of the most considerable gentlemen and citizens, having earnestly sought direction from God in a matter of such concernment, did seriously advise about it, and, being first assured of the concurrent desires of many others, did, by letters and messages to Cambridge, signify to him the desires of the godly in that city that he would undertake to preach a lecture among them.”
The highest compliment paid to Delmé was his being enrolled as a member of the Westminster Assembly of Divines, although not as an original member. His name was entered thus: “Philip Delmé, or Delmy, of French Church, Canterbury, v. Rathbone, deceased.” Dr Grosart, in his memoir of Palmer, published in 1864, says that the fragrance of Delmé’s memory has not yet exhaled in Canterbury. Philippe Delmé died there on 22d April 1653. The registrar of his death and burial returned to the original spelling of his surname, and entered him as “nostre pasteur Monsieur De le me.” His family and descendants, however, have always spelt their name Delmé.
This eminent and lamented pasteur seems to have printed nothing. But his youngest son, John, in the beginning of the next century, brought some fragments of his manuscripts to light —
(1.) “The Method of Good Preaching: being the Advice of a French Reform’d Minister to his Son. Translated out of French into English. London, printed by J. B., & are to be sold by Andrew Bell at the Cross Keys & Bible in Cornhill, near Stocks Market. 1701.” 4to. 52 pp.
A rough translation had been made, and it was put into the hands of Rev. James Owen, who prepared it for the press, as he explains in his dedicatory epistle “to his honoured and dear friend, Mr John Delmé, merchant,” dated Salop, December 3, 1700. He also says: “’Tis a pity these remains of your excellent father should lye buried in the dark for so long a time. . . . ’Tis you that gives ’em a happy resurrection.”
(2.) “A Spiritual Warning for Times of War, containing a description and prognostick of War, with Christian Advice what is to be done when God either threatens or inflicts that dreadful judgment, in a Sermon preached upon Jer. x. v. 22, 23, 24, 25. By the author of the ‘Method of Good Preaching.’ Done out of French. London, printed by F. Brudenell for John Lawrence at the Angel in the Poultry, and sold by A. Baldwin near the Oxford-Arms in Warwick Lane. 1701.”
The filial editor states that his father preached this sermon at Canterbury on 2d August 1626, upon a day of solemn humiliation appointed by King Charles I.
(3.) “The Parable of the Sower; or, the Hearers’ Duty. By the author of the‘ Method of Good Preaching.’ Done out of French. London, printed by F. Brudenell in Little-Britain. 1707.”
This also was brought out by Mr John Delmé, who says: “If I had the whole of these excellent sermons preach’d by my father on this subject to the Walloon Church in Canterbury, the composure wou’d have been longer and better.”
The above are in the British Museum library.
Philippe Delmé had made his will on 28th March 1653, and it was proved by his widow, at Westminster, on January 4, 1654 (n.s.). As Mr Edward Arnold, notary public, certified as to himself, “I have truly translated it (verè transtuli),” I infer that the will was written in French, and therefore in the following copy I adopt modern spelling.
