"much alarmed at; but yet defired to fhew "it her Priest, before fhe would intirely

66

give her Affent to it: She did fo (after "her Husband had tranflated it into Latin; which he did, for her Priest's Pe

66

..

rufal) whofe only Answer was (and the

only poffible one indeed) That if he "wavered, all he could fay to her would "avail nothing. This fo ftaggered her, "that she went no-where, as to a Place "of Worship, for Three Years, but em"ployed herself at Home in reading all "the Books of Controversy, &c. that she "could get; and at last, by the Force of "those Books, her Hufband's kind Per"fuafions, the Help of her own Reason "and Reflection, and, above all, the "Letter hereunto fubjoined, fhe wrote "Word over, That fhe had intirely for"faken the Romish Church, was intirely

66

'

a Convert to Proteftantifm, and would "on no Account, no nor the Gain of the "whole World, again communicate there"with; and, as he was thus converted, "the next Bufinefs fhe went about, was "to follow the Advice our Lord gives "to Simon Peter, Luke xxii. 31, 32. "where he tells him, That Satan (like the

66

Romish Priest to her) had defired to have

"bim,

;

"him, that he might fift him as Wheat "but he had prayed for him, that his Faith fail not; and then bids him, when he "was converted, ftrengthen his Brethren;" and fo it was with her: For fhe, too confcious how bufy Satan had been, by his proper and devoted Emiffaries, the Popish Priefts, and how much they had endeavoured to fift her like Wheat, from every good Principle, and leave her Soul only, as it were, enchaffed, and but fit for Fewel; fhe, I fay, in this Situation, wrote to her own Family, with true religious Rhetoric, befeeching them to be converted from the Errors of Popery, moft fervently defiring (as fhe most certainly did) that their Souls might profper, and be in Health, even as fhe found experimentally her's profpered: -I fay, experimentally; for furely (morbus animi gravior eft quam corporis, and confequently) if to get Rid of any particular acute or chronic Disease, or of a general Cachochymia in the Habit of the Body, gives prodigious Eafe to every Part, and, as it were, revivifies every Function of Nature, How infinitely greater muft that mental Pleafure be, which refults from having difburdened the Mind of an intolerable Load of fallacious Innovations in religious Matters, and a heavy

Yoke

thing but to enslave the Mind, and prevent its every proper, every rational Exertion; which all must certainly find to be the Cafe, who take upon them the eafy Yoke of Chrift's (pure, undefiled) Religion, instead of the slavish, arbitrary Bondage of Popish Bigotry.

Thus much by Way of Preface to the following Letter; which, I hope, will be of univerfal Ufe to the Proteftant Caufe. by being a Guide to the unenlightened. and an Antidote ready at Hand for the Ufe of all, who are any Ways in Danger of being poisoned in their Principles, by the Contagion fpread, but too univerfally, by the Popish Emiffaries, amongst the Pagan World, and, I wish I was not obliged to fay too, amongst those to whom that Ligh is fprung up, which was defigned to be the Glory of the Ifraelites of God.

Farewel.

N. TORRIANO, M. D

P. S. Should any one wonder why I ac quaint the World, my Sifter was a Pa pift; let fuch an one be answered, by my telling him, First, I did it on pur

pofe

pose, that I might, at the fame Time, let them know the was converted upon Principle: Secondly, That, I believe, a Convert from Popery may give as much Joy in Heaven as a converted Sinner, which is more than that arifing from Ninety-nine who need no Converfion : Thirdly, As a Perfon, who has a fine Jewel to expose to View, which, tho' in its own Nature it is very bright, yet he chufes that every Diamond fhould have its proper Foil. The Application is cafy.

A LET

A

LETTER

FROM A

GENTLEMAN to His SON, Abroad.

DEAR CHILD,

S

OME few Days after I had written you, by the Stanhope, a very fhort Letter, and promifing this, giving you an Account that we had heard of your Marwe received your Letter, of

riage with

, by the James and Mary, which you writ us, to acquaint us therewith. I fuppofe thofe Letters will have reached you long before this; by which you will have feen the Surprize we were under, and the Concern it gave us, to hear you had married a Person of the Popish Religion, which I therein treated as a Religion little (if any Thing) better than Heathenifm. And, though that Censure of it was writ on a Sudden, and upon the firft Impreffions of Concern, that were occafioned by the News of your Marriage, which we heard by the Compton, and before I