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DANIEL DE SUPERVILLE,

Formerly Pastor of the French (hurch at Rotterdam

Pub Sep 1 1816 by Burton & Briggs, 156. Leadenhall Str.

TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH

OF

DANIEL DE SUPERVILLE,

FORMERLY PASTOR OF THE FRENCH PROTESTANT CHURCH AT

ROTTERDAM:

WITH

MEMOIRS OF HIS LIFE.

BY

JOHN ALLEN.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR BURTON AND BRIGGS, 156, LEADENHALL-

STREET;

SOLD ALSO BY BALDWIN, CRADOCK, AND JOY, PATER-

NOSTER-ROW; AND HATCHARD, PICCADILLY.

1816.

Burton and Co. Printers, Devonshire-street, Bishopsgate.

891 59595e 1816

MEMOIRS

OF THE

LIFE OF DANIEL DE SUPERVILLE.

DANIEL DE SUPERVILLE was a native of France, and descended from a Protestant family which had been settled in that country for three generations. His great grand-father, John de Superville, originally from Bern, sustained the office of Physician to Henry the Fourth. His grand-father and father, both named James, followed the same profession, the former at Niort, the latter at Saumur; and were both distinguished for eminent piety as well as medical skill.

Daniel de Superville, the author of the following Sermons, was born at Anjou, in the month of August 1657. The happy dispositions discovered in his tenderest years, inspired his friends with hopes which were amply fulfilled in his subsequent life. He enjoyed all the advantages of early education, and made a great and rapid progress in classical learning.

When prepared for the university, he entered the college at Saumur. There he was remarked for an ardent love of study and striking evidences of genuine piety. His talents and application raised him above all his fellow students. To a sprightliness of genius he added a retentive memory, and attained such a facility in composition, that the first short essays of his youth would not have disgraced maturer years.

A

In all the disputations and other exercises for the degrees of Bachelor and Master of Arts, he maintained a decided superiority; and more than once, when the Professor of Philosophy was prevented by illness from filling the chair, Superville was appointed to supply his place; a task which he discharged with great honour.

Having completed his philosophical course before the age fixed for commencing that of theology, he devoted a year to private reading and study in various branches of literature, not forgetting the object of his ultimate destination, the christian ministry. A review of the attainments which he made during this season of retirement, induced him often to speak of it as one of the most useful of his life. When this year had expired, he returned to the University and went through a regular course of theology under M. de Brais.

From Saumur, Superville removed to Geneva, where he studied two years under the eminent Professors who then adorned that University. Philip Mestrezat and Lewis Tronchin were Professors of Theology; Alphonsus Turretin, of Sacred History; and Chouet, of Natural History. Superville was chiefly under the care of M. Tronchin, in whose house he resided, and profited no less by his private instructions than by his public lectures. He ever after acknowledged himself indebted to M. Tronchin for forming his theological judgment and taste. A friendship was contracted between them; and when Superville returned to France a regular correspondence was commenced, which continued as long as the Professor lived. He also availed himself of the private instructions and conversation of M. Chouet, and had the honour of being numbered among his friends. The proficiency made by our young theologian was evident to all who knew him. He appeared in the pulpit at Geneva with considerable

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