"We, therefore, the servants of Jesus Christ, with the elders of the same Amsterdam Class, do testify, that the beforementioned Doctor ARMINIUS has now been upwards of fifteen years a member of our Class, during which period he has purely taught sound doctrine with much profit; administered the sacraments according to our Lord's institution; with exemplary zeal has propagated the true and Christian religion; by his diligent attendance has constantly honoured the meetings of the Class; by his prudent counsel has adjusted and settled with others affairs of the greatest difficulty and of the utmost importance; has at all times promptly sustained all the burdens imposed on him, that had a reference to the edification of the Churches; and has to this day adorned his holy calling by the probity and the honourable and virtuous tenour of his life. In short, he has conducted himself in such a manner as it becomes every true servant of Christ to do, both in the discharge of his sacred functions and in his conversation and behaviour towards all men; so that we here present him with these most cordial expressions of our immortal thanks, for his kindness towards us and for the courtesy and politeness which he has manifested towards cach of us. "We ask and require it, therefore, of all and every one, of what rank soever they may severally be, that they account, acknowledge, embrace and cherish the before-named Doctor James Arminius as a person answering to the description which we have here given; that they likewise honour him in such a manner as his merits demand, and especially on account of the transcendent and luminous endowments of his genius, and the rare and singular gifts which he possesses; and that, to the extent of their ability, they aid him in his holy attempts, for the glory of God's name, and the edification of the University and the Church. -To this end, we, his colleagues and fellow-servants, all most heartily unite in supplicating for him the manifold grace of the Holy Spirit. "AMSTERDAM, from the meeting of our Class, the First Day of September, 1603. 66 Signed, in the name of the Class, "JOHN HALSBERGIUS, President of the Class. Have not these brethren testified, in a strain sufficiently honourable and laudatory, their approbation of Arminius? He came to this University with such testimonials as these; and, from that period, all his colleagues found in him a most faithful and agreeable friend; the colleges,-a Senator, Professor, and Rector; and all the students,-a most humane father. Scarcely had he entered the University, when he discovered that the Divinity Students involved themselves in the intricacies of disputations and controversies, and that they had become the sectaries of certam knotty theorems and difficult problems, to the neglect of the sacred scriptures. After conferring with his colleagues, he endeavoured to correct this evil; and succeeded in a great degree. For he recalled that ancient, masculine, and hardy method of study; and, as far as possible, he withdrew these erratic candidates for holy orders from their wanderings, and brought them back to the fountains of salvation, those pure fountains whose pellucid streams refuse to flow in muddy channels. His object in this, was, that the search for religion might be commenced in the scriptures ;not that religion which is contained in altercation and naked speculations, and is only calculated to feed their understandings; -but that religion which breathes forth charity, which follows after the truth that is according to godliness, by which young imen learn to flee youthful lusts,' and by which, after they have completely overcome the allurements of the flesh, they are taught to avoid the pollutions that are in the world,' and to do and suffer those things which distinguish a Christian from a heathen. He repeatedly inculcated on their minds that doctrine which our Saviour has expressed in these words: 'Except your righteousness shall excecd the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.* In the mean time, the consideration of the miserably torn and distracted state of Christianity greatly affected his mind.† This was a subject which he could seldom mention without tears; and his conversation about it was always accompanied with deep sighs. He shewed great solicitude, that the scattered members of the Church should no longer remain in a state of separation, but should now at length, according to their Lord's command, be incorporated into one body. In his judgment, which in this instance is supported by facts, the Court of Rome does not seek those things which are Christ's, but the pleasures, the honours, the profit, and the splendour of this world, and a system of tyranny over both the minds and the bodies of men ; and he therefore considered it neither possible nor proper for any person to enter into consultation with that harlot respecting the concerns of salvation, or the establishment of peace throughout the Christian community.* In other religious denominations he could generally perceive a studied regard and attention to conscience and piety; and that these parties did not intentionally or by design offend against the integrity of the Church, so much as by doubtful ambiguities or intricate enquiries. Among the causes of the existing separation, some may reckon their ignorance, and others the authority of their ancestors. Some may have been expelled from the general concord through a pertinacious adherence to dogmatical principles which have either been laid down by themselves or which they have long defended; others, through a false shame of revoking what they may have written, or of retracting their opinions; and others, through a partial and unjust judgment concerning their brethren. To all these, it was his opinion, a remedy might be applied, not by swords, halters, racks, gibbets, or by burning people alive, but by entreaties, by gentle and friendly instructions, and by the example of a holy conversation. He therefore exhorted all men to the exercise of piety; and it was a more peculiar object of his care and study, first, to cut off those intricate questions and to break in pieces that immense mass of vague and useless assertions with which THE SCHOOLS resound; and, then, to excite men to search out, in the scriptures alone, those things which might contribute to the necessity of faith, and which might teach them how to pass their lives in a state of holiness and happiness in Christ Jesus. To render these noble attempts abortive, or to elude their efficacy, Satan endeavoured to excite a persuasion in certain inconsiderate persons, that in all these things Arminius was actuated by a selfish desire to procure his own glory, to make an ostentatious display of the force of his genius, to introduce innovations into the Church, and to put in motion the recriminating saw of mutual contentions and altercations. This suspicious snd ill-advised suggestion again stirred up the evil flavour of the ancient CAMARINA; but the Professors, his colleagues, crushed it in the bud, in compliance with the prudent advice given by the Curators. For the correctness of this remark, I have judged it necessary to produce the following document: * See Appendix T. EXTRACT FROM THE ACTS OF THE UNIVERSITY. "The Professors of the Faculty of Theology had been informed that the Dort Class had preferred, amongst other grievances, one conceived in these terms: Since there is a rumour of certain controversies having arisen, in the Church and University of Leyden, concerning the doctrine of the Reformed Churches, this 'Class judged it necessary that the Synod should deliber"ate respecting the safest and most speedy mode of settling 'those controversies, that all the schisms and causes of. offence which spring out of them may be seasonably 'removed, and that the union of the Reformed Churches may be preserved inviolate against the calumnies of 'adversaries.' "When their Lordships the Curators and the Burgomasters had enquired of the Professors, whether any controversies, of the kind here described, had been observed by them,after the question had been first examined among themselves and considered apart,—they unanimously replied, 'That they 'wished the Dort Class had in this affair acted with greater 'discretion and in a more orderly manner; that, in their 'opinion, the students were engaged in more disputes than 'was agreeable to them as Professors; but that among them'selves, that is, among the Professors of the Faculty of Theology, no difference existed that could be considered as ' in the least affecting the fundamentals of doctrine; and that 'they would endeavour to diminish the number of disputes of 'that kind which might arise among the students.-Dated, August 10, 1605." (Signed,) "JAMES ARMINIUS, "Rector of the University for the time being. "FRANCIS GOMARUS. "LUKE TRELCATIUS. "On the same day, after the above declaration had been submitted to John Kuchlinus, Regent of the Theological College, he answered, that he perfectly assented to those ⚫ statements which had been made by the Professors.' (Signed,) "JOHN KUCHLINUS, Regent." Such were the transactions of those days. Soon afterwards, the Senators of the Supreme Court, by desire of their High Mightinesses at the Hague, took cognizance of the reports which were then in circulation. I would here relate what were their sentiments on the whole affair, did I not think that all persons now present are well acquainted with the result. + But while engaged in these struggles, this valiant soldier of Christ was at length confined to his bed by a disorder which he had contracted through unremitted labours, continued sitting, perpetual study, and contests which occurred without intermission. It can excite no astonishment, that he should feel a degree of disquietude at the loss of his reputation, the impugning of hiş salvation, and the waste of his labours; because nothing can be dearer to a good man than his reputation, nothing of greater consequence to a Christian than his own salvation, and nothing more valuable to a Professor of Theology than those demonstrations which he carefully deduces from the scriptures. Oppression, it is said, by the son of Syrach, makes a wise man mad.' This was the real cause of the grief which Arminius felt; and that grief produced the subsequent disorder which terminated fatally in his death. Oppression! thou malignant evil! foul, hateful, and poisonous! thou art the offspring of the lowest hell!-How often have we heard Arminius in private quote with sighs that exclamation of the Prophet! Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast borne me,—a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth! I have neither lent on usury, nor have men lent to me on usury; yet every one of them doth curse me!' (Jer. xv. 10.) Yet he soon recalled himself within the boundaries of reason and tranquility, being at no time destitute of an elevated and noble spirit, which at the same time displayed itself in benevolent kindness and ingenuous affability towards his brethren, for the sake of whom he was always ready meekly to receive and quietly to digest the reproaches of the malevolent, however grievous they might be, not in the proud stomach of a Cato, but in the abasement and humility of the Spirit of Christ. The latent disease, which had till then been confined within his bowels, burst forth, on the seventh of February in the present year, and manifested such alarming symptoms, as caused the physicians instantly to determine on the necessity of adopting a slow and cautious mode of cure. Though, at the commencement of the attack, he was so much indisposed as scarcely to be able to move his body along, yet at intervals, as the state of his health permitted, he did not discontinue the labours connected with his lectures and his regular vocation, and never lost an opportunity of advocating his own cause + See Appendix V. |