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after the received order; that they may take care that the church receive no detriment, nor fear it hereafter. Let them discriminate with the spirit of prudence the followers of these errors: let them deprive the refractory, the clamorous, the factious, the disturbers, as soon as possible, of ecclesiastical and academical offices, which fall under their cognizance and care: and they are admonished that without any delay interposed, after the reception of the decision of this national Synod having obtained the authority of the magistrate in order to it, they assemble for this purpose, lest the evil should increase and be strengthened by remissness. Let them, by all lenity, by the offices of love, by patience, excite those, who have fallen or been carried away by infirmity and the fault of the times, and who perhaps hesitate, or are even dissentient, in lighter matters, but quiet, of blameless life, tractable,-let them excite these to true and perfect concord with the church: yet so that they may diligently take care, that they do not admit, any to the sacred ministry who refuse to subscribe these synodical constitutions of the declared doctrine, and to teach it and that they retain no one, by whose manifest dissention the doctrine approved with such agreement in this Synod may be violated, and the tranquillity of the churches again disturbed.

Moreover, this venerable Synod seriously admonishes all ecclesiastical assemblies, most diligently to watch over the flocks committed to them, and promptly to meet and obviate all innovations privily springing up in the church, and pull them up, as it were tares, out of the field of the Lord that they attend to the schools, and

the conductors (moderatoribus) of schools, lest by any means, from private sentiments and corrupt opinions instilled into the youth, mischief should afterwards be produced to the church and the republic.

Finally, thanks having been reverently given to the most illustrious and very powerful the States General of Belgium, because they in so necessary and seasonable a time kindly succoured the afflicted and declining interests of the church, by the remedy of the Synod; received the upright and faithful servants of God under their protection; and willed that the pledge of every blessing and of the divine presence, the truth of his word, should be in a holy and religious manner preserved in their dominions; and spared no labour or expense to promote and complete such a work: for these extraordinary benefits, the Synod, with its whole heart, prays for the most abundant recompense, on them from the Lord, both publicly and privately, both spiritual and temporal. The Synod also most strenuously and humbly solicits the same most clement lords, to will and command that this salutary doctrine, most faithfully expressed by the Synod according to the word of God, and the consent of the reformed churches, be alone, and publicly heard in these regions; to drive away all heresies and errors privily springing up; and to repress unquiet and turbulent spirits: that they would go on to approve themselves the true and benign nursing fathers and tutors of the church; that they would determine that the sentence, according to the ecclesiastical authority confirmed by the laws of the country, be valid against the persons before

spoken of; and that they would render the Synodical constitutions immoveable and perpetual, by the concurrence of their authority.

REMARKS OF THE TRANSLATOR.

On this conclusion a few remarks may be useful. Conceding, that there were things unjustifiable in the decisions made, and the measures adopted by the Synod, I would inquire whether all the blame in the whole of that lamentable contest was on one side? Whether the conduct of the Remonstrants was not at least as remote from a conciliatory spirit, as that of the members of the Synod? And whether, in case the Remonstrants had been victorious, they would have made a more Christian use of their victory and authority than the Synod did? I never yet knew or read of an eager and pertinacious contest, in which both parties were not greatly culpable; and in many instances it is not easy for an impartial observer to determine on which side the greatest degree of criminality rests: only, where other motives or prejudices do not counteract, the suffering party is generally favoured and excused; and still more, when the motives, sentiments, or prejudices of the persons concerned are on his side. The Remonstrants, and all who ever since have favoured them, throw the whole blame of the contest, both of the management, result, and consequences of it on the Synod; and, as the Remonstrants were, in the first instance at least, the chief sufferers, and as their tenets are generally more favoured than those of the Synod, the public mind

has greatly favoured the cause of the suffering party. Yet the Synod and its supporters seem very confident that the Remonstrants exclusively were in fault, and consider their conduct as intolerably haughty and pertinacious. But will not an impartial judge, would not one who had no sympathy with either party, no partiality or prejudice, on either side, as to the five points of doctrine, (if such a man can be found on earth,) would he not equally divide the criminality? At least would he not allot nearly one half of it to the one, and one half to the other? Nay, might he not allot the greater part to the Remonstrants? Thus, in all other contests, which have terminated in incurable separations, the charge of schism has been brought with the utmost confidence (if not bitterness) by each party against its opponent; and, except in one solitary instance, nearly with equal justice. I say one instance excepted: for beyond all doubt, on the broad ground of scripture, in the separation of protestants from the Romish church, all the guilt of schism rested with that corrupt body, which excluded from its communion all those who would not worship creatures, or conform to antichristian observances; and, in many ways, made it the duty, the absolute duty, of all the true worshippers of God, through Christ Jesus, to come forth and be separate. But perhaps this is the only exception.

I would by no means exclude schism from the vocabulary of sins, of great and grievous sins, as many seem disposed to do. Pride, ambition, obstinacy, and self-will, and other very corrupt passions, powerfully influence both those who, by spiritual tyranny, would lord it over other men's consciences, and impose things not scriptural, if

not directly antiscriptural, as terms of communion or even of exemption from pains and penalties and also on those who on slight grounds refuse compliance, where the requirement is not evidently wrong; and then magnify by a perverse ingenuity, into a most grievous evil, some harmless posture, or garb, or ceremony. If the one party would humbly and meekly, without desiring to arrogate a power not belonging to man, desist from peremptorily requiring such things as are doubtful, and liable to be misunderstood, and so scrupled by upright, peaceable, and conscientious persons; and if the other party would determine to comply as far as, on much previous examination of the scripture, with prayer, and teachableness, they conscientiously could do it; the schism might be prevented, and all the very bad effects of the church of Christ being thus rent and split into parties avoided. For these several parties are generally more eager in disputing with each other, than in "contending for the faith once delivered "to the saints;" in making proselytes, than in secking the conversion of sinners; and in rendering their opponents odious and ridiculous, than in exhibiting our holy religion as lovely and attractive to all around them. In these things their zeal spends itself to no good purpose.

As to the existing divisions, it appears to me, on long and patient investigation, that they originated from very great criminality on both sides; nor am I prepared to say on which side it is the greater: and that there is criminality on both sides in the continuance of them, and still more in the increase of them; in which the heaviest lies, on those who hastily, and on very doubtful or inadequate

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