Page:Protestant Exiles from France Agnew vol 1.djvu/105

 apples of gold in pictures of silver. My wishes and prayers are for your happiness in all respects, and I hope the Lord will be with you in your present circumstance and shortly make you the joyful mother of another child — thereby (which is the glory of Christian parents by their offspring) to increase the kingdom of Christ. As my chief concern is for the souls of yourself and all yours, so my most sincere advice and earnest entreaty that you would lay out yourselves to the utmost, and use your authority over children and servants for God. Remember, and often ponder, that noble character which God gives Abraham (Gen. xviii. 19). I know him that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment; that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him. As ’tis our honour to be called (though not the natural, but which is far better) the spiritual children of Abraham, let us not flatter ourselves in saying we have Abraham to our Father, unless we walk in the footsteps of our father Abraham’s faith (Rom. iv. 12). Then, as ’tis said of him (Heb. vi. 13, 14), when God made a promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater he sware by himself, saying, surely Blessing I will Bless thee, &c. — so also we, as it follows, v. 17, 18, with the rest of the heirs of promise, by two immutable things in which it is impossible for God to lye, may have strong consolation when we flie for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before us, &c.

“Great is the rage, deep the designs, deadly the conspiracies of Antichristian enemies against the Church of Christ at this day. Let us not fear them as much as their sins — any sordid compliance with them in doctrine, worship, and manners. So long as we keep close to our God in a way of faith and holiness, amidst all the terrors of war the Lord will be the shield of our help and the sword of our excellency. Then we may be sure that God will let out no more of our enemies’fiery indignation against us than he himself sees fit, and will sanctifie to exercise and refine our graces, and thereby also they will sooner become ripe and kindle the consuming flames of Divine wrath against themselves. — I am, dear son and daughter, your entirely loving and most affectionate Father,{{float right|{{sc|John Delmé}}.{{em|2}}” {{fine block/e}}

Monsieur Delmé’s colleague in Canterbury was the pasteur Jean Bulteel. It would appear that he was some years older than Delmé, and came to Canterbury a little before him, and thus was his senior colleague. He is the “John Bulteel of Canterbury,” named in the pedigree of 1633-4 (“Visitation of London,” c. 24, p. 300). His grandfather was James Bulteel, of Tournay, whose wife’s maiden surname was Willocquean. This Walloon couple had two sons, John and Giles, refugees in England. In 1633, John was represented by a son, Charles, of whom we hear no more. Giles returned three sons, James, John, and Peter. James was resident in Canterbury in 1621, as appears from a Government return, and was alive in 1632. John, the pasteur, is reported in 1633 as “of Canterbury.” Peter, the third brother, was returned in the lists of 1618 as a merchant, then aged 37; and he in 1633 names his five sons and two daughters. (His third son was the ancestor of the influential Devonshire family of Bulteel.)

Peter, as already indicated, having been born in 1581, we may say that John was born in or before 1580. From the French Church Register of Canterbury, we know that Monsieur Jean Bulteel, “Ministre de la parole de Dieu,” and “Ministre du st. evangile," married Marie Gabri, and had five children, Jean (1627), Gilles (born 1629, died 1634), Jeanne (1632), Pierre (1634), and Susanne (1637). As Peter’s male representatives soon became a Devonshire family, we take the pasteur’s eldest child to be the “John Bulteel, gentleman,” whom we shall notice in a future chapter. [As to the surname Gabri or Gabry, Ciprian Gabry, merchant, came to England from Antwerp in 1582, and Gaspar Gabry in 1618 from Tournay.] The earliest date associated with the pasteur’s name is 1619, in connection with a publication of which we are to speak in another paragraph. From the valuable book which he contributed to refugee history, we learn that a synod of all the foreign churches in England was held at Norwich in 1619, and he was chosen its scribe (synod-clerk). He was elected as ministerial deputy from Canterbury to a synod held in London in 1625. When Archbishop Laud attacked the worship and liberties of the refugee churches, “John Bulteel and Philip Delmé, ministers of the French Church at Canterbury,” were appointed deputies to confer with the other churches. The title of the book is, “A Relation of the troubles of the three Forraign Churches in Kent caused by the Injunctions of William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1634, &c. Written by J. B., minister of the Word of God.” London, 1645; 4to. Mr. Bulteel published translations of French religious books. The pasteur, {{hws|Guil|Guilbert}} {{smallrefs}}