Liberality of the Dutch Laity. 219 the Curators determined to satisfy | his removal to the Presbytery. It was themselves as to his orthodoxy. clear they did not share the susThe question now assumed a wide picions of his accusers. Indeed and even provincial importance. throughout the whole of the unThe ill-fated Barnevelt, Prime seemly contention it will be obMinister of the States of Holland, served that the laity never acted in and Uitenbogardt, then chaplain to unison with the clergy. The Prince Maurice, were called into most bitter, the most violent, the counsel. At the request and on be- least charitable of his enemies half of the Curators an interview Arminius always found in the with Arminius was sought by his sacred profession to which he himfriend Uitenbogardt. The full par- self belonged. The leading statesticulars of all the controversies in men of the day, all well-read Burgowhich he had engaged were re- masters and merchants, were greatly quested and freely furnished. The in advance of divines on the imviews of Arminius, so far as they portant questions involved in the were then developed, on the subject politics of the Reformation. They of predestination were solicited and had studied, and not in vain, the frankly given. The Curators were signs of the times. They valued informed of the result. After religious liberty far more than mature deliberation upon it, they no universal consent to catechisms of longer hesitated as to the course they orthodoxy or systematic formularies should take. Arminius, it appeared, of faith. They could not agree to differed from his brethren upon a the principle that to tolerate more doctrine upon which difference of religion than one was to make peace opinion had always prevailed in the with the devil. They would not Reformed Church. The sentiments burn, hang, or banish peaceable he held were neither new nor citizens for holding an heretical heterodox. The celebrated J. Hol- creed. They declined to lend the man had some time before stoutly force of civil power in order to maintained and defended them in strengthen the ban of excommunithat same University; and by no cation. Outside the recognized Synod of their own, or of the church of the nation they secured primitive church, had they ever the rights of conscience to Anabeen condemned. There was no baptists, to Independents, to Roman reason at all, they conceived, why Catholics; within the pale of the Arminius should not fill with honour church they would not deny the and usefulness the chair of Divinity rights of conscience to the disat Leyden. The decision to call him ciples of Melancthon and Erasmus. to the office was therefore taken, They had not learned their political and two of the Curators, men of wisdom where the clergy had great influence, conveyed the invita- learned their divinity, from the tion in person, being empowered to writings of Calvin, or the lips of treat with the Presbytery at Amster- Beza; and they looked upon the dam for the dismissal of Arminius. Reformation as a struggle of doubtful advantage if it delivered them from the inquisition of Spain and the tyranny of Rome only to subject them to Genevan metaphysics and the yoke of a new Papacy. So the Burgomasters of Amsterdam, and the Curators of Leyden, did not agree with the clergy in their estimate of the character of Arminius. But another and almost unexpected difficulty presents itself. The Burgomasters of the city have too high an appreciation of the talents, and too great an esteem for the character, of Arminius to relinquish their claim to his services without a struggle. They do not forget their benefactions and his pledges, and having supreme authority in the city they refuse to The pause that occured in the permit the Curators even to propose | prosecution of the call of Arminius same opinion and in nearly the same words. Gomar also re-appeared, designating Arminius a man of impure doctrine, and his opinion on the freedom of human volition, without which no moral act is possible to man, an impious sentiment. Meanwhile the Curators saw clearly that much of this animosity was to be attributed to ecclesiastical zeal, and the intense hatred peculiar to religious faction. There was now therefore no alternative but to prosecute the call with increased vigour. Arminius had been placed under the ban of an ecclesiastical assembly, and openly condemned without a hearing; if they gave up their invitation it would be an acquiescence in this unjust clerical censure. But they had no sympathy with the proceedings of the clergy. Their confidence in Arminius was not shaken, and to secure his services for the University and vindicate his reputation all their legitimate in to the Professorship through the veto of the Burgomasters, the clergy made use of in order to stir up fresh agitation. There was an ecclesiastical tribunal, the members of which were styled deputies of the churches, that distinguished itself in all the embroilments of this period. These deputies received their appointment from the provincial Synods, and were to a man valiant champions of Calvinism. To interpose obstructions in the way of the decision of the Curators an extraordinary meeting of their body was called. Uitenbogardt and other pastors were summoned to attend. The Conference on as sembling proceeded to consider whether it would not be for the interest of the Church, and of course for the glory of God, to issue a solemn and grave warning on the injury that would accrue to the Church and the College by the appointment of Arminius to the chair of Divinity of Leyden. It was influence should be employed. William vain that Uitenbogardt defended Arminius from the unfounded suspicions and ridiculous calumnies wantonly fabricated against him, and now for the thousandth time repeated and refuted. It was in vain that he admonished the deputies to toleration, to forbearance, to charity. The prime minister, the Curators, and all whom it concerned, received the threatened caveat; and with remarkable inconsistency, after their own warlike demonstration, the deputies commended the College to the care of its rulers, and requested that its peace might be kept unbroken. Another clerical antagonist entered the field. Werner Helmich, the new colleague of Arminius at Amsterdam, who had received his appointment mainly through the recommendation of Arminius, brought up again the old slander about leanings to Rome. He grounded his charge upon some expression of a charitable kind that in expounding the Revelation Arminius had used about the Romish church. It was proved that Junius had given the He the Silent, who had founded the University, was dead, but Prince Maurice his successor felt an interest in the welfare and would intercede on behalf of a College associated with his name. They accordingly appeal to him. consents to their wishes. His chaplain, Uitenbogardt, renews the application, armed with new powers from his master, and accompanied by four laymen of distinction, among whom is Nicolas Cromhout, chief senator of the supreme court, whose influence with the Burgomasters of Amsterdam is said to be very great. The stout Dutch magnates still hold out invincible, grounding their resistance upon the high merits of their pastor, his able ministry of the truth, and his useful services to the city. At length, the full pressure of the whole deputation is brought to bear upon them, the desires of Prince Maurice are enforced, and they reluctantly give way, granting leave to the Curators to open the question to the Presbytery. The Presbytery being an ecclesiastical court shares the suspicions of the Poetry-A Sea-side Thought. recent clerical conference, but after some little hesitation consents to the dismissal of Arminius on three conditions the immediate supply of his pulpit, his return to Amsterdam should he resign the Professorship, and the removal of all suspicions of heterodoxy by a conference with Gomar before the deputies of the churches. The conditions are accepted. The conference takes place. Several distinguished laymen grace the occasion with their presence. The fencing is close but courteous. The old charges are repeated and discussed, the seventh chapter of Romans, Pelagianism, leanings to Rome, free-will, predestination, and Arminius replies frankly the like. 221 and fully, and refutes every slander. Gomar, the deputies, the Curators are satisfied. Arminius is conceded liberty of prophesying; the suspicions excited against him are not substantiated. He is not a Calvinist, but he is not a heretic. Presently he receives a new honour. He becomes a Doctor of Divinity, having submitted to a fresh examination by Gomar, and conducted at Leyden, after the manner of the times, a public disputation. He is the first upon whom Leyden confers this diploma. After the ceremony is over he returns to Amsterdam, and takes his final leave of the scene of his ministerial life amid the eulogies and regrets of the Presbytery, the church, and the people. Poetry. A SEA-SIDE THOUGHT. THE clouds are rising in the west, But in serenest space afar, High o'er the sea that foams and pines, Beyond the lurid wrack, the star Of love in lonely beauty shines. The winds sweep o'er the ocean wild, White through the gloom the breakers glare, Yet still the starlet bright and mild Burns in that stirless chrystal air. So shines the hope of heaven for him O. M. N. Correspondence. ON THE ALLEDGED IMPOS- | themselves;' or 'to the ministers SIBILITY OF RENEWING CERTAIN PERSONS TO RE PENTANCE. OBSERVATIONS ON HEBREWS VI. 4. of Christ; or 'extremely difficult.' These explanations are, I think, inept and delusive. The way in which I think the words should be translated, seems to steer clear of all difficulties, to extract the scorpion-sting; to open To the Editor of the General Baptist the prison door, and let the captive Magazine. DEAR SIR,Your correspondent, J. W. D., (in April number), though quite satisfied that the word 'Impossible' is to be taken in its unrestricted sense, seems still as it were to solicit further instruction as to the whole bearing of this very alarming text. This encourages me to the performance of what I think a duty, viz: to offer an explanation, which to my own spirit has been and is an unspeakable relief. Many a tender conscience has, I believe, been tormented by this passage as by the sting of a scorpion, been paralyzed into despondency, or driven into sheer despair; and all this, in my opinion, from a misapprehension of its purport, arising from a want of accuracy in the translation. When one calls to mind the enormous crimes of David, and the blasphemous curses with which Peter renounced the Lord Jesus, and nevertheless sees them happily 'renewed unto repentance,' one seems to conceive a hope that there is no absolute impossibility of the restoration of other backsliders. One seems to himself almost guilty of blasphemy in asserting that Omnipotence could not effect it; one shudders at the suspicion, that the Infinite One has made up His mind that He will not do it. Can anything be too good for Infinite Love to be willing to do; or anything too hard for Almightiness to accomplish? Most minds seek some solution of this painful contradiction. Some say, it is in a manner impossible;' others, impossible to the sinners free. I render it as follows-It is impossible to renew such persons to repentance WHILST they crucify the Son of God afresh. Your more learned readers will observe the change of Tense the Apostle introduces into his sentence. The one word rendered if they shall fall away,' is neither in the future nor in the present tense, but in the past,-(the second aorist participle, Taрaneσovlas). The two words rendered seeing they crucify' and 'put to open shame are neither in the past tense nor in the future, but in the present. Our translators indeed also make the distinction, but in a style so dim, that for years and years I overlooked it; and so have our expositors, as far as I know. If they had supplied the word WHILST instead of the word seeing, all obscurity, all the 'horror of great darkness' would have been dispelled. And to justify this more accurate but new rendering, even to your less learned readers, let me point out, that the force of the present participle is transferred, by these selfsame translators into the English New Testament by the word whilst in the following texts 1 Tim. v. 6. She that liveth in pleasure is dead, WHILE she liveth. woa TeeVNKE).’ Matthew xxvii. 63 (riv) While he was yet_alive.' Luke xxiv. 44 The words I spoke unto you, while I was yet. with you (èr' wv).' are And exactly similar cases in the Greek and English translations, in 1 Sam. xx. 14 While yet I live.' in Ps. vii. 2 While there is none to deliver.'-and in Correspondence-Dr. Colenso. Jer. xv. 9'Her sun is gone down while it is yet day.' With this interpretation or rather simple and accurate translation, this hitherto most distressing passage, has become to me as luminous and refreshing as any other in the bible. The cross of Christ is the grand moral cause of repentance, of true evangelical, soul saving repentance; of the repentance that is not to be repented of ;-and thus it is the source of salvation. (They shall look on Me whom they have pierced, and mourn.' 'I, if I be lifted up will draw all men to Me.' As Moses lifted up the serpent, &c.) But if this heart-subduing truth of the Son of God bearing our sins in His own body on the tree, be rejected; there is nothing left in the universe, than can melt the heart of a sinner into true repentance, and win it back into holy confidence and communion with its Father and its God. I am, dear Mr. Editor, DR. COLENSO. To the Editor of the General Baptist "The wise and bountiful God hath vouchsafed to hold forth FOUR several lights to men; all of which move in four several orbs, one above another; the light of SENSE, the light of REASON, the light of FAITH, the light of ECSTATICAL, or DIVINE VISION; and all of these are taken up with their own proper objects. Sense is busied about these outward and material things; reason is confined to things intelligible; faith is employed in matters spiritual and supernatural; divine vision in objects celestial, and infinitely glorious. None of these can exceed their bounds, and extend to a sphere above their own; what can the brute creature, which is led by mere sense, do, or apprehend in matters of understanding and discourse? What can mere man who is led by reason discern in spiritual and supernatural things? What can the Christian who is led by faith, which is the evidence of things not seen, attain unto in the clear vision of God, and heavenly glory? That God who is a God of order, hath determined due limits to all our powers and faculties. I will therefore follow my 223 sense so far as that will lead me, and not suffer myself to be beaten off from so sure a guide. Where my sense leaves me, I will and in all natural and moral things, shall betake myself to the direction of reason, be willingly led by the guidance thereof; but when it comes to supernatural and divine truths; when I have the word of a God for my assurance, farewell reason and welcome faith; as when I shall have dispatched this weary pilgrimage, and from a traveller shall come to be a comprehensor, farewell faith and welcome vision.' JOSEPH HALL, D.D. DEAR SIR,-The religion of Jesus Christ is manifested to us through a written Revelation. This Revelation combines the natural and the supernatural-the human and the divine-the finite and the infinite. Many of its statements lie out of the province of the created intellect. The procedures of the infinite and the eternal cannot be brought within the comprehension of the mind of man. The profoundest knowledge, and the sublimest philosophy, are utterly inadequate to the solution of many of the problems involved in the mysteries of Revelation. How then is this Revelation to gain access to our minds ? Through what channel is it to enter the heart? It is evidently designed to touch and influence the most central and vital part of our nature, but how is it to reach it? Grace is the hand that gives it but what is the hand that takes it? I know of only one answer to these questions. We must receive Revelation by faith. Faith takes and appropriates to the spirit's use that which the reason cannot analyze, nor the understanding explain. Religious faith moves in a spiritual sphere and receives things incomprehensible to the natural intellect. Reason as the critical faculty of our nature asks the questions-'Why,' How,' How can these things be.' Faith takes them as proceeding from the eternal and incomprehensible Jehovah, and calmly waits in the conviction that what we know not now we shall know hereafter. the apostle Paul clearly reveals the The language of 6 attitude of his mind in relation to the things which the understanding |