students, for the purpose of its being collated with those published by Festus, and pretending to be his. On the margin of this manuscript are written the misstatements and false quotations of Festus, which, even from the beginning to the end, are so many, and so gross, that it cannot be read without surprise and disgust. Whoever would take the trouble to compare those contained in Festus' publication with those of Episcopius, printed in the second volume of his works, will be convinced for himself of the justice of these remarks.

The period now rapidly approached for the assembling of the Synod of Dort, and the necessary preliminary arrangements were made to facilitate the business for which it had been convoked. The foreign theologians daily arrived, who presented the letters with which they were furnished, authorizing them to appear in the synod. In the meantime, however, and before the foreign divines had all arrived, the officers for the synod were elected by the provincial members. The president was John Bogerman, minister of Leowarden; the assessors were James Roelandus and Herman Faukelius, ministers of Amster. dam and Middleburg; and the secretaries Festus Hom. mius and Sebastian Damman, ministers of Leyden and Zutphen. From such an election, says Limborch, the Remonstrants at once saw what was to be their fate; as these men, who were thus chosen to be the great agents and instruments in managing the business of the synod, were their most bitter, unrelenting, and bigoted enemies and persecutors.

The time being now arrived for Episcopius to hasten to the Synod of Dort, according to the summons of their high mightinesses, the States of Holland, in which he was directed to repair to Dort, in his character of professor of theology, to assist with his counsel in that venerable as. sembly, he deemed it right, on the thirteenth of November, to address the students under his care; and, as he evidently foresaw it would be for the last time, instead of pursuing the course he had marked out for himself in his usual college lectures, he delivered to them a brief oration in the form of a farewell address, containing a summary account of his proceedings, his mode of instruction, and the motives by which he was prompted in so doing. Fully

aware that his attachment to the opinions he had espoused was about to be tried, he herein declares his readiness to suffer for the same; the correctness of which declaration the subsequent parts of these memoirs will place beyond the shadow of a doubt. This oration is singularly marked by its pointed sentiments, elevated piety, and courageous bearing, as well as with the statement of errors in doctrine which prevailed in the Dutch Church, and the defective mode of teaching in the public seats of learning, which render it worthy of notice; and therefore we deem it right to give it a place in these memoirs.

AN ORATION,

DELIVERED BY SIMON EPISCOPIUS WHEN HE WAS ABOUT TO LEAVE THE UNIVERSITY OF LEYDEN, TO ATTEND THE SYNOD OF DORT, TO WHICH HE HAD BEEN SUMMONED.

"In our lecture of yesterday, we brought to a close our observations on the signs which our holy Redeemer declared should precede his last and glorious advent. It now remains that we should proceed to a description of this grand and awfully sublime, but ardently desired scene itself. And, indeed, had I been permitted to have accomplished my purpose, I had designed, before I ended my remarks, to have gone through this subject in all its parts. For there is nothing the consideration and recollection of which can or ought to be more agreeable and acceptable to a devout mind than the anticipation of that most glorious and eventful day. But because I am constrained to be occupied by other cares and engagements, I have deemed it proper not to commence an exposition which I should not be able to bring to a close; and therefore my lectures, which have been continued to the twentysixth chapter,* must for the present terminate. The consideration of this subject, however, may probably be undertaken at a subsequent period. And now, my very dear hearers, since I am compelled to desist from continuing my readings to you, on the great and dreadful day, when

*This refers to his comment on St. Matthew's Gospel, which is to be found in the second volume of his works.

the Son of man shall appear in the clouds of heaven, with the glory of his Father, and shall pronounce an irrevocable sentence upon the thoughts, the words, and the deeds of all the human family; and as I am about to be absent from you for a short time, to defend myself and the cause of Jesus Christ, I can but take this opportunity of addressing you from this place. Bear with me, then, while for a little, and perhaps the last time, I may address youyou, I say, who have known all my ways in the Lord.

"Since I have sustained the office of public professor in this university, I solemnly declare that it has been my sole business not to endeavour to please men, for if I had I should not have been the servant of Jesus Christ, but, on the contrary, so to conduct myself that I might be found guiltless before the Son of man, and receive from my Lord Jesus Christ his approving testimony, that I have uprightly discharged the duties of my office, and been faithful in my ministry. And in order that I might, also, excite and stimulate you, by my instructions and example, to run the same course, and attain the same end, I have, as far as was in my power, laboured to prompt you to endeavour to become fellow partakers of the same glorious prize; and, at least, if I failed in this attempt, I might be clear of the guilt of your souls, and that your blood might not be required at my hands. This was the object of all my studies, counsels, and cares, and the proposed end of my professional duties and labours. What I have done in order to the accomplishment of my purposes suffer me now briefly to relate to you.

"In the sickly constituted body of our Church I saw that its diseased functions required no slight remedies to produce an effectual cure. But to attempt this was seen to be a perilous experiment, inasmuch as it was to be apprehended that the application of these remedies might tend powerfully to excite all the latent distempered humours of the system, and occasion certain fearful paroxysms, and fatal indications of approaching dissolution. It was necessary, therefore, to adopt one of these alternatives either to abandon the diseased body, and suffer its maladies to become more and more aggravated, or to administer the necessary remedies, and attempt its restora. tion, rather than silently witness its inevitable dissolu

tion. Arguments and reasons were not wanting in favour of either of these measures. These I deliberately examined and carefully weighed; and finally judged that I was bound to take the latter course, though involving the greatest risk, and to attempt the application of a remedy, should it expose me to the opposition and displeasure of the whole world. And in order that I might be able to effect my purpose, I judged that three very important and salutary measures must be adopted.

"The first was, that I should present the truths and subjects contained in the Scripture as plainly, clearly, and ingenuously, as I possibly could; not arrayed in false ornaments, borrowed colourings, and artificial representations. For I judged it of importance that he who wishes to learn the truth in order to teach it to others, should be able to follow its track, as though he bore the sun itself in his hand to illuminate his path. This I deemed the more necessary, because I saw that the import of many subjects, and these the most weighty of the Scripture itself,- —was represented in such a manner, through the inventive arts of some, the laboured and artificially wrought phrases of others, and the fanciful and formal arrangements of the loci-communes, or common-place divinity, that the meaning of the same is rendered so complicated, intricate, and perplexed, as to require the assistance of an Edipus to solve and unfold some of these dark theological enigmas. But so it is, my beloved auditors; and here was to me the first occasion of grief and inquietude. This

*

* In confirmation of these statements we shall give the authority of Dr. Mosheim, who, when speaking of the loci-communes of many writers of that day, says, "that instead of following the simple and elegant style of Calvin in his Institutes, they made the science of divinity intricate by the introduction of the jargon of the schools into them. The philosophy of Aristotle," he adds, "which was taught in almost all the seminaries of learning, and suffered much from falling into bad hands, insinuated itself into the regions of theology, and rendered them barren, thorny, intricate, and gloomy, by the enormous multitude of barbarous terms, captious questions, minute distinctions, and useless subtleties, that followed in the train." He then adds, "This method of teaching theology must have been in use with all the reformed doctors before the synod of Dort, inasmuch as Episcopius' avoidance of it was the principal cause that had drawn on him the vehement hatred and opposition of all the other professors and teachers of theology."

barbarous and far-fetched phraseology rendered obscure and unintelligible any art or science, otherwise not difficult to be apprehended. And it has happened that those who have been forced to adopt and use such phrases, although they have been anxious and wholly intent upon acquiring a knowledge of some particular art or science, yet immediately, on making the attempt, they have been disgusted, and retraced their steps, though they would otherwise have been won to the pursuit of it, had it been allowed to appear in all its native simplicity and beauty. This I have also thought to be one of the greatest evils in theology. And it has been a source of great grief and pain to me, when I have witnessed an ardent, docile, and highly gifted youth, capable of attaining great eminence, wasting his time and talents upon studies that end only in the acquisition of an unintelligible and fruitless jargon of words, which, perpetually increasing like a swelling torrent, bears him away, as within the attraction of some mighty whirlpool, till he is in danger of being completely ingulfed, while the result of all this labour is the mere acquisition of terms, phrases, or opinions, instead of real knowledge.* And when I perceived that those who pur

We can hardly form any notion of this "unintelligible jargon of words," which was made the medium of conveying pretended instruction; but we find in the writings of Mr. Hickman, a rigid Calvinist of 1659, the following sentiment, as quoted by Bishop Womack, in his Calvinist's Cabinet Unlocked, intended to prove that his doctrines did not make God the author of sin :-" Because it belongs to the universality of the first cause to produce not only every real being, but also the real positive modifications of beings; therefore we say, that in good works both the works themselves and their rectitude are positive, and are from God; in evil works there are also two things considerable, the works themselves, and their pravity; the works themselves, we doubt not, are positive, and from God, as all other positive things; but their pravities add no new entities to them, but consist in a mere privation." And farther, to get rid of the same charge of making God the author of sin, especially on the question of the sinner hating God, he says, "This is complexum quid, and must not be spoken of, as if it were one; the vital action or hatred is a thing positive, and consequently that is from God; but the undue referring or terminating of that act to such an object, which is altogether lovely; that is the sinfulness of the action. This is derived only from man's corruption and the devil's temptation; and where the cause itself is vicious, its vitiosity is not the cause of the vitiosity of the effect, for vitiosity of itself