wed him, were, for
so glorious an end as is the regaining the peace of christendom,
very reasonably to be afforded him, nay absolutely necessary to be
yielded him, whensoever any such catholic union shall be attempted,
which as it had been the express opinion of Melancthon, one of the
first and wisest Reformers, so it is far from any design of
establishing the usurpations of the Papacy, or any of their false
doctrines attending them, but only designed as an expedient for the
restoring the peace of the whole christian world, which every
disciple of Christ is so passionately required to contend and pray
for.'

"At the conclusion of the Doctor's _Continuation of the Defence of_ HUGO
GROTIUS, he thus expresses himself:

"'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