your Collection The other on Rom. xiv 1. Him that is weak in the faith receive c. was preach'd at St. Paul's Cross and I moved him to Print it That of My Kingdom is not of this world I once saw and returned to Mr. Hales with four more which I saw him put into Mr. Chillingworth's hands That of Dixi Custodiam I have heard him often speak of it with a kind of complacency That of He spake a Parable that men ought always to pray I believe is his by the passage of the Spunge and the Knife which I have heard from his mouth The Sermon which you had from D. Hammond upon Son remember c. was preach'd at Eaton Colledge The other of Duels was either one or two and preach'd at the Hague to Sir D. Carlton and his company That you call a Letter on I can do all things is a Sermon The Sermon of Peter went out and wept c. is under his own hand One caution I should put in that you print nothing which is not written with his own hand or be very careful in compareing them for not long since one shewed me a Sermon which he said was his which I am confident could not be for I saw nothing in it which was not Vulgaris mone tae of a vulgar stamp common and flat and low There be some Sermons that I much doubt of for there is little of his spirit and Genius in them and some that are imperfect That of Genes xvii 1. Walk before me c. is most imperfect as appears by the Autogâ—aphum which I saw at Eaton a fortnight since For his LETTERS he had much trouble in that kind from several freinds and I heard him speak of that friends Letter you mention pleasantly Mr. He sets up Tops and I must whip them for him But I am very glad to hear you have gained those Letters into your hands written from the Synod of Dort You may please to take notice that in his younger days he was a Calvinist and even then when he was employed at that Synod and at the well pressing S Ioh. iij. 16. by Episcopius There I bid Iohn Calvin good-night as he has often told me I beleive they will be as acceptable or in your phrase as saleable as his Sermons I would not have you to venture those Papers out of your hands to me for they may miscarry and I fear it would be very difficult to find another Copy Peradventure I may shortly see you at the Term I hope I shall and then I shall advise you further the best I can about those other Sermons you have I see you will be troubled yet a while to put things in a right way I have drawn in my mind the Model of his Life but I am like Mr. HALES in this which was one of his defects not to pen any thing till I must needs God prosper you in your work and business you have in hand that neither the Church nor the Authour suffer Septemb. 17. 16â—7 Your assured Freind to his power Anthony Farindon 2 Pet. III. 16. Which the Vnlearned and Vnstable Wrest as they do the other Scriptures unto their own Destruction THE love and favour which it pleased God to bear our Fathers before the Law so far prevail'd with him as that without any Books and Writings by familiar and friendly conversing with them and communicating himself unto them he made them receive and understand his Laws their inward conceits and Intellectuals being after a wonderful manner as it were Figured and Character'd as St. Basil expresses it by his Spirit so that they could not but see and consent unto and confess the truth of them Which way of manifesting his will unto many other gracious priviledges which it had above that which in after ages came in place of it had this added that it brought with it unto the man to whom it was made a preservation against all doubt and hesitancy a full assurance both who the Authour was and how far his intent and meaning reacht We that are their offspring ought as St. Chrysostom tell us so to have demeaned our selves that it might have been with us as it was with them that we might have had no need of writing no other teacher but the Spirit no other books but our hearts no other means to have been taught the things of God Nisi inspirationis divinae internam suavioremque doctrinam ubi sine sonis sermonum c fiue elementis literarum to dulcius quo secretius veritas loquitur as saith Fulgentius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Isidorus Pelusiotâ— for it is a greater argument of our shame and imperfection that the holy things are written in books For as God in anger tells the Jews that he himself would not go before them as hitherto he had done to conduct them into the promised land but would leave his Angel with them as his deputy so hath he dealt with us the unhappy posterity degenerated from the antient purity of our forefathers When himself refused to speak unto our hearts because of the hardness of them he then began to put his Laws in writing Which thing for a long time amongst his own people seems not to have brought with it any sensible inconvenience For amongst all those acts of the Jews which God in his book hath registred for our instruction there is not one concerning any pretended ambiguity or obscurity of the Textâ— and Letter of their Law which might draw them into faction and schism the Devil belike having other sufficient advantages on which he wrought But ever since the Gospel was committed to writing what age what monument of the Churches Acts is not full of debate and strife concerning the force and meaning of those writings which the holy Ghost hath left us to be the law and rule of faith St. Paul one of the first Pen-men of the holy Ghost who in Paradise heard words which it was not lawful for man to utter hath left us words in writing which it is not safe for any man to be too busie to interpret No sooner had he laid down his pen almost ere the ink was dry were there found Syllabarum aucupes such as St. Ambrose spake of qui nescire aliquid erubescunt per occasionem obscuritatis tendunt laqueos deceptionis who thought there could be no greater disparagement unto them then to seem to be ignorant of any thing and under pretence of interpreting obscure places laid gins to entrap the uncautelous who taking advantage of the obscurity of St. Pauls text made the Letter of the Gospel of life and peace the most forcible instrument of mortal quarrel and contention The growth of which the holy Ghost by the ministery of St. Peter hath endeavoured to cut up in the bud and to strangle in the womb in this short admonition which but now hath sounded in your ears Which the unlearned c. In which words
for our more orderly proceeding we will consider First the sin it self that is here reprehended Wresting of Scripture where we will briefly consider what it is and what causes and motioners it finds in our corrupt understandings Secondly the persons guilty of this offence discipher'd unto us in two Epithets unlearned unstable Last of all the danger in the last words unto their own damnation And first of the sin it self together with some of the special causes of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They wrest They deal with Scripture as Chimicks deal with natural bodies torturing them to extract that out of them which God and Nature never put in them Scripture is a rule which will not fit it self to the obliquity of our conceits but our perverse and crooked discourse must fit it self to the straightness of that rule A learned Writer in the age of our fathers commenting upon Scripture spake most truly when he said That his Comments gave no light unto the Text the Text gave light unto his Comments Other Expositions may give rules and directions for understanding their Authors but Scripture gives rules to Exposition it self and interprets the Interpreter Wherefore when we made in Scripture non pro sententia divinarum Scripturarum as St. Austine speaks sed pro nostra itae dimicantes ut tam velimus Scripturarum esse quae nostra est When we strive to give unto it and not to receive from it the sense when we factiously contend to fasten our conceits upon God and like the Harlot in the Book of Kings take our dead and putrified fancies and lay them in the bosome of Scripture as of a mother then are we guilty of this great sin of wresting of Scripture The nature of which will the better appear if we consider a little some of those motioners which drive us upon it One very potent and strong mean is the exceeding affection and love unto our own opinions and conceits For grown we are unto extremities on both hands we cannot with patience either admit of other mens opinions or endure that our own should be withstood As it was in the Lacedaemonian army almost all were Captains so in these disputes all will be leaders and we take our selves to be much discountenanced if others think not as we do So that the complaint which one makes concerning the dissention of Physicians about the diseases of our bodies is true likewise in these disputes which concern the cure of our souls Hinc illae circa aegros miserae sententiarum concertationes nullo idem censente ne videatur accessio alterius From hence have sprung those miserable contentions about the distemper of our souls singularity alone and that we will not seem to stand as cyphers to make up the sum of other mens opinions being cause enough to make us disagree A fault antiently amongst the Christians so apparent that it needed not an Apostolical spirit to discover it the very heathen themselves to our shame and confusion have justly judiciously and sharply taxt us for it Ammianus Marcellinus passing his censure upon Constantius the Emperour Christianam religionem absolutam simplicem saith he and they are words very well worth your marking Christianam religionem absolutam simplicem anili superstitione confudit In qua scrutanda perplexius quam componenda gratius excitavit dissidia plurima quae progressa fusius aluit concertatione verborum dum ritum omnem ad suum trahere conatur arbitrium The Christian Religion a Religion of great simplicity and perfection he troubled with dotage and superstition For going about rather perplexedly to search the controversies then gravely to compose them he raised great stirs and by disputing spread them far and wide whilst he went about to make himselfsole Lord and Commander of the whole Profession Now that it may appear wherefore I have noted this it is no hard thing for a man that hath wit and is strongly possest of an opinion and resolute to maintain it to find some places of Scripture which by good handling will be woed to cast a favourable countenance upon it Pythagoras's Scholars having been bred up in the doctrine of Numbers when afterward they diverted upon the studies of Nature fancied unto themselves somewhat in natural bodies like unto Numbers and thereupon fell into a conceit that Numbers were the principles of them So fares it with him that to the reading of Scripture comes fore-possest with some opinion As Antipheron Orietes in Aristotle thought that every where he saw his own shape and picture going afore him so in divers parts of Scripture where these men walk they will easily perswade themselves that they see the image of their own conceits It was and is to this day a fashion in the hotter Countreys at noon when the Sun is in his strength to retire themselves to their closets or beds if they were at home to cool and shady places if they were abroad to avoid the inconvenience of the heat of it To this the Spouse in the Canticles alluding calls after her Beloved as after a shepherd Shew me O thou whom my soul loveth where thou feedest thy flock where thou dost rest at noon The Donatists conceiting unto themselves that the Church was shut up in them alone being urged by the Fathers to shew how the Church being universal came on a suddain thus to be confin'd to Africk they had presently their Scripture for it for so they found it written in the Canticles Indica quem diligit anima mea ubi pascas ubi cubes in meridie In which Text meridies doubtless as they thought was their Southern Countrey of Africk where the Shepherd of Israel was and no where else to feed his flocks I may not trouble you with instances in this kind little observation is able to furnish the man of slenderest reading with abundance The Texts of Scripture which are especially subject to this abuse are those that are of ambiguous and doubtful meaning For as Thucydides observes of the fat and fertile places of Greece that they were evermore the occasions of stirs and seditionsâ— the neighbouring Nations every one striving to make it self Lord of them so is it with these places that are so fertile as it were of interpretation and yeild a multiplicity of sense they are the Palaestra for good wits to prove masteries in where every one desires to be Lord and Absolute A second thing occasioning us to transgress against Scripture and the discreet and sober handling of it is our too quick and speedy entrance upon the practise of interpreting it in our young and green years before that time and experience have ripened us and setled our conceits For that which in all other business and here likewise doth most especially commend us is our cauteâ—ous and wary handling it But this is a flower seldome seen in youths garden Aristotle differencing age and youth makes it a property of youth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
women laden with iniquity were the cheif Ring-leaders in the errours of the Monnaâ—ists and as it is commonly said Bellum inchoant inertes fortes finiunt Weaklings are able to begin a quarrel but the prosecution and finishing is a work for stronger men so hath it fared here For that quarrel which these poor souls had raised Tertullian a man of great Wit and Learning is drawn to undertake so that for a Barnabas to be drawn away to errour there needs not always the example and authority of a Peter A third reason is the marvellous violence of the weaker sort in maintaining their conceits if once they begin to be Opinionative For one thing there is that wonderfully prevails against the reclaiming of them and that is The natural jealousie they have of all that is said unto them by men of better wits stand it with reason never so good if it sound not as they would have it A jealousie founded in the sense of their weakness arising out of this that they suspect all to be done for no other end but to circumvent and abuse them And therefore when they see themselves to be too weak in reasoning they easily turn them to violence The Monks of Egypt otherwise devout and religious men anciently were for the most part unlearned and generally given over to the errour of the Anthropomorphitae who held that God had hands and feet and all the parts that a man hath and was in outward shape and proportion like to one of us Theophilus a learned Bishop of Alexandria having fallen into their hands was so roughly used by them that ere he could get out of their fingers he was fain to use his wits and to crave aid of his Equivocating Sophistry and soothly to tell them I have seen your face as the face of God Now when Christian and Religious doubts must thus be managed with wilfulness and violence what mischeif may come of it is already so plain that it needs not my finger to point it out Wherefore let every such Weak person say unto himself as St. Austin doth Tu ratiocinare ego mirer disputa tu ego credam Let others reason I will marvel let others dispute I will beleive As for the man strong in passion or rather weak for the strength of passion is the weakness of the passionate great reason hath the Church to except against him For first of all from him it comes that our Books are so stuft with contumelious meladiction no Heathen Writers having left the like example of choller and gross impatience An hard thing I know it is to write without affection and passion in those things which we love and therefore it is free so to do to those who are Lords over themselves It seems our Saviour gave some way to it himself For somewhat certainly his Kinsmen saw in his behaviourâ— when as St. Mark reports they went forth to lay hold upon him thinking he was beside himself But for those who have not the command of themselves better it were they laid it by St. Chrysostom excellently observeth that the Prophets of God and Satan were by this notoriously differenced that they which gave Oracles by motion from the Devil did it with much impatience and confusion with a kind of fury and madness but they which gave Oracles from God by Divine Inspiration gave them with all mildness and temper If it be the cause of God which we handle in our writings then let us handle it like the Prophets of God with quietness and moderation and not in the violence of passion as if we were possess'd rather then inspir'd Again what equity or indifferencey can we look for in the carriage of that cause that falls into the handling of these men Quis conferre duces meminit qui pendere causas Qua stetit inde â—avet What man overtaken with passion remembers impartially to compare cause with cause and right with right Qua stetit inde â—avet on what cause he happens that is he resolute to maintain ut gladiator in arenam as a Fencer to the Stage so comes he to write not upon conscience of quarrel but because he proposes to contend yea so potently hath this humour prevail'd with men that have undertaken to maintain a faction that it hath broken oâ—t to the tempting of God and the dishonour of Martyrdom Two Friers in Florence in the action of Savonoralla voluntarily in the open view of the City offer'd to enter the fire so to put an end to the controversie that he might be judged to have the right who like one of the three children in Babylon should pass untouch'd through the fire But I hasten to visit one weak person more and so an end He whom we now are to visit is a man Weak through Heretical and erring Faith now whether or no we have any Receit for him it may be doubtful For St. Paul advises us to avoid the man that is a maker of Sects knowing him to be Damned Yet if as we spake of not admitting to us the notorious sinner no not to eat so we teach of this that it is delivered respectively to the weaker sort as justly for the same reasons we may do we shall have a Recipe here for the man that errs in Faith and rejoyceth in making of Sects which we shall the better do if we can but gently draw him on to a moderation to think of his conceits onely as of opinions for it is not the variety of opinions but our own perverse wills who think it meet that all should be conceited as our selves are which hath so inconvenienced the Church were we not so ready to Anathematize each other where we concur not in opinion we might in hearts be united though in our tongues we were divided and that with singular profit to all sides It is the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace and not Identity of conceit which the Holy Ghost requires at the hands of Christians I will give you one instance in which at this day our Churches are at variance The will of God and his manner of proceeding in Predestination is undiscernable and shall so remain until that day wherein all knowledge shall be made perfect yet some there are who with probability of Scripture teach that the true cause of the final miscarriage of them that perish is that original corruption that befell them at the beginning increased through the neglect or refusal of grace offered Others with no less favourable countenance of Scripture make the cause of Reprobation onely the will of God determining freely of his own work as himself pleases without respect to any second cause whatsoever Were we not ambitiously minded familiam ducere every one to be Lord of a Sect each of these Tenets might be profitably taught and heard and matter of singular exhortation drawn from either for on the one part doubtless it is a pious and religious intent to endeavour to free God
him sit down and consider with himself his enemies one by one and he shall quickly discover their weakness Primi in praeliis vincantur oculi It s a saying that the first thing that is overcome in a Souldier is his eye while he judges of his enemy by his multitude and provision rather then by his strength Beloved if we judge not of our adversary in gross and as it were by the eye we shall easily see that we shall not need to do as the King in the Gospel doth send to his enemy with conditions of peace for there is no treaty of peace to be had with these Had Zimri peace that slew his master saith the Scripture and There is no peace unto the wicked saith my God Not onely Zimri and the wicked but no Christian hath or can have peace he must be always as fighting and always conquering Let us single out some one of this Army and let us examine his strength Is it Sin doth so much affright us I make choice of it because it is the dreadfullest enemy that a Christian hath Let us a little consider its strength and we shall quickly see there is no such need to fear it Sins are of two sorts either great and capital or small and ordinary sins I know it were a paradox in nature to tell you that the greatest and mightiest things are of least force yet this is true in the case we speak of the greatest things are the weakest Your own experience tells you that rapes and murthers parricide poisoning treason and the rest of that rabble of arch sins are the sins of the fewest and that they have no strength at all but upon the weakest men for doubtless if they were the strongest they would reign with greatest latitude they would be the commonest they would be the sins of the most But wandring thoughts idle words petty lusts inconsiderate wrath immoderate love to the things of the world and the rest of that swarm of ordinary sins these are they that have largest extent and dominion and some of these or all of these more or less prevail with every man As the Magicians in Exodus when they saw not the power of God in the Serpents in the Bloud in the Frogs at the coming of the plague of the Lice presently cried Digitus Dei hic est this is the finger of God so I know not how it comes to pass though we see and confess that in those great and heinous crimes the Devil hath least power yet at the coming of Lice of the rout of smaller and ordinary sins we presently yeild our selves captives and cry out Digitus Diaboli the strength of the Devil is in these as if we were like unto that fabulous Rack in Plinie which if a man thrust at with his whole body he could not move it yet a man might shake it with one of his fingers Now what an errour is it in us Christians when we see the principal and captain sins so easily vanquish'd to think the common souldier or lesser sort invincible For certainly if the greatest sins be the weakest the lesser cannot be very strong Secondly is it Original corruption that doth so much affright us Let us consider this a little and see what great cause we have to fear it And first Beloved let us take heed that we seem not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to fight with our own fansie and not so much to find as to feign an enemy Mistake me not I beseech you I speak not this as doubting that we drew any natural infection from the loins of our parents but granting this I take it to be impossible to judge of what strength it is and deny that it is any such cause why we should take it to be so strong as that we should stand in fear to encounter it and overcome it for we can never come to discover how far our nature is necessarily weak for whil'st we are in our infancy and as yet not altered à puris naturaelibus from that which God and nature made us none of us understand our selves and e'r we can come to be of years to be able to discover it or define any thing concerning the nature of it custom or education either good hath much abated or evil hath much improved the force of it so that for any thing we know the strength of it may be much less then we suppose and that it is but a fear that makes it seem so great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith S. Chrysostom It is the nature of timerous and fearful men evermore to be framing to themselves causeless fears I confess it is a strange thing and it hath many times much amazed me to see how ripe to sin many children are in their young and tender years and e'r they understand what the name of Sin and evil means they are unexpectedly and no man knows by what means wonderfully prompt and witty to villany and wickedness as if they had gone to schole to it in their mothers womb I know not to what cause to impute this thing but I verily suppose I might quit Original sin from the guilt of it For it is a ruled case and concluded by the general consent of the Schools that Original sin is alike in all and St. Paul seems to me to speak to that purpose when he saith that God hath alike concluded all under sin and that all are alike deprived of the glory of God Were therefore Original sin the cause of this strange exorbitancy in some young children they should all be so a thing which our own experience teaches us to be false for we see many times even in young children many good and gracious things which being followed with good education must needs come to excellent effect In pueris elucet spes plurimorum saith Quintilian quae ubi emoritur aetate manifestum est non defecisse naturam sed curam In children many times an hope of excellent things appears which in riper age for want of cherishing fades and withers away a certain sign that Nature is not so weak as Parents and Tutors are negligent whence then comes this difference certainly not from our Nature which is one in all but from some other cause As for Original sin of what strength it is I will not discuss onely thus much I will say there is none of us all but is much more wicked then the strength of any primitive corruption can constrain Again let us take heed that we abuse not our selves that we use not the names of Original weakness as a stale or stalking-horse as a pretence to choke and cover somewhat else For oftentimes when evil education wicked examples long custom and continuance in sin hath bred in us an habit and necessity of sinning presently Original sin and the weakness of mans nature bear the blame Vbi per secordiam vires tempus ingenium defluxere naturae infirmitas accusatur When through sloth and
stand to it or no that they did maintain amongst them an implicite faith and it was usual with some of them when they were prest with any reason they could not put by to answer that though themselves could say little to it yet such and such could say much which was enough for them When all had spoken their pleasure the conclusion of the Synod was that they must reform the manner of propounding their mind that they must give up their answer in affirmatives as much as was possible that this form of answer was not according to the Decree of the States and this was the effect of that Session On Friday the 5 15 of Decemb. there was a short Session in the morning The matter propounded was whether it were not fit that the Remonstrants should be required to give up their minds concerning all the five points before the Synod proceeded to examine or determine any thing The reason was the connexion of the points mutually one with another for which cause it was hard to determine of one except their mind in the rest were known The Secular Lords and the Synod liked well of the proposal Those of Geneva thought it best to take their opinions out of their books to which the Praeses answer'd that it could not be because they were called thither by their citatory Letters to propose defend their own opinions That they could not complain of the Synod for calling on them thus at once to deliver themselves For the Synod doubts not that they were provided since themselves had long since given it out in their books and private speeches that they were provided The Remonstrants then being called in were told that it was the determination of the Synod that they should deliver their opinions at once concerning the five points and for this they had given them time till Munday For this would prove better for the Synod and for themselves Then that they should deliver themselves in affirmatives as much as possibly might be For by their negatives they delivered not their own opinions but diverted upon other Thâ— Confessions and Creeds had alwayes been framed by affirmatives thus or thus we do believe not by negatives To this they replyed Attendemus ad ea quae à Domino Praeside dict a sunt considerabimus Then did the Praeses signifie that on the morrow there should be a Latin Sermon in the Synod house Scultetus is the man that makes it And this is the effect of what was done at that time and so ceasing to trouble your Lordship any farther at this time I humbly take my leave resting Dort this 15. of Decemb. 1618. stylo novo Your Honours Chaplain and bounden in all Duty Jo. Hales Right Honourable my very good Lord THe seventh of Decem. stylo novo being Friday in the morning the Synod met the first thing that was done was the pronouncing the Decree of the States concerning Grevinchovius and Goulartius to this effect That whereas the Remonstrants had petitioned to the States that Grevinchovius and Goulartius might be admitted into the Synod there to defend the Remonstrants Cause the Lords for good causes thought they neither ought nor could grant it yet thus much did they graciously permit that they might freely come in private and do them what help they could and if they thought that in any thing they saw further into the Cause than their brethren they might have leave to exhibit their mind in writing to the Synod Provided First that they had leave of the Synod so to do Secondly that they did not seek any frivolous delayes Thirdly that they promised to submit themselves to the Decree of the Synod and last of all that the Church Censures respectively pass'd on Grevinchovius and Goulartius be not prejudiced but stand still in their full force and vertue This Decree was consented unto by the whole Synod Here the Praeses admonisht those of Vtrecht to provide themselves and resolve what they would do whether they would profess themselves parties for the Remonstrants or keep their places and sit as Judges if they would express as parties then must they cease to be accounted part of the Synod and be accounted as Episcopius and the rest that were cited They required that time might be given them to deliberate The Praeses eagerly urged them to give their resolute answer They replyed it was a greater matter than might so soon be dispatch'd So far they went that at length they fell on some warm words For when two of the Remonstrants Deputies by chance â—pake both at once the Praeses admonisht them to speak modestiùs ornatiús For men here speak one by one and not by pairs But here the Secular Deputies strook in and thought fit they should have time of respite till the morrow yet so that in the mean time the Synod should proceed Then were the Remonstrants call'd in and the Decree of the States concerning Grevinchovius and Goulartius read unto them Episcopius standing up required that a little time might be granted to them to speak and forthwith uttered an Oration acrem sanè animosam and about which by reason of some particulars in it there will grow some stir The effect of the Oration was this THat Religion was the chiefest note of a man and we were more distinguished by it from other Creatures than by our Reason That their appearance before the Synod was ut illam etiam Spartam ornarent that they might endeavour something for the preservation of the Purity of Religion That Religion was nothing else but a right Conceit and Worship of God That the Conceits concerning God are of two sorts some absolutely necessary which were the grounds of all true Worship in these to erre might finally endanger a man Some not absolutely necessary and in these sometimes without great danger men might mistake That they descryed many conceits passing in our Churches which could not stand with the Goodness and Iustice of God with the use of the Sacraments with the Duties of Christian men These had given occasion to the Adversaries abroad to accuse our Churches and lay upon them many strange imputations That therefore their endeavour had been none other but to remove these imputations and to provide as much as in them lay that the Conceits of some few might not pass for the general Doctrine of our Churches But this their endeavour had hitherunto had but ill success And as in a diseased body many times when Physick is administred the humours which before were quiet are now stirred and hence the body proves more distempered so their endeavours to cure the Church had caused greater disorder yet in this had they not offended For they laboured to none other end but that the Church might not be traduced by reason of the private conceits of some of her Ministers That in this behalf the world had been exceedingly incensed against them but this Envy they esteeemed their Gloriam
mero jam silicernio quicquid fiat viderit ille Deus meus cujus ego totus sum Vobis quidem ita feliciter prospectumest ut sit cur infirmitati meae haud parum gratulamini quae hujusmodi instructissimo succedaneo coetum hunc vestrum beaverit Neque tamen committam si Deus vitam mihi ac vires indulserit ut et corpore simul et animo abesse videar Interea sane huic Synodo ubicunque terrarum sim votis consiliis conatibusque meis quibuscunque res vestras me pro virili serio ac sedulo promoturum sancte voveo Interim vobis omnibus ac singulis Honoratissimi Domini Delegati Revererdissime Domine Praeses Gravissimi Assessores Symmystae Colendissimi tibique Venerandissima Synodus Vniversa aegro animo ac corpore aeternum valedico rogoque vos omnes obnixius ut precibus vestris imbecillem reducem facere comitari et prosequi velitis Right Honourable my very good Lord UPon Tuesday the 19 â—â— of Ianuary at the Evening Session the point of Reprobation was Scholastically and learnedly discust by Altingius one of the Palatine Professors His discourse was the most sufficient of any that yet I heard He began from the Definition and proceeded to how far God had a hand in it and how far man is the Author of his own Destruction and lastly answered the Remonstrants arguments He spake about an hour and a half I would willingly have given your Honour an acount of his speech but it was in the Evening and the Auditory are allowed no candles so that I could not use my Tables And thus have they discust the first Article though I could have wished that the question of Reprobation had been yet farther opened and stood upon it being a point of large extent and especially insisted on by the Remonstrant As for Synodical Resolution in this first Article that we must yet expect till all the rest be examined as this hath been There is no open Session till Friday next after dinner and then is it their purpose to enter upon the Second Article of Vniversal Grace at which time Mr. Balcanqual and Cruciger of Hassia are appointed to speak according as the rest have done before to this question Whether the death of Christ were intended indifferently for all or only for the Elect Upon Wednesday the 20 â—0 of Ianuary in the evening was there a private Session wherein belike for the making of better speed they consulted whether they should go on to examine the rest of the Articles after the same manner they had done the first or else bethink them of some more speedy order After a long disceptation even so long that Polyander put the Praeses in mind of the exceeding sharpness of the Weather they at length concluded that they would go on in the same course they had begun And this as yet is all the Newes that is passant wherefore ceasing farther to trouble your Honour I humbly take my leave Dort this 21 31 of January 1619. Your Honours Chaplain and bounden in all Duty and Service Jo. Hales Right Honourable and my very good Lord UPon Friday the 15 â—5 of Ianuary there was a meeting of the Synod partly publick partly private As the Provincial Professors had done so was D. Davenant who is the first Professor of the Forraigners enjoyned by the Praeses to doe The intent of his discourse at that time was to overthrow certain distinctions framed by the Remonstrants for the maintenance of their positions and evasion from the Contra-Remonstrants Arguments The Remonstrants usually distinguish upon Election and divide it into definitam indefinitam revocabilem irrevocabilem peremptoriam non peremptoriam mutabilem immutabilem and the like For the refutation of which distinctions he first set down the definition of election brought by the Contra-Remoâ—strant and at large confirmed it secondly he brought the definition of election agreed on by the Remonstrant and Argued against it and thirdly he directly oppugned these forecited distinctions all which he did learnedly and fully When Dr. Davenant had spoken the Auditory was commanded to depart For having a purpose that others should speak at the same time and fearing that some diversity of opinion might rise and occasion some dissention it was thought fit that things should be transacted as privately as might be Many more of the Forreigners deliver'd themselves that night and amongst the rest Martinius of Breme proposed again his former doubts unto the Synod concerning the sence in which Christ is said to be fundamentum electionis and requested to be resolved But D. Gomarus at this time was somewhat better advised and thought it best to hold his peace This day will there be a private meeting wherein every company will give up their judgements in writing upon the first Article and to morrow I understand they will go on unto the second and proceed in it accordingly as they have in the former As for any Decisive Sentence they will give none till they have thus gone through all the five In this I suppose they doe very discreetly For since the Articles are mutually linked together it is most convenient they should first go through them all since a predetermination in the former might bind them to some inconvenience in the latter there being no place left to look back but stand they must to what they have once concluded For avoiding of this it is thought best to determine of all at once And this is all the news that here is currant wherefore commending Your Honour to Gods good protection I humbly take my leave Dort this â—â— â—â— of January 1619. Your Honours Chaplain and Bounden in all Duty Jo. Hales Right Honourable and my very good Lord UPon Munday the â—8 27 of January in the Evening the Synod being met Scultetus spake at large de Certitudine gratiae salutis that it was necessary for every man to be assured of his Salvation The manner of his discourse was oratorial the same that he uses in his Sermons not scholastical and according to the fashion of disputation and Schools For this cause the question was neither deeply searcht into nor strongly proved And this is all was done that night I spake with Dr. Goad concerning Mr. Brent who answered me that he heard nothing at all of him and that he will shortly write unto my Lord Archbishops Secretary to be informed farther concerning him My Lord Bishop of late hath taken some pains with Martinius of Breme to bring him from his opinion of Vniversal Grace By chance I came to see his Letter written to Martinius in which he expounded that place in the third of Iohn So God loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son c. which is the strongest ground upon which Martinius rests himself Beyond this here is no news worth the relating and therefore till farther occasion offer it self I humbly take my leave Dort this 19 29 of January