by the magistrates of Amsterdam; they contained a description of four persons, (Real and his three friends,) and desired the sheriff to take them into custody if they came within the precincts of his jurisdiction. But the sheriff had died a few days before; and the letters came in the course of business into the hands of Adrian Cornelison, a goldsmith of Alkmaer, who then resided at Flieland and executed pro tempore the office of sheriff: This person very kindly communicated their contents to the parties concerned, and advised them to depart without delay. An old crab-schute or boat, of three tons burden, which had remained under water nearly half a year, was raised up for them in the night. In this, as soon as day-light appeared, they put out to sea; but had not sailed far before they were compelled to run into Harlingen, on account of the leaky state of their boat. Just as they were entering the harbour, they perceived a ship full of soldiers boarding another: This was a sight which they contemplated with terror, and they quickly steered away towards the large sand-bank called "the Abbot," where they stopped the leaks of their frail vessel as well as they could with their linen. At length, after many delays and dangers, they arrived at Embden on the 22d of May, and were there delighted to find many of their friends whom they had left behind at Amsterdam, and who had likewise betaken themselves to flight after their departure. Elizabeth Real, who afterwards became the wife of the renowned Arminius, shared with her parents and their three friends in all the disasters of this perilous voyage.

John Arentson, Peter Gabriel, and Nicholas Scheltius, the three Reformed ministers from Amsterdam, came to Embden. Two of them, Nicholas Scheltius and Peter Gabriel, received their entire support from the Amsterdam Refugees, on engaging to devote their ministerial labours exclusively to the congregation of that city, at all times and in whatever place it might ultimately settle.-But Scheltius in a little time received a call from the people of Embden to become their minister; with which he complied, after permission had been granted to him by his friends from Amsterdam, who also continued to give him a small stipend, that they might retain their right in him. But the plague, which raged grievously in that town, attacked and killed him and several other ministers, who, according to the usage of that church, visited the sick in person. In the year 1572, when Holland took up arms against the Spaniards, Peter Gabriel entered into the service of the people of Delft,

but only as a borrowed man, and died there in the year ensuing. John Arentson returned, in 1568, to Alkmaer, the place of his nativity, which, soon after his arrival, was besieged by the Spanish army, and regularly invested on the 21st of August, 1569. But the resistance of the brave inhabitants, who opened several of the sluices and pierced some of the dykes, and the continued rains which augmented the mass of circumjacent waters, forced the Spanish general to raise the siege on the 8th of October. During this siege John Arentson died in the town, after having exerted himself greatly in the cause of the Reformed. On his death-bed he sent for his particular friends, Nanning van Foreest, who was afterwards member of the Great Council, Philip Cornelison, and others, -and, as a dying man, earnestly exhorted them to act with courage and resolution, consoling their drooping minds with an assurance of approaching deliverance. He said, "God will grant you good success, and the enemy shall not at this time enter the town."

It seems not to have been till after the pacification of Ghent, in the year 1577, that Laurence Real and his family, with the rest of the exiles from Amsterdam, returned to their native city.

This account was due to the memory of the father-in-law of Arminius, that intrepid assertor of the liberties of his country, and whose daughter proved herself to be in every respect worthy of her high birth and extraction. It is also inserted with the intention to give the reader some faint conception of the actual state of the Low Countries about the time when Arminius first came into public notice.

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In the year 1594, when it was in contemplation to reform the initiatory schools, the honourable Senate of Amsterdam thought proper to choose Arminius in preference to his brethren, and to confide to him the province of conducting this affair in the name of the public. On that occasion he performed the duties of a most faithful schoolmaster, that he might reduce the practice of the schools to better order. He prepared those laws which contain the duties both of masters and scholars, and which are recited to this day, according to ancient custom, by the Rectors of those schools in the Choir of the New Church, each half year, immediately after the public examination in Spring and Autumn. The learned Professor Lim

borch had in his possession, many years afterwards, the manuscript in which Arminius wrote these laws for the government of the schools and their better management.

Arminius continued to devote himself to a deeper and more accurate search into those opinions concerning predestination which are generally defended by the Genevan school, that he might be enabled to free himself from those difficulties and doubts under which he had hitherto laboured. While he was thus engaged, nothing yielded him greater satisfaction, than to perceive other Protestant ministers, conspicuous for their doctrine, piety, and learning, occupied with the same care and desire. Among such worthies, Gellius Snecanus, a very learned minister in Friezland, was at that period one of the most eminent. When

The elder Brandt says, "The same year, (1590,) GELLIUS SNECANUS, an elderly, learned, and pious clergyman in Friezland, published a book, in which he treated of Predestination agreeably to the opinion of Melancthon," and maintained, that the doctrine of a Conditional Predestination was not only consistent with the word of God, but could not be accused of novelty. He affirmed, that those who, at the commencement of the Reformation, taught the contrary doctrine in Friezlaud, were considered innovators."-On account of a circumstance which transpired at the time when he was about to publish this work, and which proved that some change had in this respect occurred, he was induced" to print his writings privately; yet he openly prefixed his name, and dedicated his book to the States, the Nobility, the great men, and the towns of Friezland, as well as to the Stadtholder, without receiving any censure either from the government or the clergy, or experiencing any kind of trouble on that account.-At the close of his preface, he says, 'Let all orthodox Professors of Divinity, publicly and without any hesitation about naming Calvin or other great men, exhort their disciples and scholars not to ascribe to the writings of any man more authority than the rule of faith allows.'

"Beza, having some time afterwards seen this book, addressed letters to some of the clergy in Holland, in which he did not conceal his dislike. In one which he wrote to Uitenbogardt, and which I have perused, Beza says, 'You will be informed by our very worthy brother Taffinus, what I have 'written to him at greater length concerning the treatise of one of our Friezland brethren, named Gellius Snecanus, a person who seems to me to be 'learned, but who, in my opinion, would have acted much more wisely had 'he discussed the matter with some of his brethren before he ventured to 'publish his notions.-I think it absolutely necessary, that some care be, taken about these matters in that quarter as soon as possible, and that it 'should be once for all, if that were practicable. For if we must descend to 'Defences and Justifications, we shall never be done. Besides, if we should proceed to answer Gellius, a houseful of books might soon be written.' At. the close he entreated that his letter might be favourably interpreted, and not as though he assumed any authority in the affair. But his advice respecting opposing Gellius in some other manner than by writing, produced no effect."

How difficult to forget bad habits! Calvin, Beza, and others of the same school, having only just forsaken a Church that interposed the strong arm of AUTHORITY whenever it could not answer the ARGUMENTS of those who opposed its dogmas, adopted a similar practice themselves: To save the precious time of those who had placed themselves in the sure and certain scale of Election, they appealed to the secular power, the spring of which was in

this excellent man had, in the year 1596, published his Introduction to the Ninth Chapter of the Romans, that work communicated the greatest delight to Arminius, because he perceived that the view which Snecanus had taken of that chapter co-incided in nearly every particular with his own. Having read the whole of the brief commentary on the chapter, he immediately perceived that the author, on whose profound judgment he placed great reliance, had evidently held the same sentiments with him on the design of the Apostle and the chief arguments employed by him in enforcing his proposition; and they were the same as those which he had used, not long before, in illustration of that chapter, before his own congregation at Amsterdam. In a letter of thanks to Snecanus for the confirmation of his own views on this subject, he ingenuously confessed, that the deepest shadows had always appeared to rest on that chapter, and he had found it most difficult of explanation, till he entered into that path along which both Snecanus and himself had lately. walked, when the light of heaven had dispelled that darkness and removed all the previous difficulties. He transmitted to him at the same time his Analysis on the Ninth Chapter of the Romans, for the purpose of testifying their mutual agreement, and of proving that the highly eulogized decree of absolute election and reprobation which many persons were desirous to elicit, could not be deduced from that portion of the Apostle's writings, which indeed contributed nothing towards what such persons wanted.

In the beginning of the year 1597, he went to Leyden to be present at the nuptials of the Rev. J. Kuchlinus, who had accepted of a Professorship in that University, and married the aunt of Arminius. One afternoon, while at the house of his new relation, he had a long conversation with Doctor Francis Junius, then the chief Professor of Divinity at Leyden; the subjects which they discussed were, the cause of the fall of our first parents, its mode, contingence, and necessity. This was the commencement of that Friendly Conference of which some further account will be given in the Second Volume.

reality held in their own hands; and thus, when they had no popular or cogent reasons to urge, (arguments of that kind being confessedly scarce in the scheme of rigid predestination,) they called their adversaries "mad-dogs and Heretics," and tried to silence them by oppression and cruelty. O FESTUS DIES HOMINIS, for a better knowledge both of civil and religious freedom in the Low Countries, when Arminius was born!

The ardour of our author's mind, and the satisfaction which he received from Junius, are well described in a familiar letter, which he addressed to his friend Uitenbogaert, Feb. 7, 1597. Arminius embraced that fine opportunity of communicating his views to Junius; and their correspondence on these interesting topics was conducted under the mutual promise of inviolable secrecy. This promise was violated, unwittingly, on the part of Junius: One of the young theological students who lodged in the aged Professor's house, and on whom his confidence was misplaced, had seen and perused the letters that passed between these two eminent men, and afterwards copied them in secret. From the copy, thus surreptitiously obtained, several others were transcribed; and Arminius was surprised one day, while conversing with his violent colleague Plancius, to receive from him this sarcastic reproach, "The answers of Junius have closed your mouth." Arminius had not closely pressed his venerable correspondent with such arguments as, he was conscious, would have exposed the fallacies in several of those answers; he therefore resolved to complete his design; and addressed a number of remarks to Junius on the different points upon which the latter had pronounced a final but not a satisfactory decision. Junius had those additional observations in his possession upwards of six years before his death, but never attempted to reply.

Our author, however, did not desist from his eager search after Truth, but was "prepared to embrace her with both hands, by whomsoever she might be shewn." With this design in view he implored the assistance of no man with greater earnestness than that of John Uitenbogaert, the eloquent minister of the church at the Hague, whose chaste judgment and polished understanding he held in such esteem, as to think that scarcely any one could form a more correct and decisive opinion about these controversies. This was the reason why Arminius submitted his final remarks on the answers of Junius, to the revision of this friend alone, before he transmitted them to the Professor. The reader will be gratified with the following extract from the letter which he addressed to Uitenbogaert at the time (Oct. 19, 1597) when he transmitted those papers for his friendly perusal: "We must endeavour to seek out arguments for such truths as are already acknowledged,-solid arguments by which those truths may be confirmed, and plain ones by which they may be recognized as truths by those who are gainsayers through simplicity of heart and the decision of their consciences: Among gainsayers of this description I number my own name, if on any point I have erred from the truth. But I cannot sufficiently wonVOL. I.

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