as these; Thus all our ministers have taught: This has always been the opinion of the reformed church: but I hear nobody cry, Thus saith the Lord."

At length the States of Holland ordered the Professors, Arminius and Gomarus, to attend at the Hague, and to enter into a conference before the Great Council, to the end that all differences might be composed. After they had both been heard, the Council declared that they did not differ about any fundamentals in religion, and for the rest they ought to bear with each other. Grotius, who was then Advocate Fiscal (or Chancellor of the Exchequer) of the provinces of Holland, &c. informs us, that Uitenbogart expected no better issue for Arminius than what happened to Castellio, a very learned and famous man, who was reduced to such straits by the rage of his adversaries, that he was obliged to earn his bread by the sawing of wood.*

In this contest, which was principally on predestination, it was thought that Gomarus was the least inclined to kindness or concession, and a certain person who knew both parties, observed on the occasion, that he had rather appear before the tribunal of God with the faith of Arminius than with the charity of Gomarus.

In 1609, the year in which Arminius died, there was a disputation at Leyden, On the calling of man to salvation. At this disputation Arminius presided, when he denied that men are converted by a necessary or irresistible force, but he strenuously maintained, that God gives, or is ready to give sufficient strength for the discharge of that duty to which men are called. Gomarus was present, and could scarcely restrain his rage, even before the assembly, which was very large. On coming out of the Auditorium, or place of disputation, he attacked Arminius with great violence, and accused him of using arguments which had opened the door to Popery. Arminius denied the charge, and said, "Time will shew which of us is in the wrong. I believe that the doctrine of irresistible force is contrary to Scripture and antiquity, and also to the Confession and the Catechism."

Brandt relates, that about this time one Herman Barentson, visitor and comforter of the sick at Amsterdam, was discharged because he was hot so high in his sentiments on predestination as some of his colleagues. This poor man had a wife and children, and was brought into great distress by the persecution which he suffered. He had lived before on the profits of a good trade, but now he was forsaken by all his customers, and, after many difficulties, he was obliged to go to the East Indies for the support of his family. The Clergy of Amsterdam made no scruple to pour

* Mr. Wesley published a translation of Castellio's Dialogues in the Arminian Magazine for 1781.

the most vulgar abuse on those who did not agree with them in the article of predestination, and to call them Mammalukes, Devils, and Plagues, and it was even attempted to exclude from the magistracy of Amsterdam, all persons who were more moderate than others concerning this doctrine.

In the year 1613, the learned Episcopius, whose abilities were so pre-eminently manifested at the Synod of Dort, and on other occasions, was in great personal danger from a mob in the new church at Amsterdam, which was excited by the Clergy. The people cried out, Away with these mutineers-For shame, you seditious tribes of rogues and vagabonds! The dog-whipper joined the mob and bawled out, Where are they? Let me come at them; and he laid hold on Episcopius. One of the ministers asked Episcopius what he did in the church, and why he did not keep out of it. At another time a smith, working at his forge, and seeing Episcopius pass by, ran after him in the street with a hot iron, designing to thrust it into him, and crying out, You Arminian,-You disturber of the Church! But by flight, and the intervention of, others, Episcopius escaped his rage.

In order to prevent the spread of the reformed religion in the Spanish Netherlands, the Archduke and Duchess, in the year 1610, had forbidden their subjects, or any persons, frequenting their territories, to enter into any discussions on religion, or on the events of the late war. But pious persons among the reformed endeavoured to make the best use of the liberty allowed them by the Truce, and they held private assemblies in the Netherlands for the purpose of spreading their religion. This brought forth a placard from the Archduke and Duchess, forbidding all persons to preach or teach any doctrine contrary to the catholic religion, or its laws and traditions, either in public or in private. All persons were prohibited from singing any psalms which were not allowed by the Roman Catholic Church; and all who should leave the United Provinces and enter into the Spanish Netherlands, were required to live catholically, on pain of being punished as disturbers of the public tranquillity.

While the reformed were well acquainted with these circumstances, and had not yet recovered from the wounds which their cruel enemies had inflicted on them, they were still but little inclined to peace among themselves, and their contentions were carried on in a manner which gave too great cause of triumph to the Roman Catholics. Arminius was dead, but Gomarus, his colleague in the university of Leyden, was alive, and had now an opportunity of attacking Arminius with less danger of refutation than before. He was not disposed to spare either the dead or the living, and in a publication which he called a Warning, he attacked the Oration of Bertius on Arminius, and the declaration

which Arminius had delivered to the States, relative to his own conduct, and the doctrines which he believed. Bertius wrote an answer to Gomarus; and other publications soon followed from various quarters. Arminius's widow, and her brothers, published the declaration which Arminius had made to the States, and in a preface to it, they tell Gomarus that he was transported by violent passions against Arminius, and that while he represented the deceased as an impostor without conscience or the fear of God, all those who knew him best, esteemed him as a treasure of learning, a mirror of virtues, and an example of plain, open, and true-hearted Dutch honesty.

The Arminians, at length, perceived that they should be turned out of the churches, and at Amsterdam they met for the worship of God in private houses. At Horn, they met first in a garden or yard, and afterwards in burghers' houses. Preaching was begun in the house of a carpenter at Amsterdam, by the Walloon, or French Remonstrants, and the Dutch Remonstrants soon followed their example. At one of these meetings appeared, in company with ten or twelve other Contra-remonstrants, the same man, the smith who had pursued Episcopius with a hot iron. The preacher's text was, Matt. xii. 41, "The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation," &c. The preacher said that the Ninevites had repented, and that the Jews themselves might have repented, quoting Christ's words, "Ye will not come to me that ye might have life." But when the smith heard this, he cried out in a great rage, You lie, and you are a false teacher. Of consequence, altercation and disturbance ensued in the meeting; but the smith was silenced at that time, and compelled to depart.

The Remonstrants soon afterwards hired a warehouse which would hold a thousand people, and furnished it with a palpit and seats, as a place of worship. There was considerable opposition to the preaching in this place; but at the second meeting in it, a great crowd of persons assembled, when the minister preached from the following words in the Epistle to the Hebrews, "Today, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts." The mob without doors were, however, greatly enraged, and poured showers of stones into the house through the windows. The preacher, notwithstanding, went on with his sermon, and carefully abstained from saying any thing which might give offence to the Contraremonstrants. At the end of the sermon, an Englishman, of the name of Bromley, rose up, and made a speech against the Remonstrants, beginning, "Men and brethren, I know that I am a sinner," &c. and he ended, crying out, "O Amsterdam! O Amsterdam! thou wast wont to wear the crown, but to what art thou now fallen!" Then the mob cried out, Fall on-fall on! and began to demolish the window frames, and to commit other outrages, and many persons, fearing that they might be murdered,

escaped from the house in the best way they were able. The minister was treated with great violence; but when some of the mob attempted to strike him, the women warded off the blows with their chairs and stools. He was fetched out of the pulpit by his wife, and went off with five or six creditable burghers, but as soon as the mob discovered him, they ran after him, pelting him with dirt and stones. Some attempted to beat him with cudgels, and some cried, Knock him down, but he escaped from them without harm.

The city was in great agitation, and libels on the Remonstrants were fixed upon the walls in public places. On the Sunday following the mob began to assemble very early, and ran through the streets inquiring for the Arminian meetings, and when they could find none, they attacked a private house. At last, after greater disorders, the magistrates interfered, and imprisoned some of the rioters. The poor Arminians, however, were still persecuted, not only by the lower classes of people, but by the clergy, who intimated to them that the Sacrament of the Lord's-Supper would be refused to them.

It would be easy to relate various other instances of the sufferings of the Arminians or Remonstrants, in various parts of Holland; but enough has been said to shew the hateful spirit of the persecuting calvinistic frenzy which prevailed at that time. The Remonstrants petitioned the Prince of Orange, and pleaded their own cause at great length, with great Christian earnestness and propriety. Among other things in their petition, they say, "Are the Contra-remonstrants lovers of their country? So are we. Are they lovers of the Protestant religion? So are we. If any object that our ministers teach, that man may be saved by his own strength, and without the grace of God, they do them great injustice; and the eye of the Lord which watches over the righteous, sees that it is a slander. Is it said that they place salvation out of Christ, or seek it in their own merits? This is doing them great wrong. Admitting that they differ from others in certain dark controversies, must they be condemed as unfit to preach Christ to us? They that place the whole of religion in controversial points, take the certain way of losing it."*

I will not pursue farther the revolting history of this persecution in Holland; a persecution the more disgusting as it was carried on by Protestants, who themselves were but just delivered from the domination of Popery, and the savage atrocities of the Duke of Alva, after contending for civil and religious liberty against all the forces of Spain by sea and by land. A volume might be written on the subject, as a warning to Protestants of all denominations, against the anti-christian spirit of persecution.

See the Petition in Brandt's History.

Mere opinions, and forms, and ceremonies, distinct from the essence and power of godliness in the mind and conduct, are but wood, hay, and stubble, and are not worth contending for. The spirit of persecution in a Protestant is as wicked as in a Papist, and it arises from the same infernal source, however specious its appearance in the garb of pretended orthodoxy. It is, in fact, the spirit of Satan, and not the spirit of Christ, which rules in the minds of persecutors, and the deception is not the less diabolical in its effects, because persecutors know not what spirit they are of. Men of this character mistake christianity altogether, and have need to learn its first principles; and it is as much the duty of real Christians to pray that God would turn the hearts of these persecutors as the hearts of Jews, Turks, and Infidels. In England, we have most excellent laws and a good government, which oppose a standing barrier in defence of the rights of conscience, and in opposition to the evils of bigotry and despotism, and we should be grateful to God for our mercies, and use them to his glory. I am, dear Sir, &c.

Hull, November, 1812.

[The Extracts from Arminius's Declaratio Sententiæ, will appear in our next Number.]

REVIEW OF BOGUE AND BENNETT's HISTORY OF DISSENTERS. (Continued from page 347, of the last Year's Magazine.)

By the publication of the fourth volume of the History of Dissenters, in which Messrs. Bogue and Bennett manifest not less hostility towards the Methodists than in the former volumes, we are again put on our defence at the bar of the Public; and if, in some instances, we should contradict these writers positively, and rebuke them sharply, we trust that neither justice nor christianity will suffer by what we say. Our reviewer had committed the former volumes of this History to that part of his library which is the least frequented, and had no intention of disturbing the dust which they had contracted, until the appearance of the fourth volume induced him to open them again, and to make some observations on several passages in them, which in our former remarks we had passed over in silence.

The Methodists, by the help of God, are enabled to distinguish between the religion of Jesus Christ and the form of it; between the spiritual building which is erected "on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone," and the various kinds of machinery with which different persons surround it. We, therefore, utter no invectives against our neighbours because they are Churchmen or Presbyterians, or Independents, and adopt different forms of Christian worship and discipline. If they fear God, and work