The minister replied by a rebuke, and a reiteration of the disputed sentiment .-- The stranger, evidently versed in ecclesiastical matters, volubly and warmly responded.

The preacher, a man of humble condition and moderate abilities, made as good show of argument as he could, but was evidently no match for his antagonist.

He was soon vanquished in the wordy warfare.

Well he might be, for it appeared that the stranger was no less a personage than Peter Rythovius, a doctor of divinity, a distinguished pedant of Louvain, a relation of a bishop and himself a Church dignitary.

This learned professor, quite at home in his subject, was easily triumphant, while the poor dissenter, more accustomed to elevate the hearts of his hearers than to perplex their heads, sank prostrate and breathless under the storm of texts, glosses, and hard Hebrew roots with which he was soon overwhelmed.