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concerned: In other passages, I have observed greater freedom, but without departing from the meaning of my author.

In elucidating the early history of Dutch and English Arminiansm, in this and my former production, I have often accounted it my duty to corroborate my statements and views by apposite quotations from approved authors, some of whose works are of rare occurrence. Had my motive, in adopting this practice, been the mere love of display, I should have presented my extracts in the languages in which they were severally written, without subjecting myself to the harassing yet necessary labour of translation. But this method had its source, I hope, in something more nearly allied to humility: I knew that, whatever observations such an obscure person as myself could make, they would be regarded by the public only as my own individual assertions; and that, how just and reasonable soever they might appear in the abstract, they were capable of being neutralized by the contrary assertions of some one equally "to fortune and to fame unknown." But when strengthened by respectable authorities,—many of which consist of original documents, while others often serve to illustrate more than the subject immediately under review,-the remarks of an individual assume greater importance and prefer higher claims to general credence.

In conclusion, after thanking the Giver of all good for having preserved me, through numerous perils and difficulties, to see the completion of this volume, the composition of which has cost me more labour than would have sufficed for the mere translation of the whole of ARMINIUS's Works; I wish to bespeak the forgiveness of all those good and pious men, who may feel their spirits wounded by any observations which I have made upon their party and their practices. I allude more particularly to some of the most forward and worst-qualified of the writers among the modern Independents, who exhibit much declamation and small research when delivering their precipitate judgments on doctrines which they never understood, and on ecclesiastical occurrences about which they are equally ignorant. I also allude to those privileged persons who assume the office of dictators, both on matters of fact and of doctrine, to the evangelical clergy; and whose pertinacious adherence to the convicted mis-statements of some among their former leaders, is the more culpable, because they possess better opportunities, than the forward among the Congregationalists, of gaining accurate historical information about the doctrines in dispute between themselves and the Melanchthonian compilers of the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion. To both these classes of men, who, unlike the amiable and moderate of their brethren, are the vilest traducers of Armimanism, I wish to offer the same apology as the benevolent Mosheim did when writing on a similar subject:

Modestiam colere, Christiani est; at ejusdem tamen est, id quod res est sine acrimonia dicere, quando libertas illa rem sacram fortassis adjuvare potest. Spero ea ratione id a me factum esse, ut nusquam animum maledicendi studio inquinatum, æquitatis expertem, aut in adversariorum vitiis exultantem prodiderim. Si quid secus, ut homines sumus, præter spem evenerit, id me data occasione emendaturum esse, publice polliceor.

LONDON, Warwick Square.

JAMES NICHOLS.

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APOLOGY against Thirty-one Defamatory Articles

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E. The pamphlet which Arminius was desired to answer

F. The change effected in his sentiments-Animadversions on Bayle

G. Description of Arminianism-Its existence before the time of Arminius→
Baro's Summary-Arminius's defence of himself before the Amsterdam
Presbytery

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P. Account of Uitenbogaert and Vorstius

Q. R. and S. The Personal History of Arminius

ACCOUNT of the Proceedings of the Synod of Dort

409-515

IN ELUCIDATion of Arminius and his doctrines.

THESE TESTIMONIES, from authors of almost every denomination of professing Christians, have been selected chiefly with a view to the varied information which they convey, though it is not in all instances the most accurate. With the exception of Spondanus, however, they exhibit the character, conduct, and doctrines of Arminius himself to great advantage: And, after making some allowance for the prejudices of the different writers, many of whom were opposed to him in their religious tenets, they represent him as a man who is eminently entitled to the respect and admiration of a free people, and whose “meekness of wisdom" is worthy of imitation by all the real followers of Christ Jesus.

JOHN AIKIN, M.D.-1799.

THE personal character of Arminius was irreproachable; and he attracted the esteem and applause of his very enemies by his amiable manners, his candid spirit, his diffidence and modesty, and his inflexible integrity. He was a friend to universal toleration, and established it as a fundamental principle, that Christians are accountable to God alone for their religious sentiments, and that no individual can be justly punished by the magistrate for erroneous opinions, while he conducts himself as a virtuous and obedient subject, and makes no attempts to disturb the peace and order of civil society. If the controversy in which Arminius was a leader is now subsided, either because it has ceased to be thought important, or because it has been found to be above human comprehension, or because it has been superseded by other systems, it must, however, be allowed, that the discussion of these points fostered a spirit of enquiry, and prepared the way for other more useful or more satisfactory researches.-General Biography.

DOMINIC BAUDIUS, D. D.-1610.

I have not been induced by any vain ambition to dedicate to your High Mightinesses these verses on the death of that reverend and MOST FAMOUS MAN, JAMES ARMINIUS; nor have I performed this act of piety to an old friend, with any sinister view of obtaining some office from your kindness. I have honoured the memory of the happy Arminius with a long poem, that a testimonial of my judgment may exist on record, in this public monument, concerning that excellent man whom, while living, I sincerely loved, and whom, now that he is dead, I esteem as one that abounded in the CHOICE ENDOWMENTS OF GENIUS and was adorned with the HIGHEST ACQUIREMENTS OF LEARNING.-Dedication.

In the long list of my old friends, for whom I cherish the highest and most particular regard, none can be compared to you, my friend Uitenbogaert, and to Ärminius now in possession of endless felicity. I am not so unobservant of the duties of humanity or so forgetful of the claims of ancient friendship, as to be guilty of an act of injustice to the deceased, when I was among the few who highly venerated THE EMINENT ACCOMPLISHMENTS of his mind, as long as he lived. Nothing can be elicited from the tenour of the whole poem, except that Arminius was assailed by prejudices, suspicions

• The long poem which Baudius composed on the death of Arminius, and of which Uitenbogardt complained, was of a very dubious character, and stood so much

and calumnies, and that the attacks against him were conducted not so much by open warfare as by undermining artifices, all of which may befal any person of the greatest integrity and most unsullied innocence. He was never legitimately convicted of holding any error, or condemned on that account. Up to the very last breath which he drew, he adorned that province which he had undertaken according to the decree of our Curators and Burgomasters; and he died in possession of that most honourable office. All good men ought therefore to suffer his memory to live in their grateful recollection. His death has created within me the deepest regret; and I never indulged in any wish so eagerly as in this-to see that day arrive when he might be able to defend his own innocency against the rumours which envy had spread abroad and which credulity had rashly believed.-Epist. Eccl.

THOMAS BENNET, D. D.-1714.

It is to me a most astonishing thing, that the patrons of Absolute Predestination are able to persuade themselves, that Conditionate Predestination is condemned, in this [the 17th] Article, by our Church. For every body that understands their notions must be forced to see, that there is not one syllable in this Article but what the patrons of Conditionate Predestination most heartily approve and teach. It would be endless to enumerate all the authorities, by which this might be made appear. Let it therefore suffice, that the only part wherein any difficulty can be pretended, is the first paragraph; and that ARMINIUS himself, not to mention others his professed followers, does manifestly assert every branch of it, as appears from his own words quoted in the margin, [the quotations consist of the four decrees described by Arminius in page 589, and the 15th of his Public Disputations, which the reader may easily compare with the aforesaid first paragraph: And, by such comparison, he cannot but observe an exact harmony between our Church and the author above mentioned. See also the 40th, 41st, 42nd, and 43rd of his [Private] Disputations, which are too long to be inserted: Nor could I have prevailed upon myself to insert so much as I have done already, were it not to convince the most obstinate by producing such full and plain testimonies.-Directions for studying the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion.

in equilibrio as to be easily interpreted either in favour or in disapprobation of the deceased. Like his friend Heinsius, as soon as he found the Calvinists to be the ascendant party, he deserted his old friends, and paid court to their enemies.

• Dr. Bennet, and Plaifere, quoted in page xxviii, are the two authors to whom Dr. Waterland refers, in his Supplement to the Case of Arian Subscription, as having satisfactorily established the proper Arminian character of the 17th Article. Both of them had actually read and examined the Works of Arminius, which is more than can be said of several who speak dogmatically concerning that great man and his system: They found an exact similarity between his doctrine of Divine Fredestination and that contained in the Seventeenth Article of our Church. In that very able pamphlet, An Apology for the Church of England: In a letter to the author of the Enquiry into the Causes of the Decay of the Dissenting Interest;" and in HORSLEY'S 17th Article Explained, both the authors arrive at the same conclusion, the former of them quoting several passages out of Arminius. See also Dr. WINCHESTER'S Dissertation; Dr. KIPLING's Articles of the Church of England proved not to be Calvinistic; and Dr. LAURENCE'S Attempt to illustrate those Articles of the Church of England, which the Calvinists improperly consider as Calvinistical. Other excellent treatises are extant on the same subject; yet many of the evangelical clergy write still, as though nothing had ever been published to controvert their unfounded opinions respecting the 17th Article.

THE REV. GERARD BRANDT.-1688.

Geleerde en schrandre man, hoe hebt, gij in uw leven, &c.

WISDOM and VIRTUE garlanded a life

Spent in the search of Truth, above the strife
Of human hate and human guile; and Death
Heard these last accents from his parting breath:
"TRUTH no vain questions, but good actions needs;
"I serv'd the Church and State by righteous deeds."

Zoo't heusch gemoet, de Wysheyt, en Geleentheyt, &c.

Can KNOWLEDGE, WISDOM, and AN HONEST WILL,
Perversity and Error's laws fulfil ?

See in this portraiture a stingless bee,

And thou shalt our serene ARMINIUS see!

. I am reluctantly compelled, for want of room, to omit some beautiful Latin Epicenia on the Death of Arminius, by several eminent Dutch Poets.

JOHN BUXTORF, Professor in the University of Basle.—1610. The unexpected extinction of JAMES ARMINIUS, that GREAT AND FAMOUS LUMINARY of the Low Countries, most justly excited within my mind emotions of the deepest grief, both on account of the general loss which the Church has thus sustained, and on account of the sad interruption to my further intimacy with sUCH A GREAT MAN, which I have personally to lament at the very moment when I was becoming better acquainted with him. For I had fondly indulged the hope, that he would have succeeded to that place in my esteem which the learned SCALIGER held, that illustrious hero of pious memory! who was also removed from me much too early.-Ep. Ec. ISAAC CASAUBON, Keeper of the Royal Library in Paris.-1610, I have no doubt, that Arminius of blessed memory, whom you mention, was A GREAT MAN; though I have not yet found one among our ministers, [the French Protestants,] who does not account him an infamous heretic. The reason of this is, because they hold the opinion of Calvin as the standard of the truth: For this man [Calvin] I have a great respect, yet I cannot endure those persons who evince a bitter hatred towards all who dissent from his opinions. Neither can I bear those persons, who, to the great offence of intelligent men and to the utter scandal of learning, distort and mangle in a shocking manner the writings of the pious Ancients, for the purpose of proving that the articles of their belief were similar to those which are generally held in our days.-Epist. Eccles. et Theolog.

ADAM CLARKE, LL. D.-1802.

James Arminius was born at Oudewater, in Holland, in 1560. He became professor of Divinity at Leyden in 1603; and having lived a most exemplary life, hated and persecuted by the Gomaristic party because he taught and demonstrated, "that the God of mercy willed the salvation oF ALL MEN," he died October 19th, 1609.-His motto was, BONA CONSCIENTIA PARADISUS.-Bibliog. Dict.

JEREMY COLLIER, M. A.—1713.

JAMES VAN HARMIN, or Arminius, Preacher at the Great Church at Amsterdam, being something shocked with Perkins's Armilla Aurea, wrote animadversions upon it, entituled Examen Prædestinationis Perkinsianæ. This performance being well received, and Junius, Divinity Professor at Leyden, dying in the year 1603

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