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 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.

In the Name of God. Amen. This eight and twentieth day of the month of March, in the year one thousand six hundred fifty and three, I Philip Delmé, Minister of the Holy Gospel of my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, according to the order which he hath established in the Reformed Churches, for which I praise God, as I also most humbly do for his holy vocation to grace and glory by the power of His Holy Spirit and of His word — finding myself indisposed in body, but, God be thanked, in good disposition of mind and understanding, with good memory, have found good to make my will, and to ordain and dispose of myself, and of that which God in His liberality hath given me, in the form which followeth:— First, I recommend my soul to the only Almighty God and wise mercy of my God and Father, by and through the only sufficient and most perfect merits of my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ His only Son, who is come into the world to save and redeem me by His perfect obedience even to the death of the cross; and, therefore, also in the same faith I recommend unto Him my body to be gloriously raised to immortality, from the sepulchre in which I ordain that it be decently deposited. Moreover, I give to my son, Elias, all my books, saving such French books which it shall please my well-beloved wife, his mother, to choose and take for herself. Item, I give to my said son, Elias, sterling. Item, I give to my daughter, Elizabeth, widow of the late Samuel Dubois, £150 sterling. Item, I give to my daughter, Jane, wife of Mr John Crowe, Minister of the Word of God, £100 sterling. Item, I give to my son, Peter, £100 sterling. Item, I give to my son, John, £300 sterling, to be paid unto him at the age