But, it is principally, by the extent and success of their missionary labours, that they now engage, the attention of the public. These began, in 1732. In 1812, they had thirty-three settlements, in heathen nations. One hundred and thirty-seven missionaries, were employed in them: they had baptized, twenty-seven thousand, four hundred converts: and such had been their care, in admitting them to that sacred rite, and such their assiduity, in cultivating a spirit of religion, among them, that scarcely an individual, had been known, to relapse into paganism. All travellers, who have visited their settlements, speak with wonder, and praise, of the humility, the patient endurance of privation, and hardship, the affectionate zeal, the mild, and persevering exertions of the missionaries; and the innocence, industry and piety of the converts:--the European, the American, the African, and the Asiatic traveller speaks of them, in the same terms: and, that they speak without exaggeration, the conduct both of the pastor, and the flock in the different settlements of the United Brethren in England, incontestibly proves. Whatever he may think of their religious tenets, _Talis cum sitis, utinam nostri essetis_, must be the exclamation of every christian, who considers their lives. Those, who desire further knowledge of this amiable, and worthy denomination of Christians, will find it in _David Cranz's ancient and modern History of the Brethren, printed at Barby, 1771, and the two continuations of it, Barby_, 1791, and 1804. The History has been translated into English; and is become exceedingly scarce; the Continuations have not been translated. Mr. La Trobe, the Pastor of the United Brethren in London, has published a _Concise Historical Account of the Protestant Church of the United Brethren adhering to the Confession of Augsburgh_.] [Footnote 081: Epist. 1706, p. 736.] [Footnote 082: Ib. Epist. 613.] [Footnote 083: Epist. part. I. Epist. 432. part II. Epist. 53. The French public strongly suspected the Cardinal of this design. It gave rise to the celebrated libel, entitled "_Optatus Gallus,_" _Grotius_, (Lit. 982.) notices a prophecy of Nostradamus, then in circulation: "_Celui qui était bien avant dans le regne, Ayant chat rouge, proche, hierarchie, Apre et cruel, et se fera tant craindre, Succedera, a sacrée Monarchie._" If the event in question had happened, Nostradamus would have passed, with many for a prophet.] [Footnote 084: Eclaircissemens de l'édit de Nantes, page 1. c. 6.] [Footnote 085: V. 2. p. 38, 148.] [Footnote 086: We are grieved to add, that he allowed the _right_ of a sovereign to persecute for religion.] [Footnote 087: This article is extracted from Oeuvres Posthumes de Bossuet, vol. i. Nouvelle édition des Oeuvres de Bossuet, vol. ii. Leibnizii Opera, studio Ludovici Dutens, vol. i. and v. And the Pensées de Leibniz, vol. ii. 8vo.] [Footnote 088: Tom. xiii.]