"'As this is an act of mere justice and charity to the dead,--and no less to those who, by their sin of uncharitable thoughts towards him, are likely to deprive themselves of the benefit of his labours,--so is it but a proportionable return of debt and gratitude to the signal value and kindness, which in his lifetime, he constantly professed to pay to this church and nation, expressing his opinion, "that of all churches in the world, it was the most careful observer and transcriber of primitive antiquity," and more than intimating his desire to end his days in the bosom and communion of our mother. Of this I want not store of witnesses, which from time to time have heard it from his own mouth whilst he was ambassador in France, and even in his return to Sweden, immediately before his death; and for a real evidence of this truth, it is no news to many, that, at the taking his journey from Paris, he appointed his wife, whom he left behind, to resort to the English Assembly at the Agent's house, which accordingly she is known to have practised.'"] [Footnote 070: Calvinism and Arminianism compared, Introduction, cxxxii.] [Footnote 071: A dialogue on the Reformation was also in the contemplation of Mr. Gibbon: "I have," he says in the Memoirs of his life and writings,[072] "sometimes thought of writing a dialogue of the dead, in which Luther, Erasmus and Voltaire should mutually acknowledge the danger of exposing an old superstition to the contempt of the blind and fanatic multitude."] [Footnote 072: Vol. i. p. 269, of the 8vo. edition of his works.] [Footnote 073: A full account of the writings of _Wicelius_, and of his projects of Pacification, is given by _Father Simon_ in the _Biblioteque Critique, par M. de Sainjore_, Tom. ii. ch. 18. He concludes it, by observing, that "the great love which Wicelius had for the peace of the church, might induce him to use expressions, somewhat harsh, but which really ought not to be censured with too much rigour. It is evident that his only view was to be useful to persons of his own time, to whom he consecrated the latter part of his life.--I do not recollect to have read that he was censured at Rome, and the Spanish Inquisitors seem to have observed the same moderation in his regard."] [Footnote 074: XVI. Cent. Book V. p. 41, in the Englsh translation.] [Footnote 075: See Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History, Cent. XVII. ch. ii. sect. ii. Part II.] [Footnote 076: Eccles. Hist. Cent. XVI. ch. ii. sect. iii. Part. II.] [Footnote 077: Observat. Hallen, 15 t. p. 341.] [Footnote 078: It is a prayer addressed to Jesus Christ, and suited to the condition of a dying person who builds his hope on the Mediator. _M. Le Clerc_ has inserted it at length in the _Sentimens de quelques Theologiens de Hollande_, 17 Lettre, p. 397.] [Footnote 079: Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson, 2d Vol. p. 502. 2d Edition.]