Church with characteristic vehemence, and the great theologian’s letter in reply has been printed.[1] Only a few lines can be inserted here:—
”Sir, — I have received your strictures upon our Confession, wherein you charge it with palpable contradiction, nonsense, enthusiasm, and false doctrine — that is, all the evils that can be crowded into such writing. I understand, by another letter since, that you have sent the same paper to others. When you shall have been pleased to read my book on Justifies tion, and have answered solidly what I have written upon this subject, I will tell you more of my mind. . . .
(Signed) John Owen.”
In some of Louis Du Moulin’s controversies, his relatives were against him. The French, unlike the more frigid English, and like the clannish Scots, acknowledged cousins of every degree as relations. The following table shews how the Du Moulins were connected with English neighbours:—
| Joachim Du Moulin, pasteur of Orleans. | |||||||||
| Pierre Du M. (the great). | Ester Du M., wife of Rene Bochart. | ||||||||
| Pierre Du M., jun., Prebendary of Canterbury. |
Louis Du M. | Samuel Bochart. | Marie Bochart, wife of J. M. De L’Angle, of Rouen. |
||||||
| Samuel De L’Angle, afterwards D.D. |
J. M. De L’Angle, Canon of Canterbury, |
Marie De L., wife of Dean Durell. | |||||||
Dr. Du Moulin had some angry paper warfare with three Deans — Stillingfleet, Durell, and Patrick, and with his kinsman, Canon De L’Angle; and before his death he wrote for publication a retractation of all the mere personalities which he had printed. What most offended the dignitaries was that in the last year of his life he published these two pamphlets — (1.) The conformity of the discipline and government of those who are commonly called Independents to that of the ancient Primitive Christians. (2.) A short and true account of the several advances the Church of England hath made towards Rome. His comparatively young relative De L’Angle, besides using an unbecoming magisterial tone, had brought Prebendary Du Moulin’s name into the dispute. Louis Du Moulin, in reply, hoped that his brother would discover where the Church’s true distemper lay, and thereafter what was the remedy for it. His concluding paragraph I quote as a specimen of his style:— “In a word, I hope from my brother that being reconciled to the people of God and to me, he will make my peace with Monsieur de L’Angle, which he may easily do; for oftentimes some seem to be in great wrath and indignation, who would fain notwithstanding be made friends again, when they find they are angry without cause and to no purpose. I attribute that bitterness of his towards me, not to his natural temper, which is meek and humble and full of benignity, but to that great distance which he fancies to be between his fortune and mine, and to that high place of preferment wherein he now is. So that I say of him what the fable reports of the Lamb and the Wolf — that the Lamb seeing from the top of the house, where he was, the Wolf passing by, gave him very railing and injurious language; but the Wolf answered him mildly, ‘I do not concern myself much at thy sharp and scornful words, for I am sure thy nature is quite contrary to it, but I attribute it to the highness of the place to which thou art exalted, which makes thee to forget thy usual and ordinary sweetness of temper.’” Dr. Du Moulin died on the 20th October 1680, and was buried in St. Paul’s, Covent Garden. He was aged 77.
IV. D’Espagne.
The most able divine of the Refugee Churches in England was Jean D’Espagne, called by the English John Despagne (or Despaigne). He was a native of Dauphine, born in 1591, and ordained to the pastorate at the age of nineteen.[2] It is said that he came to England soon thereafter, perhaps after the assassination of Henri IV.
- ↑ See Owen’s Works (Goold’s edition), vol. i., page cxiv., where the letter is printed at full length.
- ↑ See a useful book, entitled, “Sound Doctrine, extracted from the writings of the most eminent Reformed Divines chiefly of the French Protestant Church. Translated from the French. Bath. 1801.” The French Original was published at Basle with the following “Approbation”:— Imprimatur, Johan. Balthasar Burcardus, S.S. Th. D. et. Prof.; Facul. Theologicae in Academia Basiliens. h. a. Decanus, D. 29 Septembr. 1768.
