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of the former class are approved by the unanimous consent of all the Reformed, and are effectually defended against all gain

them to the law, which now (as they said) is in no effect to condemn the Elect, because Christ hath fulfilied it. Therefore these sentences, 'said they, are written to put the Elect in fear to do evil, that their lives might 'glorify their Father which is in heaven, and not to put them in fear of damnation. By this in effect they affirmed those Scriptures to be written in vain, or to put men in fear where no fear is; affirming in effect, that the words of the Holy Ghost doth no more good, than a man of clouts with a bow in his hand doth in a corn field, which will keep away the vermin crows awhile, but when they know it what it is, they will fall down beside, and devour the corn without fear. And other some answered and affirmed, that the threat⚫enings of those Scriptures should be no more certainly performed on the Elect of God, than this common proverb, which is,-If the sky fall, we shall 'catch many larks.' Indeed Christ hath taken away the curse of the law from all his very Elect that cONTINUE in his word, or HAVE A MIND to do his his will, and GROWETH FORWARD in good works, although they be not come to that PERFECTION that is required of them: But such as have tasted of the good word of God, and were partakers of the Holy Ghost, &c., and do fall away as Saul, Asa, and Juda, and such like, and become persecutors of Christ in his members, Christ profiteth them nothing at all, but they shall receive according to the saying of the Holy Ghost in the foresaid sentences.

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"This we saw the holy Scriptures did affirm, but they said, it doth not; the efore we could not believe them therein, for we saw it was great derogation to God's glory, and hurtful to his church; and yet they held and taught more odious things. All such,' say they, that were not predestinate to be the 'heirs of the kingdom of heaven before the foundation of the world was laid, " were ordained and reprobated to do wickedly and to be damned,'—which saying is untrue. Because they affirm, contrary to the holy Scriptures, that 'there was but a remnant predestinate, (that is to say,) few ordained to be 'saved, and the whole multitude beside to do all manner of sin and wicked'ness, and that at the end to be damned. God made them for this evil 'purpose,' say they, and there is no means in them to avoid it, but that those 'miserable wretches, after their troublesome care here, must most wofully abide the terrible pains of eternal fire. To this loathsome end,' saith this sect, they were ordained before there was any motion of evil in them, nor yet 'cause in their behalf why they should be ordained to destruction more than the other were ordained to be saved; yet God ordained them,' say they, 'to be damned and the other to be saved.' These Scriptures and other do approve, that God ordained all men to be saved. [We omit his quotations.] But if God had done as they affirm, as he hath not, we saw not which ways to discharge him of partiality. For it seemed to us that they made him author of all the sin and abomiaation that is done and committed on the earth, clean discharging the devil and man thereof, in that they affirm, he made these sinful and miserable creatures only for that purpose and end. "Moreover to maintain their error contrary to these scriptures, [omitting quotations,] they hold and affirm, that there is no more wit growing in man unregenerated to desire or wish any thing that should please God, that his free mercy and grace might extend to him to assist him to salvation, no more than is in a brute beast or dry post; whereby they give men occasion to hide and deny the same good gift, that God gave them in the creation, and not to be thankful to him therefore, but rather to curse him for that he hath ordained them to such a miserable estate and end, as they untruly affirm he hath.

"Moreover we saw in that they did hold and affirm, that none but great learned men could have the true understanding of the word of God; and in that they would not nor could not answer us how they approved their doctrine; and in forbidding us to ask how they could approve that, which they taught

saying adversaries. But those of the latter class become subjects of controversy between different parties: And some of these

and in the defacing, displacing, and washing away of the holy Scriptures, and such like, they do jointly agree with the Papists, that do the like to maintain their superstition, idolatry and blasphemy, and their wicked beastly living; and that if we should have consented with them, we could never more with any good consciences read the holy Scriptures, because we saw not how to place them, nor what profit it could be unto us, seeing that opinion affirmed, that our salvation rested altogether on our fore-ordinance, and no part on God's assistance in our perseverance; which opinion in our sight was and is so wicked and detestable against the holy Scriptures, that our consciences grounded upon God's most holy word will not suffer us to consent to them, except we should do against God's words and our own consciences, and so to despair and be damned.

"Moreover besides all these aforesaid detestable errors, enormities, and odious things laid to God's charge, to establish their false and wicked opinion, they affirm, that Christ hath not died for all men. Whereby they make Christ inferior to Adam and grace to sin, and doth destroy faith, and the certainty of our election; and it is enough to drive as many as believe it to despair, for lack of knowledge whether Christ died for them or not. For their own authors affirm, that if a man were ten years established in the truth, and live very godly five of them, he might be none of them that Christ died for, how doth this agree with that they so stoutly affirm without the Scriptures, they were so elect in Christ's blood before the foundation of the earth was laid, seeing there is none of them certain (if they believe their ancient writers,) before their end, whether Christ died for [them] or not. Thus we saw they did in effect destroy the thing they in words went about to build more strongly. They accused us of that thing we were free, and they guilty themselves. For we, that do hold and affirm the truth, that Christ died for all men, do by the holy Scriptures satisfy every man that doth repent and unfeignedly believe with a lively faith [that he] is in the state of salvation, and one of God's elect children, and shall certainly be saved, if he do not with malice of heart, utterly forsake God, and despise his word and ordinance, and become a persecutor of his children: until this time God will use his means with him, now his word, then his rod to raise him up again, if he do through negligence or weakness fall; and as long as he feeleth repentance and hope, and that he hath a will desirous to do God's will, he is under the promise of life made by God the Father in and through his Son Jesus Christ, which hath fulfilled that which was lacking in his part; so that [if] he through God's gift and assistance do continue to the end, he shall be saved, though all men in earth, and devils in hell, say and do what they can to the contrary. This certainty of our Election is sure, and agreeable to the word, but that which they hold is not. Therefore we durst not for our lives and souls forsake this undoubted truth, and grant to that, which they by the word cannot approve to be true.

"For these aforesaid causes and no other, they did evil us, rail on us, and call us heretics, cast dust in our faces, and give sentence of damnation on us, and excommunicated us, and would neither eat nor drink with us, nor yet bid us God speed; and did keep away such money as was given them in common to distribute amongst us, that did lie for the truth, and caused us to be locked up that we should speak to nobody by their minds, lest we should warn them of their false and erroneous opinion, that is to bad to the name of Predestination, for that we hold, and also do affirm the certainty of Election in Christ's blood in as ample manner as God's word doth teach and affirm. They being therewith not content, but did both in word and writing most shamefully slander us to be such hypocritish dissentious persons and notorious heretics, that we were not worthy to receive the benevolence that was due unto Christians; for no other cause, but that our consciences grounded on God's word would not suffer us to be of that sect."

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are attacked by enemies, not without some semblance of truth and justice.

Trewe then adds twenty-three enormities, which from their marked coincidence with the objections of our author to the same system, page 555, prove Arminianism to be the Religion of Common Sense as well as of Revelation. "Notwithstanding this foul error of the Manichees sect, that containeth all these detestable enormities and odious things against God, and hurtful to man, nor yet their revilings, slanderings, and misusing of us, which is so much to be resisted, we forgave them, and desired them to have their love, and promised to say the best of them, and to show as much familiar joy and love to them as to our own souls, so that they would not teach it (nor other things, that they did hold) to God's dishonour and hurt of his church. Our request herein they granted three or four times, but indeed they soon brake it. For, whereas they had concluded, that they should leave teaching of the false doctrine, which did breed doubt, brawling, and striving more than godly edifying, and none to speak evil by another, yet they ever brake it again, either by slandering of us or sending out writings against us, or maintaining this their folly, by racking the pure and holy word of God in their talk, and open lectures. As one time they fell out with us, and reported us to be abominable heretics, because we would not grant to them without approbations of the holy Scriptures, that our children might receive a lawful baptism in the church of Antichrist, in the which we did not stand against, lest we should therein allow and affirm Antichrist to be God's minister, &c.

"At another time we were like to come to an unity also, but then in an open lecture, contrary to all good judgments and their own promise, they taught and affirmed, that the voice of God, that said to Peter, 'Make not common or ' unclean that which God hath cleansed,' did affirm play and pastimes to be clean to Christians; of the which because we did gently shew them that these Scriptures were applied contrary to the mind of the Holy Ghost, to maintain sin rather than increase virtue, they were displeased, and stoutly defended it against all holy Scriptures, that did threaten punishment unto all such as did give themselves to fulfil the lust of the flesh in following the desire thereof in notorious sins and vanities, and such like; and after the old custom fell out with us, and would neither eat nor drink with us, nor yet bid us God speed, for nought else, but because we would not consent with them, that play at bowls, dice and cards, was cleansed by the word and not sin, nor offence to all men; the which if they would have granted it to have been so much offence as an idle word, and that it ought to be repented and grown from, we had been one with them therein: But they would not grant it to be so much, and yet there can no man use it without many idle words, beside mis-spending of the time, and giving offence to other, and such like. They before confessed us to be of the true Church and no heretics, and upon the same would have received us to the communion ; but then because we would not with them affirm against these Scriptures, as partly is to be seen by these Scriptures, [omitting his quotations,] that vain play may be used of such as be in bonds, and look every day to suffer for the truth, they did not only fall out with us, and after their accustomed manner call and report us heretics, cast dust in our faces, and give judgment of damnation on us, and otherways ungodly handled us; but also threatened us, that we were like to die for it, if the Gospel should reign again!, affirming, that the true church might shed blood for believers' sake; of the which we brought to disprove them, Ezek. xxx, e. Matt. v, e; xiii, d; xv. b; xviii, c. Luke ix, c. John x, b. 2 Thess. iii; 2 Tim. iv, d; Tit. iii, d., but it would not serve, for they would not suffer the holy Scriptures to have place, but wash them away by comparisons and glosses of their own imaginations, without any good ground or authority of the word, as they did all other most pithy and effectual Scriptures, that we did bring against them to confute their other false opinions."

The blood of martyrs has sealed those of the former class, but by no means those of the latter. In reference to this affair, it ought to be diligently observed, what was proposed by the martyrs of our days, and on what account they shed their blood. If this be done, it will be found, that no man among them was even interrogated on that subject which I consider it equitable to make a prominent part in the deliberations of a Synod, and, therefore, that no martyr ever sealed it with his blood. I will produce an example:-When a question was raised about the meaning of the Seventh Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, one individual said, "that the passage was quoted in the margin of the Confession exactly in the same "sense as he had embraced it, and that the martyrs had with "their own blood sealed this Confession."-But, in reply to this, it was stated, that if the strictest search be instituted throughout the entire large History of the Martyrs, as it is 'published by the French, it will be discovered, that no martyr has at any period been examined on that passage, or has shed his blood on that account.'

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To sum up the whole: The blood of the martyrs tends to confirm this truth, that they have made profession of their faith" in simplicity and sincerity of conscience." But it is by no means conclusive, that the Confession which they produced is free from every degree of reprehension or superior to all exception; unless they had been led by Christ into all truth, and therefore rendered incapable of erring.

4. If the Church be properly instructed in that difference which really does and always ought to exist between the word of God and all human writings, and if the Church be also rightly informed concerning that liberty which she and all christians possess, and which they will always enjoy, to measure

I forbear to make further extracts from this edifying narrative; the doctrinal arguments of which, and not the facts, the opposite party attempted to refute. There is not, in all ecclesiastical history, a more striking instance than this of the different effects of the two systems upon the heart and conduct of professors. Which of the two parties conducted itself in the most exemplary and scriptural manner, when each individual was in the immediate view of martyrdom, the most lax and indulgent of my readers will not be at a loss to determine. In the preceding quotations will be recognized many of the excellent doctrines on which Arminius has treated in this part of his Declaration; and it will not escape the notice of the reader, that those Protestants who maintained the doctrines of General Redemption, even prior to the birth of Arminius, were styled by their enemies "JUSTIFIERS OF THEMSELVES." After the perusal of this account, many useful reflections will arise in the mind of every lover of that happy consistency which ought always to exist between FAITH and PRACTICE; and he will not withhold from Arminianism the praise of such a scriptural combination.

all human compositions by the standard rule of God's word,* -she will neither distress herself on that account, nor will she

* That this was the practice of the compilers of the Dutch Confession, will be evident from the following extract of a letter, addressed to Uitenbogardt in 1612, by Adrian Saravia, or Sarrau, formerly Professor of Divinity at Leyden. On account of his attachment to the English interest, at the time when the Earl of Leicester held the appointment of Governor General of the Low Countries, he was compelled to quit Leyden, in 1588, and to retire into this country, where he was made Professor of Divinity at Cambridge, and was held in the highest estimation among all good men for his virtues and learning. He seems to have entertained very just sentiments concerning the powers of the Civil Magistrate, and at the commencement of his letter, animadverts with much propriety on the tergiversation of the Dutch Clergy in this particular: "For they must be viewed in no other light than that of seditious persons, who do not own the supreme authority of the Chief Magistrate even in ecclesiastical causes, and who attribute to their own Aristocracy that authority in Church affairs which the Pope ascribes to his Monarchy. But look at the want of probity in the judgment which these men form! Oppressed by the tyranny of the Roman Papacy, we appealed to the authority and protection of the Civil Magistrate, whatever his personal character or religious profession might be, and demanded to obtain a hearing from him in a cause that was purely ecclesiastic. At that period, there was scarcely any power which we did not ascribe to the Civil Magistrate: A proof of this fact may be seen in the letter to the King of Spain and to the States General of the Dutch Provinces, which was formerly prefixed to the Confession of the Faith of the Churches,-and then revolve within your mind the kind of religion which those men professed, and yet what great power we ascribed to them in the matter of faith. I was at that time [1565] pastor of the French Church at Antwerp, and took upon myself the charge of presenting copies of that Confession to the Prince of Orange and the Count of Egmont. My wife's brother was then Chamberlain to Count Lodowick, [the Stadt-holder of Friezland,] he conducted me into the presence of his master, that I might become acquainted with him, and might give him some copies of the Confession which had been recently published, for the purpose of their being still further distributed among the nobles. At that time I was the first to collect a Church at Brussels, by the assistance of the Lord of Thoulouse who was the brother of the Lord of St. Aldegonde, [the famous Philip Marnixius,] and the members consisted of those persons who attended at the Court and of some citizens who spoke the French language.

"In the altercations at Leyden, this Confession of Faith and the Catechism, I perceive, are alleged and urged as though they were the very word of God. Bold and presumptuous men in a daring manner depreciate the Augustan Confession; and those of them who wish to be esteemed men of greater modesty, complain, that there are some things in it which they desire to see amended. But, as if their own Confession were a rule of faith, they will not permit it to be altered. I profess myself to have been one of the most early authors of that Confession; Herman Modet was also one of them : I do not know whether there are now any other survivors. It was first written in the French language, by that servant and martyr of Christ, Guido de Bres. But, prior to its publication, he communicated it to as many ministers of God's word as he could find; and if any thing in it displeased them, he offered to have it amended by means of additions or curtailments,-that it might not be accounted to be the work of a single individual. But not a man among those who affixed their signatures to it, ever thought of publishing a CANON or RULE OF FAITH, but to prove his own faith by the Canonical scriptures. Yet in that Confession there is nothing which, in my opinion, is blame-worthy, or which I wish to alter. But if there be any persons who do not approve of all its parts, I think they ought to obtain a hearing, and