As to the author, I have been importuned to give some notice of him in this introduction. But it is not the place to say more than a few words. Dr. Merle D'Aubigné,1 though born in Geneva, is like many of the inhabitants of that "City of Refuge," of French origin. His great-grand-father, John Louis Merle, emigrated, for the sake of his religion, from Nismes to Geneva, about the epoch of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. His son, Francis Merle, in the year 1743, married Elizabeth D'Aubigné, a daughter of Baron George D'Aubigné, a Protestant nobleman who resided in that city, and who was a descendant of the celebrated Chevalier Theodore Agrippa D'Aubigné, whose memoirs have been recently published in this country; 2 a faithful but poorly rewarded adherent of Henry IV, a decided Protestant, a brave cavalier, a prolific author; the grand-father of Madame de Maintenon, mistress and wife of Louis XIV; and in his own age was exiled to Geneva for his religion by the ungrateful race for whose elevation to the throne of France he had spent twenty long years and more in the camp. It is from his paternal grand-mother that Dr. Merle derives the addition of D'Aubigné to his name. The immediate progenitor of our author was Aimé Robert Merle D'Aubigné, born in 1755. He was the father of three sons, the eldest and the youngest of whom are respectable merchants in our country, one in New-York, the other in NewOrleans. The death of this excellent man was most deplorable; for he was murdered by the Austrians and Russians, near Zurich, in the autumn of 1799, as he was returning from a commercial mission to Constantinople and Vienna. Falling in with these infuriated troops, a day or two after the decisive defeat which the French under Massena had given them, he was inhumanly slain. He left a widow, who with faith and courage contended against adversity, brought up well her three sons, gave them all a liberal education in the city of their birth, lived to see them far advanced in their various careers, and died in peace on the 11th of January last, at an age exceeding four score. 1 He received the degree of Doctor in Divinity from the college of New Jersey in 1838. 2 Under the title of The Huguenot Captain. Dr. Merle D'Aubigné was born in the year 1794; he is therefore in his 52nd year at present. He is a tall, erect, finelooking man, of dark complexion, black eyes, and commanding mien. His health is by no means good; but his energy is indomitable. He has just published the fourth volume of his admirable History of the Reformation; to complete this work will require at least two if not three or four volumes more. In the autumn of 1817 or 1818, our author, having completed his studies at the Academy or University of Geneva, went to Berlin, where he spent some time engaged in theological and historical pursuits under the guidance of the celebrated Neander, and other distinguished professors of the University in that city. On his way thither he visited the Castle of Wartburg, near Eisenach; and while standing in the room in which Luther spent almost a year as a sort of prisoner, the thought came into his mind to write the History of the Reformation. That thought soon became a settled purpose; it gave direction to all his subsequent feelings, studies, and aims. From Berlin he went to Hamburg, where he preached for five years and more to a small French Protestant church. It was there he preached and published the first six sermons which are contained in this volume. From Hamburg he removed to Brussels, where he preached to a Protestant church until the Revolution of September 1830, which severed Belgium from Holland. As he was a great favourite with the late king of Holland, who heard him with much regularity when he came to the Belgian capital of his kingdom, he was not likely to meet with favour from the revolutionary party. In fact he narrowly escaped death on that occasion. Returning to his native city soon afterward, he took up his abode there, and was appointed President of the new Theological Seminary which was founded by the Geneva Evangelical Society in the year following. There he has resided ever since. With these remarks and notices, the volume which they are intended to introduce is commended to the favourable regards of the Christian public. R. BAIRD. NEW YORK, April, 1846. DISCOURSES. DISCOURSE I. EMMANUEL. Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us."-MATTHEW, i, 23. THE HE union of man with God is the great work which true religion was to accomplish. Any religion that has not this object, and that does not provide the means necessary to attain it, thereby becomes useless and vain. This union is not designed to qualify us to reason concerning God, to define his nature, to expatiate on all his attributes; this is not the aim which true religion should have in view, whatever philosophers may think. Neither does it imply the paying of an external homage to the Divine Being; approaching him with genuflections, in processions, or through sacrifices; such is not the aim which true religion should have in view, however the vain superstitions of nations may have represented it. It is not the discovery of certain principles which may be considered the expression of the Creator's will, nor their presentation as rules of conduct to the creature; this is not the object which true religion should have in view, though it is in this that moralists deem its essence to consist. Some of these things may follow, but it is with something else that we must begin. A greater work must be accomplished-man must be united to God. Of what value is ali his learning, his worship, or his morality, while he does not sincerely love Him whom he ought to know, to adore, and to follow? Man is separated from God: this is one of the fundamental truths of our history; one of the great explanatory principles of our nature; one of those great facts to which the conscience of every man testifies. In vain is man ignorant of the origin of this fact; |