disgusted at the doctrine of absolute decrees; and, on the other, he knew that the Belgic doctors were neither obliged by their Confession of Faith, nor by any other public law, to adopt and propagate the principles of Calvin.

They who would form a just and accurate notion of the TEMPER, GENIUS, and DOCTRINE of this Divine, will do well to peruse, with particular attention, that part of his works which is known under the title of Disputationes publica et privata. There is in his manner of reasoning, and also in his phraseology, some little remains of the scholastic jargon of that age; but we find, nevertheless, in his writings, upon the whole, much of that SIMPLICITY and PERSPICUITY which his followers have always looked upon, and still consider, as among the principal qualities of a Christian Minister.

THE REV. JOHN NARSIUS,—1612.

I have frequently heard Dr. ANTHONY THYSIUS testify that he never knew a man endowed with more virtues or of a higher cast, than those which ARMINIUS possessed; and that no one could be liable to fewer faults or those of a more trivial description. His spirit breathed so much PIETY and CANDOUR, such HUMILITY, KINDNESS, and AFFABILITY in their highest degrees,—it was so studious of peace and so patient under the heaviest injuries,-that it would have been his choice to endure all kinds of calumnies and reproaches, diseases, and even death itself, rather than enlarge by a great display of retaliation the wound already afflicted on Christendom, and especially on our Reformed Churches. He was a man whose EQUAL I do not think this age has produced.-Epist. Eccles.

DANIEL NEAL, A. M.-1738.

This year died the famous JACOBUS ARMINIUS, Divinity Professor in the University of Leyden, who gave birth to the famous sect still called by his name. Being desired by one of the Professors of Franequer to confute a treatise of Beza's upon the supralapsarian scheme of Predestination, he fell himself into the contrary sentiment. -He is represented as a Divine of considerable learning, piety, and modesty, far from going the lengths of his successors, Vorstius, Episcopius, and Curcellæus.

THOMAS PIERCE, D. D.-1657.

They who have been taught rather to hate ARMINIUS than understand him, may very usefully be taught some few things of him: Arminius disputeth against God's absolute Power or Will as it is separated from his Justice; and Mr. B. confesseth, that Calvin doth the same, yea, that he bitterly declaims against it. Arminius holds, that God never intended to punish any one with temporal, and then less with eternal, death, except for sin.

For myself I do declare, that I was then in the opinions I am now in, when I had not read one page of Arminius's Works. Nor do I

Gemarus did not remain long on good terms with Arminius. Whether he had taken umbrage at the reputation of his new colleague, or the enemies of Arminius had found means to provoke the anger of Gomarus by some artful insinuation or other; he violently set his face against a man whom, some time before, he looked upon as thodox. LE VASSOR'S History of the Reign of Louis XIII.

See the Remarks pp. 251-255.

agree with him any further, than he agrees with Scripture, Antiquity, the Church of England, and with Melanchthon after the time of his conversion from the errors of Luther and Calvin. This Melanchthon at first had been, as it were, the scholar of Luther, and drew from him his first errors: But, being a pious, learned, and unpassionate man, (pursuing Truth, not Faction,) he saw his error and forsook it, embracing those opinions concerning the Liberty of the Will, the Cause of Sin, the Universality of Grace, and the Respectiveness of God's Decrees, that I asserted in those Notes against which Mr. B. now declaims. This Melanchthon was and still is the darling, more than any one man, of the Reformed part of the Christian World; so much the rather, because, beside his vast Learning, unbiassed Judgment, and transcendent Piety, he was almost proverbial for MODERATION. For this, he was chosen to write the Augustan Confession: For this, he was much considered by them that composed our Book of Articles, and our other Book of Homilies which shews us what is the doctrine of the true Church of England: For this, he was imitated and admired by the glorious Martyrs of our religion in the days of Queen Mary: For this, he was esteemed far above Mr. Calvin by Jacobus ARMINIUS, the famous Professor of Divinity in the University of Leyden, who, however a Presbyterian as to matter of Discipline, did yet so very far excel the other divines of that sect in EXACTNESS OF LEARNING as well as LIFE, that we may say, he became MELANCHTHON'S CONVERT.

Mr. B. and his masters have fastened the name of ARMINIANISM upon so many very good and very necessary doctrines, that some of the wisest of their own party have been heard to say, "that when all comes to all, if they intend to preach to the people so as to do "them any good, they must preach Arminianism do what they can." For if the will of man is not free to avoid the sins which are preached down, (by the mighty assistance of God's Free Grace,) and to perform the duties which are preached up, (by the same assistance of the same grace,) but so tied, and fettered and predetermined that it cannot possibly be one jot better, or one jot worse, than now it is, all our laws and precepts, consultations and conditions, exhortations and admonitions, promises and threats, praises and dispraises, rewards and punishments, would not only be useless but ridiculous things. And therefore, as we tender the good of souls and desire to be useful in what we speak or write, we must be so far in danger of being called Arminians, as to endeavour by our doctrines of Grace and Liberty, (of Liberty by and under Grace,) that all care, and diligence, and circumspection, may not be banished out of the world, as nothing else but names and notions.-The Divine Philan.. thropy Defended.

JOHN PLAIFERE, B. D.—1651.

The Fourth opinion of Divine Predestination is that of Melancthon, Hemmingius, and the Lutherans that follow the Augustan Confession and Formulam Concordia; of the Remonstrants, or Arminians, and of many Papists, &c. It was condemned in the late Synod at Dort.

The Fifth opinion is that of ARMINIUS, if he be interpreted according to his own principles in his Theses de Natura Dei, and of Vorstius in his Treatise De Deo, and of the Jesuits Malina, Vasquez, Suarez, Becanus, and others; and may therefore be less acceptable to some for the sake of the teachers and defenders of it: But a lover of truth

will not be prejudiced against it, because such and such spoke it. However, it hath, beside these, the unanimous suffrage of the Fathers, Greek and Latin, before St. Augustine, if their doctrine concerning Prescience be rightly examined and explained.-Appello ad Evangelium.

This excellent treatise was republished, in A Collection of Tracts concerning Predestination and Providence, at Cambridge in 1719; and in the Preface the Editors say :-" We may by the way observe, that the Fourth and Fifth opinions proposed by Plaifere seem to be very little different; or, rather, the latter to be only the other more fully expressed, and better guarded from cavils and exceptions: And if so, the objections made by him against the Fourth must be of no great weight, as they do not indeed appear to be, if they are well considered. But the name of a REMONSTRANT or ARMINIAN was, in his days, very odious ;* nothing being more common, in many of the invective writings of that age, than to jumble Arminians, Papists, and Atheists together, as if they were synonymous terms. It is no wonder therefore, that the author endeavoured to screen himself a little from the iniquity of the times, by distinguishing his tenets from those of the Arminians, which caution is also observable ir. Dr. Potter's letter."

CHRISTOPHER POTTER, D. D.-1629.

I neither am, nor ever will be, Arminian: I am resolved to stand fast in that liberty which my Lord hath so dearly bought for me. In Divine Truths, my conscience cannot serve men, or any other Master beside HIM who hath his chair in Heaven. I love Calvin very well; and, I must tell you, I cannot hate Arminius: And, for my part, I am verily persuaded, that these two are now, where they agree well, in the kingdom of heaven; whilst some of their passionate disciples are so eagerly brawling here on earth. I should honour Truth if I heard it out of the Pope's mouth, or the Devil's: Nor can I believe a falsity, though published by an Angel. For my life, I cannot obtain of my conscience to declaim, and revile, and cry down an opinion, when I cannot see any solid satisfying answer to many contrary scriptures and reasons. Blindfolded, many follow their leaders. Therefore they believe all their dictates, as if they were divinely inspired and spake oracles, without examining, which eases them of much trouble and difficulty in sifting and judging.

For some years in my youth, when I was most ignorant, I was most confident; before I knew the true state or any grounds of those questions, I could peremptorily resolve them all: And, upon every occasion, in the very pulpit, I was girding and railing upon these new heretics, the Arminians; and I could not find words enough to deci pher the folly and absurdity of their doctrine; especially I abhorred them as venemous enemies of the precious Grace of God, whereof I ever was, and ever will be, most jealous and tender, as I am most obliged, holding all I am, or have, or hope for, by that glorious grace. Yet all this while I took upon trust all this that I talked; and knew not what they said or thought, but by relation from others, and from their enemies. And because my conscience in secret would

⚫ And yet we are told by some of our admired historians, who are not the most accurate, that Arminianism, at the period (1630) when Plaifere wrote, was emi sently triumphant an assertion which I have disproved in another place.

often tell me, that railing would not carry it in matters of religion, with reason and Divine Authority; I betook myself seriously and earnestly to peruse the writings of both parties, and to observe and balance the scriptures produced for both opinions. But my aim in this enquiry was, not to inform myself whether [of the two] held the Truth, but the better to fortify our tenets against their cavils and subtleties. Though, I must confess, I much favoured my own side, and read what was written against it with exceeding indignation, especially when I was pinched and found many objections to which I could find no answers. * Yet, in spite of my judgment, my conscience stood as it could; and still multiplying my prayers, and recurring to my oracle [the word of God], I repelled such thoughts as temptations. Well, in this perplexity I went on, and first observed the judgments of this age since the Reformation; and here I found, in the very Harmony of our Confessions, some little discord in these opinions, but generally and the most part of our Reformed Churches favouring the Remonstrants: And, among particular writers, many here differing in judgments, though nearly linked in affection, and all of them eminent for learning and piety; and, being all busied against the common adversary, the Church of Rome, these little differences amongst themselves were wisely neglected and concealed. At length, some of our own give occasion, I fear, to these intestine and woeful wars, letting fall some speeches very scandalous and which cannot be maintained. The late Arminians often protest deeply before God Almighty, that, out of mere tenderness of conscience and zeal to piety and Gods glory, they desired a moderation in some rigorous opinions, but, however, a mutual toleration of one another's errors and infirmities, still keeping the ligament of Christian communion inviolable. Eut principally, next after the Bible, they insist with great boldness upon their appeal to venerable Antiquity, which they challenge entrely to side with them: All the Greek and Latin Doctors, for six hundred years after the Apostles, having expressly declared themselves against us, and many of them in whole treatises of purpose. I must confess, these reasons have convicted me, not so far as absolutely to yield to them, or to take part with them in any faction, but so far as not rashly to censure, damn, or anathematize them, till I can see their pretensions voided: But I was specially nettled with this confident appeal to Antiquity. Upon this occasion, 1 betook myself to notes and exceptions; and, in truth, found nothing in them that favoured those opinions that I favoured; I observed many shrewd and pertinent passages alleged by the Arminians, even out of St. Augustine and Prosper, and, upon trial, found their quotations very faithful.-Letter to Mr. Vicars, vindicating his sentiments touching the Predestinarian Controversies.

THE QUARTERLY THEOLOGICAL REVIEW.—1825. We will conclude this branch of our subject with a quotation from the Works of Arminius, which may be new to many who are

This fine account of the progress of truth on an ingenuous and accomplished mind, that adhered long and tenaciously to its old Calvinistic notions and partialities, is worthy of the great man who wrote it, in defence of a sermon which he had preached at the consecration of his uncle, in 1628, to the Bishopric of Carlisle. That preferment was obtained for a staunch old Calvinist by Dr. Laud's interest; and it is far from being a solitary instance of his impartiality in the distribution of church preferment.

taught to believe, that this learned man was necessarily, and from his own system, unsound upon the cardinal doctrine of Divine Grace. We very much doubt whether in the writings of any Reformer of our own or any foreign country, there is to be found a statement on this point, which tends more to exalt the grace of God who giveth salvation, and humble the self-sufficiency of man who is mercifully allowed to receive it:

“In his lapsed and sinful state, man is not capable, of and by himself, either to will or to do that which is really good; but it is necessary for him to be regenerated and renewed in his intellect, affections, or will, and in all his powers, by God in Christ, through the Holy Spirit, that he may be qualified rightly to understand, esteem, consider, will, and perform whatever is truly good. I ascribe to Divine grace-the commencement, the continuance, and the consummation of all good-and to such an extent do I carry its influence, that a man, though already regenerated, can neither conceive, will, nor do any good at all, nor resist any evil temptation, without this preventing and exciting, this following and co-operating grace." FREDERICK SANDIUS, Senator of the Court of Guelderland

and of the County of Zutphen.-1612.

I am unwilling that Arminius, the pious deceased, should be loaded with my prejudice; and I have no doubt that, on the subject of religion, injurious and unjust suspicions have occasionally been circulated concerning him. But those persons appear to me to form a wrong judgment who suppose, that his sentiments on the subject of Predestination are those of Socinus: I consider them to be exactly the same as those of Melancthon, John Anastasius, Nicholas Hemmingius, and of Gellius Snecanus, and plainly contrary to Socinianism: Principally in this respect, that their doctrine derives all good from above, and maintains that, in the matter of salvation, we can do nothing without this preventing and co-operating grace, and that we are saved solely by the merits of Christ when they are apprehended by faith. Epist. Ec.

HENRY SPONDANUS, (DE SPONDE,) Bishop of Pamiers in Navarre.-1641.

In October, this year, (1609,) died James Arminius, a native of Oudewater, and Professor of the Calvinian Theology at Leyden. From his doctrine, which was in many respects different from that of Calvin and from his co-pastors, arose great disturbances. But the principal controversy among them was about Predestination and Reprobation. Francis Gomarus, of Bruges, a man of the same Calvinian school, but who had, prior to Arminius's arrival, taught Divinity at Leyden, opposed his sentiments, and afterwards those of Vorstius. The affair proceeded at length, from words and pens, to arms and blows; for the chief men of the country and the magistrates divided into parties. While they abhorred the name of the Roman Catholics, they preferred to listen to the followers of Vorstius and Arminius,-not to mention the Socinians, Gomarists, and the Coornhartians, (so called from Theodore Koornhert, Secretary to the States-General, whose principal error consisted in a denial of Original Sin,) and other pestilential men of the same class, that