them as of political importance, in fuch a government as that of Rome; and the Conclave held on the death of the late Pope, are thought to have been in fome degree influenced by fuch confiderations in chufing his fucceffor. The prefent Pope, before he was raifed to that dignity, was confidered as a firm believer in all the tenets of the Roman Church, and a ftrict and fcrupulous obferver of all its injunctions and ceremonials. As his pretenfions, in point of family, fortune, and connexions, were fmaller than thofe of most of his brother cardinals, it is the more probable that he owed his elevation to this part of his character, which rendered him a proper perfon to check the progrefs of abuses that had been entirely neglected by the late Pope; under whofe adminiftration freethinking was faid to have been countenanced, Proteftantifm in general regarded with diminished abhorrence, and the Calvinifts in particular treated with a degree

of

of indulgence, to which their inveterate enmity to the church of Rome gave them no title. Several inftances of this are enumerated, and one in particular, which, I dare fay, you will think a ftronger proof of the late Pope's good fenfe and good humour, than of that negligence to which his enemies imputed it.

A Scotch prefbyterian having heated his brain, by reading the Book of Martyrs, the cruelties of the Spanish Inquifition, and the Hiftories of all the perfecutions that ever were raised by the Roman Catholics against the Proteftants, was feized with a dread, that the fame horrors were just about to be renewed. This terrible idea difturbed his imagination day and night; he thought of nothing but racks and feaffolds; and, on one occafion, he dreamt that there was a continued train of bonfires, with a tar-barrel and a Proteftant in each, all the from Smithfield to St. Andrews.

way

He

He communicated the anxiety and diftrefs of his mind to a worthy fenfible clergyman who lived in the neighbourhood. This gentleman took great pains to quiet his fears, proving to him, by ftrong and obvious arguments, that there was little or no danger of fuch an event as he dreaded. Thefe reafonings had a powerful effect while they were delivering, but the impreffion did not laft, and was always effaced by a few pages of the Book of Martyrs. As foon as the clergyman remarked this, he advised the relations to remove that, and every book which treated of perfecution or martyrdom, entirely out of the poor man's reach. This was done accordingly, and books of a lefs gloomy complexion were fubftituted in their place; but as all of them formed a ftrong contrast with the colour of his mind, he could not bear their perufal, but betook himself to the ftudy of the Bible, which was the only book of his ancient library which had been

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been left; and fo ftrong a hold had his former ftudies taken of his imagination, that he could relish no part of the Bible, except the Revelation of St. John, a great part of which, he thought, referred to the whore of Babylon, or in other words, the Pope of Rome. This part of the scripture he perufed continually with unabating ardor and delight. His friend the clergyman, having obferved this, took occafion to fay, that every part of the Holy Bible was, without doubt, most sublime, and wonderfully inftructive; yet he was furprised to fee that he limited his ftudies entirely to the last book, and neglected all the reft. To which the other replied, That he who was a divine, and a man, of learning, might, with propriety, read all the facred volume from beginning to end; but, for his own part, he thought proper to confine himfelf to what he could underftand; and therefore, though he had a due respect for all the fcripture, he acknowledged

knowledged he gave a preference to the Revelation of St. John. This anfwer entirely fatisfied the clergyman; he did not think it expedient to queftion him any farther; he took his leave, after having requested the people of the family with whom this perfon lived, to have a watchful eye on their relation. In the mean time, this poor man's terrors, with regard to the revival of popery and perfecution, daily augmented; and nature, in all probability, would have funk under the weight of fuch accumulated anxiety, had not a thought occurred which relieved his mind in an inflant, by fuggefting an infallible method of preventing all the evils which his imagination had been brooding over for fo long a time. The happy idea

which afforded him fo much comfort, was no other, than that he fhould immediately go to Rome, and convert the Pope from the Roman Catholic to the Prefbyterian religion. The moment he hit on this

fortunate