Page:French convert.pdf/18

18 had in no wiſe offended them, but in being ſeparated from them, and moving according to the dictates of their conſcience. She had likewiſe obſerved the harmleſſneſs and inoffenſive manner of living in the perſecuted, and often ſhewed ſome diſlike of the looſeneſs and unchriſtian practices of the perſecutors; ſo that, altho' ſhe had a good opinion of the Romiſh religion, as having been brought up in it from her infancy, yet had ſhe not ſo of many of the profeſſors of it, who apparently derogated from the ways of virtue, and ſeemed to encourage vice.

This wronght ſome labourings in her mind, through the gracious operation of the Holy Spirit; and in her night thoughts more ſeriously reflecting on many things, and particularly on the Gardener's expreſſion out of St. Paul's words to Felix the governor; inferring from thence, That it muſt be the ſincerity of the heart towards God, more than the ſhew, or outward name, or profeſſion of any religion, that renders the perſon acceptable in his fight. In the midſt of theſe cogitations and debates within herſelf, ſhe found ſomething (as it were by an over-ruling power) ſtrongly moved her to a deſire of farther converſing with Bernard, about the fundamentals of his religion; which, by the Popiſh Prieſts, as well in their pulpits, as private converſation, had been repreſented ſo odious, damnable, and to be detefted.

The morning no ſooner ſummoned the Gardener to viſit his flowers and plants, and perform his uſual talk in watering and ordering them, but Deidamia, who had taken little reſt that night, aroſe, and having performed her oriſon, and then refreſhed herſelf with a moderate collation, took an opportunity between that and dinner-time to enter the garden privately, at