609,2 5261.5. 18030

TO THE PUBLIC.

ENCOURAGED by the patronage of Christians of 'all denominations in this city, and most of the prin cipal towns in the eastern and middle states, I take the liberty to announce my intention to continue the publi cation of Saurin's Sermons until I have completed all that have been translated into the English language. If evangelical piety, combined with splendid talents and a most brilliant imagination can engage the attention of the public, the EDITOR is confident of a suitable support in this important undertaking.

"Saurin's Sermons, in the original, are twelve octavo volumes; eleven of which are miscellaneous, and one contains a regular train of Sermons for Lent, and is the only set of Sermons among the whole." Six volumes have been selected and translated into English. These are arranged in the following order: The first is on the Attributes of God, and designed to convey proper ideas of his true character. The second establishes the truth of Revelation. The third is on the principal doctrines of Christianity. The fourth is on Christian Morality. The fifth is on various subjects. The sixth, (translated by the late Rev. Dr. Hunter) is on sacramental occasions.

An edition of these inimitably sublime discourses was certainly very much wanted in this country. And I take the liberty to recommend them to the use of religious families, particularly on the Lord's day, before and at the intervals of public worship, as a work admirably calcu lated with a divine blessing, to strengthen the faith, confirm the hope, and enflame the love of the believer in the public exercises of devotion. They will be read with pleasure and ecstasy by christians; and with terror and amazement, (if they read them at all) by infidels. To the blessing of Heaven I commend them, sincerely hoping they may be a mean of promoting the happiness of man and displaying the glory of God.

This edition is printed on a fine vellum paper, and a new and most elegant type, and bound in a style, I trust that will be satisfactory to the public. The price to Subscribers is Nine Dollars in boards, and Ten Dollars neatly bound and lettered. To non-subscribers it will be enhanced. A very incorrect London edition, on a smaller type and inferior paper sells for Twelve Dollars.

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Subscribers are particularly requested to continue their tronage, because none will be permitted to subscribe for the subse quent volumes who do not take the first.

WILLIAM COLLIER.

New-York, Jan. 24, 1804.

MEMOIRS

OF THE

REFORMATION IN FRANCE,

AND OF

THE LIFE

OF THE

REV. JAMES SAURIN.

THE

HE celebrated Mr. Saurin, author of the following sermons, was a French refugee, who, with thousands of his countrymen, took shelter in Holland from the persecutions of France. The lives, and even the sermons, of the refugees are so closely connected with the history of the reformation in France, that we presume, a short sketch of the state of religion in that kingdom till the banishment of the protestants by Lewis XIV. will not be disagreeable to some of the younger part of our readers.

Gaul, which is now called France, in the time of Jesus Christ, was a province of the Roman empire, and some of the apostles planted christianity in it. In the first centuries, while christianity continued a rational religion, it extended and supported itself without the help, and against the persecutions, of the Roman emperors. Numbers were converted from paganism, several christian societies were

formed, and many eminent men, having spent their lives in preaching and writing for the advancement of the gospel, sealed their doctrine with their blood.

In the fifth century, Clovis I. a pagan king of France, fell in love with Clotilda, a christian princess of the house of Burgundy, who agreed to marry him only on condition of his becoming a christian, to which he consented 491. The king, however, delayed the performance of this condition till five years after his marriage, when, being engaged in a desperate battle, and having reason to fear the total defeat of his army, he lifted up his eyes to to heaven, and put up this prayer, God of Queen Clotilda! grant me the victory, and I vow to be baptized, and thenceforth to worship no other God but thee! He obtained the victory, and, at his return, was baptized at Rheims, Dec. 25, 496. His sister, and more than three thousand of his subjects, followed his example, and christianity became the profest religion of France.

Conversion implies the cool exercise of reason, and whenever passion takes the place, and does the office of reason, conversion is nothing but a name. Baptism did not wash away the sins of Clovis; before it he was vile, after it he was infamous, practising all kinds of treachery and cruelty. The court, the army, and the common people, who were pagan when the king was pagan, and christian when he was christian, continued the same in their morals after their conversion as before. When the christian church, therefore, opened her doors, and delivered up her keys, to these new converts, she gained nothing in comparison of what she lost. She increased the number, the riches, the pomp, and the power, of her family; but she resigned the exercise of reason, the sufficiency of scripture, the