Christian Church and continued nearly to the nine hundredth year after the birth of Christ, until the Roman Pontiff began

determined [communi quasi omnium Eccles. Reform. judicio,] as IF by the common judgment of all the Reformed Churches, might be composed with so much the greater certainty, happiness, and safety, and to more abundant profit." The whole of this paragraph was most craftily expressed : Those two convenient words, AS IF, are intended to excuse the non-attendance of deputies from the Protestant Churches of Prussia, Poland, Sweden, Denmark, and Norway, to which no invitation was transmitted;—to mention nothing of many of the minor German States, the Protestants in some of the native dominions of the House of Austria, several of the Hanse towns, and the Churches of France, England and Scotland, which were without ecclesiastical representatives in the Synod. To many of the NEIGHBOURING kingdoms invitations were certainly sent: But it was the ardent wish of the Calvinists, only to have the company of those choice spirits of other countries that would readily coalesce with themselves in devising measures to crush Arminianism. To obtain the presence of a few thus enlightened and unanimous, was the great object at which they aimed; and by this manœuvre they endeavoured to impart to their National Synod the dignified and imposing appearance of a General Council. In this object, however, they would have been defeated, had not King James of England entered into their views, and given that party his overpowering assistance.

James is said to have prided himself more on account of being an able casuist and theologian, than on any other personal qualification. It was in this capacity that his Majesty, in 1611, addressed a letter in French to the States of Holland, in which he talks largely about "God having honoured him with the title of DEFENDER OF THE FAITH," and that "he should be compelled not only to separate himself from such false and heretical churches" as countenanced Vorstius, "but to call upon all the other Reformed Churches to devise the best means of extinguishing, and sending back to hell, these cursed heresies that have newly broken forth."

This King was a real Don Quixote in religious matters. Isaac Walton, in his Life of Sir Henry Wotton, has related in his artless manner the offers, which, immediately after coming into possession of the English Crown, his Majesty made to Pope Clement the Eighth concerning the convention of a General Council for determining the differences between the Protestants and the Church of Rome, from which was to flow the future concord of Christendom. This refusal of his Holiness gave no small umbrage to the British Monarch. He also, in imitation of his great predecessor Elizabeth, took an uncommon interest in the ecclesiastical affairs of the Low Countries. In the year 1613, soon after the Delft Conference between three Ministers of the Remonstrant and three of the Calvinistic persuasion, his Majesty addressed a letter in French to their High Mightinesses, in which he observes: “We acquaint you with what experience has caused us to know, that questions of this kind are only terminated with great trouble, by means of disputes between Divines; but that it is more proper to suppress them by public authority, forbidding your ministers to bring such disputes into the pulpit or among the common people, and giving express commands to maintain peace by a mutual toleration of each other, in the difference of opinion which they severally hold on the points which have been mentioned; at least till such time as, after a full investigation of the whole affair by public authority, an ordinance to the contrary be issued by yourselves. We seem to have the stronger reasons, why we ought thus to persuade you, because, in a manuscript which your Ambassador, the Chevalier Carron, has presented to us, having seen very amply deduced the opinions of each of the parties and the reasons on which they are founded, we do not find either of them to be so absurd as to be inconsistent with the truth of the Christian faith or with the salvation of

through tyranny to arrogate this authority to himself. Such an arrangement is required by the public weal, which is never

souls." His Majesty's next adventure in this line was the expression of his high approval of the Resolution passed by the States of Holland and West Friezland, in January, 1614, tolerating both Remonstrants and Contra Remonstrants, and prohibiting them from transgressing certain boundaries in doctrine which they very judiciously prescribed in that document. Ou this subject Isaac Casaubon, who was then high in the King's confidence, writes thus to Grotius: "I have accurately treated on the edict of the Illustrious States with his most Serene Majesty, his Grace the Archbishop, and with other prelates of consummate erudition; and both the King and all who read it, highly approved of it and praised the advice which it contains. For it is apparent, that in the framing of this edict an attempt has been made to warn people to avoid the two rocks equally dangerous in this doctrine-that of the Manichees and that of the Pelagians,-and to confirm them in that doctrine which, while it ascribes to God alone the whole of our salvation, in its commencement, its progress, and its completion, does not at the same time bring good works into contempt." This decree of the States of Holland was administered with such great public benefit, that our good king, about a year afterwards, invited the famous Peter Molinæus, or Du Moulin, to London, to assist in devising a method of uniting all the Protestant Churches in Europe together, and to reconcile all existing differences on doctrinal subjects, and to prevent them in future. This scheme, which was published iu the year 1615, is a most admirable one; it was, however, too mild for that warm and agitated period. In one part of that document, it is justly stated, "All errors in religion have had their origin in the desire which men feel for knowing too much or possessing too much. The last of these evils has ruined the Church of Rome; and it is by the former of them that Satan labours hard to effect our ruin. Could we but prevail upon ourselves to remain ignorant of many things, and could be contented to know no more than what is necessary for salvation, and to tolerate those who err or who differ from us in opinions that are not necessary or fundamental, such a union would be more than half completed at the very commencement."-King James retained these favourite notions upwards of two years, and employed Mark Antony de Dominis, the Archbishop of Spalatro, at that time a recent convert from Popery, to write in support of them. In the beginning of 1617, his Majesty had a conversation with Bishop Overall on the existing theological differences in the Low Countries; when the Bishop repeated to his Majesty the remark of the Archbishop of Spalatro, "that those differences did not appear to him to belong to the Catholic Faith, but to theological disputation; that preachers therefore ought not to be allowed to enter into contests among themselves about these matters, in public and opposite sermons, to the distraction of the people; but that they ought rather to compose these differences by the private conferences of learned men, supported by clear testimonies from the scriptures and antiquity." The Bishop adds, that "his most Serene Majesty declared himself to be of the same opinion; and that it seemed to him a token of great rashness in men to enter into such scrupulous contests about questions of this kind relating to Divine Predestination, and to employ such rash assertions about them as though they had just descended from heaven after having assisted at the Divine CouncilBoard. This just and weighty sentiment of his Majesty excited the approbation of all the Bishops who were present." Yet this liberal speech was delivered only a few months before his Majesty transmitted orders to Sir Dudley Carleton, to employ all his influence at the Court of the Hague to oppress the Remonstrants. In all the benevolent schemes into which this King entered, there is every appearance of a superior understanding; but in the vacillating policy which hindered their execution, a most lamentable want of judgment is displayed. This has always been considered, both by friends and foes, as the greatest defect in James the First; and these two witty lines may with

committed with greater safety to the custody of any one than to his whose private advantage is entirely unconnected with the issue.

almost as great propriety be applied to him, as to his profligate grandson, Charles the Second, to whom they were addressed :

He never said a foolish thing,
And never did a wise one.

Of much the same complexion was his conduct respecting Popery, his transcendent hatred to which was proverbial; yet it was no small portion of his ambition, to have his son married to a daughter of the King of Spain. On this subject Balcanqual facetiously observes: "The talk of the Spanish Match bath of late been very fresh again in England, but this is certain, that, the other day at Theobald's, the King asking a gentleman of good note what the people talked of the Spanish Navy, received of him this answer: Sir, the people is nothing so much afraid of the Spaniards' POWDER as of their MATCH." Were not the character of this Monarch well known, it would appear most wonderful, that he could lend himself to the measures of the Dutch Calvinists when they openly avowed, in their state-papers, the following sentiment, which was most abhorrent to his spirit: "The thing in question is not a civil or political matter, but ecclesiastical, and one which concerns only the unity, welfare, and edification of the Reformed Churches in these our Netherlands. Now the case of the Church of Christ is of quite a different nature from that of the Civil Government. For there has been a common band and alliance among the Reformed Churches of these provinces, even whilst they were all groaning under persecution, and before the temporal union of the provinces, was made: And this common band never can or ought to be broken." The hint here given goes beyond the collaterality which Uitenbogardt described in his speech before the States of Holland, nearly ten years before It amounts to an assumption of supremacy on the part of the ecclesiastics, and is very properly answered by Grotius in the following words: "The direction of ecclesiastical matters (in which is undoubtedly included the convening of a Synod by authority of the Civil Magistrates,) is one of the highest privileges of the sovereignty of the province of Holland; and when once this privilege is lost or resigned to others, it is usually attended with the ruin of all the rest. This, therefore, is a thing which cannot be called merely ecclesiastical: For it is likewise of a political nature; and they who would in this respect incroach upon the rights of the province, would not hesitate to attempt alterations in the State. We ought also seriously to study that Canon of the Primitive Church, in one of the General Councils, which gives us this direction, Ut Ecclesia se-, quatur typos Politie, Let the Church follow the pattern of the Civil Governmeut.' This may be done, without the least infringement of the band of amity which ought to be maintained among all the Reformed."

The designs which Prince Maurice had long cherished against the ancient liberties and internal jurisdiction of the States, (each of which possessed by the act of Union the complete management of its own affairs,) were then in a course of execution. By the forcible and illegal removal of the old Burgomasters and Governors, and the appointment of new ones,-by the preponderance which these newly elected individuals gave to their own party by their election of persons to fill the higher offices of state in the various towns which had been ill-affected towards Calvinism and arbitrary power, and by the untrue and scandalous reports which were invented and industriously propagated respecting the alleged secret intentions of Barnevelt and the Arminians to deliver up their country to the Spaniards,-the Prince was enabled to succeed in his ambitious enterprizes. To the party, therefore, that had forwarded his views he willingly gave all the weight of his influence, and that of the States General, the majority of whom, in virtue of the late unlawful

But men endued with wisdom will be summoned to this

changes effected in the Provinces, were favourable, not only to Calvinism, but to any measure which the Prince might think fit to propose.-It was in allusion to the revolution, thus craftily completed, that Bogerman, as president of the Synod of Dort, told Episcopius, in a sarcastic style, "You may remember what you told the Foreign Divines in your letter to them, that there had of late been a great metamorphosis in the State. You are no longer Judges and men in power, but persons under citation." (HALES'S LETTERS.)

In such a state of affairs, an ordinance of government was easily obtained for convening a National Synod, which was to consist of native Divines appointed by the different classes and presbyteries, of civil deputies chosen out of each province by the States, and of Foreign Divines deputed by such Churches as had adopted both the platform and the doctrine of Geneva. The temper and intolerant conduct of the various ecclesiastical meetings with whom rested the inland appointments, may be seen in the preceding life. And time had not mollified their intolerant principles: For, under the new order of things, and with the sanction of the fresh race of magistrates, they were emboldened to effect a schism in many of the chief towns, and forcibly to exclude the Arminian ministers from the churches which they occupied. In other towns, in which these bold practices could not be attempted with any probability of success, they employed the ecclesiastical arms of the classes, provincial Synods, and other packed vestry-meetings, the members of which (consisting generally of Calvinists,) summoned before them all the chief Arminian pastors in the various districts, accused them of holding heterodox opinions on the subject of Predestination, and suspended or expelled them from the ministry. This work of expulsion and suspension was carried on by the dominant party, even during the time in which the fate of Arminianism was in a course of determination by the Synod of Dort: So that, had that far-famed and reverend assembly decided in favour of a toleration of the Arminian Doctrines, the minor church-meetings had left few ministers of that persecuted denomination to profit from such a decision. The Calvinistic account of this summary and iniquitous process is thus given, in the Preface to the Acts of the National Synod: "And since there were several pastors in that province, [Guelderland] some of whom had been suspected of many other errors beside the Five Points of the Remonstrants,―others of them had illegally intruded into the office of the ministry,-while others were men of profligate habits; certain persons of this description being cited before the [provincial] Synod [of Guelderland and Zutphen, held at Arnheim, in July, 1618,] were suspended from the ministry for some of the before-mentioned reasons, and by no means on account of the opinion contained in the Five Points of the Remonstrants, which was reserved for the cognizance of the National Synod. The trial of the rest of these men being dismissed in the name of the Synod, was committed to a deputation from their body, to whom the States added certain of their own delegates. When they had fully investigated the cases of these men' in their classes, they suspended some of them from the ministry, and entirely removed others." They were exceedingly desirous to induce a belief among their cotemporaries and to convey it to posterity, that not one of these persecuted ministers was molested on account of THE FIVE POINTS: In the compass of a page after this quotation, they repeat the same solemn asseveration in three different forms. The last of them is too remarkable to be omitted: Speaking of a Committee appointed by the Synod of South Holland, which met in Oct. 1618, they say, "But it was expressly enjoined upon this deputation, that they should not pass a censure upon any minister on account of any opinion contained in the FIVE POINTS of the Remonstrants, because the adjudication of those POINTS was to be reserved untouched for the National Synod. Although this deputation condemned a great number of ministers in general, even during the sitting of the National Synod, by suspending some of them from the office of pastors, and by entirely removing others from the

Synod, and will be admitted into it,-men who are well

ministry, for the before-mentioned most serious causes, [which were, profane lives, turbulent conduct, Socinian errors, and illegal calls to the pastoral functions,] yet they marked no man with any censure for his sentiments on the Five Points, as may be clearly shewn from the account of their transactions." From these very transactions it will be impossible for an unprejudiced person to draw any other conclusion than one,-which is, that had not the greater part of the sufferers been pious Remonstrants, unproved surmises would not in many of their cases have been accounted sufficient reasons for their suspension, nor would tainted evidence have been industriously sought against others that were expelled. That such men as the two Geerstangs were properly excluded from the ministry, cannot be denied; but the errors of those individuals, if they be correctly reported, had just as much to do with the distinguishing tenets of the Remonstrants as with those of the Manichees. They were men that would have been ejected from the bosom of any church that had a due regard to purity of doctrine, and they were not permitted by the Remonstrants to associate with them: But their cases were at that time brought prominently forwards, that they might serve as a veil to other darker and more malignant proceedings.-In the very able memorial which the Remonstrants, on their arrival at the Synod, presented to the foreign members, it is justly observed, respecting those who were accused of having taught, beside the Five Points, those doctrines which were contrary to the fundamentals of faith: "Such particular cases do not in any manner affect the common cause of the Remonstrants, but concern those alone who may be found guilty of them. Nor are we averse to the issuing of ecclesiastical censures against such persons, provided they be lawfully put upon their trials and fairly heard in defence of themselves against such charges."

Because the members of the regular provincial Synods could not be long absent from their respective congregations, such galloping commissions as these, endowed with ample powers, were appointed to traverse every province in which Arminianism had been planted; and they soon shewed to the world the most compendious method of rooting out reputed Heresies. Their track through the land resembled that of the Angel of destruction; it was marked by anguish, mourning, and desolation. Nor did the evil consequences of these unparalleled Calvinistic practices terminate with that generation; for their pernicious example served as a precedent to their brethren in England. When Calvinism, in the form of Presbyterianism and Independency, had attained the supremacy in this country during the Inter-regnum, the celebrated TRIERS and EJECTORS and the Committee for Scandalous Ministers, were constituted on the same plan, and became, for the time being, the extirpators of Arminianism. After this detail, so well deduced and established from the Synodical documents, few words will suffice to point out the purely Calvinistic constitution of the Synod of Dort. When very few Remonstrant ministers remained in the land, except such as were ejected from the Church or under suspension, it was no difficult matter to procure an assemblage of men that were of one heart respecting the main object that was then sought to be accomplished. On this subject Dr. Heylin has very pertinently remarked: "It is reported, that at the end of the Conference between the Protestants and Papists, in the first convocation of Queen Mary's reign, the Protestants were thought to have had the better, as being more dextrous in applying and enforcing some texts of scripture than the others were; and that, thereupon, they were dismissed by Weston the Prolocutor, with this short come-off: You have the WORD, and we have the SWORD. His meaning was, that what the Papists wanted in the strength of argument, they would make good by other ways,-as afterwards indeed they did by fire and faggot. The like is said to have been done by the Contra-Remonstrants, who, finding themselves at this Conference [held at the Hague, in 1611,] to have had the worst, and not to have thrived much better by their pen-comments than in that of the tongue, betook them