"To lose,' I repeated, 'Mr. Berrington! Heaven forbid that I should lose my Lydia!'

"Mr. Berrington sighed. 'May the Almighty hear your prayer, Madam!' he answered. But here he stopped, and wishing me a good day, hastily quitted the room, leaving me with no small increase of unpleasant feelings.

"Through the management of the vicar, I saw no more of Mr. Berrington, till my Lydia was actually married, and had left the hall with her noble husband and motherin-law.

"From the time of her agony of tears in the presence of Mr. Berrington, my unhappy daughter had remained perfectly calm: yet such was her paleness on the morning of her marriage, that Miss Chelmsford would have induced her to put on a little rouge; and I might, perhaps, have insisted on the same, had I not recollected that this artificial bloom would incur the risk of being displaced by her tears. And ought not this reflection alone to have determined a mother against this marriage? But, Oh! how hard is the unchanged heart of man! how cruel is the unrenewed creature! and how deadly a passion is ambition!

"It was agreed that the bridal party should make a tour on the Continent immediately after the marriage. But as I always had an inexpressible dread of the sea, together with all the other usual hazards to which travellers are liable, I requested to be left at home; in consequence of which it was some months after her marriage before I saw my daughter again.

"During the whole tour of the noble party on the Continent, I remained at Howard-Court, having Miss Chelmsford for my companion, while the delightful reflection of possessing a duchess for a daughter, formed my chief consolation; for at this time my mind first became somewhat uneasy upon religious subjects, and I began, during this dull interval, to entertain some kind of faint idea that I might not be precisely that perfect character which I had hitherto supposed myself to be.

"Many persons pretend to know the precise moment and occasion when they first experienced a change of heart. One person will say, 'I was awakened under

VOL. II.

such a sermon, or I was first enlightened by such a text.' But I can give no such precise account of my first impressions: I can only say, that about this time, that is, the period of my daughter's marriage, I began to have some slight suspicions that all was not well with me.

"It was on the day of the wedding, when the bridal party had just left the house, that, after having watched the superb train of equipages till they were hid from my view by the trees of the park, desirous to be alone, I walked out into the shrubbery, and taking a winding path which led to the back of it, I sat down on a seat which commanded a view of the open country at a distance, and, across a small field, of a little cottage situated in a garden. In this cottage lived a young pair, who had been married eighteen months, and I saw the young woman sitting at her door rocking her baby to sleep, and even at that distance heard the sound of her rural lullaby. It was natural for me to compare the humble lot of this young person with that of my Lydia, and to ask myself if Lydia had the same chance of happiness as this young woman had with the husband of her affections. I then thought of the sweet pale face of my daughter, as she stood before the altar, and the affection she had avowed for Mr. Berrington, whose many excellences would have promised her every happiness; when such a feeling of regret and remorse suddenly assailed me, that I burst into an agony of tears, and continued weeping for some time. At length, rousing myself, I tried to feel cheerful, and walked towards home; but still the idea of my Lydia, made unhappy by me, pursued me every where, in spite of all my efforts to shake it off.

"A few days after this, Mr. Berrington returned, and called on me, but was cold and reserved, and left me without once mentioning Lydia. The next time I saw him, which was at a gentleman's house in the neighbourhood, he behaved as much as usual, though appearing more than ordinarily serious. On this occasion, the character and opinions of a pious person who had lately died in the neighbourhood were brought forward; when several doctrines maintained by that person were called in question, of which the most prominent were thesethe depravity of human nature; the need of an entire

change; the utter inability of man to help himself; and his redemption being the entire work of the Divinity.

"A certain gentleman remarked, that it was a great absurdity in any one to say that man could not do well without divine assistance, and, moreover, exceedingly pernicious, as furnishing an argument for licentiousness: since,' added he, ‘if a man cannot help sinning, where is the justice of condemning him for his sins?'

"Sir,' said Mr. Berrington, 'should a man shut up in a burning house, from which he could not be rescued without the help of my ladder, obstinately refuse to avail himself of that ladder when freely offered to him; would you say that such a man was unjustly used, or even unfortunate, if he were burned to death?'

66 6 'Surely not,' said the gentleman; 'and if your simile held good throughout, I should acknowledge myself convinced. But your man in the burning house is not quite helpless; he can walk to your ladder, and choose and resolve either to accept your help or to be burned: he is, therefore, not totally helpless, which you say every man must be, with regard to his own salvation.'

"Sir,' said Mr. Berrington, 'when man attempts to lay down precisely the modes and forms of God's dealings with man, he is evidently meddling with those things which are too high for him. Many things we must receive from Scripture, though we do not understand them and I think every man who looks seriously into his own heart, and consults his past experience, must be brought to the confession, that in his own strength he can do no one good thing; in consequence, he can take no step whatever towards his own salvation." Mr. Berrington then brought forward the Article on the subject of works done before justification.-'Works done before the grace of Christ, and the inspiration of his Spirit, are not pleasant to God, forasmuch as they spring not of faith in Jesus Christ, neither do they make men meet to receive grace, or (as the School-Authors say) deserve grace of congruity; yea, rather, for that they are not done as God hath willed and commanded them to be done, we doubt not but they have the nature of sin.' (13th Article of the Church of England.)

"After having examined this Article, which appeared to me extraordinary, though, as a good church-woman, I could not gainsay it, I replied, 'But, allowing this to be true, you certainly will admit, Mr. Berrington, that after people are regenerated, they may produce good works, and make themselves acceptable to God?'

"When a person is regenerate, Madam,' said Mr. Berrington, 'that person is assuredly to be looked upon as justified and accepted; not however on his own account, or for his own works, but on account of the merits and death of Christ.'

"Then I perceive,' I answered, 'that you entirely exclude good works, and count them as nothing in your scheme of salvation; and, consequently, as my good friend here says, you open the door to all manner of licentiousness?

66 6

By no means, Madam,' he replied, 'for the tree being known by its fruit, the individual who does not produce good works cannot be a regenerate person.'

"And, on the contrary,' said I, exultingly, 'he who does produce good works must be a regenerate person; although he has never been made sensible of any especial or miraculous call to a divine life; and though he cannot speak the modern technical language of religion! -Do you allow this, Mr. Berrington?"

"I cannot allow, Madam,' said Mr. Berrington, 'that any one can be a regenerate person who thinks well of himself: for the regenerate person feels himself to be a miserable sinner, and counts his righteousness to be filthy rags!'

"Well,' said I, 'these things appear to me to be a collection of riddles. At one time, you say that we are to know a believer by his good actions; and at another time, you say that the best actions of the best men are but filthy rags!'

"Because,' replied Mr. Berrington, 'every religious man is fully aware that all which is commendable in what he has been enabled to do, is the work of the Spirit; while every thought, word, and deed, which has sprung from himself alone, is only evil continually.'

"Then I am to understand,' said I, 'that there are, in

your opinion, only two sorts of persons in the world; viz. those that have been called unto salvation, and those who have not?'

"Yes,' said Mr. Berrington, 'I certainly think so.'

"I laughed, and turning to the lady of the house, said 'I am afraid then, if Mr. Berrington's doctrine is true, that we commit a great blunder when we teach our children to thank their heavenly Father that he hath called them to a state of salvation; for if the good people will scarcely allow us considerate parents to be in that state, much less our poor ignorant children."

"As there is a song spoken of in Scripture,' said Mr. Berrington, 'a new song, which the saints alone are said to learn and sing; so there are many passages in our Book of Common Prayer which none but persons of the same description can truly and sincerely repeat. And every parent who is aware of this, will anxiously endeavour to impress it upon his children's minas, that while it is easy for them to go through all the services of the Church with the lips only, none but the saints of God are capable of entering into them with the heart.'

"Although I had performed so ridiculous a part in the conversation which I have described, yet the conversation itself produced a considerable effect upon my mind. I thought of it much as I went home, and my doubts of myself gradually increased.

"It has been remarked, that if one single right idea upon the subject of religion can be brought with power to the mind, further light will gradually break in, making new and important discoveries from time to time. The question had occurred to me-Have I a right, as a regenerate person, to use the Liturgy of the Church of England? or am I to be counted among those of its members who worship only with the lips? And this idea having once entered, returned upon me on every occasion of public worship, destroyed my self-complacency, and silenced my tongue; so that a short-sighted observer might have supposed that I had almost ceased to pray, even at the very moment when I had, in fact, only began to pray.

"About this time, our vicar was removed; when hav