ARMINIUS: A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. CHAPTER III.-HIS MINISTRY AND DOUBTS AT AMSTERDAM. Ir was in the autumn of 1587 that Arminius arrived at Amsterdam. His first care was to appear before his patrons, and clear himself from the charges industriously circulated against him. It was by no means a difficult task. In the minds of honest and impartial men, he was at once acquitted. His career as a student had been brilliant and successful, and spoke for itself. He had been the first man of his year at Leyden. He had won trophies at Basle. He had splendid testimonials from Geneva. His preceptor, Beza, twice honoured him with high commendations. 'He possesses,' said the venerable scholar, in his second letter, a mind admirably qualified for the discharge of duty should it please God to accept his service in the work of the church.' The journey to Italy was readily explained, and the calumnies invented concerning it indignantly refuted. The testimony of the companion of his tour, Adrian Junius, completely answered every accusation. Nothing could have been further from the mind of either of them than tendency to the faith and communion of Rome. The voice of suspicion, which had grown loud enough before his return, was speedily silenced. was granted without hesitation. Leave was given to make use of it by taking a journey of business and pleasure to South Holland; and the necessary expenses of the journey were furnished. Soon after his return he presented himself before the court or presbytery for examination. His orthodoxy was tested on the leading points of the Christian faith. His testimonials were read and approved. There could be but one opinion as to his fitness for the ministry. In due form, according to the custom of the Dutch church, he was admitted to the exercise of its sacred functions. He began to preach, with the consent of the presbytery, in the pulpit of the Reformed church at Amsterdam. Such was the favour with which his probationary services were received, that in the course of the year he was called to the ministry in connection with this church, and publicly ordained as one of its pastors. The fruit of his long and patient training now began to appear. He was but twenty-eight years of age, but he gave evidence of profound acquaintance with theological learning, and displayed the abilities of a master in pulpit oratory. His manner was pleasing and impressive. The appearance of Arminius before His voice was soft and musical; its the ecclesiastical court for examina- tone and inflections so accommodated tion was, however, delayed for a few to his theme as to seem to flow out weeks. The delay was occasioned of it. His discourses were marked by the candidate's own request. He by masculine vigour and sound eruwas not satisfied with his prepara-dition. There was about them nothing tion for the ministry, because it had crude or common place, nothing not sufficiently included the practice showy or superficial. In embellishof elocution. He wished, therefore, ing his subject he never overstepped for a brief interval that he might the modesty of truth; in explaining give attention to the modulation of it, he did it with singular clearness; his voice as a public speaker, and in enforcing its lessons, he was to the formation of a popular and emphatic and distinct. Meretricious persuasive style of address. In adornment was distasteful to him because unworthy, as he justly thought, of the grandeur and purity of the Christian system. 'He dis, dained,' says his friend Bert, the rhetorical elaboration and unctuous this the characteristic thoroughness of Arminius is seen. Everything he undertook he sought to do in the most finished manner, and to the utmost of his ability. The interval perfumery of the Greeks.* Truth had entered the Netherlands, not in its majestic simplicity he judged most alluring, and quite sufficient for its own defence. He had selected as the subject of his expositions and discourses, the prophesies of Malachi, and the epistle to the Romans rather a bold choice for a young divine. But with such reverence for the Scriptures, such freshness of thought and force of argument was his preaching characterized, that no one could listen to him without pleasure and profit. The expectations of his patrons were more than realized. He rose rapidly into fame. Reflective Dutchmen of all classes were in raptures with the new pastor. His praise was in everybody's mouth. Professional men, ministers, public speakers, acknowledged the instructiveness and power of his ministry. He was said to be a compendium of sacred learning, an encyclopædia of divinity. Moreover, the common people heard him gladly. In their quaint and homely speech this son of an Oudewater cutler was called 'a file of truth,' a whetstone for the mind,' a pruning-knife for rank-growing error.' Such was the popularity and applause that greeted Arminius on the very threshold of his public career. from Germany, but from the south of France. There might be here and there reformers of the Augsburg persuasion, but by far the greater majority were Huguenots in their belief. The Dutch church became accordingly, not Lutheran, but Calvinistic. In the age of controversy and free discussion which succeeded the Reformation there was, however, even among Protestants in Holland occasional deviation from the Genevan theology. One of the boldest assailants of the Calvinistic system was Richard Coornhert, a citizen of Amsterdam. Early in the revolution he had acted as Secretary to the States. He had rendered good service to his country in her struggle for freedom, and was an earnest disciple of the Reformation. But he held doctrines which in those days of only partial enlightenment were deemed by some to be pestilent and hateful. He declared it was for the public good that the promises made to Roman Catholics about the free exercise of their religion should be faithfully kept. For this stretch of charity and good faith he nearly paid the penalty of his life, and was saved only by flight. He acknowledged as brethren all the faithful in the Lord whether Anabaptists or Catholics, But he was not to be turned aside Calvinists or Lutherans. He mainby this sudden and quick renown tained that it was not lawful to force from the object upon which his conscience, nor to punish heretics heart was set. Truth, not fame, with death. For such detestable was the guerdon he sought to win. opinions a storm of opposition was With the ardour of a youthful af- raised around him. Still further, fection he had entered upon the he considered there were dangerous pursuit, and his first love was not errors in the views of Calvin and to be forsaken. He took the Beza on some important articles of Scriptures only for his authority and faith; and he spoke and wrote guide. He regarded with reverence against them. He especially conthe great interpreters of the church, tested the doctrine of absolute, unand the voice of its people. But he conditional election and reprobation. thought for himself, and followed He held at Delft a discussion upon implicitly only God and his con- these themes with two ministers of science. In the second year of his that city. The States-General forbad ministry, circumstances occurred the continuance of the controversy, which were at once a tribute to his but soon after allowed it to be resumed genius, and a test of his loyalty to at Leyden, and sent deputies to act honest conviction. The Reformation as moderators of the debate. An Rhetorico apparatu et Grecorum my-important restriction, however, was imposed upon Coornhert. He was rothecis non uteretur. Orat. Funeb. Arminius undertakes to answer Coornhert. to death. The discussion came off and broke up, as public discussions generally do, without yielding any satisfactory or beneficial results. Neither party was improved in temper, and both claimed the victory. But Coornhert was afterwards prohibited from publishing his opinions, though somehow or other treatises from his pen did get into circulation. He became thenceforward the common representative of heresy. His name was the butt of all orthodox preachers. Every pulpit in the Netherlands was eloquent in his confutation. Everybody sought to prove his own soundness in the faith and skill in argument by a vigorous fence with Coornhert. Every petty synod of the churches deputed some one specially to this task. The ecclesiastical court of Amsterdam, to discharge its conscience in the matter, and to complete the discomfiture of the heretic, resolved to summon to the controversy the subtle and trenchant logic of Arminius. The young and popular preacher was in no way reluctant to enter the lists. 91 to say nothing about putting heretics | might be lost, and that Christ should die and the Holy Spirit be given to the elect so that they might be saved. In the strange jargon of speculative theology this is called supralapsarianism. Coornhert objected to this dogma that it makes the fall a necessity, and God the author of sin. The Delft combatants to obviate his objection took lower ground. They maintained that the decree for the creation of man having been made and the fall foreseen, God determined to elect to salvation certain persons from the created and fallen mass, and to leave the rest to perish, but without antecedent reference to Jesus Christ, or any regard to a reception or rejection of the gospel. In the same strange jargon this view is known as sublapsarianism. The pamphlet advocating this doctrine and attacking Beza's and Calvin's, was forwarded by the ministers of Delft to Martin Lydius, professor of divinity at the new university of Franeker, in Friesland. Lydius is said to have pledged himself to reply to it. Upon second thoughts, however, he resolved to remit this duty to Arminius who, he doubted not, would have pleasure in taking up arms in defence of his old tutor. The resolution seems to have been made in good faith. Lydius had formerly been pastor of the Reformed church at Amsterdam. He was personally acquaintedwith Arminius. He knew him to be thoroughly competent to the task. He had confidence in his acute, penetrating mind, his sound, honest judgment, his masterly vigour in the exposition and defence of truth. He could safely intrust such a charge to him. Besides, the refutation of this pamphlet would be an admirable preparation for the refutation of the treatises of Coornhert. Thus, the championship of orthodoxy, against what were deemed two different forms of heresy, was at the same time, and from two different sources, committed to Arminius. At the same time the Delft opponents of Coornhert issued a pamphlet which seemed equally to require a reply. They had defended Calvinism, as some modern disputants defend it, by first submitting it to essential or important modifications. They had receded from the high | ground of Beza, and had taken up a lower position. Beza taught that God in predestinating his elect to salvation, not only did not consider them as believers or unbelievers, but did not consider them as fallen or even created; that the eternal decree of God in predestination was positively and absolutely to elect to salvation certain persons whom he had not then decreed to create; or, in other words, that God decreed from all eternity to create mankind for the purpose of electing certain persons to salvation and rejecting the rest; and to carry out this decree he also decreed, and that from all eternity, that man should fall so that all He was not in the least indisposed to undertake the duty assigned to him. He had but recently left the university of Geneva. He had no suspicion of heresy being latent or germinant in his own mind. He had the most profound veneration for Calvin. He was well versed in the peculiarities of his system from attendance upon the lectures of Beza. He was zealous for the reputation of his old tutor, whose words were still fresh in his memory, and the sound of whose voice still lingered in his ears. He addressed himself, therefore, with his usual ardour to the work, but not, it appears, with his usual success. He laboured hard, and even fatigued and harassed himself. He weighed with great care the arguments on both sides. He brought them to the test of Divine truth. But, as he went on, difficulties and perplexities rose up and thickened around him. He knew not how to shape his reply. His own arguments, the arguments of others, did not satisfy his mind. He began to see in a favourable light the very principles he had been called upon to denounce. He began to doubt the very doctrine he had undertaken to defend. Of the exact process of his mental transition, it is to be regretted that we have no record. It would be in the highest degree interesting and useful to be able to follow the steps by which he was led to depart from the system in which he had been trained. All that is told us is, that first of all he felt that he could not meet the strictures of the Delft divines upon the supralapsarianism of Calvin and Beza with any solid and sufficient reply; and so was inclined to adopt the sublapsarian view. But on further consideration this also appeared attended with insurmountable objection, and was abandoned. This is all either Bert or Brandt tells us; and Arminius himself unhappily never had leisure or inclination to write the story of his ownmental development and growth. But whatever might be the process, his views gradually underwent a change. He did not long hesitate as to the course he should now pursue. He had never been accustomed to esteem lightly the dictates of conscience; at this crisis of his life he was loyal to her voice. Interest, advancement, ease, fame, invited him to defend principles which in his heart he began gravely to doubt. He could not heed these allurements. He would be true to conscience at whatever cost. But he would do nothing rashly. Breaking off from the task of replying to the Delft divines, he devoted himself with his characteristic spirit of earnest inquiry to deeper research and further thought respecting the questions at issue. Every fragment of time he could snatch from public duty was given to this study. He read the ancient fathers. re-considered the views of later writers. He pondered over and over again the words of Scripture. He sought enlightenment in every way possible, and kept himself jealously on his guard lest in his public discourses he should commit himself upon doctrines about which his mind was still unsettled. The troubles and perplexities through which he was passing were known only to himself and God, whose guidance and help he sought. His doubts and difficulties were for the present hidden in the sanctuary of his own bosom. He But there was one important question, more conducive to human happiness than untwisting the delicate cobwebs of metaphysical speculation, which he was determined not to allow to remain longer in abeyance. He was thirty years of age. He had been over two years in the ministry. But he was without a home. A lady of great accomplishments and eminent piety had won his affections. resolved to consummate his attachment by marriage. Elizabeth Real was in every way worthy of his love. Her father was an alderman of the city, and an Admiralty Director of Zealand. He had been distinguished for active exertions and heroic endurance in the early struggles of the Reformation. By his instru He Marriage of Arminius. mentality, and that of some of his friends, the preaching of the gospel was introduced into Holland. He was called to suffer for the truth. Missionaries were invited, chiefly from Flanders, to leaven the minds of the people with the new doctrines. Large assemblies were gathered together in the villages, and in the fields. At length the cities caught the contagion and claimed liberty of prophesying. Numbers of the inhabitants of Amsterdam embraced the Reformation. They were not content with the privilege of hearing sermons in the open country, since the open country at some periods of the year was under water. The Duchess of Parma suggested that something might be done with boats. The Prince of Orange, amused with the suggestion, replied that already preaching took place at the Lastadge' among the wharves. In the name of God then,' wrote Margaret, let them continue to preach in the Lastadge.' Within a few weeks after, the permission thus granted was withdrawn. The government was growing stronger. The sectaries in various parts of the Netherlands had been cut to pieces. The Duke of Alva was coming, and the trumpets of his advancing army resounded from the Alps. The 'Great Beggar,' Broderode, had fled. The Prince of Orange had left for Germany. Fresh edicts of persecution were issued, and all ministers, teachers, followers, or favourers of the new faith were condemned to the gallows. The tide of persecution rushing over the Netherlands already dashed upon the plains of Holland. The people fled, says the Dutch historian, Bor, in great heaps;' while all abettors of Spanish misrule began to erect their heads like dromedaries.' Lawrence Real saw the danger approaching, and 93 joined the exiles in their flight. He was in perils by land and sea for weeks. He had no passport for himself or his family. His intended route was known to the authorities at Amsterdam. Soldiers were sent after him with warrants for his arrest. Not suspecting pursuit he was yet, by the providence of God, saved from his pursuers. After many disasters and delays, he escaped to Embden, in an old fishing-boat that had been under water half a year, and the leaks of which he had to stop with his linen. His daughter Elizabeth, then only fourteen years of age, shared with her parents the sorrows of exile and the perils of flight. On the return of more peaceful days, they came back to Amsterdam. They had been settled in the city about ten years when Arminius arrived from Geneva. Whether her family, her experience, or her piety is considered, Elizabeth Real was a fitting companion for the honest and truth-loving Arminius. She was of honourable birth. She knew something of suffering for conscience sake. She had been nurtured in the school of adversity. Her character had grown and matured under trial to womanly strength and heroism. She possessed remarkable firmness of mind and undaunted courage. The union was destined to be a happy one. They were married at the old church, in the autumn of 1590, Ambrosius, the colleague of Arminius, performing the ceremony. The orphan of Oudewater now found solace and companionship in the sanctities of home. Without father, or mother, or brother, or sister, alone in the world, with troubles threatening on every side, he had prepared a retreat where he might nestle in security and repose amid the storms of life. |