Page:Protestant Exiles from France Agnew (1st ed. vol 3).djvu/204

 (1). A Confutation of the Hope of the Jews concerning the Last Redemption. London, 1707. The special object of this book was to reply to Dr Worthington. It was intended to dedicate the book to Simon Patrick, Bishop of Ely; but that prelate having died, the dedication is to his successor, Bishop John Moore.

(2). Diatriba de Anno et Mense Natali Jesu Christi. Dedicated to the Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery, 1707. (My copy was issued in 1722, and gives the date 1710 to the Dedicatory Epistle. The true date, however, is 1707, when Lord Pembroke was Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland.

The learning and candour of Dr Allix found employment in such cases as that of Jonah (John, after baptism) Xeres, a learned Jew from Barbary, who came to England to investigate the truth as to the Messiah. By helping him to inform himself out of books, and by encouraging him to exercise his private judgment, he led him to the conviction that Jesus is the Messiah. He took four hours to convince him of the absurdity of the pretended oral law of the Rabbins. He lent him all the Jewish Paraphrases, Maxims and Commentaries, and finally the New Testament translated into Hebrew; and from these authoritative sources all their arguments were drawn in a controversy which seems to have been prolonged for months. The result was all that could be desired. Xeres had brought a certificate of character from seven London “merchants trading into Barbary in Africa,” “having formerly lived for several years in those parts,” viz., Messrs. Peter Fleuriot, Samuel Robinson, John Lodington, John Adams, Val. Norton, Robert Colmore, and Thomas Coleman. He received a certificate from Dr Allix, in these words:—

“These are to certify that upon several discourses had with the afore-mentioned Jonah Ben Jacob Xeres, I have found him very well acquainted with the Holy Scriptures of the Old Testament, and all other Jewish (particularly the Talmudic) learning; so that he was very ready upon the chief objections the Jews make to the doctrine, divinity, and office of our Saviour. But as he is endowed with very good natural and acquired parts, I was the more able to satisfy and convince him of the truth; so that, after having examined by Scripture all the most material controversies, he hath freely declared to myself, and his other friends, his desire to renounce the errors and prejudices of his education in the Jewish religion, and to embrace and profess the Christian faith.

“, D.D.”

(2). Rev. Israel Anthony Aufrère (pp. 213-217) was the elder son of Antoine Aufrère, Marquis De Corville, and brother of Noel Daniel Aufrère. Born, 1667. Died, 1758.

(3). Rev. Daniel Chamier (pp. 217-219) was a great-grandson of the illustrious Daniel Chamier. Born, 1661. Died, 1698.

(4). Rev. Charles Daubuz (pp. 219, 220) was a son of the refugee pasteur, Isaye D’Aubus, of Nerac, a descendant of the Marquises D’Aubus in Poitou. He was the author of “A Perpetual Commentary on the Revelation of St. John.” Born, 1674. Died, 1717.

(5.) The Two Brothers De L’Angle (pp. 220, 221) were the sons of Jean Maximilien De Baux, Seigneur de L’Angle, Pasteur of Rouen, by Marie, daughter of Rene Bochart, Sieur De Menillet, and sister of the erudite Samuel Bochart. The pasteur, who though sometimes in England, was not a refugee, died in 1674, aged 84.

I. Samuel De l’Angle, D.D., of Oxford, and Prebendary of Westminster, was born in 1622, and died in 1693.

II. John Maximilian De L’Angle, also styled Doctor, was born about 1640, and died in 1724.

As to the two brothers, I give their descendants, and their Wills, in order to individualize them before my readers’ view, some mistaken and confusing assertions concerning them having been, at one time, in circulation. 