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SELECTION

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(NEVER BEFORE PUBLISHED IN THE UNITED STATES.)

TO WHICH IS PREFIXED,

A BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY

OF HIS LIFE.

NEW YORK:

S. & D. A. FORBES, PRINTERS,

No. 29 Gold-Street.

1830.

ADVERTISEMENT.

IN offering this selection of Sermons to the public, the publishers have not been governed by Sectarian principles, but have selected Sermons upon various subjects, that the reader may understand the general doctrine held forth by this eminent divine. When we

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consider the mental darkness which enveloped the world in the days of Calvin, under Popish superstition and idolatary, and that he was one of the first who attempted to emancipate the human intellect from more than Egyptian darkness," the reader will undoubtedly censure lightly any defects that may appear in his discourses; considering his great object to have been, the removal of that servile yoke of Papistry under which nations were groaning, and of bringing mankind into the liberty of the gospel.

Calvin's Sermons were translated and published in England, about the year 1580; since which date we have no account of an edition having been published.

Southern District of New-York, ss.

BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the seventh day of January, A. D. 1831, in the fifty-fifth year of the Independence of the United States of America, S & D. A. Forbes, of the said District, hath deposited in this office the title of a book, the right whereof they claim as proprietors, in the words following, to wit:

"A selection of the most celebrated Sermons of John Calvin, minister of the gospel, and one of the principal leaders in the Protestant Reformation. (Never before published in the United States.) To which is prefixed, a biographical history of his life."

In conformity to the act of Congress of the United States, entitled," an act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the time therein mentioned." And also to an act, entitled, "an act, supplementary to an act, entitled, an act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned, and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints."

FRED. J. BETTS,
Clerk of the Southern District of New-York.

608.1. 016.5 1830 sf

BIOGRAPHY

OF

JOHN CALVIN, D. D.

Extracted from John Mackenzie's Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Calvin.

JOHN CALVIN, the celebrated Reformer, was born at Noyon, a town in Picardy, on the 10th of July, 1509. Undistinguished by the splendour of family consideration, it was reserved for him to give dignity and perpetuity to a name, which had hitherto occupied an humble, but respectable, rank in society. His father, whose name was Gerard, a sensible and prudent man, had gained the esteem and friendship of all the neighbouring gentlemen, and particularly of the family of Montmor, a family of the first distinction in Picardy. John Calvin was brought up with the children of this family, and accompanied them to Paris, where, with them, he pursued his studies under Marturin Cordier, a man illustrious for his erudition and integrity.

His next tutor was a learned Spaniard, under whose tuition he advanced so rapidly, that he soon entered upon the study of philosophy. But as he had from his youth discovered considerable piety, his father thought he should be following the inclination of his son, in consecrating him to theology. He therefore procured for him, in the year 1529, a benefice in the cathedral church at Noyon, where

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