(John Frederick), a famous Protestant divine, was born at Neufchattel in 1663; and made such rapid progress in his studies, that he became master of arts at Saumur before he was 16 years of age. He afterwards studied at Orleans and at Paris. At his return to Neufchattel in 1699, he became pastor of the church there; and contracted a strict friendship with the celebrated John Alphonse Turrettin of Geneva, and the illustrious Samuel Weerenfels of Basil. The union of these three divines, which was called the Triumvirate of the divines of Savoyard, lasted till his death. Mr Osterwald acquired the highest reputation by his virtues, his zeal in instructing his disciples, and restoring ecclesiastical discipline. He wrote many books in French; the principal of which are, 1. A Treatise concerning the Sources of Corruption, which is a good moral piece. 2. A Catechism, or Instruction in the Christian Religion; which has been translated into German, Dutch, and English; and the Abridgment of the Sacred History, which he prefixed to it, was translated and printed in Arabic, in order to be sent to the East Indies, by the care of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel; and that Society, established in London, paid him a high compliment, by admitting him an honorary member. 3. A treatise against Impurity. 4. An edition of the French Bible of Geneva, with Arguments and Reflections, in folio. 5. Ethica Christiana. 6. Theologia Compendium, &c. He died in 1747, regretted by all who knew him.

OSTIA is a borough situated at the mouth of the Tiber, about 12 miles to the westward of Rome. It was built by Ancus Martius, the fourth king of Rome, and was called Oflia Tiberina, in the plural number, i.e. the two mouths of the Tyber, which were separated by the Holy Island, an equilateral triangle, whose sides were each of them computed at about two miles. The colony of Ostia was founded immediately beyond the left or southern, and the port immediately beyond the right or northern, branch of the river; and the distance between their remains measures something more than two miles on Cingolani's map. In the time of Strabo, the sand and mud deposited by the Tyber had choked the harbour of Oflia; the progress of the same cause has added much to the size of the Holy Island, and gradually left both Ostia and the port at a considerable distance from the shore. The dry channels (fiumi morti), and the large estuaries (laghi di Poente, de Levante), mark the changes of the river, and the efforts of the sea. Its port was one of the most stupendous works of Roman magnificence, and it was a long time one of the best towns on the coast; but having been destroyed by the Saracens, and the harbour choked up, as mentioned above, it has not been able since to recover itself. Though it be an inconsiderable place, and but poorly inhabited by reason of the badness of the air, yet it is the see of a bishop, who is always deacon of the cardinals, and crowns the Pope. The old Ostia, where you see the ruins of the ancient harbour, is beyond New Ostia, towards the sea; the latter is but a little cluster of housetops, with a small castle. It is 12 miles S.W. of Rome. E. Long. 12. 24. N. Lat. 41. 44. There were salt-works in Ostia, called Saline Ostiensis, as early as the times of Ancus Martius (Livy); from which the Via Salaria, which led to the Sabines, took its name, (Varro). It gave name to one of the gates of Rome, which was called Ostiensis (Ammian).