himself to seek his own honour by prescribing a method to his governors and fellow ministers, to all of whom he paid a most willing homage. But against this plan, he thought, party feelings would be excited, chiefly perhaps through too great zeal on the part of some persons. At length (alas!) it so happened, in the Divine administration of human affairs, that the last day of his life closed (by a doleful calamity !) on the University, of which you, honourable and noble sirs, are the patrons and governors; on the churches, which were seriously occupied in accomplishing that pacific object which had engaged so much of his attention; and, privately, on us also his nine children. What a loss the University and those churches to which we allude, have sustained in the death of our revered and ever-honoured parent, may be appreciated by the sentiments of some persons of eminence, which have not been concealed from us, but the repetition of which we modestly omit. Through a regard to propriety we the more readily indulge in this becoming silence, because we should otherwise seem to be giving testimony in our own cause, when we ought to acquiesce, which we do with the greatest willingness, in the very favourable judgment entertained by your honours, and which you have proved in a lucid manner by many arguments. But in reference privately to ourselves, what calamity could have befallen us of a more deplorable nature? That parent we have lost who was at once the ornament and the support of our family. We were deprived of him, too, at an age when he was still vigorous, and when his years had not been so far spent as to have prevented him, if it had so pleased God, from employing usefully a longer period of it, if we may judge by the length of life to which men usually attain. Many of us though there be, no child has yet exceeded eighteen years of age, and not one of us is capable by himself of managing the concerns of the family. Then again, of all things which we could ardently desire, what was there wanting? this, all the praise is due to God alone. If we needed tuition, he incessantly favoured us with his instructions, he imbued our minds with the fear of God and all piety, and he formed our manners. If we departed from our duty, he recalled us into the right path; and if we wanted comfort, he administered it to us in every form. And had we by God's grace been favoured with his presence a little longer, under him who was our domestic preceptor, into what flourishing trees, by the blessing of God, should we have grown? But he being now For suddenly removed from us, all our hopes have fallen with him, and we afford another instance of the instability of the condition of man. However happy we are in being descended from such a parent, the recollection of whom through our future days cannot fail of acting upon us as an incitement to increase in piety, we should still be the most miserable of mortals if it had not seemed good to our most merciful and gracious God, to raise up your honours in our father's place as our DEFENDERS and PATRONS, and to incline you to take us under your protection. We promise your honours to be grateful to you, under these endearing titles, through the whole of our future lives. And that our professions of thankfulness may not be confined to mere words, behold we at present offer to you some proof of our grateful sense of your favours in certain of our revered father's lucubrations, which he composed under your honourable auspices in the University;-some of them when he was about to take up his degree of Doctor of Divinity, after a severe disputation both in the forenoon and in the afternoon, and when he began to execute the duties of his Professorship ;-and others of them on his resigning the office of Rector Magnificus in the University, an employment in which he had acquitted himself with honour. But we principally dedicate to you that DECLARATION in which he professed, in a most luminous manner, before the illustrious the States General, his sentiments concerning Predestination and other articles of that description, in the interval of his public labours as Professor. This Declaration has with all possible fidelity been translated into Latin. May God grant unto us, that, as with minds most devoted we now present these treatises to you, with all the excellences or imperfections which they may possess, so you may favourably accept of them. In the mean time, we pray the God of all might and goodness, that he will be pleased to defend and protect your honours from all evils on every side; and that he will long continue to bless you in every affair which you undertake in the name of their Lordships the States General, and in all your private concerns. So pray those who are most attached to your honours, THE NINE ORPHAN CHILDREN OF JAMES ARMINIUS OF OUDEWATER. JAMES ARMINIUS, D. D: AND PROFESSOR OF DIVINITY In the University of Leyden : DELIVERED IN THE GREAT HALL OF THAT UNIVERSITY, BY THE REV. PETER BERTIUS, MY most honourable, reverend, noble, respected, and learned ON FORMER Occasions I have sometimes experienced what a difficult and arduous enterprise it is to say any thing concerning distinguished men, in an assembly of other famous individuals; but I now feel that difficulty in its full force, when I have to speak in this place concerning that revered man, JAMES ARMINIUS, Doctor of Divinity, after having committed to the tomb his mortal remains. For since a good man is a rule and measure of things, he who may be desirous of describing such a person must be careful to select and propose those facts and topics which may be advantageous to human life, and may contribute to aid mankind in their study of virtue. Those traits of goodness which formerly lay hidden, must be produced on the stage, and exposed to public view; and when the curtain is drawn up and the light admitted, the speaker must openly display and describe, in suitable expressions, those qualities or circumstances which had either been concealed by modesty, diminished through malice, distorted by calumny, or had escaped the observation of heedlessness: An opportunity is thus afforded to all men to discover, in any one, whatever may be an object of praise and worthy of their imitation. In this view, the more conspicuous for virtue any man becomes, to talk about him is a work of the greater difficulty. For the greatest portion of envy always accompanies the most eminent display of virtue. Besides, as a wise man does nothing without a good and sufficient reason, it is no easy matter at all times to explain the principles and motives of each of his actions. Yet on the determination of these depends the correct judgment of the most minute affairs. Hence arises the extreme difficulty of coming to a right conclusion respecting celebrated men, whose whole life is a continued series of correct sentiments and becoming actions. In addition to this, he who attempts such a description must very often revert from the law to the life; and, as often, on the contrary, from the life to the law. For the one requires aid from the other; and while the law serves to remind us of those things which ought to be done, the life demonstrates the possibility of their accomplishment. But, in a wise man, both these properties are included. In this respect he evidently conforms himself to the example of Christ our blessed Lord and Saviour, who first said, Learn of me;' and to that of the Apostle, who thus admonished the people of his charge, Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.' (1 Cor. xi. 1.) Polycletus, too, of old, did not content himself with having composed a book, in which he had noticed all the minutia to be observed by those sculptors who might wish in the most exquisite and skilful manner to form a human statue; but afterwards, that he might not seem to give such directions to others as had not been followed by himself, he finished a statue of the human frame, and having placed it in a convenient situation for public inspection, he gave it the name of "CANON," and directed the lineaments of the art to be gathered from it as from a law or ordinance on that subject. In the same way, when a good man has admonished others of that which it is their duty to do, he is himself the first person to execute what he has prescribed. -Another difficulty occurs in not being able either to assign to each of the actions of a wise man its proper motive and the particular rule by which it ought to be judged, or to discover examples of all such rules in one man's personal history. This day, when, before the present most celebrated assembly of learned men, I am about to make some observations on the Life and Death of that reverend and incomparable man, Doctor JAMES ARMINIUS, not only do all the difficulties which I have enumerated, but several others present themselves as most formidable obstacles, and have an oppressive effect on my spirits. I am overpowered with grief at the recent removal of my dear friend, and distressed when I consider the mournful situation of his sorrowing family,-his widow overwhelmed with affliction, and his nine children now orphans and bereaved of a father; the lamentations uttered by the members of this University, powerfully affect my feelings; and the bare recollection, that our Republic and the Church are now deprived of such a great man, discomposes my mind and overcomes all my firmness. But it may readily be supposed, that all these circumstances, when combined with the recent wound which has not had time to heal, are sufficiently powerful to expel from the understanding of any man, however well cultivated, almost every thing which he had intended to say, and to produce an utter destitution of judgment in a person possessed of the greatest discretion. It must likewise be remembered, that Arminius, as long as he lived, expressed his entire disapprobation of all such funereal pomp as this, the external apparatus and circumstances of sorrow for the illustrious dead. For he was aware, that, however well conducted, and worthy of those whose excellencies they were designed to celebrate, these solemn observances in former ages became the first steps in the adoration of saints; and he thought them not at all suitable examples for us to follow, since we have witnessed the dangerous consequences which flow from the celebration of such solemnities. But the greatest perils which we have to appre hend, are not from this quarter; for (alas!) we have arrived at that period when it appears to be an object of greater anxiety to deliberate concerning the establishment of religion than the banishment of superstition. Since such is the present aspect of our affairs, and as it is a duty which concerns every one to bring forth to open view eminent examples of virtue, and to display them as spectacles on which all the world may look,-according to custom on similar occasions, at the request of my friends, and by desire of the Senate, I have undertaken. a province, which I could not possibly refuse without a violation of Christian charity, and an infraction of that friendly compact into which I entered with Arminius at an early period of my life, and the terms of which I have not ceased to fulfil to this day, with the greatest sincerity. Having offered these preliminary remarks, and described my situation and |