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with the wishes of the consistories. The ministers of Amsterdam formed a part of this deputation; and as Trig. landius was one, we will put it to the reader to judge, when he recollects the conduct of this man named at page 387, on the arrest of 'Welsing, the Arminian clergyman, whether such a charge in his case was not quite superflu. ous. This reviler of the Arminians needed no stimulus, beyond his own bitter enmity to them, to prompt him to endeavour to effect their ruin. Episcopius, aware of the embassy of these meek ministers, wrote a pamphlet on their mission, entitled, The Edict-hunting Religion of the Contra-Remonstrants, and especially of some of the Ministers at Amsterdam. But a work on the same subject being published by Uitenbogaerdt, rendered that of Episco. pius unnecessary. He, however, wrote another pamphlet, and published it under the following title: The Freedom of Religious Worship; being a Dialogue between a Remonstrant and a Contra-Remonstrant, on the Subject of tolerating the Religious Worship of the Remonstrants. This production was occasioned by the Calvinist ministers declaring from their pulpits that the celebration of public worship by the Arminians ought to be prevented.

The efforts of these gentlemen to induce the civil authorities to prohibit these religious assemblies being unavailing, the Remonstrants now began to build churches, or appropriate other places for public worship in various parts of the provinces; and, desiring to have uniformity of service in the administration of Baptism and the Lord's Supper throughout all their congregations, Episcopius was requested to draw up a formulary to be used for the cele bration of these two ordinances. This was printed and subsequently abridged, and appended to the Catechism used in the Arminian Churches. The Remonstrant ministers, says Limborch, now began to appear in the public streets; and we read only of one instance of an attempt being made to seize any of them. This happened to Episcopius and Uitenbogaerdt while they were upon a journey, which, in all probability, was the act of an officious and unauthorized sheriff of a town through which they were passing.*

*Grotius, learning that these ministers were thus unmolested, endeavoured also to obtain a residence in Holland, and went and

The affairs of the Remonstrants now assuming so interesting an aspect, Episcopius began to think of entering the marriage state, and chose Maria, the daughter of Jans Pesser and the widow of Henry Niellius, to be his wife. She was of an honourable family, resided at Rotterdam, and was very pious, amiable, and intelligent. That he might meet with no opposition to the celebration of his nuptials from any bigoted Contra-Remonstrant zealot, who might take fire when he heard the name of Episcopius announced, he deemed it proper to have himself registered by that of Egbert, his mother's maiden name. On the 8th of September, 1630, when he ap. peared in the council house of Rotterdam, where the mar. riage was celebrated, the secretary of the court, after reading his name as Simon Egbert, looked at him and, recognizing him, turned to the schepens or aldermen present, and said, "Gentlemen, is not this Episcopius, who was banished the country?" They not attending to his question, he repeated it, but their designed inattention to his repetition of it showed him that his conduct was displeasing to them, and he was silent; and the marriage was celebrated without farther interruption. Among those who congratulated Episcopius on this occasion, was

abode there for some time. But though he had many friends, yet he found it impossible to continue, as an order was issued for the seizing of his person. He therefore returned to Paris, and subsequently went to Stockholm. Still feeling the mal du pais, he determined once more to hazard a return to his native country. Setting sail for Lubeck, a storm arose, and the vessel was driven upon the coast of Pomerania. During the passage he fell sick, and after being landed, was conveyed, by a tedious journey of eight days, to Rostock. Feeling his end approach, he sent for a Lutheran minis. ter, who exhorted him to look to Jesus Christ for salvation. He replied, "I place my hopes on Jesus Christ alone;" and then, with his hands joined in the attitude of supplication, he repeated, after the minister, a prayer used by the Lutherans, commencing thus: "Heer Jesu, wahr mensch und Gott, &c. " that is, Lord Jesus, true man and God; and shortly after expired.

But though, while dying, Grotius confessed himself to be as the publican, and admitted the Divinity of Christ, and expressed him. self as depending wholly on his merit for acceptance with God, yet the bitter spirit of some of the Calvinists did not scruple to publish that he died a Socinian, a Papist, nay, even an Atheist.-Enfield's History of Philosophy, Burigny's Grotius, and Bayle; article, Grotius.

his friend Grotius, who wrote to him from Paris, saying "that the place which gave birth to the distinguished Erasmus was worthy to witness such an event."

The Apology for the Confession of the Remonstrants, published by Episcopius, had by this time been extensively read, and obtained them many friends among the more tolerant of the Dutch people, as well as in other countries. This was deeply mortifying to the bigoted Contra-Remonstrants, and they now more violently than ever charged them with being Socinians. Of the character of the evidences by which these accusations were attempted to be supported the reader may judge, when he is, informed that the principal one was the fact of the Remonstrants not having openly denounced those who had adopted the doctrines of Socinus, and avowed their belief of the utter impossibility of their salvation. They also endeavoured the more speciously to fasten this charge upon them, by attributing to Episcopius the publication of an anonymous work, of whose author he was perfectly ignorant. It appeared under the following title, The Peace and Unity of the Church; and contained a defence of Socinianism. It was subsequently discovered to be the production of a Polish nobleman by the name of Samuel Pripkovius.

Not being able to bring odium upon the Remonstrants by these charges of heresy, the deputies from the provincial Calvinistic synods memorialized the States-General, praying that the religious assemblies of the Remonstrants might be prohibited. To give effect to this application, they appended to the memorial certain extracts from the Apology for the Confession, which they supposed would further their object by rendering the Arminians offensive to the civil authorities. This document was at first thought to be the joint production of the Leyden professors, but it was afterward discovered to have originated with Episcopius' old enemy, Festus Hommius. These gentlemen, however, soon showed themselves to be worthy compeers of this personage in his measures of bigotry and slander, for they shortly after published a work, entitled, A Specimen of the Calumnies and Heterodox Opinions of the Remonstrants, as extracted from their Apology and published as a Forerunner, designed to act as a Warn

ance.

ing to all true Christians. This was published in Latin and Dutch, but the more complete refutation, of which this was said to be the forerunner, never made its appearUitenbogaerdt published an answer to this work in Dutch. Episcopius also wrote one in the same language, which, however, never appeared in print; but he subsequently composed a more extended reply to this SPECIMEN of the Leyden professors, in which every thing which was laid to the charge of the Remonstrants was refuted, article by article, and many arguments advanced, by way of showing why the Remonstrants scru. pled to condemn and openly denounce others, when they were not authorized so to do by the Scriptures. We are not surprised that these men, who had themselves been denounced by the Calvinists, and whose denunciation was the preliminary to confiscation of property, banishment, a dungeon, or death, should hesitate to show their orthodoxy, by asserting of any persons that the dogmas they held were the signs of their being the enemies of God, and the reprobates of heaven, and, therefore, might justly be hunted down by men. Independently of the remembrance of what they had suffered tending to guard them against such measures, we say that their piety and their creed alike forbade their doing it. The Arminian clergy had boldly attacked and triumphantly refuted the doc. trines of the Socinians, and yet because they hesitated to add to their refutations, anathemas, and denunciations, leaving the work of condemning a weak and erring fellow creature to final perdition, to Him whose alone is the righteous prerogative of fixing the everlasting destiny of men, they were thus charged with being Socinians and heretics by their Calvinistic opponents. How far the reader will think this was justifiable ground for thus criminating them we cannot say; only we would here remark that for any person to indulge in the supposed right to denounce others in vindication of the truth, and thereby to prove his orthodoxy, is a dangerous course for a weak and excitable creature like man to pursue. For, in so acting, he is liable to lose the charities of our holy religion, and confound hatred to certain persons with zeal for religion; and, while cherishing a vindictive forethought of the destiny of a heretic, he may not only ac

quire the malignity of misanthropy, but form his views of the Divine Being under such excitements, and thereby be led to contemplate him as the patron of a sect, instead of the tender Father of all those who love and fear him.

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CHAPTER XVII.

THE reader will recollect that we have more than once referred to the fact of certain Arminian clergymen being confined in the Louvestein, under sentence of imprisonment for life. They were eight in number before Poppius, who, for his holy and devoted spirit, might be considered the Fletcher of the Remonstrants, was removed from his prison by death, "to range at large," according to his own words, "in the delightful paradise of God." The names of the remaining seven were, Carolus Niellius, Peter Cupus, Bernerus Vesekius, Simon Lucas By. sterus, Theodore Bomius, Paul Lyndenius, and Arnoldus Geesteranus. Some of these had been confined for seven years, others eight, and Bysterus even ten. Since the elevation of Prince Frederic to the Stadtholdership, mea. sures had been again and again adopted by their friends to procure their release; but all in vain. Had this amiable gentleman, who was the grandfather of our William III., been allowed to follow the dictate of his own feelings, he would, from his esteem for the Remonstrant ministers, and love of religious liberty, have immediately released them. But, though he succeeded to his brother's office, he did not succeed to his power; for the persons whom Maurice had elevated to authority during the revolution he created, were opposed to Prince Frederic on the ground of his attachment to the Remonstrants; and one of these, a leading personage among them, had gone so far as to tell the princess dowager, "that, if her son did not take other counsels," that is, show himself opposed to the Arminians, "he should not be invested with the government at his brother's decease." And this lady, being attended by Curcellæus during her last illness, declared to this minister, says Brandt, that she apprehended that her son was in danger of his life on account of his

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