thought that you would have gone mad. However, I desire that you and Signior Albino will dine with me.

I thank you, Sir, for your invitation, answered Mr. Clifford; but I cannot think of forsaking my friend Livingstone.

Surely, Sir, cried Mrs. Barnwell, no apology is necessary, because he was not invited. Every one ought to keep up his dignity.

In what a beggarly soil will pride flourish! said Mr. Clifford, after we had left them. Poor Barnwell took this pert woman, not only without a shilling, but a hundred pounds in debt to milliners and others: and she knows that I am not ignorant of this; for they have quarrelled about it in my presence.

Mr. Clifford having ordered a dinner at the public house, we went to the meeting. The building was small and unadorned but in real grandeur it far surpassed many stately edifices. When God manifest in the flesh came suddenly to the second temple, its glory was rendered far greater than that of the first. And it is the presence of the same Jehovah among his servants, that gives a dignity to the meanest place of worship, which cannot be conferred by a profusion, either of stones and mortar, or of gold and silver. The place was large enough for the number of worshippers, and sufficiently magnificent for those who are influenced by the spirit of their divine Master, who entered this part of his dominions in a stable, and retired from it on the cross. You and I, my dear friend, have thought otherwise, as well as Mr. and Mrs. Barnwell; but I am now convinced, through the divine mercy, that if Christianity does not humble us to the very dust, it does nothing for us.

Having seated ourselves on a form, among a decent but poor people, whose attention was so great that it would have been almost possible to hear the falling of a pin, the minister, who appeared to be about fifty years of age, and the size and colour of whose hands showed, that, like Paul, he was obliged to make use of them for his own and his family's support, read the 92d psalm by Watts, which the congregation sung with great devotion. Mr. Clifford held his handkerchief all the time before his eyes. In prayer,

which was extemporary, Mr. Lowe appeared to have awful views of the majesty of God, joined with a humble confidence in his mercy.

His text was Rev. iii. 22. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the spirit saith unto the churches.-Mr. Lowe, in a very impressive manner, stated the importance of a reverential regard for the word of God. Mr. Clifford heard with great attention, and, as he told us at dinner, with great pleasure.

In the afternoon, the text was in John vii. 37. If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. Mr. Lowe proved, both by arguments and examples, that no created good, whether it be riches, or pleasure, or honour, can satisfy the desires of an immortal soul; but that, after the greatest possible enjoyment of these, a thirst will remain, which can only be removed by the promises and prospects of the gospel, by the love of God shed abroad in the heart, and by a sense of reconciliation through Jesus Christ, with that holy Being against whom we have sinned.

Mr.

When divine worship was concluded, Mr. Clifford invited this good man to drink a cup of tea with us, to which he consented. He was very meek and unassuming, and appeared to be perfectly contented with his situation. Clifford asked him what he received yearly from his hearers. He answered, on an average about ten pounds, which he said he looked upon as a very liberal contribution, when he considered the poverty of those who subscribed it. Ten pounds! cried Mr. Clifford; you amaze me. Be so kind, Sir, as to accept of this, (at the same time offering him a sum of money in a silk purse.)

I cannot accept so great a favour, especially at this time, said Mr. Lowe: however, I return you, Sir, my sincere

thanks.

What is the reason, said Mr. Clifford, that you cannot accept it?

The reason, replied he, is this. Your passions have been warmed by hearing the gospel. Such impressions are sometimes lasting, and at other times only temporary. There can be no fruit without blossom; but there is sometimes blossom without fruit. If this should only be a sudden flow of the affections, without any genuine love to the

truth, you would regret what you had done. This, Sir, I am not willing to hazard.

God forbid, cried Mr. Clifford, putting the money into his pocket. I would much rather that a mill-stone should be tied about my neck, and that I should be cast into the sea. But, my friends, you must all promise to dine with me on Wednesday at one o'clock: it will make a longer afternoon. To this we consented.

With my kind respects to my good friends at Islington, I am, dear Sir, your obedient,

And obliged servant,

ANTONIO ALBINO.

LETTER LXXXV.

From Signior Albino to Mr. James Neville.

DEAR SIR,

MR. LOWE and Thomas and I went, according to our appointment, to dine with Mr. Clifford, on Wednesday last. The first thing Mr. Clifford said, was that he was exceedingly pleased and much instructed by Mr. Lowe's

sermons.

We took a walk in the gardens; and while Thomas and I were admiring the works of art, as well as of nature, and observing that both were equally the gifts of God, we found that our companions had deserted us. They soon rejoined us; but we knew not the reason of their absence till we were returning to the house.

We then learned, that Mr. Clifford had beckoned Mr. Lowe to go with him, and that when they were in a remote part of the garden he said-Well, my dear Sir, I have had time to consider whether I can part with my money to a servant of Jesus Christ, and I am thankful that I can do it with pleasure. This (putting a purse into his hand) contains twice as much as the other did, and I will

be your friend in future. Mr. Clifford, after having lamented his former enmity to the gospel, and blessed God for his mercy manifested in Jesus Christ, thus continued ; O my friend, hope from any other quarter is despair; but in the Son of God I behold a fulness capable of supplying all my wants. But why do you not put up that trifle I have presented you with? I can now receive it, replied Mr. Lowe, with great thankfulness, and with inexpressible pleasure, as fruit which will abound to your account.

After dinner Mr. Clifford began the conversation with praising the simplicity of the dissenting worship. The church of Rome, said he, in the magnificence of its temples, in the vestments of its priests, and in its ostentatious ceremonies, has taken for its model the old Testament dispensation. In these things the church of England too nearly resembles the church of Rome. The dissenting worship appears to me far more congenial to the spiritu ality of the Christian dispensation. But do you not think, Sir, said he to Mr. Lowe, that there are real Christians in protestant national churches?

Mr. Lowe. I have no doubt of it; and in Catholic national churches also. But if the bishops of Rome had, as Christians, been equal to Paul or John, yet in their official capacity they would have been the heads of the antichristian body.

Mr. Clif. If a member of a national church may be a Christian, is it unlawful for a Christian to continue in a national church?

Mr. Lowe. A Christian is not contented with being merely in a safe state, but anxiously desires to make the revealed will of God the rule of his practice, If any one were to say to me, I have examined the New Testament with a sincere desire to learn whether it be lawful to continue in a national church, and I have prayed to God for direction, and am after all persuaded that it is not my duty to leave it." I should thus reply: You ought undoubtedly to act according to your judgment; but it is your duty to examine whether your judgment be not biassed by the prospect of worldly interest, or by the fear of temporal disadvantage. Either of these is sufficient to bar the gate of heaven against you.

Mr. Clif. It undoubtedly becomes us to take heed, that we do not condemn ourselves in those things which we venture to practise..

After a short pause, Thomas said to Mr. Lowe, I have had many thoughts concerning the 1260 days or years mentioned in the Revelation. When do you think, Sir, they began? Was it at the civil establishment of Christianity, or when the pope became a temporal prince?

Mr. Lowe. Both opinions may be right. As the BabyJonish captivity of seventy years had different beginnings and different endings, so may it be with regard to the reign of antichrist. When the emperor of Rome professed himself a Christian, the "let" or hindrance was re moved, whereby Judaizing Christians were impeded in making a gain of godliness. After that event, there was little or no obstruction to the gratification of the selfish passions, except that which arose from competition between the contending parties. 1260 years from the year 312, when Christianity or rather antichristianism was established, bring us down to the latter part of the sixteenth century, when considerable progress had been made in the divine art of printing, and in the Reformation. As antichrist began visibly to rise, and to deny the Son of God as Head of the church, when Constantine had taken the "let" out of the way, so at the expiration of 1260 years from that time he began visibly to fall. For what is a pope or an archbishop of Canterbury, now, compared with their predecessors in the time of our Henry the second? But if, for the commencement of the reign of antichrist, the time be fixed on when he became a temporal prince, its conclusion will bring us to the year 2016, at which period it is possible that the antichristian hierarchy will be totally extirpated. In my opinion, however, neither the pope and his clergy, nor the protestant bishops and their clergy, think that it will continue so long. The diffusion of knowledge has long made the ground tremble whereon that great city is built; and its inhabitants feel the shaking.

Mr. Clif. The dissenters are sometimes spoken of as a disloyal body of people. Is there any ground for such a charge?

Mr. Lowe. There are certainly intemperate persons