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earnestness may be,) to let their zeal be under the direction of knowledge and attempered with kindness. On him who shall resolve to adopt a course of conduct different to this, let the imprecations of an incensed God and his Christ be invoked, and let the magistrates not only threaten him with deserved punishment, but let it be actually inflicted.*

But the Synod will not assume to itself the authority of obtruding upon others, by force, those resolutions which may have been passed by unanimous consent. † For this reflection

This is the only part of the oration in which Arminius advises an appeal to the civil power; and the most zealous friend of religious freedom cannot wish to carry it beyond the bounds which our author prescribes. Observe, the obstinate party, that, after a Synod has decided against it, still holds out and cannot produce plain passages of scripture to prove the difference between it and the other to be insuperable; that refuses to offer to the other the right hand of friendship,-to desist from all bitterness, evil speaking and railing,—to preach with gentleness what it conceives to be the truth, and to confute opposing errors, and that refuses to suffer its zeal to be under the direction of knowledge and attempered with kindness ;-on such an obstinate party as this, Arminius thinks, deserved punishment should be actually inflicted. But he immediately qualifies this mode by such a number of merciful accompaniments, as will readily induce any one to believe, that he would himself have · conquered the gainsayers by the arms of affectionate persuasion and kindness. + Arminius dissuades from the practice of forcibly imposing upon others the resolutions of such a holy Synod. Happy would it have been for the inhabitants of the Low Countries, had those of Dort not been so obtruded! Many of the deprived and banished ministers of the Remonstrant persuasion returned into the United Provinces, and endeavoured to edify their disconsolate followers, by preaching to them whenever they could find an opportunity. In the performance of these pastoral duties, they travelled about in disguise, and held meetings in unfrequented places. An ordinance of government was issued, in 1619, prohibiting all such assemblies, and imposing punishment both by fine and imprisonment, not only on the officiating minister, but on every elder, deacon, or other ecclesiastical officer among the Remonstrants, and on every hearer. This punishment was augmented by succeeding enactments; and the cupidity of the military and the police, as well as that of common informers, was excited by the high fine imposed on the offenders, which was equally divided between the officer that apprehended them, and the spies who gave information. No man unacquainted with the history of the Low Countries at that period, can form any just idea of the of the havoc and devastation which ensued. Every province in the Union, and almost every large town in each province, had its own rights and ancient usages, which often differed much from the rest, and which, in executing the orders of the States General, it exercised according to its own discretion. Though this circumstance caused the greatest diversity to be observed in carrying into effect the proclamations of government, yet, as the ruling powers, from the Stadtholder down to the Burgomaster of the smallest town in those provinces, were alike enraged against the persons and the doctrines of the Remonstrants, they encouraged the most violent and rigorous proceedings against them, and, in many instances, accompanied the officers in the search for heretics and assisted in their apprehension. The outrageous proceedings in England which afterwards took place against the ejected Nonconformist ministers, when compared with the enormities which (with the connivance of the magistrates,) were perpetrated in the Low Countries against the Remonstrants, are to be considered as bearing fewer marks of

should always suggest itself,-" Though this Synod appears to have done all things conscientiously, it is possible, that,

malevolence and atrocity. The truce which had been concluded in 1608, with the Spaniards, for twelve years, expired in 1620; previous to which period, both the belligerent powers made extensive preparations for resuming hostilities, and every fortified town in the United Provinces was filled with troops, ready to take the field. Britons, happily for themselves, know only from the description of the sufferings of other nations, what a pest to peaceable citizens an unemployed soldiery frequently becomes: They may, however, easily conceive the great fury that would be displayed by Dutch or Allied troops, who, after having been pent up in a garrison some months, were taken into the open country or into a wood, and ordered to disperse a Remonstrant meeting. This command they contrived to execute in a summary and brutal manner, but generally with an eye to their own profit: For, after having fired among the assembled Remonstrants, they often commenced a system of plundering, by robbing all well-dressed individuals of their best garments, women of their rings and ornaments, and many persons of their money and other valuables. They maltreated all that offered the least resistance, and killed and wounded great numbers of valuable citizens. Some of the magistrates having found the Dutch soldiers acting in too lenient a manner against their offending countrymen, employed only Allied troops on this ungracious service. In some towns, in which the Remonstrants had ventured to hold meetings with great caution in private houses, the magistrates instituted an inquisitorial process, and, arresting persons upon suspicion of having been hearers, extorted from them or their dependents, by means the most unjustifiable, an account of some of those who had voluntarily contributed their quotas toward the support of the banished or imprisoned ministers. The latter was considered to be as great an offence as any of the others, and received its allotted portion of punishment.-But the ministers who dared to engage in these prohibited services, on being discovered, were most cruelly treated: Some of them were confined in prison many years, and only obtained their freedom after the death of Prince Maurice, and after his old friend King James had begun to manifest his decided predilection for the Spanish alliance. Others of them, who died in their native land, where it was unlawful for them to be seen either dead or alive, could not obtain Christian sepulture except by being committed to the earth under a fictitious name. After having recounted many of these particulars, Borrius declares in one of the Circular Letters, addressed to the Remonstrant Churches, in 1623: "They plague them [the Remonstrants] with extravagant fines, disfranchisements, prohibitions of trading, deprivation of all honourable or profitable situations, and by ruining them with exile. Some houses in which their meetings were held, have been pulled down: Others in which they sheltered themselves to avoid the fury and insults of the mob, on their return home from serving God, have been stormed and plundered; and all those persons who shewed them the least favour or kindness, have on that account been oppressed and trampled upon. And all this has been done in a country which took up arms in defence of their religious and civil rights! -Notwithstanding all these hardships, the Remonstrants are burdened with as many taxes as their fellow-subjects. It is true, they leave them their lives: But what is life to a good and pious man, when you at the same time rob him of all that is dear and valuable in life-the free and uninterrupted exercise of his religion?-The Remonstrants have sighed and groaned sufficiently, and have in a manner shed tears of blood for several years; and yet they are still oppressed.-All these things have befallen them, in addition to the shame, contempt, ridicule, insults, and bitter lampoons and ballads, to which they are obnoxious in all places. But the most mortifying circumstance of all, is, that such vile usage does not proceed from the stupid vulgar alone, but chiefly and more outrageously from those of the Court and

after all, it has committed an error in judgment." Such a diffidence and moderation of mind will possess greater power, and will have more influence, than any immoderate or excessive rigour can have, on the consciences both of the contumacious dissidents, and of the whole body of the faithful; because, according to Lactantius, "To recommend faith to others, we must make it the subject of persuasion and not of compulsion." Tertullian also says, "Nothing is less a religious business than to employ co-ercion about religion." For these disturbers will either then (1) desist from creating further trouble to the Church by the frequent, unseasonable and outrageous inculcation of their opinions, which, with all their powers of persuasion, they were not able to prevail with such a numerous assembly of impartial and moderate men to adopt.*

household of the Prince of Orange, who seize upon every opportunity to manifest their dislike and animosity!"

This note shall be closed with an anecdote of a more pleasant kind, related by the elder Brandt: "This business of subscribing was carried on either with violence or moderation, according to the regard paid, by the different magistrates, to the decrees of the National Synod. But the zealots, or most violent of the Contra-Remonstrant party, were not satisfied with compelling only the Schoolmasters to sign the act: They extended it even to Organists. This seemed very strange to some of those artists, since their pipes expressed nothing but inarticulate sounds, which could be offensive to neither party. In reference to this subject, I cannot refrain from relating a circumstance that occurs to my recollection, and which I heard many years ago, respecting a very ingenious Organist in one of the principal towns of Holland. This man, on being summoned to sign the Synodical formulary, earnestly requested the magistrates not to require his subscription; and said, 'My art has 'nothing peculiar to the one doctrine or the other. It is indeed my province 'to play in the Church, but not to preach there.'-But this ingenious excuse was of no avail; and as they continued to insist on obtaining his signature, he at length exclaimed, Gentlemen, I cannot possibly subscribe the Canons! But if you will be pleased to set them to music, I am at your service to play 6 them for you in the Church on my organ. I am willing, with all my heart, 'to serve you in this manner. To play the Canons to any tune, is consistent 'enough with my profession; but to subscribe them, is contrary to my conscience!' This bantering proposal was ill received, and excited greater displeasure than a positive refusal. Neither his musical attainments, therefore, nor the intercession of his friends, could prevent his expulsion from his situation. Other organists in several towns and cities, were also dismissed for refusing to sign the Canons."

6

The Synod which Arminius has here depicted, consisted of " a numerous assembly of impartial and moderate men." The impartiality and moderation of the leading inland members of the Synod of Dort, will be best understood by a brief description of some of their characters. That of Bogerman has been already drawn at full length; and Gomarus is not unknown to the readers of this volume. Episcopius prefaces his short account of them, with these words: "If you wish to be well assured what kind of provincial divines were deputed to this Synod, consider the names of their chiefs and leaders, look over their virulent writings, which they published against the Remonstrants only a short time prior to the convening of the Synod, contemplate their behaviour towards the Remonstrants, which indicated something more

Or (2) being exposed to the just indignation of all these individuals, they will scarcely find a person willing to lend an ear than common hostility, examine their bitter accusations, their harangues to the populace, their clandestine meetings, conspiracies, schisms, and rebellions, their invectives, severe Philippics and reproaches, which were uttered every day, and low enough to have proceeded from a waggon-orator : Consider all these circumstances, and others like them, you may then collect materials from which to pronounce a true judgment of their personal qualities."-He then proceeds to describe them singly :

"Who is there that does not know how unfit GOMARUS was, to sit as a judge in the cause of Arminius and of those who are styled Arminians? For he was his colleague; and, being the very first man to evince tokens of all this hostility and discord, he became the herald who bore the hostile spear and declared war against Arminius and his followers.

"The more than feminine imbecility of the mind of SIBRANDUS LUBBERTUS displayed against the Remonstrants, his perpetual maliciousness and secret grudges against those of his colleagues who possessed greater moderation, his implacable hatred, his daily, vulgar and puerile invectives, and his paltry and insignificant letters against the Remonstrants, will all afford sufficient testimony of his total unfitness to become an arbitrator in our affairs."

This character of Lubbertus and Gomarus agrees well with a hasty sketch which Hales gave of them both, in one of his early letters to the Ambassador. -"Gomarus," he says, "is a man of great note; but I never heard him speak with any strength of reason in the Synod till now. What Sibrandus his opinion was concerning the point, I know not; for he doth so favour his voice that I can never tell what he saith: And I imagine I have no great loss of it."— The elder Brandt also states the following circumstances concerning these two worthies, towards the close of January, 1619: "We find in a certain letter which one of the Remonstrants of Dort wrote to a friend about this time, that Gomarus gave sufficient proofs of his sour and uneasy temper in the different houses in which he lodged, having then changed the place of his abode no less than three times; that one of the persons in whose house he lodged had declared to a reputable man, that he would much rather have transactions with two or three Remonstrants than with one Gomarus; and that his landlord had become quite moderate, although he had previously been a very violent ContraRemonstrant. The same letter also mentions several other members of the Synod, who frequently removed from one lodging-house to another in a very unceremonious manner and to the great dissatisfaction of their landlords: It adds, that Sibrandus Lubbertus in particular was then traversing the whole city to provide a fresh lodging for himself." These two leaders of the Calvin

istic phalanx were undoubtedly a most unlovely pair!

Episcopius thus continues his account of some others: "The shreds, patchwork, farrago, and collections of THYSIUS, of Harderwick, and the prefaces, as bitter as they are stupid, which he prefixed to those productions, prove him to be a manifest partizan and decided in his enmities. But what mortal man is there who applies the least degree of attention to this subject, and does not at once perceive the dissimulation and secret envy of POLYANDER towards the Remonstrants, when he has no manner of reason to adduce in support of his malignity-the palpable schism and secession of WALEUS ;-the profane and scurrilous counsels in the city of Delft of HENRY ARNOLDSON, that most won thy president of the South Holland Synod, and his usuries that exceed those of mariners; the exceedingly impudent and furious declamations of TRIGLANDIUS, out of his pulpit, against the Remonstrants ;-the implacable hatred of MEINIUS against all who dissent from him;-the Pharisaic and seditious Philippics of LYDIUS against the Remonstrants ;-the secret and clandestine conspiracies of COLONIUS with the adversaries of the Remonstrauts! What man is ignorant of the adverse dispositions and of the hostile deeds against the Remonstrants, on the part of these men and many others?"

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to teachers of such a refractory and obstinate disposition. If this should not prove to be the result, then it must be con

The two men who were chosen assessors to Bogerman, were James Rolandus, minister of Amsterdam, and Herman Faukelius of Middelburgh.-RoLANDUS could never mention the Remonstrants and their doctrines, in his sermons or private discourses, without being much agitated and trembling throughout his body. He could scarcely keep his countenance unchanged, if he met any noted Remonstrant in the street. In accordance with these feelings, he did not hesitate plainly to declare, that if Melancthon were then alive, and should come before them [the Synod] and maintain his notions about Conditional Predestination, they would not suffer him to divulge them.—FAUKELIUS, the second Assessor, had, long before, in conjunction with the other ministers of the Walcheren Class, assisted to prejudge and condemn the cause of the Remonstrants, in a letter which they wrote to the Divines in other countries, and had consented to the schism or separation. He was deputed to the Synod of Dort by men who had previously passed an unanimous resolution, "that the FIVE POINTS of the Remonstrants were errors, contrary to the word of God and to the formularies of union.”

The persons whom the Inland Divines chose for Registrars or Secretaries to the Synod, were SEBASTIAN DAMMAN, minister of Zutphen, and FESTUS HOMMIUS, of Leyden.

Damman had long before condemned the doctrine of the Remonstrants in several productions, and had united in extending the breach of Churchfellowship at Nimeguen and in other places by ejecting the Remonstrants. In publishing the Acts of the last provincial synod, held at Arnheim, under the title of "The Written Conferences of Guelderland," he had been guilty of bad faith, and had inserted many facts that were contrary to truth. His notorious tergiversation gave general offence. Having been himself an Arminian, he had formerly lived in a state of intimate friendship with Jacob Bruno, minister of Arnheim, who married the sister of Arminius. He had frequently extolled and recommended to others the opinions of the Remonstrants; and, after being received into the ministry by the class of Zutphen, whom he knew to hold the same sentiments, he openly declared, "Our Theology is no Theology: It is only mere Calvinology and Bezology!" By these expressions he intended to intimate, that many of the clergy did not derive their Divinity from the word of God, but from the works of Calvin and Beza.-The Remonstrants therefore had strong reasons for thinking, that he and his fellow-secretary were very improper persons to sustain that important office. It was in the power of these men to register in the acts of the Synod every thing at full length which militated against the cited persons, and to present whatever was favourable to them in a mutilated and garbled abridgment: This power they egregiously abused in numerous instances, and managed matters so well as to escape the reprehension which they richly deserved. For their usual practice was, to delay the public reading of the Acts of the preceding Sessions till several days afterwards; and then if any member stated his recollection to be different from the Synodical statement, if it happened to be respecting any matter of importance, his opinion was borne down by the better memories of the President and his associates. Brandt states in reference to this trick, in the course of his narrative: "On the 18th of December, the Acts of some of the preceding sessions were revised. The Remonstrants state, that the President, with his Assessors and Secretaries, composed a kind of little Synod among themselves; and, after regulating and adjusting most of the Acts according to their own minds, did not communicate them to the members at each succeeding session while the remembrance of the transactions was fresh in their minds, but deferred it occasionally for the space of a week or a fortnight: When, causing them [their version of the Acts,] to be suddenly produced, they took the members by surprize; and, reading them in great haste, while they were met together for other business, they found the members had either for

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