The au thor's feveral about twenty miles off, and would foon return that he kept four young gentlewomen (who had no fortunes) to attend her and Mifs Vane; two old men fervants, a gardner, and a cook; and two boys: that whenever fhe went from her house, she took her whole family with her, and left every place locked up as I faw. Finn's account furprised me. It fet me a thinking if it was poffible to get this charming girl. I paufed with my finger in my mouth for a few minutes, and then bid him faddle the horses, §. 6. As foon as it was poffible, I went manner of over the river to the fisherman's houfe, deliving for termining there to wait, till I could fee the days, in beautiful Antonia, and her fair kinfwoman, the cottage another Agnes de Caftro, to be fure. My fisherman curiofity could not pafs two fuch glorious oboprick. jects without any acquaintance with them. of a poor in Bish The poor fisherman gave me a bed very readily for money, as he had one to fpare 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 wild-fowl 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. cot- A defcrip about tion of a charming liv- little country feat, gen- where a foon litary gen tleman and lived, §. 7. While I refided in this tage, Chriftopher informed me, that three miles from his habitation, there ed, in a wild and beautiful glin, a tleman well worth my knowing, not ly on account of his pretty lodge, 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-shaped and rude, and furrounded with trees, as venerable as the foreft of Fontainbleau. His little house stood on the margin of a fountain, and was encompaffed with copfes of different trees and greens. The pine, the oak, the afh, the chefnut tree, cypreffes, and the acafia, diverfified the ground, and the negligent rural air of the whole spot, had charms that could always please. Variety and agreeablenefs were every where to be feen. Here was an harbour of fhrubs, with odoriferous flowers and there, a copfe of trees was crowned with the enamel of a meadow. There The hiftory of Dorick Watson, the hermit. There was a collection of the most beautiful vegetables in one part; and in another, an affembly of ever-greens, to form a perpetual fpring. Pan had an altar of green turf, under the fhade of elms and limes: and a water-nymph stood by the fpring of a murmuring ftream. The whole was a fine imitation of nature; fimple and rural to a charming degree. §. 8. Here lived Dorick Watfon, an Englifh gentleman, who had been bred a catholic in France, and there married 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 say 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 ministers of Chrift, had faid more against the Romish religion than the pretended catholics had been able to give a folid answer to. He saw, that barbarity, policy, and fophistry, were the main props of popery; and that, in doctrine and practice, it was one of the greateft vifible 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 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 apoftles describe. servations mine's notes of He faw, in the first place, that there has The hernot been, fince the writing of the New Tefta- mit's obment, any empire, but that of the church on Bellarof Rome, fo univerfal for 1260 years together, as to have all that dwell upon earth, the church. peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues, to worship it; which is St. John's description 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 those who are enrolled in the registers, as heirs of eter nal 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 Dorick) 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 were flain upon earth, of that kind for that fpace of time, to be found in it. (Rev, xviii. 24.) And what Rule but papal Rome had ever so long a duration upon feven hills, fo as to answer the whole length 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 antient 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 false prophet with the horns of the lamb, that is, Christ, but fpeaking like the red dragon |