REMARKABLE PASSAGES IN THE LIFE OF WILLIAM KIFFIN: WRITTEN BY HIMSELF, AND EDITED FROM THE Original Manuscript, WITH NOTES AND ADDITIONS, BY WILLIAM ORME. LONDON: PRINTED FOR BURTON AND SMITH, 156, LEADENHALL STREET; 1823. ふ CT 788 K55A3 INTRODUCTION. THE original manuscript, from which the following Memoirs are printed, was communicated to me, some time ago, by the Rev. Richard Frost of Dunmow, in Essex, a lineal descendant of Mr Kiffin. I was requested to examine it with care, and if I deemed it worthy of publicity, to print it; with such notes and additions as I might be able to communicate, in farther illustration of the character of Kiffin, or of the interesting period in which he lived. The task I readily undertook, and ought to have executed it at least a year ago. The chief circumstance which delayed the publication, was my discovering that, though the entire manuscript had not been printed before, considerable use had been made of it, by Noble, in his Memoirs of the Protectorate House of Cromwell-by Wilson, in his History of the Dissenting Churches of London, and by Ivimey, in his History of the Baptists. Still, as these works, from their extent or peculiar nature, are limited in their circulation, I thought the worthy Non-conformist ought to appear by himself, and to be allowed to tell his story in his own way. |