Animadversions on Doctor Heylins Quinquarticular History, Part 30
Dr. H. Ibid.
Object. This Confession was ratified in a forcible and tumultuous way.
Answer. 1. This is said, not proved out of any Record. 2. There is usually something of disorder cleaving to the best things that are done in dissetled times. 3. Anno Christi 1571, there was a full Synod at Embden (the Town e…olled by the Doctor,) in which it was ordained▪ That none should be admitted for a Minister, till he had been examin'd, and subscribed this Confession and the Catechism of Heidelberg. Which De…ree was confirmed in the ensuing Synods of 1576, and 1586, and approved of by the States of Holland: Yet not so practised, but that in the want of others more Orthodox, there crept in some that taught things contrary both to the Confession and Catechism, whose hard names I will not fill my papers with. These men had not, notwithstanding all their restless endeavours, any great success: all things were reasonable quiet, till Arminius came to be Divinity Professor at Leyden, which was Anno 1603. Concerning which Arminius or Van Harmine, we must give a short account.
He was at first a Tapster or Chamberlain in a common Inn, from whence by the care of some Guests (who were pleased even to admiration with his prompt wit) he was removed, and set to School; maintained there out of the Publick Treasury of Amsterdam: where in process of time he was by the Magistrates of the City made Pastor, and preached with that accurateness and solidity, that every one thought him for his parts meet to be a Professor. Indeed magnus esse potuit, si minor esse voluit: he might have been high enough, had he not thought meet to raise himself higher, by trampling upon those whom the Churches of Christ have most deservedly had in the greatest admiration. The learned Iunius being dead, Utengobard thought none so meet to succeed him as Van Harmine; but the Belgick Churches knew him too well, to let him easily come to such a place, in which he might influence all that were Candidates for the Ministry. The Deputies of the Churches did admonish Utengobard, that he would cease to commend a man so suspected, to the Curators of the University of Leyden: but he, too proud to regard such admonitions, desisted not to commend Arminius, till he had brought him in to Iunius's Chair. But first a dismission must be obtained from Amsterdam, which could not easily be got; the Inhabitants of the City being taken with his Eloquence, the Presbytery (at least the wiser part of them) thinking that he did far less hurt at Amsterdam than he would do at Leyden, a place where Youth was formed, and where there was more liberty of teaching and prophecying than in a particular Church. However, dismissed he was at last; bu… upon this condition, that he should first have a Conference with the Learned Gomarus, and, in that Conference, by a most free and open declaration of his Opinion, free himself from all suspition of Heterodoxy; and that he should promise, if he had any singular Opinions, he would not discover them to the disturbance of the Churches. Arminius, if we may judge of his mind by what he writes to Utengobard, was not unwilling to come to this Conference; for these are his words, from Amsterdam, to Utengobard, 4. Martii, 1603, Non vereor in Arnoldi, Helmichii, Gomari, & quorumvis aliorum, qui istarum rerum peritissimi habentur, conspectu & praesentia de illis disserere, probe mihi conscius de sententiae meae veritate, & illorum censuram minime reformidans; quod tibi idcirco dico, ne hoc ipse timidius urgeas. Haesi quidem aliquando circa nonnullos articulos, non eousque tamen, ut quae de illis creditu necessaria ex Scripturis probari possunt, non adprobaverim; sed jam per diuturnas & assiduas meditationes id consecutus mihi videor, ut de omnibus & singulis rationem reddere non extimescam. Accordingly a Conference there was, before the Curators of the University, and the Deputies of the Synod; in which Arminius most expresly denied and condemned the Opinions of the Pelagians, concerning Grace, Free-will, Original Sin, Perfection in this Life, Predestination; adding, that he approved all that Augustin, and other Fathers had written against Pelagius; promising also to read nothing dissonant to the received Doctrine. Hereupon he was admitted Professor; and for some time he defended the Doctrine of the Reformed Churches in the Points of Christ's Satisfaction, Iustifying Faith, Iustification by Faith, Perseverance in Faith, Certainty of Salvation, and such other matters as afterwards he denied, and which he then (as is acknowledged by his good Friend Corvinus) maintained against his conscience. He seems by all his carriage, to be one that was resolved not to venture any further into the sea, than tha… he might have opportunity to step when he pleased upon the shore. Would Barnevelt have publickly undertaken his Patronage, then he would have ventured to proclaim defiance to all Dissenters; but Barnevelt not daring so to do, the valiant Professor contented himself mostly to instil his Notions and Principles into some of his Confidents: magnifying Castalio, Cornhertius, Suarezius, and as much vilifying Calvin, Beza, Martyr, Zanchy, Ursin; yet when he was accused so to do, he peremptorily denieth himself to be in the least guilty of discommending Calvin, or commending Cornhert; as may be seen in his Epistle to Sebastian Egbert, bearing date May 3. 1607, pag. 236. (Which is the usual way and method of Hereticks,) he expressed himself in such terms, as would serve to insinuate his own private Heterodox Opinions: and yet if he were questioned for them, he knew how to reconcile them to the Confessions and Catechism; contrary to which he pretends, in a Letter to Utengobard, that he never did say any thing in publick. He dreaded a Synod as the shadow of death; and thereupon set himself to make the Authority of the Magistrate in Ecclesiastical affairs, to be all in all: and when he saw that all his Policy notwithstanding, a Synod was like to be called, and he in that Synod like to be made answer for himself, seised upon with sorrow and overwhelmed with grief, he fell sick and died, Anno 1609, Octob. 19.
Two things more I would have observed concerning Arminius, 1. That in the set Conference betwixt him and Gomarus, not long before his death, he declared that he had never opposed the Doctrine of the certain Perseverance of Saints, and that he would not then oppose it: because such testimonies might be brought for it out of the Scriptures, as he was not able to answer: he would therefore only propound such places as made him somewhat to scruple and doubt about that matter.
2. He would not then consent to have Adolphus Venator dismissed, and to take another Pastor in his place; though Venator was at that time, as well for the impurity of his life, as his Doctrine, under the just censure of the Church.
If the Remonstrants count it any way for their honour, to fight under such a Captain or Leader, let them enjoy their phantasie. Had not our first Reformers been endued with more courage and resolution, Religion had never made that progress among us, that now it hath. I'le never think any Opinion worth embracing, whose Author either doubts of it, or durst not suffer for it. However, glad I should be if they who follow, or rather out-run Arminius in the five Points, would be of the same mind with him as to the Pope of Rome: of whom he thus writes in an Epistle to Sebastian Egbert, bearing date Septemb. 24. 1608, Aperte profiteor me Pontificem Romanum pro membro corporis Christi non habere; sed pro hoste, pro perduelle, pro sacrilego, pro blasphemo, pro tyranno, & violentissimo injustissimae in Ecclesiam dominationis usurpatore, pro homine peccati, pro filio perditionis, pro exlege illo celeberrimo.
Well had it been for the Belgick Churches, if Arminianism and Arminius had both died together: but they did not. Breaches, as the Doctor truly notes, pag. 49, grew wider and wider. The Remonstrants, having no hopes their cause should succeed, if debated in a full and lawful Synod, endeavour to shelter themselves under the wing of the Civil Magistrates; whose favour that they might be the more sure to gain, they ceased not upon all occasions to imbitter the Civil Powers against all the Pastors that were of a perswasion contrary to theirs, speaking and Printing of them, as if they were enemies to Magistracy, and introduced an Ecclesiastical Power collateral and equal to the Civil: (an Artifice that Hereticks have alway used when they have been put to their shifts.) Not content thus to reproach their Brethren, they further propound, if there must needs be a Synod, it might consist not of Persons delegated by the Churches, but of certain nominated by the Magistrate. Thinking that by this device they had put themselves out of all fear of Synodical censure, they make an open Schism, and present a Remonstrance to the States of Holland and West-Friesland; in which they neither nakedly and plainly declared their own Opinions, nor candidly represented the Tenents of their Adversaries. Much they endeavoured that no Copy of this Remonstrance might be given out; but at length a Copy was got, and a Contraremonstrance made. The Doctor tells us, that