David Carnegie Andrew Agnew

“ The whole universe, that was a witness of her virtues — the world that is filled with her charity, which she scattered through all nations and all climates — such an infinite number of persons that felt the consoling influence of her bounty, cry so much the louder after her death as they were forced to be silent during her life. ”

“ I do not believe that any one ever spoke of religion like this man. The Due de Montausier, speaking of it one day with the Prussian ambassador, said, The only thing that grieves me is, that the author of the book should be at Berlin and not at Paris. . . . Some years after the publication of this masterpiece, Abbadie brought out his Treatise on the Divinity of Jesus Christ. Although not so successful, this book was not unworthy of its predecessor. ”

“ We may easily remember that time which our latest posterity shall never forget, for they also are concerned in it — a time, in which God set bounds to the oppression of the people, and to the affliction of his Church, in which, by one sudden stroke, he stopped the progress of that Power which threatened to devour all the world — in which he preserved the earth from the overbearing inundations of that raging sea, by writing on the sand, Hitherto shall thou come and no further. ”

“ Abbadie’s reply was equally ironical, and more courteous. Republican spirit and anarchy had been imputed to the refugees, because they approved of the English Revolution of 1688, which had dethroned a king, and had done uncourtly homage to the popular voice. It was thus that a “Defence of the Huguenot Refugees” resolved itself into a “Defense de la Nation Britannique, ou, Les Droits de Dieu, de la Nature et de la Societé clairement etablis au sujet de la Revolution d’Angleterre, contre l’Auteur de l’Avis important aux Refugiés.” ”

“ Lord! it is not without you that any one combats for you thus powerfully; deign to enlighten him more and more. [Seigneur, ce n’est pas sans vous qu’ on combat pour vous avec tant de force; daignez l’éclairer de plus en plus.] ”

“ The design of Louis XIV. to commit Turenne to the Roman Creed gave the first impulse to the controversy that closed with these caustic letters. Louis, by instinct a bigot and despot, tempted the ambition of the chief captain of the age. The politic Port-Royalists sent the Marshal a thesis, charging the actual presence on the Protestant faith and change of faith to be impossible. Anne De Nompar, his wife, an ardent Calvinist, doubting the stability of her husband if he should survive her, induced Claude, the great polemic of France, to expose the fallacies of Port-Royal. ”

“ Dr. Abbadie accompanied the Marshal to Ireland, and did not return to England until after the victory of the Boyne, bereaved of his friend and patron. He served as one of the ministers of the church in the Savoy, where his “mild eloquence” “instilled peace into the souls of the numerous refugees who flocked to hear him.” Amidst the noise of the Irish camp, he began to write his book on “The Art of Knowing One-Self,” which has been praised as “a book of remarkably vigorous conception,” and “the most perfect of his religious treatises;” ”

“ Men were still inquiring the name of the Protestant writer who had composed this discourse, when the author made it known, and almost at the same time ensured it a very great celebrity by his Treatise on the truth of the Christian Religion, published in the same year as the panegyric, Protestants and Catholics received the treatise with unanimous expressions of approbation. It is long (wrote Bayle, in his News of the Republic of Letters) since a book has been written displaying greater vigour and grasp of mind. ”

“ I take the liberty to recommend him to your lordship’s favour and countenance, and if it shall lie in your way to help him to somewhat in England that may be a honourable subsistence to him the small remainder of life he is likely to live, you will do a kindness to a person of merit, and very much oblige, &c,
Hu. Armach. The Dean’s visit to England was his adieu to Ireland. ”

“ His life was varied by journeys by sea and by land, for (as the Biographia Britannica observes) — “Business, and especially the printing of his books, called him frequently into England and Holland; in both which places he was extremely beloved.” Two volumes, entitled “La Verité de la Religion Rcformée," were issued in 1718. [Dr. Henry Lambert, Bishop of Dromore, translated them for the information of the Roman Catholics of his diocese, and to convince them of the truth of the reformed religion.] ”

“ The opposite opinion is expressed by Hooker, who says, that our Lord’s complete statement amounts to this, that the servants of the kings of nations may hope to receive from them large and ample secular preferments; but not so the servants of Christ; they are not to expect such gifts from him: “Ye are not to look for such preferments at my hands; your reward is in heaven; submission, humility, meekness, are things fitter here for you, whose chiefest honour must be to suffer for righteousness’ sake.” ↑ The Chapter-Book is in the keeping of the Rev. ”

“ He died at Marylebone on the 25th of September 1727, aged seventy-three. “He had,” says Dr. Kippis, “great natural abilities, improved by a large stock of solid and useful learning, was a most zealous Protestant, and, without flattery, one of the most eloquent men in the age in which he lived.”
Among the refugees of Portarlington lived Cornet Daniel D’Abbadie, half-pay of the Earl of Galway’s Horse; his annual pension in 1719 was £27, 7s. 6d.; and in 1723, £36, 10s.
↑ La Placette’s treatise on conscience, entitled “The Christian Casuist,” was translated into English by Kennett in 1705. ”