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reason for talking about "introducing a thousand disorders into Universities, private families," &c. But he truth is, it was the insolent and boisterous behaviour of such pragmatical and hot-headed Calvinists as Gomarus and his party that was the only proper cause of the disorders which afterwards arose. And the magnitude of those disorders has been greatly exaggerated: There was then an attempt to palm the dogmas of restricted grace grace and inevitable salvation, on the consciences of a whole people, contrary, as it will be seen, to the ancient doctrines and practice of the Belgian Churches: One individual was raised up by Providence to counteract the poison of such opinions, and to exhibit the Divine Philanthrophy in all its native loveliness. But he did this in the spirit and after the manner of his Great Master, from whom, as Head of the Church Universal, he had received his commission. He did not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street:" He left that course to be adopted by his clamorous assailants, who never forgave the noble stand which he made against their attempts; and who were highly indignant at the immense number and the great respectability of those who, by his engaging conduct and the soundness of his arguments, became converts to the scriptural doctrines of General Redemption.Let the benevolent sentiments, and courteous yet dignified behaviour of Arminius, be no longer thus sophistically warped to his disadvantage, or become the themes of malicious invective! If they be viewed without prejudice, they will excite general admiration, and appear, in their true colours, as strong traits of a great and liberal mind, that disdained to stoop to mean and petty artifices for the purpose of magnifying into undue importance its own opinions, or of traducing those of its adversaries.

These observations on Bayle will be closed by an extract somewhat humorous, which, after our way has thus been circumstantially cleared, will bring us to the point at which this necessary digression had its commencement. Having quoted the passage in the preceding Oration, (page 40,) in which Arminius adopts the dolorous exclamation of the prophet Jeremiah, and having given a bad translation of that passage, in which, among other errors, he makes it appear as if it had been spoken in a sort of delirium,—Bayle proceeds to reason upon it in the following manner as an expression of disappointed ambition, which was obviously contrary to the sense of the extract, and upon this, to the intention of Bertius:-"One cannot reflect

without lamenting the vanity of human affairs. We are apt to look upon stupidity as a great misfortune; and those fathers who are clear-sighted enough to discern the dulness of their sons, make it a matter of great affliction to themselves. They wish to see them possess a great genius and deep learning; and if they find these, their joy is inexpressible. But (alas!) this too often proceeds from not knowing what they do, or what are the objects of their wishes. To have been a dunce, would have been a hundred times better for Arminius, than to have been a man of such parts and learning. For, the glory of having a Sect to take its rise and name from him, which sect has made no mean figure in the world and produced some men of great genius, is but a very chimerical happiness when compared with the more substantial evils, the sorrows, vexations, and bitter sufferings which he underwent in his life-time, and which shortened his days: These he would never have known, had he been only a Divine of the common stamp, a block-head, and in short of that class of men to whom they apply [in France that prediction, They will never make HERESIARCHS!"

Suffering this undesigned compliment to the talents of Arminius to pass without comment,—and marking with the strongest disapprobation the designed and untrue reflection, at the close, on the general deficiency of genius and capacity in the clergy as a body, (a species of remark in which writers of this class are fond of indulging,)—we may observe, that he who wishes in this manner to represent Arminius as a HERESIARCH, and to intimate that he panted after "the glory of having a Sect to take its rise and name from him,” has a very imperfect acquaintance with this great Divine and the views which he entertained. There was nothing Sectarian in his spirit: To succeed in an emprise of such hazard, required a person of greater boldness. His sentiments on the integrity of the Church, and on the patient endurance even of its pious and abused members, were most correct and elevated. In forsaking what his opponents called "the old paths," for those which he found to be of still higher antiquity, Arminius had no desire to be the founder of a sect: Such a petty and unchristian ambition formed no part of his views. His public declaration, as well as his confidential letters, contradict this assumption; and it was never urged as a serious charge against him by the most prejudiced of his enemies. To enjoy the liberty of publishing his sentiments in quietness, and of meekly teaching what was in his conception the real doctrine

of the scriptures, formed the boundaries of his ambition,—if a heavenly desire merit such an epithet.+ The sin of schism he never incurred, but studiously avoided every approach to it, as one of the greatest injuries that could be inflicted on the Protestant religion in that agitated state of European affairs. The extremities to which he was willing to be reduced, and the ills which he would have voluntarily endured, before he thought it lawful in any one to resort to such a measure, may be seen in his very able Oration on composing religious differences. From that document and the amiable disposition of Arminius, it was an opinion which prevailed among many of the most judicious and moderate Dutch Divines, that, had he been spared a few years longer to his country, the Remonstrants would not have been ejected from the communion of the Reformed, and the cruelties inflicted on the unoffending followers of Arminius would have been prevented. Such an opinion, however, appears to have scarcely any foundation on which to rest, except it be the following circumstance:-The audacity of Gomarus and his party derived a fresh impetus from the death of Arminius,— in himself a host, whose well-tried mental prowess not a man among them durst encounter. Since the leader was removed, his enemies thought they might with impunity oppress his scattered and appalled friends, and crush his budding sentiments before they had attained to maturity. Though all the Protestants in the Low Countries, but especially the Reformed, had recently escaped from the cruel bondage of Popish tyranny, yet, as far as Divine Providence permitted, they acted, with variations of the greatest severity, the very tragedy of which the Spaniards, their common oppressors, had been guilty. But

+ Two years after the death of Arminius, VORSTIUS, who held some doctrines in common with the Remonstrants and in others differed widely from them, made the following remarks in a letter to the celebrated PAREUS: "Concerning what you are pleased to call the ARMINIAN SCHISM, you either form a wrong judgment through perverse feelings, or you seem to have received from others information that was not sufficiently true and exact. For that man does not cause a schism who modestly exposes those noxious errors which rage in the Church of Christ Jesus; and who, according to the duty of his office, endeavours to rectify them. This has been an object of most strenuous exertions on the part of Arminius; and we, by God's assistance, after his example will persevere in the same course. Those persons are rather to be blamed who proudly reject all that give them good advice, and who cannot endure to hear of any correction, however just and lenient it may be."

Grotius says, in his Vote for the Peace of the Church, "The pious and learned men, who were condemned in the Synod of Dort and afterwards expelled from their native land, had previously delivered to their rulers a statement of their opinion on Predestination, which is the same as Melancthon's, and has had many defenders in those parts. The first men who effected the separation, were not the Remonstrants, but their adversaries."

God raised up among the Remonstrants able men, who, young and inexperienced as they generally were, conducted themselves with such exemplary moderation, and with a firmness and prudence so well-attempered, as to remove from their enemies every just cause of offensive or harsh measures. Yet the rage of Calvinism was not to be appeased, except by ejecting ex aris et focis its innocent victims. Indeed, Calvinism, in its constitution, is as exclusive as Popery; and, when possessed of power, the professors of both these intolerant systems have, (unhappily for the peace of society!) demonstrated to the world the very small portion which they have imbibed of that sublime yet humble charity which suffereth long and is kind, which envieth not and vaunteth not itself, which doth not behave itself unseemly, is not easily provoked and thinketh no

evil

The following very just observations on this subject, were delivered in a speech by C. P. Hooft, in the year 1598, when he was for the fifth time Burgomaster of Amsterdam, before the rest of the magistrates, when they had met together, to "determine the punishment to which they should adjudge a certain heretic:" "Perhaps it may be objected, The Spaniards persecuted without reason, but we with reason.' But the Papists and the Lutherans make the same remark, in whatever place they obtain the supremacy. Every one thinks REASON to be on his side, and none will long wait for a pretence to proceed to the exercise of similar cruelty. If we adopt that practice, the ruin of our country will be the necessary consequence. We ought therefore to We ought therefore to oppose the very beginning of that mischief: Instead of external force, spiritual and edifying means should be employed, the fruits of the Spirit,knowledge, moderation and gentleness. In this way the true church is built. If now we should treat with severity this person for understanding the scriptures in too literal a sense, and the Enthusiasts for interpreting them in too mystical a manner, then shall we cause the persecution to rage in the same moment at the two extremes, and shall probably prolong it till it arrives at the middle, especially if we hearken to the counsels of some ministers. But it would be much better, and a plan of greater safety for the State, if these their exasperations were prohibited by authority, and if they were commanded to contain themselves within the limits of their calling. -Experience teaches us, that many of these ministers can scarcely contain themselves if we make them too many concessions, and that they not only endeavour to revive the

times of persecution against other sects, but also to excite disturbances among their own people and tumults against the government. Thus some of them, when Leicester was at the helm of our affairs, pointed in their sermons, as if with their fingers, at the best of our magistrates, and brought their lives into the utmost danger by inflaming the people against them; not because those magistrates had changed their religion, but only because they did not govern according to the fancy of the Clergy. What occurred in Scotland about a year ago will be remembered by some of the gentlemen now present, when the ministers induced the people to take up arms against the King, and then ascribed their doings to the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. I do not mention these things by way of reproach; but only to shew, that it would not be a work of difficulty to find matter of complaint against some of the clergy themselves, if to foment divisions were a good service rendered to our country: I mention them likewise, for the purpose of convincing you how vain a thing it is to place entire dependence on mere men. I recollect, about sixteen years ago, the judges of this city, for some reason or other, desired to have the advice of the ministers about certain points of great nicety and importance: The ministers accordingly delivered their opinions in writing, in which they gave a tolerably broad hint, that the person concerned ought to die. But the judges differed so much in their sentiments from the pastors, that they suffered the man to escape,-and this conduct of the judges was never mentioned as a scandal or offence.-If, for our satisfaction, we were to compare the opinions and doctrines of the Clergy with the holy scriptures, what text should we find in the New Testament to justify persecution for the sake of religion? We must not infer it from remote consequences and forced conclusions: To hazard body, life, and salvation, upon the subtle niceties of the learned,-seems to me a matter far too dangerous. Nor ought these teachers to employ their learning in raising persecutions against those who mistake through ignorance: It is their duty rather to consider into what gross errors even some of the principal and most ancient Fathers of the Church have fallen. In particular it is very strange, that those who so strenuously maintain the DOCTRINE OF PREDESTINATION should thus insist upon persecution or the forcing of conscience; for if their predestination be founded on correct principles, no man can avoid the error to which he is ordained.-As for the quotations which are made