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writing; and might deprecate the introduction of the same. When on this account they had come to the Hague, and had now learned from the delegates of the principal cities, that those decrees, though they had already been transmitted, had not as yet been confirmed by the customary (solemi) approbation of all the States; and therefore could not as yet obtain the force of a law; they judged, that they must desist from the design till they should be further pressed. But this last decree gave occasion to new contentions and disturbances in many places, especially in the church at Harlem. For when some magistrates determined, that ministers should be called, according to this new form, and (thus) called them, but the churches did not approve it; it came to pass, that they refused to acknowledge those who had been thus called as their lawful pastors, and to have any ecclesiastical communion with them. It was also effected by these decrees, that certain classes in Holland, which had hitherto preserved unity, in the government of the churches, with the Remonstrants for the sake of peace, were now torn away from them (divellerentur) because the most of the pastors could not approve these things: yet as the Remonstrants purposed that the churches should be governed according to the prescript and law of these decrees, but were not able to extort this from their fellow ministers by authority, they introduced into the conventions of the classes certain political persons, mostly alienated from the reformed religion, and attached to their party, and brought dominion into the churches. For the orthodox pastors, tired out by the contentions which from these causes daily arose with the Remonstrants, judged it to be better, to meet together apart without them, and to take care of their own churches in peace, than to be wearied with their perpetual contentions.

In the mean time Utenbogardus procured, that it should be enjoined on his colleagues, by the authority of the superiors, to obey these decrees also; which when his colleague Henry Rosæus said that he could not promise with a good conscience; he was suspended from his office of teaching by the authority of the same persons, and by the sinister instigation of Utenbogardus.* Thence the members of the church at the Hague, who loved the purity (sinceritatem) of the reformed doctrine, continued the exercise of their religion; at first indeed in the neighboring village of Risverch, but, when

*Whatever pretensions were made to toleration by the Remonstrants, it is from this most evident, that they paid no due regard to the rights of conscience, the proper ground of all toleration.

the pastors had obtained it by loan from the other churches at the Hague, in a separate place of worship (templo) to which afterwards some of the chief persons out of the States themselves, and the counsellors of the courts, and the other colleagues, and the most Illustrious the Prince of Orange himself, and the most Generous Count William Ludovicus, leaving the assemblies of the Remonstrants, resorted, that they might testify their consent to the orthodox doctrine, and their strong attachment to the same. The Remonstrants odiously traduced this separation under the title of SCHISM,* and endeavored by all methods to hinder or to punish it: laboring in the mean while, that these decrees should be authoritatively put in execution in every place, where they knew that the magistrate favored them. On which account, when many pious men were punished by fines, prisons, and banishments, they appealed to the supreme tribunal of justice, and implored assistance against force; and when now the most ample the Senators of the Supreme Court attempted to succor the oppressed, they (the Remonstrants) obtained by the advocate of Holland, that an interdict should be laid on the same court, from protecting them.†

March, A. D. 1616.] But when many also and principal cities of Holland, and in the first place among them the most powerful city of Amsterdam, opposed the execution of these decrees, it was effected that Hugo Grotius with certain persons should be sent to Amsterdam, in order that by his eloquence he might persuade the most ample the Senate of that city to approve the same decrees. When he had attempted this with a prolix oration, it was answered by the most ample the Senate; That they could by no means approve that, passing by the lawful synodical conventions, it should be deliberated in a convention of the States, concerning ecclesiastical affairs, that decrees should be made, and the execution of those decrees enjoined by authority: That it was purposed by them, that the true Christian religion, the exercise of which had flourished during fifty years in these regions, should be preserved; they judged also that even the least

* It commenced nearly as most other schisms have done; but all the blame did not rest on those stigmatized as schismatics, nor even the greatest measure of it.

What must the modern advocates for toleration, and more than toleration, think of that toleration which these men pleaded for, while thus employed in persecution; and who have rendered their opponents odious even to this day, as enemies to toleration, for rejecting their illegal measures!

change would be pernicious to the republic, unless it had been first maturely examined by a lawful Synod; and further, they could not assent to the different propositions and acts made from the year 1611, even to the eighteenth of March of this year 1616, nor to this last proposition; neither were they willing, that under the name of the city of Amsterdam, (when it was no feeble member of that convention of the States,) any decrees should be established, much less authoritatively carried into execution, or any thing decreed against those who professed the reformed religion, unless controversies, and changes in religion, and in ecclesiastical affairs, had been first examined and discussed in lawful Synods, by the authority of the Illustrious the States. But neither were they willing, that pastors who were attached to the opinion of the reformed religion, defended by the Contra-Remonstrants, should in the mean time on that account, either be suspended or removed from their ministerial offices; because they declared that they could not conscientiously cultivate ecclesiastical unity with the Remonstrants: neither that the churches which followed the same opinion should, under the pretext of schism, or because according to conscience, they were reluctant to attend on the sermons of the Remonstrants, be hindered in the exercise of divine worship. And all these things they determined, until by the authority of the Illustrious the States, a lawful Synod should be convened, in which these controversies might be duly examined and discussed. Thus the labor and endeavor of the Remonstrants, and of those who favored them, were in vain; especially because the magistrates of the most ample city of Dort, of Enchuse, of Edamen, and of Purmerend, publicly approved this determination of the Senate of Amsterdam.*

About this time, the pastors of Camp in Transisulania, having embraced the opinion of the Remonstrants, by the assistance of the magistracy, cast out of the ministry their most learned colleague, and most tenacious of sound doctrine, William Stephanus, because he opposed their attempts; and by pamphlets published, and by public sermons full of calumnies, they endeavored to bring the reformed religion into the hatred of the common people.

* As no intimation is here given of molesting the Remonstrants, either pastors or churches, but merely of preventing the Contra-Remonstrants from being molested, till a Synod was held; this decision of the Senate of Amsterdam, contains more of the spirit of toleration than any thing which we have yet met with.

March, A. D. 1617.] When, on account of these innovations in doctrine, and the disturbances of the churches, and of the state which followed, they saw that they were rendered more and more odious; they presented a second Remonstrance to the Illustrious the States, in which, with incredible impudence, they endeavor to remove from themselves the crime of innovation, and to fasten the same on those pastors, who most constantly remained in the received doctrine of these churches.* And the rest of the pastors presented likewise to the Illustrious the States a copious and solid answer to it. But, whereas these long continued controversies had already brought not into the churches only, but the republic likewise, so great a mass of difficulties, perturbations, and confusions, that all who loved the safety of the federated provinces, or of the reformed churches which are in them, or who favored the same, understood, that the remedy of these evils could no longer be deferred without the manifest danger of the state and of the churches; and yet the Illustrious the States had not been able hitherto to agree as to the kind of remedy: James I. the most powerful and Serene king of Great Britain, out of his singular and sincere affection towards these regions and churches, thought, that the Illustrious and most powerful the States General should be admonished by letters, no longer to suffer this gangrene to feed upon the body of the republic: but that they should, as soon as possible, proceed to meet these unhappy contentions, divisions, schisms, and factions, which threatened manifest danger to the state. And at the same time he obtested them, that they would restore to its original purity, all errors having been extirpated, the true and ancient reformed doctrine, which they had always professed, which had been confirmed by the common consent of all the reformed churches, and which had been always the foundation and bond of that most strict friendship and conjunction, which had so long flourished between his kingdoms and these provinces; and which he judged, might be done, of all means the most advantageously, by a national Synod, to be called together by their authority. For indeed this was the ordinary, legitimate, and most efficacious remedy, which had been had recourse to in every age,

Either this whole narrative is false throughout, or this attempt was made with consummate effrontery: not indeed incredible, because other innovators, both ancient and modern, have endeavored, and with success, to fasten the charge of innovation on those, who most steadily abode by the doctrine of articles, &c. subscribed by all parties. But nothing is incredible, of which several undeniable instances may be adduced.

in evils of this kind among Christians. But moreover the most Illustrious Maurice, prince of Orange, the governor of federated Belgium, as often before this, so now did not desist daily, in a most solemn and weighty manner, to obtest, as well the Illustrious and most powerful the States General, and also the Illustrious the States of Holland and West Friezland, that in proportion as the safety of the republic and the churches was dear to them, so they would give diligent endeavors, that a remedy as soon as possible might be applied to these most grievous evils. For this purpose he also commanded, and pressed upon them, the convocation of a national Synod, as the most ordinary and the safest remedy.

The Illustrious the States of Zeland also, by the most noble and ample men, D. Malderæus, Brouwerus, Potterus, and Bonifacius Junius, solemnly warned and entreated the Illustrious the orders of Holland and West Friezland, in their convention, that, seeing the contentions and dissentions grew more and more grievous every day, with the greatest danger of the republic; and many remedies had hitherto been tried in vain; that they would agree to the convoking of a national Synod, as the ordinary remedy, proposed by the Holy Spirit for evils of this kind, and always had recourse to by Christians.* Then likewise the Illustrious the States of Gueldria, Friezland, Groningen, and Omlandia, requested the like thing by their deputies of the same the Illustrious the States (General.)

But when the Remonstrants saw, that the convoking of a national Synod was recommended with so great earnestness by kings and princes, and the neighboring and federated republics, yea, and also by the principal cities of Holland and West Friezland; and when they feared lest the States

* It has, I believe, been generally supposed, that the Synod of Dort was convened by a faction or party, and for party ends and purposes; but it seems undeniable, that it became the general and almost universal opinion of the different States in the confederated provinces, that such a national Synod, as the Contra-Remonstrants always had urgently requested, was become absolutely and indispensably needful; and that the Remonstrants and their party could no longer resist this generally prevailing sentiment. Indeed nothing can be more clear, than that all parties, except the zealous Remonstrants, regarded a national Synod as the proper and only effectual way of terminating the controversial disturbances; and not only sanctioned by the example of Christians in every age, but enjoined by God himself. How far they were warranted in this sentiment, constitutes a distinct question. The Synod of Dort, however, should not be judged by our modern opinions, but by the general opinion of that age. The reasons why the Remonstrants dissented from that opinion are very evident.

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