September 1691, Superville preached a Sermon on II Corinthians ii. 14. which he afterwards published under the title of the Triumph of the Gospel.

In the service of this Church, our Author passed the remainder of his life. He saw difficult times. The disputes of some of his brethren gave him extreme pain; but no person could be better qualified for pacific inteference in such delicate affairs. As a man and a christian, as a preacher and pastor, he commanded general admiration and respect. He was often called to deliver discourses on public occasions, both national and ecclesiastical: he frequently preached before the civil authorities; and the members of the House of Orange were sometimes among his auditors.

Many persons of distinction honoured him with their friendship; and during the whole course of his ministry at Rotterdam, he received extraordinary testimonies of kindness from the magistrates of that city. A few years before his death, they gave him a proof of attachment, which made a deep impression on his heart. The decline of his health, and the daily increase of his infirmities, rendering him incapable of performing the ministerial functions, in the year 1724 he requested a dismission from his arduous office. They immediately granted his request in a manner equally honourable to him and to themselves. They excused him from all future la, bour, but continued to him his full salary, and his rank of pastor, with all the privileges attached to it, as long as he should live.

At the same time this venerable man had the high satisfaction of seeing his eldest son, who had already established a most estimable character, appointed to fill the pulpit which he had vacated. On the thirtieth of September 1725, he witnessed the instalment of this

son as his colleague and successor; and lived between two and three years after to rejoice in his growing re putation and usefulness.

At length, his constitution bending under the pressure of years and infirmities, after languishing a few weeks, he died in peace on the ninth of June 1728, aged nearly seventy-one years.

The character of Superville was held in universal esteem, and well merited all the esteem it received, With the mildest temper, and the most affable and engaging manners, he united a steadiness to his purpose which never compromised the interests of truth and virtue. Singular politeness and facility of expression, a lively imagination, a correct judgment, a memory retentive and ready on every occasion, the gentleness, modesty, and benevolence pourtrayed in his person, gave charms to his conversation more easily conceived than described. Never niggardly of his stores of know, ledge, he was particularly communicative to young persons, especially to those in whom he discovered promising dispositions. He felt pleasure in imparting the information which they sought; and that not with magisterial superiority, but with the freedom and fami liarity of a friend. In the domestic circle he was truly amiable; a condescending master, an affectionate husband, and a tender father. In the pulpit he was qualified to shine, but his grand aim was to be useful. Clear statements of Christian doctrine and practice, solid arguments addressed to the understanding, exhortations and reproofs pressed upon the conscience, urgent persuasion and kind remonstrance, tones and gesture perfectly natural, pathos produced by the overflowings of a pious heart,-conspired to place him among the first preachers of his age. In counsels and admonitions to his exiled brethren, the French refugees who composed part of his auditory, he was

more than commonly impressive. His instructions from the pulpit were enforced by the unblemished purity of his life. He always exhibited a sanctity becoming his profession: but in his latter years it seemed to acquire additional lustre. To those who visited him in his retirement, his conversation was truly edifying. He was particularly careful to impress upon them the necessity of possessing the religion of the heart as well as of the head. Long familiarized with death, he beheld its approach without alarm and without regret he even desired and prayed for its coming, to dissolve his earthly tabernacle, and remove him to a house not made with hands eternal in the heavens.

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Superville was married twice. The first time was in France, in the year 1683, to Elizabeth de Monnevy, by whom he had two children. She died three weeks after her arrival at Rotterdam. Both the children died before their father's second marriage. Towards the end of the year 1694, he married Catherine Van Armeiden, by whom he had seven children, of whom three sons and three daughters survived him.

Superville commenced his carcer as an Author, in November 1691, by the publication of a series of letters On the Duties of the Afflicted Church. These letters were twelve in number, and were published monthly they were highly acceptable to the Protestants who remained in France, and were afterwards collected into one volume octavo.-In the year 1706, at the request of the Consistory of his church, he drew up a treatise on The Truths and Duties of Religion, in the form of a Catechism; which has passed through numerous editions. This treatise was afterwards abridged by the Author himself, in a form adapted to the use of very young children.-In 1718 he published a work entitled The True Communicant : which obtained a very high character, and passed

through many editions in the original, beside two translations of it in Dutch.-But as an Author, Superville is most celebrated for his Sermons. The first volume was published in compliance with the solicitations of his friends, and with the laudable desire of diffusing some benefit from the press, at a time when bodily weakness had suspended the exercise of his ministry, and seemed to leave him little hope of ever again being useful in the pulpit. The success of the first volume emboldened him to send forth two others, at different times; which were most favourably received. A second edition of the three volumes appeared in 1704. The sermons contained in these three volumes, which were in duodecimo, were printed a third time in 1714, in two volumes octavo; with the addition of a third, dedicated to the Princess of Orange. The hope of their being introduced among the Protestants who still remained in France, induced the Author to prefix to the first volume of this edition some prayers which he had composed for the use of those afflicted people, before and after the reading of a sermon in their domestic or social circles; and one designed to promote their secretly uniting in spirit with their brethren, on days when they were assembled in other countries for the celebration of the Lord's Supper. Of these three volumes several octavo editions followed in a few years. The sixth was in 1723. The next year our Author published a fourth volume: and in 1726 appeared the seventh edition of the first three volumes, revised and corrected for the last time by the Author. The writer of these Memoirs has compared several of the Sermons in this edition, with the same Sermons as they appeared in the second edition; and has observed various alterations, which were material improvements. In 1743 another volume was published, containing twelve sermons, selected it is sup posed by the Author's Son, from the manuscripts which he left at his decease.

To what has been said, little requires to be added. Many persons acquainted with these volumes have thought, that discourses of such acknowledged merit well deserved a translation into English. Coinciding in this opinion, the Translator has ventured to undertake the task. The Sermons now submitted to the public are intended to be followed by more. He hopes their publication will be useful, for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness, and afford him the satisfaction of reflecting that his labour has not been in vain.

LONDON, August 31, 1816,