MEMOIR

OF

HERMAN WITSIUS, D.D.

THIS eminent Divine was born on the 12th of February, 1636, at Enchuysen in the province of WEST FRIESLAND,—a town distinguished not only by the magnanimous efforts made by its inhabitants in the cause of liberty, when the United Provinces threw off the yoke of Spain, but also by their zealous attachment to learning and religion. Several individuals who attained celebrity in the religious and literary world, were natives of Enchuysen.

The parentage of Witsius was highly respectable. His father NICHOLAS WITS, or WITSIUS, was universally beloved by his fellow-citizens as a man of unfeigned piety and primitive simplicity; and sustained, with much reputation, the character of a deacon and an elder in the Church, as well as some honourable offices in the state with which he was successively invested. To the laudable attention of this good man, the Church of Holland was indebted for an excellent collection of Sacred Songs. JOHANNA, his wife, a godly and prudent woman, was the daughter of HERMAN GERARD, who, after experiencing numerous vicissitudes, and escaping the most imminent dangers, obtained a peace

able settlement as a Minister of the Gospel at Enchuysen, and exercised his office in that place for more than thirty years, with great fidelity and zeal. The subject of this Memoir was not the only child of his parents. They had at least one son more, viz. JAMES, who died at Enchuysen in the prime of life, leaving a family of amiable daughters, who proved a comfort to their uncle.

Witsius, it is said, was, even previously to his birth, devoted by his parents to the service of God and the Church; and they gave him the name of his mother's Father, earnestly praying that their young Herman might equal or even surpass his Grandfather in gifts and graces, inherit his excellencies, and imitate his example. His birth, it appears, was premature, and had almost cost both mother and son their lives. On his first appearance, he was so uncommonly small and feeble, that it was concluded he could not live above a few hours. It pleased God, however, to disappoint the fears of his relatives, and not merely to preserve alive this puny infant, but to make him at length a truly great man, distinguished for mental vigour, though not for corporeal size and strength, and renowned throughout the whole Christian world for his valuable labours and useful writings.

His parents, whilst they found it necessary to take particular care of his health, did not neglect his education. In conformity with their vows and prayers, they were at pains, above all, to instruct him early in the first principles of the Christian religion. In his sixth year they sent him to the public school of his native town, to learn the rudiments of Latin. After he had been kept there three years, and promoted to the highest class, Peter Gerard, his mother's brother,

a learned and devout man, took him to his own house, and favoured him with his immediate tuition. Under the care of this venerable uncle, who treated him as his own son, Witsius made so rapid a progress, that before he was fifteen years old, he could not only speak and write the Latin language correctly, but was minutely acquainted with Greek and Hebrew. With the utmost facility, he could read and interpret the Scriptures in the original tongues, as also the Orations of Isocrates, and the Hebrew Commentaries of Samuel. He had now acquired, also, a tolerable knowledge of Logic, Metaphysics, Ethics, and Natural Philosophy, and had accurately studied Windelin's Compendium of Theology. The pious conversation of the good uncle, his ready command of the Scriptures in the Greek and Hebrew, and his happy talent in accommodating pertinent passages to the ordinary occurrences of life, had a salutary effect upon the dispositions and habits of the nephew, and laid the foundation of that intimate acquaintance with the sacred volume for which he was distinguished in the subsequent periods of life. "O rare felicity of Witsius," exclaims Dr Marck," and nobly improved! Were similar prepara"tions to be made in the present age, many would "enter the University far better instructed than they "now are, when they leave it to engage in the various pursuits of life."

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In the year 1651, and the fifteenth of his age, he was sent to the University of Utrecht; where he studied Philosophy under Paul Voetius; the oriental languages, Hebrew, Syriac and Arabic, under the celebrated Leusden; and Theology under Gisbert Voetius, John Hoornbeeck, Walter Bruinius, and Andrew Essenius. Maatsius, another excellent Professor of

divinity, died just before his arrival; and he had only the melancholy satisfaction of hearing Hoornbeeck pronounce the funeral oration over his lamented colleague. Here Witsius applied himself with unwearied assiduity to oriental learning; and he gave a specimen of his proficiency, by composing an elegant oration in the Hebrew language On the Messiah of the Jews and the Christians, which, at the request of Leusden his master, he pronounced with great applause before the University, in the eighteenth year of his age.

In the year 1654, attracted by the fame of Samuel Maresius, he repaired to the University of Groningen, where he devoted himself wholly to divinity. Under the guidance of that eminent Professor, he engaged in the usual exercises preparatory for preaching, and performed them in the French tongue, to the entire satisfaction of his teacher. Having continued a whole year at Groningen, he returned to Utrecht. While now, as formerly, he heard with attention the different Professors of divinity both in public and private, he cultivated a peculiar familiarity with Justus van der Bogaerdt, a man of uncommon judgment, gravity, and piety. The admirable gifts of Bogaerdt, and the savour of evangelical and vital religion, which pervaded alike his public discourses, his prayers, and his private conversation, greatly endeared him to Witsius. According to his own acknowledgment, it was chiefly by the divine blessing on the instructions of this excellent divine, that he was preserved from the pride of science, taught to receive the kingdom of heaven as a little child, led beyond the outer court in which he had previously been inclined to linger, and conducted to the sacred recesses of vital Christianity. His increased attention to spiritual religion, however, was far from

abating his ardour or retarding his progress in literary pursuits. About this time he wrote, and publicly debated in the University, under the presidency of Leusden, his Theses on the Trinity; in which, with great learning and ability, he proved that important doctrine from the writings of the ancient Jews, and showed how far their descendants have degenerated in that article from the sentiments of their ancestors.

The time was now come, when it was proper for Witsius to enter on the public service of the Church. Accordingly, having received ample testimonials from the Professors at Groningen and Utrecht, he presented himself for what is called the preparatory examination at Enchuysen in the month of May 1656. He gave full satisfaction to the Ministers, and was licensed to preach the Gospel. His endowments as a Preacher were soon perceived, and procured for him the cordial approbation of the churches. At the instigation of that excellent man, John Boisus, Minister of the French Protestant church at Utrecht, Witsius, too, though naturally bashful and diffident, was prevailed with to apply to the French divines assembled at Dort for license to preach publicly, and in the French language, in their churches. This he easily obtained, partly from the influence of the celebrated Anthony Hulsius, to whom, at the request of Boisus, he had written an excellent epistle in Hebrew. Availing himself of the privilege thus acquired, he often preached in French at Utrecht, Amsterdam, and other places. He entertained a design, also, of taking an excursion to France, that he might visit the eminent Divines of that country, and make further improvements in the language. Providence, however, prevented the execution of that design.