high predestinarian accusers. Adventurous, rash, and pestilential as many of the metaphysical vagaries of Vorstius undoubtedly were, a far greater number, more portentous in their import and blasphemous in their consequences, might be selected from the scholastic lucubrations of his celebrated master Piscator, who instigated him to publish some of the very Theses for which he incurred the early reprehension of the Heidelberg Professors. Vorstius begun his career of theological error, by ridiculing the received and very important doctrine of the eternal Sonship of Jesus Christ. Pezelius has alluded, in a preceding page, 204, to Vorstius "being suspected about that much more important controversy relative to the eternal Divinity of the Son of God, which contains the foundation of our faith and salvation." If the remark of Tertullian be correct," that it is perilous to speak concerning God even those things which are true;" it is much more perilous to speak hastily and without deep thought about any of the circumstances connected with that mystery into which angels desire to look-the incarnation of God's Eternal Son. The Eternal Sonship of Jesus Christ is one of the doctrines divinely revealed in the word of God: But had not this been the case, the term itself, as well as that of "the Trinity," would have been entitled at least to some respect from all modern divines, on account of its having been employed by the Ancient Fathers in defending some of the most vital portions of Divine Truth against the pernicious errors of particular sects of the early heretics.* It is a culpable flippancy in some men, who have instituted no examination into the incunabula of certain very useful ecclesiastical terms adopted by the Primitive Church, and whose course of reading has lain in a different direction, to determine dogmatically concerning the correctness of their application, and rashly to repudiate the doctrines which they serve to uphold. The more slender the stock of requisite information on which such men commence their operations, as theological reformers, the more dangerous is their career, and the greater is the obstinacy which they uniformly exhibit. To some minds, too, and they not of common mould, the easily purchased appellation of

"It may be easily shewn, and indeed has been shewn, that every Article both of the Nicene and Athanasian Creed, against which they exclaim so bitterly, was occasioned by the new and unscriptural distinctions of subtle corrupters of the Faith. Nor could we guard against the errors of Popery, and of other sectaries, but by new words expressly condemning the unscriptural doctrines which they had introduced. The very persons who make this objection, in their writings and discourses deliver themselves in words not occurring in Scripture, and think they can make the doctrines of scripture more plain by words of their own devising."-RANDOLPH's Charge, 1771.

THEOLOGICAL LIBERALITY possesses a charm sufficiently potent to produce within them a contempt for all the ancient way-marks in Divinity, in whose place they substitute their own wayward fancies and crude conceits. Call no man MASTER on earth, and "Think for yourselves," are directions which require some discrimination in their application; and before they can be applied at all to good purpose, and according to their usual accommodation to theological studies, the young divine must use with humility the common helps which are within his reach for acquiring a good stock of solid information, before he commences the salutary process of rumination and digestion. But it is one of the weaknesses displayed by the most headstrong divines, to act as if they had innate ideas on every subject which they choose to discuss, and as if "they needed not that any should be their instructors" even in the most difficult points of christian doctrine. To acquire the character of an original genius, and a man of deep conceptions, is a temptation which many an ill-furnished student is unable to resist; and, in yielding to it, he frequently hinders his future usefulness and still oftener makes shipwreck of his reputation. Much of this applies to the case of Vorstius: He was particularly eminent as a Metaphysician, but his acquaintance with ecclesiastical history was neither accurate nor extensive. His enemies brought his rash expressions out of the Schools, and gave them to the public in the language of common life. When they were thus brought forth into another arena, by a frank confession of the impro

* In one part of his book De Deo, he had asserted “Argumenta quæ adferuntur, fe. The arguments which are used both by the Fathers, and by modern divines, for the eternal generation of Christ are either sophistical or frivolous." On this assertion King James observes, "Vorstius cannot bethink him of any other evasion, but to add the word quædam, 'some arguments,' &c. Now we shall desire thee, good reader.here to observe, that this man, condemning some arguments which the Fathers had gathered out of Holy Scripture, will be sure, howsoever, not to allege any other arguments, either out of the Fathers or of his own brain, which shall be stronger than those which he hath rejected." If we were at liberty to reject, or to cast doubts upon, all doctrines on which the Fathers employ "fallacious or frivolous arguments," we might abandon every important doctrine of Christianity. That was the very infancy of Biblical Criticism: Jejune and trifling, therefore, must many of their arguments appear to the moderns, who are favoured with the accumulated lights of pious and learned men, whose elucidations of Sacred Writ have been carefully perpetuated since the revival of letters and the invention of printing. Yet with all their defects, the Christian Fathers are our safest guides, in subordination to the Holy Scriptures. King James has another good remark in reference to Vorstius: "It is in no sort lawful to speak of those great mysteries of the Essence of God, of the Trinity, of the hypostatical union of natures in the person of Christ, or any such high points, unless we use the same phrases and manner of speech which the Church of God hath always used in speaking of the said mysteries. They that will talk of Canaan, must use the language of Canaan."

priety of some of the very daring and unedifying dogmas which he had propounded, he might have silenced his enemies; but he pursued an opposite course, and exerted his ingenuity in palliating or defending them. His conduct in this respect reminds one of the motions of a fluttering fly, that, however frequently removed from the destructive blaze of a candle, persists to court the pleasing danger, till he falls a victim to his repeated temerity. Had Vorstius really entertained orthodox views, says a certain writer, "he acted very imprudently in treating matters of such high importance in this incautious manner; and it would have been well, if he had explained his opinions so clearly, that good men in particular might no longer have had any cause of suspicion."

The consideration of the principal duty which devolves on a Professor of Divinity, will serve to shew, that Vorstius was not the most suitable person to hold such an important situation. His main business is to direct young divines into such a train of study, as will make them the best parish-priests, and will prove most profitable to them in its results, when they are engaged in the exercise of the holy ministry. His instructions therefore will chiefly comprise subjects of a practical nature, in reference to their future destination and their intended sacred employment. If, to satisfy the inquisitiveness of a few choice wits, he makes an occasional departure from this wise plan, his more refined disquisitions on the arcana of certain doctrines will always be conducted with moderation and sobriety. But if we take the treatise of Vorstius De Deo as a fair specimen of the topics which were to form the substance of his Divinity lectures at Leyden, his defects as a Professor become apparent, and he shews himself incompetent to train up sound and useful divines. That book exhibits much critical acumen and an astonishing acquaintance with scholastic lore; but, notwithstanding his asseverations to the contrary in page 216, it affords no proof of the wish of Vorstius to substitute the study of the scriptures for the trifling subtleties of the Schoolmen. It was, indeed, too much the theological fault of that day, of which Vorstius partook in common with many others, to state the most alarming paradoxes, and to employ the greatest dexterity in solving them or in proving them to be perfectly innocuous. On this subject the sentiments of the aged Professors Grynæus and Polanus, of Basle, deserve particular attention: "We heartily beseech the Lord Jesus, who is the Giver of true peace, to bestow upon Vorstius, (who, we confess, is otherwise dear to us,) a willingness to omit unnecessary questions, which only produce quarrels and do not

edify the church, and not readily to follow [quæstionarios questionable or torturing divines in the delivery of Theology, but to accommodate the manner of his teaching to the edification of the church, and to consider that no other things ought to be' proposed to his auditors from the Professor's chair, than such as his auditors might and ought themselves usefully to propose to the people of God from the pulpit: For [schola] scholastic exercises ought not to be subservient to a vain display of bright genius, but to the edification of the church. A Professor of Divinity ought to adopt a different manner of teaching in the Schools, from that, which a pastor employs at church in instructing a congregation: But though the manner may be different, the matter ought in both cases to be similar. We pray likewise, that, instead of the phrases of the unhappy Socinus, he would in preference use the language of the Prophets and of the orthodox Fathers; that we may not only all hold the same sentiments, but may all give utterance to them." Happy would it have been for Vorstius, had he followed this advice! But he seems, on all such occasions, to have made it a point of honour not to suffer his liberty of prophesying to be abridged ;* and he pertina

The ideas of Vorstius respecting the liberty of prophesying were evidently too lax and general. This term is usually understood as synonymous with "freedom of discussion :” But with him, it included not only a licence to peruse Socinian books himself, but to introduce them to his pupils and to publish them to the world. In one of Uitenbogaert's letters to him, that prudent man gave him the following polite hint on this topic: "1 entertain the same wishes as yourself respecting the liberty of prophesying, but with the accompanying caution, Not too much of any thing.” Uitenbogaert was desirous to preserve that golden mean; and while anxious that due freedom of discussion should not be wounded in the person of Vorstius, he was equally anxious to restrain the ne quid nimis, the excess into which the Professor was liable to run.

A curious instance of this prudent solicitude on the part of Uitenbogaert, occurs in the correspondence between them. A few months prior to Vorstius's appearance at Leyden, before the Curators, to clear himself of the charges which were brought against him, he informed Uitenbogaert of his intention to republish the work of an anonymous author. That good man immediately replied to him in the following terms: "I find some difficulty in conjecturing what that small work, On the Authority of the Holy Scriptures, can be: You say that the original author published it anonymously, and that you intend to have it republished. Yet I recollect to have seen a book on that subject, which, if my memory serves me aright, bears the fictitious name of Dominic Lopez, but of which Socinus is himself said to be the author. If that be the book, consider maturely about it, lest by such a publication you render yourself still more suspected; though I do not consider that there is any thing in it which we may not also embrace with both hands. For, the minds of many persons are so prepossessed, that we cannot endure our adversaries, even when they speak the truth and the very same things as we do, epecially those of them whose name alone is a stench in our nostrils. I do not write thus to dissuade you from publishing, but only in the way of caution and warning; yet I have done this perhaps with too much freedom, since I ought to submit the whole of this matter to your own prudence and piety,

ciously continued to fish in troubled waters, and to wade within the very verge of danger without being absolutely carried away by the impetuous vortex. The reader will already have perceived, that I do not account him to have been so heretical as any of his adversaries have represented: It is not improbable, however, that he ultimately became somewhat Arianized, and that the intolerance of his enemies engendered in him that obstinacy in error which was so much to be deplored. On this subject Bayle has some excellent remarks, which are repeated in the subjoined note.* But I have always viewed the suspension of Vorstius not only from the exercise of the professorship, but likewise from that of the ministry, for ten long years, as a particular expression of the divine displeasure. In all the dealings of God's Providence with his creatures, I do not recollect an instance in which a man of such vast attainments, sweetness of temper, and previously unsullied reputation, was placed in such peculiar

which are of the greatest possible niceness and accuracy. But probably the book is not the one which I have specified; this, however, we shall know when it is pub

lished."

The delicacy of Uitenbogaert's reproof, and the mad imprudence of Vorstius's conduct, need no long remarks: They speak best for themselves. In animadverting on the Christian and Modest Answer which Vorstius addressed to King James as a vindication of himself, that monarch says: "Vorstius will neither confess nor deny the accusation; only he saith, that a certain book, entitled Dominicus Lopez, which is (as we have heard) a very blasphemous treatise, was suppressed by him for peace sake: But he is so far from condemning it, as that he allegeth the book hath been maintained by others, which in time shall appear." The book accordingly appeared a few weeks after his Modest Answer under the following title: On the Authority of the Holy Scriptures: A work of the greatest utility for these our times, as may be understood from the principal Articles on which it treats. Vorstius prefixed to it an Address to the Reader, in which he pointed out the plan of that edition. To the close of the volume, were subjoined the critical notes of the Basle divines on three passages which were rather too obscure, and which might have furnished an occasion for imbibing erroneous sentiments. The book, though one of Socinus's productions, was afterwards translated, with these real emendations, and published both in the French and Dutch languages.

"His Confession of Faith confirms, in a very powerful manner, the suspicions which had been entertained of him during so many years: But, notwithstanding this, we must conjecture that the disappointments and misfortunes he met with, completed what a too curious and innovating genius had begun. I mean, that he perhaps became a Socinian in good earnest, by being continually accused of that heresy and used ill on that account; and that he would have been cured of his peculiar whimsies, had he been indulged a glorious repose among the Protestants. Nothing makes a person more averse to orthodoxy than persecution. I even believe, that what is but too frequently seen in the articles of Friendship and Fidelity, happens pretty often in matters of Heresy By suspecting that persons are unfaithful, we render them unfaithful. Nevertheless there are some occasions in which a man does great service to the cause, by exclaiming against such persons as are suspected: It is when they endeavour to pervert every one under the false name of a friend, and assisted by a great reputation. How difficult is it to lay down good rules! Since the same conduct is sometimes pernicious and sometimes advantagcous."-BAYLE's Dictionary.