with the earliest Christian churches; but their duties are no where specified, and any views which may be held on this subject will not affect what we have said respecting the diaconate.

shall do it. It is not for us to de- | frequently mentioned in connection termine the particular functions to be performed by the deacons of all churches. We have seen that no rule which should meet all cases could be given. The church itself is the best judge of the duties which are required for it. Let each church, therefore, decide for itself what are the duties to be performed by its deacons. This is the only rule which we can give, and we think it is in accordance with the whole tenor of Scripture teaching. There are many duties which are to be performed by a Christian church, which are perpetual, such as the management of the business of the church, the conduct of its discipline, and the visitation of the sick.

Should the diaconate of these functions be held for life or for a limited period? This also the church must decide for itself. We have no command on this point in Scripture. 1 Tim. iii. 8-13, which have been quoted on this subject are not to the point, and prove nothing. We frequently hear of the tyranny and haughtiness of deacons who have abused their power. It appears to us that this evil would rarely occur, and when it should happen would be easily remedied, if the deacons should be elected for a limited period, provided the members of the church do their duty. Some may so far forget their Christian liberty and even manhood, as, through fear or interest, to elect to the diaconate men whom they know to be unsuited to the office; but in this case the evil must be charged upon the church itself and not upon the system. The question of the duration of the term of office of deacon we regard as quite open, and one which we think it best that each church should decide for itself.

We are reminded that elders are

It will doubtless be said that we abolish the office of the diaconate as found in our churches. We certainly change the foundation on which it rests; but why not, if we find that we have been labouring under a delusion and perpetrating an error? If our practice has been opposed to the spirit of the Word of God, the sooner we change our practice the better. If we have hitherto done wrong, a fear of the consequences of making a change must not deter us from doing right for the future. Moreover, the practical change would in many cases be so slight as to be scarcely perceptible. Where the right man is in the right place all would continue as before; but where, by stirring to make our duties coincide with those which were never intended as a model for us, we have neglected the work that is set before us, there must be a change, radical and complete. Seeing that the duties of the diaconate cannot be discovered from any passage or number of passages of Scripture, let us turn from the letter which cannot guide us to the spirit which shines through it. us no longer try to make all our duties and offices exactly correspond with those in different circumstances and in other ages; but seek to be led by that Spirit which directed them. Let us boldly and earnestly seek to know the work that God has set before us; and, relying on His Spirit for grace and for strength, let us appoint as our deacons, earnest, willing men, who are anxious to do that work, and God will bless us, and cause his face to shine upon us. J. N. D.

Let

ARMINIUS:

A

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.

CHAPTER V.-HE IS CALLED TO THE DIVINITY PROFESSORSHIP AT LEYDEN.

THE first few years of strife at Amsterdam were succeeded by ten long years of peace. The change was in every way agreeable to Arminius. He was not indisposed to defend truth and refute error when by occasion or necessity the duty was laid upon him. But he loved the quiet hours of thought far more than the stormy seasons of controversy. His mind was reflective rather than dogmatical; his taste that of the scholar and critic rather than of the polemic and partisan. He was more inclined to discriminate than to declaim, to balance with candour the arguments of opposing teachers than to rush with eager haste into the arena of public debate. Suffered to continue his researches at pleasure, he communed devoutly with the Oracles of Truth, gave provocation to no one, and jealously guarded the peace of the church. His ten years of comparative repose were pleasantly and profitably spent. They were perhaps the best and happiest years of his life. Enjoying the affection of his people, the respect of the city and its authorities, he could treat with indifference the ever - meddlesome zeal of bigotry and faction. He was wholly devoted to study and pastoral toil. The din of theological disputation no longer distracted him. His powers were maturing by exercise and experience; his strength and confidence were daily growing more firm and established. He was pursuing fresh inquiries and hiving fresh wisdom from year to year.

'I am exerting myself to the utmost,' he writes to his friend Uitenbogardt, in teaching the truth already known to me, and in searching out what is not; yea, also, in more thoroughly investigating the truth which I do know, and in establishing and confirming it on solid grounds. But these things I do in silence and in hope; putting up meanwhile with the preposterous

zeal and scarcely sufferable vehemence of not a few till God see fit to rid me of their annoyance or to impart to them a spirit of discretion and prudence to temper and moderate their zeal.' 'I cannot sufficiently wonder,' says he, in a letter written somewhat earlier, to the same friend, at the overweening boldness of some who without taking pains to acquaint themselves with contro versies brand with the mark of heresy whatever is not agreeable to their palate. Truth, even theological truth, so far as it concerns the full knowledge of disputed points has been sunk in a deep well, whence it cannot be drawn without much effort. O that the God of truth may grant me to find it, that my mind may be set at rest. Then indeed shall I exceedingly rejoice as one who has discovered a precious treasure; while to all those who have contributed any measure of assistance I shall acknowledge myself bound by many and deep obligations.'

The opinions of distinguished men of his day Arminius estimated at a high value. He sought to make them useful in shaping or modifying his own. From several sources during this period he obtained assistance in his investigations. Gellius Snecan, a learned minister of Friesland, had published an introduction to the Ninth of Romans. Arminius was pleased to discover that it propounded substantially the same view that he had recently advocated from his own pulpit at Amsterdam. He thanked the author, by letter, for his work, and transmitted for his inspection his own analysis of the chapter. To Martin Lydius, of Franeker, to Taffin, of the Walloon Church, and to Kuchlin, his colleague at Amsterdam, he made known his doubts, and at their recommendation consulted personally on the subject with Francis Junius, of Leyden, a man

a

natural gifts, and invited to supernatural good; or, in other words, man in common without regard to sin. Against this view Arminius with his usual acumen presses several objections. He considers that the image of God in man was never natural but always supernatural (that is spiritual), having respect to supernatural (that is spiritual) life. He asserts that the predestination to salvation of man in such a state seems to him to involve the necessity of the fall, to make sin part of God's will, to be inconsistent with Scripture, while it does not accord with other views to which Junius signifies his assent. He dwells upon election as flowing from grace, and reprobation from justice, and both contemplating man as a sinner, and not as pure and innocent. He also speaks of the mediation of Christ, of adoption in Christ, as assuming both the sin and faith of man. The correspondence was renewed by Arminius after a long silence, but Junius thinking probably that a further discussion would not be useful, or it may be,

of exquisite judgment, of moderate | nocence, furnished of God with opinions, of great erudition, whose service to the Reformation in the Netherlands had been considerable. Arminius had taken into his confidence his college friend Uitenbogardt, and to him he communicates everything respecting the progress of his inquiries. He tells him of the interview he had had with Junius, and declares that he had been as much charmed with some of his observations as if he had discovered an immense treasure, and that in comparison with knowledge sure and satisfactory to his own mind on questions which had perplexed him with doubt for seven years, he set a trivial value on all the wealth of Croesus and Midas, and all the treasures of the world. An interesting correspondence was opened between Arminius and the learned Professor, which Arminius for some reason or other broke off. A pledge of secrecy had been exchanged, but Junius did not strictly keep it. Copies of some of the letters got into circulation. Amongst others the redoubtable Peter Planc saw or heard of them. As the last letter of Junius was unanswered, Peter Planc, with his usual officiousness and impertinence tells Arminius that at length his mouth is effectually stopped. The taunt was the very reverse of truth. There was nothing polemical in the correspondence. Throughout it was of the most friendly character. The spirit in which it was conducted was on both sides that of modest and reverent inquiry after truth, and the difference of opinion between Junius and Arminius was scarcely greater than the difference between Junius and Peter Planc. The chief matter of discussion was predestination. The position taken by the Professor was a middle one between supralapsarianism and sublapsarian

ism.

He maintained that the subject of divine predestination was not man as yet uncreated and unfallen, nor man created and fallen, but man created and unfallen, man in a state of natural

in

as

some suggest, finding himself too closely pressed, never replied to this fresh summons.

But Arminius meanwhile was not idle. At this interval he met with a treatise of Dr. Perkins, of Cambridge, on the mode and order of Predestination and the extent of Divine Grace.' He was gratified with the opportunity of acquainting himself with the opinions of an English divine on the subject, and he gave the work of Dr. Perkins a careful perusal, preparing as he went on an elaborate criticism. He was about to transmit this criticism to the author when he heard of his death. At this time also he compiled a synopsis of theological common-places in which the result of his researches was reduced to systematic form.

*Homines in puris naturalibus consideratos ut ex natura supra naturam evehendos. Hominem a Deo consideratum fuisse communiter, citra rationem peccati ut causa. Amica Collatio cum F. Junio.

Heroic Conduct of Arminius during the Plague.

217

He interceded for the City in fervent prayer, aз Abraham interceded for Sodom. He went from house to house dispensing truth and consolation to the sick and the dying, sometimes venturing with characteristic intrepidity into the midst of infection and disease to give refreshment to the body as well as the soul. He was especially useful, as his letters show, in affording comfort and peace to some whose minds were troubled with perplexity and doubt as to the nature of justifying faith, and the evidence of acceptance with God.

Moreover, he was rising to eminence | things, solemn awe of God seized and influence in the Dutch Church, upon the people, and unusual imand his position imposed upon him pressibility to Divine truth was new duties. The revision of the everywhere manifested. Some fled Dutch translation of the Scriptures from the scene of danger. Arminius had been determined upon. He remained at his post, fortified took an active part, though without against fear. He committed himmuch success, in directing the selec- self and his family into the hands tion of judicious scholars for the of God, and continued to discharge work. He was appointed President the duties of his office with exof the Annual Synod of the Church emplary diligence and fidelity. His of South Holland. English Inde- attention was now called more pendents were flocking to Amster- especially to the practical part of dam, and with singular bad taste the work of the ministry. He repaid the hospitality they enjoyed warned the ungodly. He comforted by violent attacks upon the Dutch the faithful. Church. Arminius was drawn into discussion with them. Anabaptists, also, flourished in the Netherlands, and made considerable stir among the people. Persecution of them had ceased. The last Anabaptist martyr in the Low Countries, a woman, had been buried alive three years before at Brussels. But the doctrine was not buried, and still spread. Arminius was asked to refute in a single treatise all the errors of this growing sect. When the first year of the seventeenth century opened, he was engaged upon his new task. But it was never completed. Arminius could not curse Anabaptists so roundly as Calvin had done. They held views upon predestination and free-will which Arminius could not denounce. They maintained, as he did, principles of the widest toleration. Some of them might be guilty of abominable excesses, but others were devout and godly men. Arminius saw, as he advanced, that the work was not assigned to him in good faith. He could not prosecute it with pleasure, and when more urgent business occupied his attention he abandoned it altogether. With this his long years of peace closed, and new and interminable contentions began.

In 1602 the plague visited Amsterdam. Its ravages were terrible, not only in that city but throughout Holland. Apparent nearness to death had a great influence upon the minds of thousands. Deep conviction of the reality of spiritual

While Arminius was thus making full proof of his ministry in the midst of peril and death, Providence was preparing for him new anxieties and new honours. The pestilence which visited Amsterdam desolated other cities. At Leyden two Professors fell victims to it, one of them the recent correspondent of Arminius. When men like Junius were taken away, it was not very easy to see who could supply the vacancy. In a letter to Uitenbogardt, Arminius himself speaks of his own perplexity in the matter. He deeply deplored the death of his able and scholarly friend as a personal loss, and desiring the prosperity of the new seat of learning he was anxious about a successor. Wherever he looked, there seemed scarcely any hope. France could scarcely furnish among the Reformed Churches a single divine of sufficient learning and genius. Germany had but few, and these were already advanced

beyond the active period of life. | day? I will not bear it; I will not