably concluded with prayer. The Rev. Messrs. G. Collison, T. Gilbart, D. S. Davies, and J. B. Innes, read the several hymns. LITERARY NOTICES, &c. WORKS RECENTLY PUBLISHED. An Essay on Early Rising, as favourable to Health, Business, and Devotion. By S. Bottomley. 2d Edition, Price 6d. A Short Plea in favour of Infant Baptism, and of administering of it by sprinkling. By S. Bottomley. 2d Edit. Price 10d. Poems on Scriptural Subjects. By Mrs. W. C. Bousfield. 8vo. 6s. 6d. bds. Observations on Providence, chiefly in relation to the Affairs of the Church. By the Rev. John Leifchild. 12mo. 3s. Dr. Owen's Works, new Edition, Vol. IV. 12s. The Church in Canaan; or, Heirs in Possession receiving the Promises. By William Seaton. Vol. I. 12mo. 6s. Dr. Chalmers's Christian and Civic Economy of Large Towns, Nos. 14, 15, and 16, "On the Causes and Cure of Pauperism in England." A Supplementary Volume of Sermons, by the late Rev. S. Lavington; to which is prefixed, an original Memoir of the the Author. 8vo. 10s. 6d. boards. Lectures on the Pleasures of Religion. By the Rev. H F. Burder. 8vo. 7s. 6d. hds. ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS, &c. COMMUNICATIONS have been received this month from the Rev. Messrs. John Townsend C. N. Davies-J. Denton-J. E. Good-J. Snelgar-W. Orme-S. Bottomley-E. A Dunn. Also from Vigil-J, Woodford-B. Hanbury-A. Allan-J. R.-Rufus—J. Mapletop. The paper requested by Rufus shall be searched for, but we fear, from the length of time which has elapsed since its reception, that it may have been destroyed. We do not recollect the title of the paper mentioned by J. R. but inquiry shall be made respecting it. We are sorry to be under the necessity of excluding certain articles of intelligence which have been sent in a form that would subject us to the payment of the duty charged on advertisements. Our readers may feel some curiosity to know the reply of the Christian Guardian to our last; they shall have it without curtailment. "The Congregational Magazine states us to have represented the Rev. George Burder as a contributor to that Magazine, and to have been subsequently compelled to contradict the assertion. We have been guilty neither of the assertion nor of the retraction. Observing the name of "Burder" among the list of contributors printed in that Magazine, we alluded to it; and in a following Number, at the request of one Rev. gentleman bearing that name, we rescued him from the suspicion of being the party referred to. So much for this important matter, in which our Congregational friends would have done well to have made themselves masters of the fact before they hazarded such unfounded assertions." This delectable special pleading might, perhaps, be advantageously left to speak for itself; but we feel it, on the whole, expedient to add a word or two of illustration. Considering the quarter from which these paragraphs come, we might have anticipated the quibble on the name of the Rev. George Burder. We have only to say to this, that it is perfectly characteristic, but that it comes too late to serve the purpose for which it was intended; the distinction, had it been an honest one, would have been made earlier. It is impossible not to admire the intrepidity with which a writer who has done little else, through the whole of this dispute, than "hazard unfounded assertions," tries to retort the charge on us. MEMOIR OF EDMUND CALAMY, D.D. AMONG those worthies who have adorned the Dissenting annals of our country, and of whose memory we have just cause to boast, perhaps there is no one, since the confessors of the Act of Uniformity, that holds so deserved a pre-eminence, as Dr. Edmund Calamy for though the nature of his writings precludes a reception so general as those of Henry, Doddridge, and Watts, among the body of the professors of Christianity, to Dissenters they must be ever peculiarly valuable, and demand from them a lasting gratitude. The union of his rare qualifications reflects honour on the cause he espoused, and while his amiable disposition, and endearing manners, insured the affection of his fellow-labourers, he was admired and respected by those who were otherwise inimical to his opinions. His grandfather and father, both of his own names, were ejected by the Act of Uniformity, the first from St. Mary's, Aldermanbury, the latter from Merton, in Essex. His mother was the eldest daughter of Mr. Joshua Gearing, a respectable trader in London. His uncles, Dr. Benjamin, and Mr. James Calamy, conformed to the Establishment. He was born in Aldermanbury, April 5, 1671, and being betimes inclined to learning, and bent upon being a scholar, suitable care was taken of his education. After having made considerable proficiency in grammar learning at several private schools, and at Merchant Taylors' School, under CONG. MAG. No. 66. [VOL. VI. the instruction of Mr. Hartcliffe, who favoured him with particular help in private, and offered him his assistance in the university, if he should resolve to prosecute his studies there, he went for some time to the private academy of Mr. Doolittle, at Islington, and then removed to Wickham Brook, in Suffolk, to be under the tuition of Mr. Samuel Cradock, who kept a private academy there. Cradock had been fellow of Emanuel College, Cambridge, till the Act of Uniformity threw him among the Dissenters, and was considered an eminent tutor. Mr. Calamy went through a course of Logic, Natural Philosophy, and Metaphysics. Mr. In the beginning of 1688, he passed over to Utrecht, for the purpose of completing his studies, and there, under Professor De Vries, completed a course of philosophy, and attended to civil law under Vander Muyden. He received lectures also from the learned Graevius on Sophocles, and on Puffendorf's Introduction to History. His studies were continued with an almost unremitted attention, and it was his practice to spend one whole night a week amongst his books, during his residence in Holland. By this application and proficiency, together with his sweetness of temper, and candour in conversation, he acquired the acquaintance and affection of many of his countrymen, who afterwards arrived at eminence. In particular, Mr. Carstairs, Principal of the College of Edinburgh, who had 20 been sent to Holland for the purpose of procuring a person qualified for the Professor's chair at Edinburgh, was so prepossessed in his favour as to offer him that situation, but this Mr. Calamy refused. He returned to England in May, 1691, and spent some time at Oxford, whither he had letters of recommendation from Graeviùs to Dr. Pócock, Canon of Christ Church, and Regius Professor of the Hebrew Tongue, and to Dr. Edward Barnard, Public Professor of Astronomy, who received him very kindly, and procured leave for him to study in the Bodleian library. Here he was favoured with the acquaintance of Mr. Henry Dodwell, the learned advocate of Episcopacy. Mr. Calamy having resolved to enter into the office of a minister of the gospel, made divinity his principal study, and being undetermined whether to prefer the Establishment, or the despised way of dissent, he considered that Oxford was a fit place for him to study the points in controversy; for according to his own words; "he was not likely to be there prejudiced in favour of the Dissenters, who were commonly run down, and ill spoken of. Here he was entertained from day to day, with what tended to give any man the best opinion of the church by law established; he was witness of her learning, wealth, grandeur, and splendour. In order to fix in so weighty a matter, he studied the Bible, and particularly the New Testament, and found the plain worship of the Dissenters, as far as he could judge, more agreeable to that, than the pompous way of the Church of England. He read also Church History, and the Six Epistles of Ignatius, and what Dr. Dodwell and Bishop Pearson had written on one side, and M. Daille, and L'Avroque on the other side, with relation to them. He read over Chillingworth's 'Religion of Protestants, a safe way to Salvation, and Hooker's eight books of Ecclesiastical Polity.' He also read over the Articles and Liturgy, the Homilies and Canons of the Church of England, which contain the English impositions, and weighed the terms of conformity as the law had settled them ; and found several things required that he could not perceive God had given any man power or commission to impose upon others; and if none had power to impose such things upon him, he could not discern how his compliance could be proved a proper duty; he could not see but that in such things God had left him at full liberty to act as he was most inclined; and since man had done so too by the Act that had passed in Parliament for toleration, he apprehended it would be his best way to make use of the liberty given both by God and man; and finding the peace of the church the grand argument for compliance with the impositions that were prescribed, upon consideration he thought, if that was carried too far, it would infallibly bring in a sort of spiritual slavery into the church, which he could not perceive he was any more obliged to countenance and support than civil slavery in the State; and upon this foot it was he determined for nonconformity." In consistency with these prin- . ciples, he occasionally preached in Oxford and the adjacent villages, during his residence in that city, till, in 1692, he had an unanimous invitation to Blackfriars, as assistant to Mr. Matthew Sylvester ; which he accepted, and there preached statedly for two years without ordination; but having doubts on the propriety of this procedure, he expressed his opinion on the subject to Mr. Thomas Reynolds, assistant to the great Mr. Howe, who had also preached a considerable time without ordi nation, and having consulted several aged ministers of London on the question, they were both, on the 23d June, 1694, together with Mr. Joseph Bennett, Mr. Joseph Hill, Mr. William King, Mr. Ebenezer Bradshaw, and Mr. Joshua Bayes, publicly ordained at Dr. Annesley's meeting-house, Little St. Helen's, London. This was the first public ordination among the Dissenters in London, since the Act of Uniformity, and so hazardous were the times, that the great Mr. Howe and Dr. Bates declined assisting on the occasion, from fear of offending the higher powers. The ministers who carried on the solemnity were Dr. Samuel Annesley, Mr. Richard Stretton, Mr. Vincent Alsop, Mr. (afterwards Dr.) Daniel Williams, Mr. Matthew Sylvester, and Mr. Thomas Kentish. The latin thesis that he was to defend, and which was proposed to him by Mr. Vincent Alsop, was an Christus officio Sacerdotali fungatur in Calis tantum;” and Mr. Alsop (as Calamy observes) opposed him, according to the custom of the schools, with all the vigour, smartness, and fluency of a young man, though- considerably advanced in years. Shortly after this, at the unanimous call of the church in Hand Alley, he accepted the situation of assistant to their pastor, Mr. Daniel Williams, till the year 1703, when he was chosen to succeed Mr. Alsop, at Westminster, Mr. A. having deceased. On the occasion of the death of Mr. Nathaniel Taylor, Mr. Calamy was invited to preach at the Tuesday's lecture at Salter's Hall, on Oct. 20, 1702, which sermon he published under the title of "Mercy Exalted, or Free Grace in its Glory," on Romans ix. 16. and was immediately chosen one of the lecturers. In 1696, Mr. Calamy drew up the contents and index attached to Baxter's Life and Times, which was published that year, and in 1701 was published the first edition of that work, which has insured to the author the grateful remembrance of posterity; it was entitled, the Abridgment of Mr. Baxter's Life. The author says of it, "it was more taken notice of in the world, and got him more friends, and enemies too, than he could have expected or imagined." This drew him into many controversial disputes with the high church party, but they all tended to show considerate persons that the more the principles of dissent were examined, the more would their scriptural authority be made apparent. Bishop Burnet thanked him for his work, and told him he had read it with pleasure; and on the publication of the Defence of Nonconformity, the great Mr. Locke sent him a message to let him know that he had read it, and thought such a defence of nonconformity could not be answered; and that standing to the principles there laid down, he had no occasion to be afraid of any antagonist. In 1708, he published a tract against the pretended predictions of the French prophets, which being presented by a lady to Queen Anne, without Dr. C's knowledge, procured him her Majesty's thanks. In the year 1709, Mr. Calamy had an honorary degree conferred upon him by the Universities of Scotland, and as the circumstances show his great modesty, and simplicity of character, we will relate the event in his own words. "It was a journey of mine into N. Britain, that was purely undertaken for health and diversion. Staying a fortnight at Edinburgh, my good friend Mr. Carstairs, a few days before I left that city, told me that at a meeting of the masters of their college, it had been determined that I should not go from them without receiving a token of their respect in an academical way. I told him I was |