Worthy of Notice by Jos. Clarke

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 26, 1872

Worthy of Notice.

By Jos. Clarke

In the preface to the History of the Reformation, by J. H. M. D’Aubigne, page 20, in a note of the translator, it appears that a Universal History of Protestantism was written by Theo. A. D’Aubigne, a refugee at Geneva, and published at Amsterdam, in three volumes folio, in the year 1626; and, in the preface to this history, the author bequeaths to his children the task of finishing the work, or of completing the history he had partially traced out, and he actually prescribed to them the spirit in which he would have it performed, thus:—

“I would give them that law which I acknowledge myself; that in seeking the glory of this precious instrument, their principal aim should be that of the arm which has prepared, employed, and wielded it at his good pleasure. For all praise to princes is unreasonable, and misplaced, if it has not for leaf and root, that of the living God, to whom alone belongs honor and dominion forever.”

Here, then, after more than two hundred years have elapsed from the time of the elder D’Aubigne making this bequest to his posterity, his will is executed in the most thorough and practical manner, by one of his descendants, the excellent J. H. M. D’Aubigne.

To be capable of doing this, it was necessary for many qualifications to become united in the character of the historian, and it was indispensable

also that he possess means, and influence, and opportunity, all of which Providence supplied. Who can doubt the hand of God present, to fulfill the will of the elder D’Aubigne?

Another point worthy special notice in the preface to the third volume of D’Aubigne’s History, is this: speaking of the nations who have upheld and are still upholding the papacy, he notices the decay of such nations; while such nations as England, and Prussia, and Russia, which the pope has done his best to destroy, have increased in wealth and influence, in the face of the opposition of the papal power; and he utters a prophetic warning, thus: “Here, too, is a lesson for that France with which the author feels himself so intimately connected by the ties of ancestry.” “Should France, imitating her different governments, turn again toward the papacy, it will be, in our belief, the signal of great disasters. Whoever attaches himself to the papacy, will be compromised in its destruction.” Was not this a prophecy?

JOS. CLARKE.