Of the validity of the objection alleged by the Remonstrants to the Dutch Calvinist ministers as being unsuitable judges, on the ground of the feeling and conduct they had evinced toward them, we could give full and painful specimens; but we may just mention the conduct of the leading members. As to Bogerman, so well was he known as an opponent of the cited and their doctrines, that six years before the synod was convened, one of the principal writers of the Remonstrants had actually drawn up an anticipated and probable account of the proceedings of the intended synod, so as to be almost an exact counterpart of its cruel and unjust measures toward the Arminians, of which he makes Bogerman to be the prime agent. "Little," says Brandt, "did Barlæus suppose what a resemblance his description would have to the events that actually afterward took place." As to Festus, we have already shown sufficient of him to prove that he could be no impartial judge. With respect to Faukelius, one of the assessors, he had consented to a separation from the Remonstrants, and joined his provincial synod in previously condemning their doctrines as being contrary to the word of God. Plancius also, who is mentioned at page 118, as unwilling to dine at the same table with Uitenbogaerdt and Episcopius, was a bitter enemy of the Remonstrants, while Rolandus, his colleague,* had long before declared that if Melancthon was alive, he would

house of Bourbon. It was a very august and imposing assemblysome of the first personages of the state being present-namely: Charles IX., king of France, the queen mother, the king of Na. varre, the cardinal de Tournon, with many of the prelates and nobles of the kingdom. Beza was principal speaker, and, in conjunction with his brethren, represented 2190 Protestant Churches. This conference ended without producing any thing like amity be. tween the opposite parties, and prepared the way for consequences of which the subsequent history of France gives painful details.Clark and Nichols.

* If a writer of the present day can ask, "Is there among us a doctrine which, beyond any other, is anti-social and uncharitable? and then answer, If hyper-Calvinism be not that doctrine, we are chargeable with calumny ;"+ with how much more of justice could the implied charge be applied to the hyper-Calvinism of Plancius and those ministers who sat as the judges of the Arminians in the Synod of Dort?

+ Saturday Evening, p. 293.

be the first to condemn him in any synod where he should attempt to teach his doctrine. Damman, as Heinsius, was an apostate from Arminianism, and, of course, like him, when joined to the other party, who were in favour with the powers that be, became a bitter and unrelenting enemy of his former friends. All this the Remonstrants knew, nay more, they felt it, and how they could conscientiously allow such an assembly to be equitable judges, whose leading officers had thus acted and cherished the feelings which they did toward them, and say to them, and the parties who had voted them into their high situations, "Gentlemen, you are very suitable judges of our opinions;❞—is an act which though the reader may see possible, yet the writer really cannot.

As to the second case, that of the Contra-Remonstrants not allowing the Arminian clergy to state their doctrines, or argue with them on the points in dispute, it does not much surprise us; for who has sufficient saintship to allow that another has more truth on his side than him. self; while "to assail our convictions is not merely to wound our self-love, and to irritate our pride, but it is to withdraw something from the interior warmth and vigour of the soul;" and, therefore, he who would call in question the canonicity of our creed makes an attempt upon our assurance of possessing truth, and the peace consequent upon that assurance. Such a person places us on the defensive, and we instinctively meet him as an antagonist; while to prevent even his incipient efforts thus to rob us of our chiefest good seems perfectly natural. If this state

of feeling is the attendant of man in his individual capacity, it gathers strength and force by association; for when certain dogmas are made the bond of union among bodies of men, any attack upon the common creed not only excites the feelings of jealousy, of individual interest, but also of that which grows out of our incorporate relation and obligation to others.

And while such excitements must have been felt by the Dutch divines, they likewise knew that it was possible for the Remonstrants to present their doctrines, and especially that of reprobation, in such a point of light as to shake the confidence of the people in other parts of the system, some of whom might have acted like the memorable Hales,

who said, when he heard Episcopius expound and press the 16th verse of the third chapter of St. John against the doctrine of the Contra-Remonstrants, "he from that time bid John Calvin good night."

Besides, to have allowed the cited ministers to argue with the synod on the points in dispute, would have been to admit them to a species of equality with the synodists, which, though perfectly just where disputants meet to settle a question by the mere force of argument, yet, as the Dutch Calvinists had succeeded in the measures they had adopted to gain power and ascendency, it was not to be expected, from the present state of human nature, that they would give up their vantage ground, and meet the Remonstrants on such terms. Moreover, there were individuals who took a leading part in the affairs of the synod who carried into it a degree of hostility against Episcopius from the remembrance of the past. Is it to be sup posed that Sibrandus, who had debated with him while he was yet a beardless boy, "but in whom all the elements were so mixed, that Nature might stand up and say, This is a man ;' and who on that occasion was so struck with his powers as publicly to assert " that Arminius was a mere child to him ;"—and when subsequently foiled by him, and witnessing the admiration that the victories of this tyro had secured to him, could, under the chagrin he suffered in consequence, adopt the infamous measures mentioned at page 147 to ruin his successful rival: we repeat it, is it to be supposed that he would now be willing to see him. self, and very many by whom he was surrounded, thrown into the shade by the talents and extensive learning of an opponent whose native genius, accurate judgment, and commanding powers of eloquence, had been more fully matured by intense study, deep research, and constant application to the duties of the office he sustained as professor of theology in one of the first seats of learning in Europe? Neither can it be matter of surprise that Polyander, another leading member of the synod, who had felt so far mortified at the homage paid to the superior talents of his colleague, even by Heinsius, as not to be able to restrain himself within the bounds of courtesy when witnessing the marked preference shown to the conversa. tional powers of Episcopius, in a select party of some of

the first scholars of which Leyden could boast; so that under feelings of mortification he exclaimed, Gentlemen, I can bear nothing so ill as contempt, that is, I cannot bear to see this decided preference given to my colleague: we say it cannot be matter of surprise that this man, also, should be found among those who opposed Episcopius be ing permitted to combat the doctrines of the Contra-Re

monstrants.

The foreign divines, however, who had suffered none of these previous mortifications, and had been powerfully struck with the professor's commanding eloquence, manifested in the speech which he had delivered shortly after his entrance into the synod, were anxious to hear and see the man in all his strength; while many of the auditors, who had actually been drawn from various parts of the provinces to Dort, for the purpose of witnessing the proceedings of this assembly, were deeply mortified at the circumstance of the Remonstrants being prevented from stating and defending their doctrines; and on that account retired murmuring, and saying that they had been disappointed in the object for which they had taken so long a journey, and, therefore, were determined to hasten home.

CHAPTER XII.

THE Remonstrants being thus excluded from the synod, that assembly resolved upon examining their writings in order to pronounce a judgment upon their doctrines. During several sittings the varied points held by them were brought under discussion, and now that there was no antagonist to combat with, Polyander, and afterward Sibrandus, who had been formerly foiled by Episcopius, were the first to address that assembly, and in his absence manfully triumphed, and bore away many a palm of vic tory from him and those who advocated the doctrines of Arminius. And what must have heightened the value of these trophies was the fact of their being gained in the presence of a large auditory, many of whom were ladies, who were admitted to witness the intellectual superiority

of these professors, and other native and foreign divines who took a leading part in these debates. Sibrandus, who some time before had sought to gain a reputation by becoming, unsolicited, the antagonist of Grotius, but who sunk, in his intended attacks, unnoticed under his native littleness, certainly had now a better opportunity of succeeding in the attainment of distinction and eminence; but he and Gomarus, according to Hales, had alternate fits of violent passion, and thereby lost all the credit they might otherwise have obtained in beating an absent enemy.* One does not like to say too much of the dastardly conduct of these Dutch divines, but their manifestation of courage under such circumstances can but remind one of the equal prowess and vaunting of our Falstaff. To the disgraceful situation in which they were placing themselves in the estimation of every dignified and independent mind, these Belgic theologians appeared to be totally insensible, as well as reckless of the means they made use of to accomplish their object, which, according to Balcanqual, seemed to originate with their bitter enmity to, and eager desire to crush 'the Remonstrants. The foreign divines, however, who were not governed by the same feelings, and as members of the synod were of course accountable to a certain extent for its proceedings, felt that they were degraded by the adoption of such measures, and several of them could not forbear stating their

* Balcanqual says, "Sibrandus and Gomarus keep their fits of madness by course; the last fit before this came to Gomarus' turn, and this day Sibrandus flew out, but with such raving and fierceness of countenance that he was checked in his words by the lay and ecclesiastical presidents." Now though Gomarus thus stands associated with Sibrandus in this very uninteresting manner, yet he was infinitely the superior man in point of mind, and, with all his crabbedness, far better hearted than most of the Dutch Calvinist divines. Though the enemy of the doctrines of Arminius, and, of course, those who espoused them, yet, when he saw the cited condemned, some kindly feeling was excited in his heart toward them, and he made a proposal that a portion of their stipend should be allowed them, which was rejected by the stern Bogerman, while Polyander, the colleague of Episcopius, could see him degraded without showing any regret, or uttering a word of sympathy. One thing is to be said in favour of Gomarus,-that, so far as we know, he never advocated the doctrine of shedding blood on account of supposed error, which certainly cannot be said of many other of the Belgic Calvinistic clergy.