History of the Protestants of France, from the commencement of the Reformation to the present timeFélice, G. de (Guillaume)
History
History of the Protestants of France, from the commencement of the Reformation to the present time
Félice, G. de (Guillaume)
Protestants -- France
Charles Drelincourt (1595-1669) was the model of a true pastor. He
lived a life of faith and prayer, of charity and devotion, employing
the day in visiting his flock, and his evenings in meditation and
composition. On the 27th of October, 1669, he was still preaching in
the places of worship at Charenton—the following Sunday he had ceased
to live. To him might be applied the words which he has put into the
mouth of a pastor at the end of his _Visites Charitables_: “I have
long lived; I have long preached; I am not weary of serving so good a
Master, so liberal a Lord.”
The contemporaries of Drelincourt agree in saying that no other
minister at Charenton knew better how to lead the erring back, to
strengthen the weak, to exhort the lukewarm, to comfort the poor, and
to console the unhappy.
His works of edification and polemics have a popular character, which
made them welcome to every house in his age, and has prolonged the
life of some of them even till now. It has been already seen that
no adversary was more dreaded by the converters than he, and that
he had armed in the most solid manner the simple and the illiterate
against their sophisms by his _Abrégé des Controverses_. The other
works of Drelincourt, which have been most frequently reprinted, are
his _Préparation à la Sainte Cène_, his _Visites Charitables_, and
his _Consolations contre la Mort_. This last book has been translated
into all the languages of Europe, and has been reproduced in more
than fifty editions.
Drelincourt addressed these consolations to himself: “I pray God,”
said one of his friends to him in his last illness, “that He may
change your bed of infirmity into a bed of health.” “My bed of health
and of rest,” he answered, “will be in heaven.”
Jean Daillé (1595-1670), of the same age as Drelincourt, was long his
colleague at Paris, and followed him quickly to the grave. Prudent
and reserved as well as pious, he acquired general esteem, without
ever swerving in his convictions or his duties.
Educated from an early age, in the house of Duplessis-Mornay, and
having afterwards travelled through the principal European states,
he quickly displayed a mature intelligence. Daillé’s first essay in
authorship, was a master-piece, _L Usage des Pères_.[84] He ascribes
to these venerable doctors all that they are entitled to, without
surrendering the sovereign authority which he accords to the Bible in
anything. His _Apologie des Eglises Réformées_ is (also) firm without
being offensive. Truth is apparent throughout, [combined] with
charity. The author’s purpose was to answer those who accused the
Reformed of having sundered Catholic unity, and while he acknowledged
that division is a great evil, he proves there are cases where it is
the first of duties.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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