speakest not that which may dis- ries. Indeed; he is ready to give please. But then, consider well, every one that asketh ; 50 He deHugh Latimer, dost thou not know clares who is truth, and cannot lie: from whence thou comest, and uponBut I am, &c.Nay, stop--nowhose message thou art sent?- thing is so dishonourable to the Even by the great God, who is all. : person, word, and work of our Jepresent, and who beholdeth all thy sus, as that vile BUT. Whatever ways; who is omnipotent, and able you was going to say against yourto cast both body and soul into hell self, he is almighty to save from that together; therefore take heed, and but, be it what it may. But I am 80 deliver thy message faithfully." vile, so cold, so simple, so doubting. --He then proceeded, with the Go on--what more? When you samé sermon he had preached the have said all, my answer is one preceding Sunday, and confirmed' He saves from every thing you it with redoubled energy. The can possibly be, or have of sin. sermon being ended, the court was But is it TOR ME? Believę tlre fuli of expectation to know what truth of what he says, and yoụ will would be the fate of this honest soon find its application to ycurand plain-dealing bishop. After self; only remembering, this for the dinner the King called for La- me is not faith itself; that is simtimer, and, witlr à stern counte- ply believing the truth of God's nance, asked him, “ How he durst' word, but is one of tire fruits and be so bold as to preach in this effects. For instance: I believe manner?" Falling on his knees, what God says of sinners coming Latimer replied, “ That his duty to him through Christ; that he to his God, and to his prince, had will accept them, pardon, justify, enforced him thereunto; and that sanctify, and glorify them in his he had merely discharged his of- Son; therefore I have God's word fice and conscience in what he had for it that he will accept, pardon, spoken, though his life was in His justify, &c. me, even me, because Majesty's hands." Upon this the his word cannot be broken ; and King, raising the worthy prelate therefore 1, trusting in it, cannot from his knees, embraced him, and perish. This is the application of exclaimed, “ Blessed be God that God's Spirit; solid, lasting, ever. I have so honest a servant."

lasting. Assurances coming in any -. Aug. 28, 1814.

other way are not worth having beware of counterfeits.

But I am unworthy. Put that in ORIGINAL LETTERS FROM PLOUS theo

the catalogue, and Christ saves CHARACTERS DECEASED.

from that as easily as from any No. LXXIV.

other sin ; and in heaven, remem

ber, there are no self-worthy saints From the Rev. William Romaine,

-all cry with one voice, Worthy late Rector of St. Anne's, Black

is the Lamb. They that know friars, to Mrs. B

most of themselves feel their unMY DEAR FRIEND,

worthiness most, and therefore I am to acknowledge the re- their rejoicing is wholly in Christ ceipt of a kind present, and to 'Jesus, and they put no confidence thank the love which inclined you in the flesh. to send it. If our poor frozen O how my heart longs to hear hearts can be thus warmed to do you say, “ Well, at last I submit good to one another, what must his to the word of Christ, unto the love be? How ready to help work of Christ. His work is all even Mrs. B. with all her sins, all my salvation, and his word believ. her complaints, and all her mise- ed in is infallible security that it is mine." Here rest, and experience cause it depends on every thing will follow. You will expect Christ that is immutable. Here may God to make good his promises, the fix you, and I promise you a safe truth of which you believe. He remedy against all nervous dejeccannot disappoint you: give him tions. If you take this and use it, credit, and it shall be done unto Mr. B. as well as yourself will you according to your faith; he have reason to acknowledge Christ will give you blessed applications, to be the only physician for all In making use of his fulness you nervous cases. Perhaps I may see will find him never failing you you in London, and you may smigrace for grace will be yours abun- ling say, Probatum est.-0 that I dantly. In this way you will come may live to see it and hear it! No in a Scripture light to say, Now I one under the sun has more Chrisknow Christ loved me, and gave tian regard for you than I have ; himself for me. May God the return it in remembering me at.. Spirit thus settle and establish your qur court, as I do you. I beg my " heart in believing; and thus you real love to Mr. P. and our re- ? will get the better of your nerves, spects to Mrs. D. F y , &c. A faith built on what one feels is My love to Mr. B. a dreadful thing to nervous people; I am, in our ever-precious Jesus they are up and down in a day--in four-I don't mind your objections, an hour rejoicing and despairing. nor does he)-our Jesus, But a faith built on God's word, Your friend and servant, standing on God's faithfulness,

W. ROMAINE, makes the same report in the sad Sutlon, Feb. 7, 1775. dest frame as in the happiest; be- .

THE POOR MAN’S, FRIEND.

THE POOR MAN'S GUIDE TO THE concerning them, especially con.

INTERPRETATION OF THE PRO- cerning the fourth kingdom. The PHECIES.

two prophecies, therefore, relate No. IV.

to the same events, only this is

more full and particular than the Our last number contained Da- 'last. nieľ's interpretation of Nebuchad- Chap. vii, 1. “ In the first year nezzar's dream, wherein we saw of Belshazzar, king of Babylon, represented the four great king- Daniel had a dream and visions of doms which were to bear rule over his head upon his bed; then he the earth, and which were to be wrote the dream, and told the sum succeeded by a fifth kingdom, the of the matters. Daniel spake and kingdom of Christ. The same said : I saw in my vision by night, grand outline of the history of and, behold, the four winds of the mankind was shown to Daniel him- heavens strove upon the great sea, self in a dream, nearly fifty years and four great beasts came up after he had interpreted the dream from the sea, diverse one from anof the great image to the king of other.” What a striking picture Babylon. In the dream of the is here of the world as it is unceasProphet four great beasts repre- ingly disturbed and thrown into sent the four great empires; and conimotion by the restless ambi. we learn some further particulars tion of princes and warriors, and

by the various contending interests himself recorded sufficient to clear of mankind" the four winds stri- up this mystery. ving on the great sea!” The grand It was in one 'monarch chiefly, results, and more lasting effects of that the glory and strength of the these struggles and contentions, Babylonian empire rested. Nebu. we are informed by these prophetic chadnezzar raised it to its emi. emblems, would be four great mo- nence, and it began to fall with narchies, which, in their turns, great rapidity immediately after would subdue and rule over all the his death : like a ravening eagle, most important regions of the the conqueror had fled from one globe. These four universal em- end of the heavens to another af. pires are represented, in the vision ter his prey; but, when he had esbefore us, by the appearance of tablished his dominion, it pleased four monstrous animals coming up God, by an unusual dispensation of out of this troubled ocean. T h is providence and grace, to hum.

Ver. 4. “ The first was like a ble and convert him to the know. lion, and had eagle's wings: I be. ledge of true religion. He was, held till the wings thereof were then, no longer the ravenous bird plucked, and it was lifted up from flying after his prey, but appeared the earth, and made to stand upon the true monarch of the creation, the feet as a man, and a man's a reasoning man, created in the heart was given to it.” The most image of God: he had before been noble animals we notice are used the bane of mankind, as most other to represent the empire of Nebu- conquerors have been, but now he chadnezzar, corresponding with appears as a beneficent minister of the golden head of the former vir God for good. sion ; and, as we there observed, Nebuchadnezzar speaks as a every thing, both in Scripture and beast when he orders all his sub. in the remnants which have been jects, on pain of the burning fiery preserved of ancient and profane furnace, to worship the golden history, gives us the most magnifi. image which he had set up. But cent idea of great Babylon. Her he had lost his bestial character, king, as Daniel observes *, “ wa$ and speaks as if he had had “ a grown and became strong; for his heart of flesh" given to him, when greatness was grown, and reached we read his imperial proclamation unto heaven, and his doninion to all his subjects, which forms the unto the end of the earth.” fourth chapter of the Book of Da

By the eagle's wings given to niel, concluding with these remarkthis lion-like beast, no doubt the able words : “ Now I, Nebuchadrapidity of the conquests of Ne- nezzar, praise, and extol, and ho, buchadnezzar is intended to be nour the King of heaven, all whose represented ; and if they extended works are truth, and his ways any thing like as far as ancient au- judgment: and those that walk in thors tell us, 'from Spain to India, pride he is able to abase." he must have been the greatest : Ver. 5. “And, behold, another conqueror that ever lived. The beast, a second, like a bear, and it Prophet tells ụs, these wings of an raised up itself on one side, and it eagle were plucked off, and the had three ribs in the mouth of it, beast made to stand erect like a between the teeth of it: and they man ; nay, that a man's heart was said thus unto it, Arise, devour given to him. The history of the much fiesh.” This beast, the reader event could alone explain what will know from the former vision, this means; Daniel has, however, represents the empire of the Medes

and Persians; it is represented in * Cap. iv. rer. 22. the image by an inferior metalj 80 à less noble animal symbolizes it through all the countries from Ila here ; för, though the Persian mo- lyricum and the Adriatic sea, to narchy for some time existed as a the Indian ocean and the river leading power anong the nations Ganges, not so much fighting as of the earth, it never reached the conquering; and in 'twelve' years greatness and magnificence of the subjugated to himself part of EuBabylonian empire.

rope and all Asia *,” as well as . This beast, the Prophet tells us, Egypt in Africa. . « raised up itself on one side.” The four heads of this beast This the event explained: the were also explained by the event. Medes 'and Persians appear as a The empire established by Alexunited nation when they overthrow ander, fell, after his death, into the the Babylonians; but the Persians, hands of four of his principal genė. with their renowned prince Cyrus, rals, who erected four separate seem, even then, to have had kingdoms out of his conquests; much the ascendancy, or upper Cassander taking Macedon and hand ; and they soon prevailed so Greece ; Lysimachus, Thrace and much, that we hear little more of Bithynia; Ptolemy, Egypt; and see the Medes. It is usually called in leucus, Syria. Thus this third emhistory the Persian Empire, and pire existed under four heads very its head the king of Persia. The soon after its formation. But bethree ribs which the beast was seen fore the incarnation of our blessed devouring between his teeth, are Lord, they had all been subdued thought, by the ablest commenta: and swallowed up by the far mightors, to signify the three kingdoms tier empire of the Romans, the of Babylon, Lydia, and Egypt, fourth and last kingdom of men, which were the chief conquests of concerning which the vision before the Persians, and long suffered us shows us many interesting par. under the grinding oppression of ticulars.. their tyrannical princes. The pre- Ver. 7. “ After this I saw in the dominance of this empire may be night visions, and, behold, à fourth dated from the year 538 before beast, dreadful and terrible, and Christ, when Cyrus took Babylon, strong exceedingly; andithad great and it ended in the year before iron teeth: it devoured and brake in Christ 331, when the Persian king, pieces, and stamped the residue Darius, was entirely defeated by with the feet of it; and it was di. Alexander the Great, whose em- verse from all the beasts that were pire is next represented. . before it, and it had ten horns.-* Ver. 6. « Àfter this I beheld, 8. And I considered the horns, and, lo! another, like a leopard, and, behold, there came up among which had upon the back of it four then another little horn, before wings of a fowl, and the least had whom there were three of the first also four heads; and dominion was horns plucked up by the roots : given to it.” The leopard (nim- and, behold, in this horn were eyes mer) is remarkable as well for his like the eyes of a man, and a mouth surprising agility as strength. The speaking great things.” That this addition of four wings of a bird, could be no other than the empire to such an animal, is certainly well represented by the feet and toes of calculated to represent the rapid Nebuchadnezzar's image, will want and decisive movements of Alex. no proof but the bare comparison ander the Great, whose conquests of the two prophecies. established the third universal em · The Roman empire was far more pire - Nothing,” it has been ob- powerful and more terrible to its served, " could be swifter than the conquest of Alexander, who ran . * Bishop Newton..

tion.

neighbours than any of the former ment was set, and the books were empires; the conquests, also, of opened. 11. I beheld then, because its desolating armies were far more of the voice of the great words lasting; and the subjection in which which the horn spake: I beheld, it held, for ages, all the nations even till the beast was slain, and nearly of the civilized world, is well his body destroyed, and given to represented by this terrible beast, the burning flame. 12. As cona “ devouring and breaking in pieces, cerning the rest of the beasts, they and stamping the residue with its had their dominion taken away: feet.”

yet their lives were prolonged for In Nebuchadnezzar's dream we a season and time. 13. I saw in learnt that, in the course of time, the night visions, and, behold, one the fourth empire was to come to like the son of man came with the exist in a divided state: this, we clouds of heaven, and came to the shall see presently, was what was Ancient of days, and they brought Tepresented by the ten first horns, him near before him. '14. And and eleventh little horn of this there was given him dominion, and beast : but, as Daniel asks an ex- glory, and a kingdom, that all planation of this part of the vision, people, nations, and languages and receives from an angel the in- should serve hiin: his dominion is terpretation he desires, we must an everlasting dominion, which of course listen to this interpreta. shall not pass away, and his king.

dom that which shall not be de Before, however, we proceed to stroyed." consider the inquiries of the Pro. Daniel describes to us, in the phet, or the answer of the an- following verse, his deep concern gel, we will transcribe the re- of mind on beholding this vision, mainder of the vision. What and his anxiety to know the events was represented in the former foreboded by these eniblems. “I, vision, by a stone cut out of Daniel, was grieved in my spirit in the mountain without hands, and the midst of my body, and the vistriking the image on its feet, and sions of my head troubled me. I overthrowing the whole fabric; came near unto one of them that that stone afterwards becoming a stood by;" that is, one of the angreat mountain, and filling the gels whom he saw in the vision ; whole earth : this grand event is, « and asked him the truth of all in the vision before us, depictured this ;" that is, the true meaning. with much more fulness and clear: “ So he told me, and made me ness, and so as to give us a much to know the interpretation of the more impressive view of the de. things. 17. These great beasts, struction of the power of the wic, which are four, are four kings ked, and of the erection of Christ's which shall arise out of the earth, happy kingdom. ...

18. But the saints of the Most Ver. 9. « And I beheld till the Higii shall take the kingdom, and thrones were cast down, and the possess the kingdom for ever, even Ancient of days did sit, whose for ever and ever.” We have only garment was white as snow, and to remark that king, in the lanthe hair of his head like pure wool: guage of prophecy, is put for a his throne was like the fiery flame, kingdom or government, and deand his wheels as a burning fire. notes that kingdom and govern10. A fiery stream issued and came ment as long as it shall last, and forth from before him : thousand not the reign of one prince. These thousands ministered unto him, and four beasts foreshowed four great ten thousand times ten thousands kingdoms which were to rule on stood' before him; and the judg- earth, and were to be succeeded