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LETTER I.

DEAR FRIENDS;

IT is now more than four years since I became a member of the church statedly worshipping at Tonbridge Chapel. I have during that time been much amongst you, and as frequently at the meetings appointed for devotion and usefulness as my recent removal to a more distant residence and other circumstances have permitted. I have ever felt for the members of the church as for brethren by the highest relationship; and I trust that the praise will not be denied me of having evinced, throughout my connection with you, that I have not lightly esteemed the importance and obligations of the Christian fellowship. I am now about to take my leave of and if I had none but the ordinary motives for so doing, I should be content to tender you my resignation, accompanied only by the expression of my thanks for the great personal attention and kindness that I have experienced at your hands, and my sincere wishes for your individual and common prosperity. But, in the discharge of a duty which I cannot but think imperative upon every

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member of society, and more particularly of a religious society, to make a public profession of such principles as a diligent inquiry and mature reflection have taught him to respect as most nearly allied to truth, and most beneficial to mankind, I have resolved, not without reluctance, to separate myself once more, on quitting the church at Tonbridge Chapel, from a large and respectable portion of the Christian community. My reasons for this step I venture to submit to your candid and serious consideration, offering them with that deference which every one must feel who has no object in view but to dissipate error, and whose fondest wish is to see the pure and amiable religion, which we alike profess, growing in the estimation of mankind, and contributing more and more, by it's increased purity and general diffusion, to their happiness and welfare.

For some time previous to my becoming acquainted with you, I had been giving considerable attention to the principles of our holy religion, with which I was desirous to become better acquainted. After an attentive perusal of the sacred volume, I could not help laying down in my own mind what appeared to me to be the leading features of the Christian revelation; and to this I was farther urged by a knowledge of the widely different views, which different denominations of Christians have taken of the subject. I was not, in the outset of my inquiry, destitute of that awe, with which every subject connected with the revelations of the Supreme Being ought to be approached; nor was I without the persuasion, so

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