ing for feveral days, in the cottage of a poor fisherman in Bith

to the fisherman's houfe, determining there to wait, till I could fee the beautiful Antonia, and her fair kinfwoman, another Agnes de Caftro, to be fure. My curiofity could not pafs two fuch glorious objects without any acquaintance with them.

oprick.

The poor fifherman gave me a bed very readily for money, as he had one to spare for a traveller, and he provided for me every thing I could defire. He brought bread and ale from a village a few miles diftant, and I had plenty of fish and wildfowl for my table. Every afternoon I croffed; the water, went to the fleeping parlour, and there waited for the charming Antonia.

Twenty days I went backwards and forwards, but the beauties in that time did. not return. Still however I refolved to wait; and, to amufe myself till they came, went a little way off to fee an extraordinary

man.

§. 7. While I refided in this cottage, Chriftopher informed me, that about three miles from his habitation, there lived in a wild and beau

tiful glin, a gentleman well

knowing, not only on account of his pretty lodge, and lone manner of spending his time, but as he was a very extraordinary man. This was enough to excite my curiofity, and as foon as it was light, the first of May, I went to look for this folitary. I found him in a vale, romantic indeed, among vaft rocks, ill-fhaped and rude, and furrounded with trees, as venerable as the foreft of Fontainbleau. His little house ftood on the margin of a fountain, and was encompaffed with copfes of different trees and greens. The pine, the oak, the ash, the chefnut tree, cypreffes, and the acasia, diverfified the ground, and the negligent rural air of the whole spot, had charms that could always please. Variety and agreeableness were every where to be seen.. Here was an harbour of fhrubs, with odo riferous flowers: and there, a copfe of trees was crowned with the enamel of a meadow. There was a collection of the most beautiful vegetables in one part; and in another, an affembly of evergreens, to form a perpetual fpring. Pan had an altar of green turf, under the fhade of elms and limes and a water-nymph ftood by the spring of a murmuring ftream. The whole was a fine imitation of nature; fimple and rural to a charming degree.

§. 8. Here lived Dorick The hiftory of Dorick WatWatfon, an English gentleman, fon the ber

who had been bred a catholic in France, and there married

mit.

a fifter of the famous Abbé le Blanc. But on returning to his own country, being inclined, by good fenfe and curiofity, to fee what the proteftants had to fay in defence of their reformation, he read the best books he could get on the subject, and foon perceived, that Luther, Melanthon, Calvin, Zuinglius, Bucer, and other minifters of Christ, had faid more against the Romish religion than the pretended catholics had been able to give a folid anfwer to. He saw, that barbarity, policy, and fophiftry, were the main props of popery; and that, in doctrine and practice, it was one of the greatest visible enemies that Chrift has in the world. He found that even Bellarmine's notes of his church were fo far from being a clear and neceffary proof that the church of Rome is the body of Chrift, or true church, that they proved it to be the Great Babylon, or that great enemy of God's church, which the apostles defcribe.

The hermit's obfervations on Bellarmine's notes

He faw, in the first place, that there has not been, fince the writing of the New Teftament, any empire, but that of of the church.

the

the church of Rome, fo univerfal for 1260 years together, as to have all that dwell upon earth, peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues, to worship it; which is St. John's defcription of the new power that prevailed on the inhabitants of the earth to receive his idolatrous conftitutions, and yield obedience to his tyrannical authority. And all that dwell on the earth fhall worship him, except thofe who are inrolled in the registers, as heirs of eternal life, according to the promises of the mediator of acceptance and bleffing. (Rev. xiii. 8.) The waters which thou faweft, where the whore fitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues. (Rev. xvii. 15.) Bellarmine's Univerfality then is directly against him.

The Cardinal's fecond note, (continued Derick) is antiquity, and his third a perpetual and uninterrupted duration. But on examination, I could find no ruling power, except Rome papal, fo ancient, as to have the blood of prophets, and faints, and of all that were flain upon earth, of that kind for that space of time, to be found in it. (Rev. xviii. 24.) And what Rule but papal Rome had ever fo long a duration upon feven hills, fo as to answer the whole length

of

of the time of the Saracen and Turkish empires.

The Cardinal's fourth note is amplitude, and it is moft certain, that never had any other church fuch a multitude and variety of believers, as to have all nations drink of the wine of her fornication, and to gain a blafphemous power over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.

The fifth note is the Succeffion of its bishops; and the fixth, Agreement with the doctrine of the ancient church: Now, it is most true, that none but Rome was ever fo eminently confpicuous for fo long a time for the fucceffion of its bishops under one fupreme patriarch, as to be the living image of all the civil dignities of the empire, where it was under one fupreme church-head exercifing all the power of the civil head: nor did ever any enemy of God's church act for fo long a time like the red dragon in its bloody laws against the followers of the lamb and yet fo far agree with the primitive church in fundamental doctrines, as to answer the character of a falfe prophet with the horns of the lamb, that is, Christ, but speak

ing