church (for so he called his antichristian false church) again, and repent, and they would receive me to mercy.

I said, that I was never out of the true catholic church, nor would be: but into his church would I by God's grace never come.

Well, quoth he, then is our church false and antichristian?

Yea, quoth I.

And what is the doctrine of the sacrament?False, quoth I, and cast my hands abroad.

Then said one, that I was a player. To whom I answered not; for I passed not upon his mock.

Come again, quoth the Lord Chancellor, to-morrow, between nine and ten.

I am ready to come again, whensoever ye call, quoth I.

And thus was I brought up by the Sheriffs to the Compter in Southwark, Master Hooper going before me, and a great multitude of people being present, so that we had much to do to go in the streets. Thus much was done the 28th day of January. (To be continued)

AN ADDRESS TO THE POOR.

MY DEAR FRIENDS,

I AM One of those who feel at once a love and a pity for the poor of this world. I pity them when I see them in outward wretchedness, clothed in rags, and suffering many privations from cold and hunger which I want the power as, blessed be God, I want not the

will to relieve.

But I pity them most of all when I consider that of all descriptions of persons there is no one who lives so generally as the poor man in the refusal or neglect of the privileges and advantages which are peculiarly his own.

Look at the rich man-his possessions in this world seem in the eyes of his fellows to set him above the fear, almost above the possibility, of want. But why has he bread to eat? Why has he raiment to put on? The poor man will tell me it is because he has silver and gold to purchase these things. Supposing he were to neglect to collect or to receive that which by the appointment of God is justly his due-supposing he were to despise the earthly advantages with the hand of a bountiful Providence has distinguished him-supposing he were to say, 'Let these things go, I can yet be clothed and fed'—think you, my friends, that the folly of his judgement would not be speedily manifested to himself, and to all around him in its consequences? Ah you would soon see him sunk lower than yourselves in want and indigence.

And has the poor man no privileges which he may lose? No advantages which through neglect he may forfeit? We hear much in this day of the desires of the poor, and their claims upon possessions which are as passing as the fashion of this present world, but how seldom are the ears of those who really love the poor refreshed by listening to the expression of their rejoicing in privileges that are truly their own, and thanking God for the good things which they really possess. O that we could find among you, my friends, more love for your own true advantages; they are advantages which may be rejected or despised, but

they are lasting as the God who gave them, and there is this peculiar blessing attached to them that he who has been taught to choose so good a portion has with it the assurance that it cannot be taken away from him. If you saw a rich man forsaking his handsome house and plentiful table to earn a scanty pittance with you by the labour of his hands, would you not say 'He is mad?' But his folly would be small in comparison with yours, when you despise your good things to desire the splendour or the comfort of his possessions.

But what are the poor man's riches? Your glorious Saviour told you, and he told it you when, though he was the everlasting Son of the Father, he had condescended to become poor like you, for it was then that he said, "To the poor the Gospel is preached," Luke vii. 22. It was then too that he added another mark, a distinction to your advantage, when he declared, "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God," Matth. xix. 24. "What is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his

own soul," Matth. xvi. 26.

of that blessed Saviour?

Do you believe the words You do not ask me for

time to consider. At once you are ready to assure me that you do; but I do desire you to reflect before you answer me, for I have many doubts, not to say an absolute certainty, that you do not believe what he said, and that it is unbelief that leads you to reject your true riches. Ah,' you are ready to say, 'it would be dreadful not to believe Jesus, I am not an unbeliever.' But pause one moment; hear what I have to tell you.

Suppose I related to you a history of any thing that had really happened, and you believed only a part of it, you would indeed believe something that I told you, but you would not believe me: if you believed me you must and would believe all that I said.

Now there are some things that men in general are glad to believe about Jesus Christ. If we know for instance that we are sinners, and under the condemnation of hell, then we are glad to hear that Jesus came to save sinners from hell, and to believe it too and that is a truth which we all believe, with very few exceptions, and a blessed truth it is, but it is not the whole of the Gospel.

There is something that leads to hell-something in its own nature as dreadful as that lowest pitsomething that as long as it is loved and delighted in as surely separates us from the favour of God as the gates of that everlasting destruction, and that is sin. My dear Friends, did you ever mark in your Bible, that blessed book of God's truth, that when Jesus is spoken of as a Saviour, he is not spoken merely as a Saviour from hell, that is the consequence of sin, but from sia itself, which is that which peoples hell?

The Gospel is a message of deliverance, and what that deliverance is is fully shewn in the name of him who brought it, that name was appointed and the meaning of it declared by the angel of God, "Thou shalt call his name Jesus, because he shall save his people from their sins," Matthew i. 21.

What is the simple import of that word? Can it be any thing but the promise of salvation to his people from all that sin brings with it? Can it refer to a deliverance from the dreadful consequence of sin, and

offer no freedom from sin the equally dreadful source of that consequence? Ah no, my friends, Jesus never began one work of his and left it before it was fully accomplished. When he suffered for us, "the just for the unjust to bring us to God," he did not undergo the agonies of Gethsemane and then retire from his work; he must finish it on Mount Calvary by giving up the ghost. When he would fulfil the law for us he was not satisfied with an obedience to some of his Father's laws, or the obedience of half a life; from the cradle to the grave, in every jot and in every tittle he per formed the whole; and when he brings to his people salvation from their sins, it is not given in part; never did the effectual working of his Spirit teach one poor sinner to seek pardon through his blood without also teaching him to seek sanctification. Pardon and holiness are both the gifts of God through Jesus, purchased by his death, and wrought by his Spirit: we cannot despise the first and receive the other. And this is the reason why the natural heart of the sinner rejects the Gospel-it loves sin,it cleaves to sin, and sin has blinded it. The natural heart of man cannot love to think of everlasting burnings, but it does love and cherish the enemies which are the surest guides to that place of torment. Satan speaks to it, and it believes Satan: sin speaks to it, and it believes sin: the world speaks to it, and it believes the world, for it loves their delusions: God speaks to it by Jesus, but it believes not God.

What does the carnal heart of man say? It persuades us that to have goods laid up for many years is a blessed portion. What does the world shew us? Riches, pleasures, comforts, and says, 'There is hap