, professor of divinity in the university of Leipsic, was born at Amsterdam
, professor of divinity in the university of Leipsic, was born at Amsterdam April 10, 1663.
His father was a divine and pastor of the church of Meurs,
but he had the misfortune to lose both parents when he
was only five years old. His education then devolved upon
his maternal grandfather, Francis Felbier, who appears to
have done ample justice to him, and particularly introduced
him to that intimate acquaintance with the French language
for which he was afterwards distinguished. He began to
be taught Latin in the public school of Amsterdam in 1673;
“but in less than three months his grandfather died, and on
his death-bed advised him to devote himself to the study
of divinity, which was the wish and intention both of himself and of his parents. He accordingly pursued his classical studies with great assiduity; and in 1679, when in his
sixteenth year, was much applauded for a discourse he
pronounced, according to the custom of the school. His
subject was that
” justice elevates a nation.' 7 After this
he remained two more years at Amsterdam, and studied
philosophy and rhetoric under the ablest professors; and
at his leisure hours David Sarphati Pina, a physician and
rabbi, gave him lessons in the Hebrew, Chaldaic, and Syriac languages, and enabled him to read the works of the
Jewish doctors. In Sept. 1681 he removed to Leyden,
where for two years he studied philosophy, Greek and Roman antiquities, and ecclesiastical history and geography,
under the celebrated masters of that day, De Voider, Theodore Ryckius, James Gronovius, and Frederic Spanheim;
and went on also improving himself in the Oriental languages. Such was his proficiency in this last pursuit, that
he already was able to carry on a correspondence with his
master at Amsterdam, the above-mentioned Pina, in the
Hebrew language, and he translated the gospels of St.
Matthew and Mark into that language.