100 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 



to have heard St. Paul preach, makes his third 

 wish, to have seen Rome in her glory ; arid that 

 glory is not yet all lost, for what pleasure is it to 

 see the monuments of Livy, the choicest of the his- 

 torians ; of Tully, the best of orators ; and to see 

 the bay-.trees that now grow out of the very tomb 

 of Virgil ! These, to any that love learning, must be 

 pleasing. Bui what pleasure is it to a devout Christian, 

 to see there the humble house in which St. Paul was 

 content to dwell, arid to view the many rich statues 

 that are made in honour of his memory ! nay, to 

 see the very place in which St. Peter* and he lie 

 buried together ! These are in and near Rome. And 

 how much more doth it please the pious curiosity 

 of a Christian, to see that place on which the blessecl 

 Saviour of the world was pleased to humble himself, 

 and to take our nature upon him, and to converse with 

 men : and to see mount Sion, Jerusalem, and the very 

 sepulchre of our Lord Jesus! How may it beget and 

 heighten the zeal of a Christian, to see the devotions that 

 are daily paid to him at that place ! Gentlemen, lest I 

 forget myself, I will stop here, and remember you, that 

 but for my element of water, the inhabitants of this poor 

 island must remain ignorant that such things ever were, 

 or that any of them have yet a being. 



* The Protestants deny, not only that St. Peter lies buried in the 

 Vatican, as the Romish writers assert, but that he ever was at 

 Rome. See the Historia Apostolica of Lud. Capellus The sense of the 

 Protestants on this point is expressed in the following epigram, alluding 

 to the prxnomen of Peter, " Simon," and to the simony practised in 

 that city : 



An Pcirus faerat Rom& sub judice li$ est ? 

 Simonem Roma nemo fuisse negat. 



Many that " Peter ne'er saw Rome" declare, 

 But all must own that Simon hath been there. 



Of which that may be observed which I have heard said of libels; " the 

 more true the more provoking ;" and this the author, John Owen, the 

 famous epigrammatist, found to his cost ; for his uncle, a Papist, was 10 

 stung by these lines, that, in revenge, he disinherited him, and doomed 

 him to extreme poverty the remainder of his life. Athen. Oxon, Vol. I. 

 471. The Romanists have also taken their revenge on the book that 

 contains them, by inserting it in their IndtK xpurgatoris. Ibid. 



