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dom to God, even the Father," he will no longer reign himself in person: (2) If shall be subject to the Father," he will no more preside over his church: and (3) If "God shall be all in all," then our salvation is not placed in the union, sight, and fruition of him.' I will proceed to give a separate answer to each of these objections. The kingdom of Christ embraces two objects :-The Mediatorial function of the regal office, and the regal glory. The royal function will be laid aside, because there will then be no necessity or use for it; but the royal glory will remain, because it was obtained by the acts of the Mediator, and was conferred on him by the Father according to The same thing is declared by the expression shall be subject,' which here signifies nothing more than the laying aside of the super-eminent power which Christ had received from the Father, and which he had, as the Father's Vicegerent, administered at the pleasure of his own will: and yet, when he has laid down this power, he will remain, as we shall see, the head and the husband of his church.-That sentence has a similar tendency in which it is said, God shall be all in all,' For it takes away even the intermediate and deputed administration of the creatures which God is accustomed to use in the communication of his benefits; and it indicates that God will likewise immediately from himself communicate his own good, even himself, to his creatures. Therefore, on the authority of this passage, nothing is taken away from Christ which we have been wishful to attribute to him in this discourse according to the Scriptures.

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This we will now shew by some plain and apposite passages. Christ promises an union with himself in these words, ' If a man love me, he will keep my words; and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.' (John xiv. 23.) Here is a promise of good therefore the good of the church is likewise placed in union with Christ; and an abode is promised, not admitting of termination by the bounds of this life, but which will continue for ever, and shall at length, when this short life is ended, be consummated in heaven. In reference to this, the Apostle says, I desire to depart and to be with Christ;' and Christ himself says, I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am.' (John xvii. 24.) John says, that the end of his Gospel is, that our fellowship may be with the Father and the Son' (1 John i. 3); in which fellowship eternal life must necessarily consist, since in another place he explains the same end in these words: But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ; and that, believing, ye might have life through his name. (John xx. 31.) But from the meaning of

fellowship has an union antecedent to the same Apostle, it appears, that this itself: these are his words, If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall reSon, and in the Father.' (1 John ii. 24.) main in you, ye also shall continue in the What! shall the union between Christ and his church cease at a period when he shall place before his glorious sight his blood? Far be the idea from us! For spouse sanctified to himself by his own the union, which had commenced here mated and perfected. on earth, will then at length be consum

ing the vision of Christ, let him listen to "If any one entertain doubts concernloveth me shall be loved of Christ in this declaration:-' He that and I will love him, and will manifest my Father; myself to him.' (John xiv. 21.) Will he thus disclose himself in this world only? Let us again hear Christ, when he inter. cedes with the Father for the faithful: hast given me, be with me where I am; Father, I will that they also, whom thou thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me that they may behold my glory, which xvii. 24.) Christ, therefore, promises to before the foundation of the world.' (John his followers the sight of his glory, as something salutary to them; and his Father is entreated to grant this favour. when he says, Then we shall see him as The same truth is confirmed by John, he is.' (1 John iii. 2.) This passage may without any impropriety be understood God the Father. But what do we more of Christ, and yet not to the exclusion of distinctly desire than that Christ may become, what it is said he will be, the city, and in whose light the nations Light' that shall enlighten the celestial shall walk?' (Rev. xxi. 23, 24.)

ciently established by the same passages "Although the fruition of Christ is suffifirmed, yet we will ratify it by two or as those by which the sight of him is conthree others. Since eternal felicity is called by the name of the supper of the Lamb,' and is emphatically described by this term the marriage of the Lamb,' think it is taught with adequate clearness in these expressions, that happiness consists in the fruition or enjoyment of the lypse, has ascribed both these epithets to Lamb. But the Apostle, in his Apocajoice, and give honour to him; for the Christ, by saying, 'Let us be glad and remarriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.' (Rev. xix. 7.) And a little afterwards he says, 'Blessed are they which are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb.' (verse 9.) It remains for us to treat on the glory of Christ, which is inculcated in these numerous passages of Scripture in Father on his throne,' and is adored and which it is stated, that he sits with the heaven." Arminius, pp. 300-303. glorified both by angels and by men in

declared, I will not be wanting to the cause.' Arminins answered, I also hope, that I shall not be wanting. But we will make an experiment at the proper time; and I am fully persuaded, that the doctrine of irresistible grace [which had formed a part of the disputation] is repugnant to the sacred Scriptures, to all the ancients,

and to our own Confession and Catechism." Arminius, pp. 301, 302. The spirit of conference was not much superior to this-a new and doubtless inquisitorial process, by which it was attempted to get at the opinions of teachers, with a view to ascertain, prejudge, and, if necessary, cite and accuse opponents, rather than meet them on equal terms at a General Synod, was the very expedient adopted at the Synod of Dort. And it was by this species of conference in the first instance; by appeals to the Provincial Synod in the second; and at last, by the distant view in a cycle of years of a National Synod, that these Dutch Presbyterians looked for the settlement of all the differences in their inferior churches, classes, and consistories. Arminius was naturally very slow in lending himself to such expedients. He was appealed to this very year, 1605, by certain deputies of the church of Leyden, to confer on the topics in question: but he declined, without first receiving the sanction of the curators of the university. Again, the Provincial Synod of South Holland exhibited articles against the university of Leyden, of certain disputed points on which they wished to be resolved. These inquiries were also declined by the curators themselves, on the ground that a National Synod would shortly meet. A petition was at length presented to the States General of the United Provinces, for a summons of the expected National Synod. This petition again was met by a condition on the part of the States General, probably at the instance of Barnevelt, and other adherents of Arminius, that in the body of the summons should be in troduced a clause, intimating that the Confession and Catechism must undergo a similar revision as on for

mer occasions; not with an express view to alterations, but as a fit subject, being merely human, for such free observations as advancing light and reflection might throw on those yet but recently established and received formularies of the churches. It were too much to say that the whole remainder of Arminius's history is occupied in bandying about reasons, for and against, on these several points of circumstance and ceremony. Pity was it that at this early period, in 1608, difficulties prevented the calling of the National Synod then proposed. That prevention is not well accounted for, as Arminius had conceded the main point last adverted to; although very jealous of the claim of prescription set up by those formularies, which had scarcely been framed when these discussions began. But perhaps even then Arminius may probably have seen that nothing was to be obtained by such methods, and was on the whole satisfied that things should remain as they were, rather than hazard a change, considering the tone and temper of the times; and he might be disposed to rely rather on the slow but sure progress of free inquiry, which began now to rise on the world, than to crush it in the bud by hasty and ill measured appeals to human authority in divine matters. Even our venerable friend Mr. Scott, when commenting on the Historical Preface, makes the following remarkable concession,amidst pages of an opposite description :"The enlightened and decided friend to free inquiry will see, even in the causes of these complaints (the dissensions occasioned by Arminian pastors), the dawn of that more enlarged state of things in which free investigation of both received, and exploded, and novel opinions, proves ultimately and highly beneficial to the cause of truth; and he will agree that the arm of authority, secular or ecclesiastical, could not beneficially be exerted against it; except so far as to require those who voluntarily

620 Review of the Life and Times of Arminius and Bishop Hall. [Oer.

belong to and minister in any church to conform to the rules of that church, or to recede from it without further molestation. But this does not prevent the propriety of doing justice to the character of wise and pious men, to whom no views of this kind had as yet ever been presented." Historical Preface, pp. 26, 27.

Perhaps not except by Arminius himself; of whom their severe treatment first, and then their unfair representation, form one of the most instructive though painful morals to be deduced from this whole "historical document."

It is not to be wondered at that a mind of sensibility, at once pacific, and, we cannot doubt, conscientious, like that of Arminius, should have prematurely sunk under the growing weight of irremediable perplexities. His anxieties, his sorrows, as may fairly be inferred from history and his own writings, were for the church of God. It is impossible indeed to peruse his truly "charming" oration, the fifth in this volume, delivered in 1606, reconciling religious dissensions amongst Christians," without being forced to acknowledge at once the sagacity of his mind, the extent of his observation, and the sincerity, piety, and benevolence of his heart. In that oration he draws, indeed, some Utopian scheme for a general synod, which should be conducted on a basis truly angelical, for the settling of human differences and this he leaves be

on

This is the very point of the whole controversy, and it ought not to have been assumed. The Arminians pleaded conformity to the rules of the church, with an appeal to a synod to alter them if necessary. How did their opponents meet them? Was it simply by requiring them to sign the Confession and Catechism? No-but by devising new tests, and tendering them for signature as the new condition of conformity. This petitio principii, the resort of all arbitrary ecclesiastical power, cost Mr. Scott only (and inadvertently we are sure) a little unsound logic; but it cost the unhappy Remonstrants their liberty, their country, and their lives! Whatever were their tenets, that does not alter the state of facts.

hind him as a testimony against those who should hereafter violate those principles; and, as if for the only practical purpose of amusing Mr. Nichols, with contrasting at the bottom of the page, and in his supten of the fullest and most minutely plement, through one hundred and printed octavo pages we ever had the labour of surveying, the sad reality at Dort with every particular in the pleasing ideal prototype of Arminius. We could offer abundant quotations from this oration, confirmatory of its author's disposition, but we have much yet to do; and closing scene, at once, of our pro we cannot longer keep back the fessor's labours, sorrows, and life in 1609, at the early age of forty-nine years. Could any thing satisfy us more fully than before of the temper and feeling of the "Historical Preface;" it would be the cold and heartless allusion to that event which for the most part closes the mouth of all invective, and opens the heart of the most inveterate adversary. It sufficiently satisfied the prefacer's feelings to notice the disappointment of a conference, occasioned by the sinking state of Arminius's health: and his death would have passed without a comment, but that the visionary hope of ensuing tranquillity, stultified by the immediate aggravation of every evil which the' peaceableness of Arminius alone restrained, was too tempting a recol lection, of a ten years' standing, not to be again brought up, and shewn to have been the single impression made on his enemies by his death.

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Very different was the impression made, by his early removal from the world, upon those who knew him well enough to appreciate his character. Whilst his complication of complaints * was growing upon him,