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The Synod of Dordt

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The Synod of Dordt

8 minuten leestijd Arcering uitzetten

— continued —

The Synod of Dordt, which took place in the years 1618 and 1619, occupies an important place in the history of the Reformed churches. Its well-known decision (known as the Canons of Dordt or the Five Articles Against the Remonstrants) regarding the five main points of doctrine in dispute in the Netherlands at that time continues to serve as one of the Forms of Unity or Doctrinal Standards of our denomination. This article is taken from an essay written by Rev. Samuel Miller in 1841. Rev. Miller was instrumental in the establishment of Princeton Seminary and was subsequently appointed to the chair of ecclesiastical history and church government, which he held for more than thirty-six years. Although born and educated in the United States in the Presbyterian church, his high regard for the work of the Synod of Dordt is evident from his essay. He detailed its background and significance, classifying the meeting as “altogether pre-eminent.”

On first entering upon his Professorship Arminius seemed to take much pains to remove from himself all suspicion of heterodoxy by publicly maintaining theses in favor of the received doctrines; doctrines which he afterwards zealously contradicted. And that he did this contrary to his own conviction at the time was made abundantly evident afterwards by some of his own zealous friends. But after he had been in his new office a year or two, it was discovered that it was his constant practice to deliver one set of opinions in his professorial chair and a very different set by means of private confidential manuscripts circulated among his pupils. He was also accustomed, while he publicly recommended the characters and opinions of the most illustrious Reformed divines, artfully to insinuate such things as were adapted, indirectly, to bring them into discredit and to weaken the arguments usually brought for their support. He also frequently intimated to his pupils that he had many objections to the doctrines usually deemed orthodox, which he intended to make known at a suitable time. It was observed, too, that some pastors who were known to be on terms of great intimacy with him were often giving intimations in private that they had adopted the new opinions, and not a few of his pupils began to manifest symptoms of being infected with the same errors.

The churches of Holland, observing these and other things of a similar kind, became deeply apprehensive of the consequences; they, therefore, enjoined upon the deputies, to whom the supervision of the church was more especially committed, to inquire into the matter and to take the earliest and most decisive measures to prevent the apprehended evil from taking deeper root. In consequence of this injunction, the deputies of the churches of North and South Holland waited on Arminius, informed him of what they had heard, and urged him, in a friendly manner, if he had doubts or difficulties respecting any of the received doctrines of the Belgic churches, either to make known his mind in a frank and candid manner to his brethren in private; or to refer the whole affair, officially, to the consideration and decision of a Synod.

To this address of the deputies Arminius replied that he had never given any just cause for the reports of which they had heard; but that he did not think proper to enter into any conference with them as the deputies of the churches; that if, however, they chose, as private ministers, to enter into a conversation with him on the points in question, he was ready to comply with their wishes; provided they would engage, on their part, that if they found any thing erroneous in his opinions they would not divulge it to the Synod which they represented! The deputies, considering this proposal as unfair, as unworthy of a man of integrity, and as likely to lead to no useful result, very properly declined accepting it and retired without doing anything further.

In this posture of affairs, several of the magistrates of Leyden urged Arminius to hold a conference with his colleagues in the University, before the Classis, respecting those doctrines to which he had objections, that the extent of his objections might be known. But this he declined. In the same manner he treated one proposal after another for private explanation; for calling a national Synod to consider the matter; or for any method whatever of bringing the affair to a regular ecclesiastical decision. Now a Classis, then a Synod, and at other times secular men attempted to move in the case; but Arminius was never ready and always had insurmountable objections to every method proposed for explanation or adjustment. It was evident that he wished to gain time; to put off any decisive action in the case until he should have such an opportunity of influencing the minds of the leading secular men of the country as eventually to prepare them to take sides with himself. Thus he went on evading, postponing, concealing, shrinking from every inquiry, and endeavoring secretly to throw every possible degree of odium on the orthodox doctrines, hoping that, by suitable management, their advocates both in the church and among the civil rulers might be gradually diminished, so as to give him a good chance of a majority in any Synod which might be eventually called.

This is a painful narrative. It betrays a want of candor and integrity on the part of a man otherwise respectable, which it affords no gratification even to an adversary to record. It may be truly said, however, to be the stereotyped history of the commencement of every heresy which has arisen in the Christian church. When heresy rises in an evangelical body, it is never frank and open. It always begins by skulking and assuming a disguise. Its advocates, when together, boast of great improvements and congratulate one another on having gone greatly beyond the “old dead orthodoxy,” and on having left behind many of its antiquated errors; but when taxed with deviations from the received faith, they complain of the unreasonableness of their accusers, as they “differ from it only in words.” This has been the standing course of errorists ever since the apostolic age. They are almost never honest and candid as a party, until they gain strength enough to be sure of some degree of popularity. Thus it was with Arius in the fourth century, with Pelagius in the fifth, with Arminius and his companions in the seventeenth, with Amyraut and his associates in France soon afterwards, and with the Unitarians in Massachusetts toward the close of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth centuries. They denied their real tenets, evaded examination or inquiry, declaimed against their accusers as merciless bigots and heresy-hunters, and strove as long as they could to appear to agree with the most orthodox of their neighbors; until the time came when, partly from inability any longer to cover up their sentiments and partly because they felt strong enough to come out, they at length avowed their real opinions. Arminius, in regard to talents, to learning, to eloquence, and to general exemplariness of moral deportment, is undoubtedly worthy of high praise; but if there be truth in history, his character as to integrity, candor, and fidelity to his official pledges and professions is covered with stains which can never by any ingenuity be effaced.

At length, after various attempts to bring Arminius to an avowal of his real opinions had failed, he was summoned by the States General, in 1609, to a conference at the Hague. He went, attended by several of his friends, and met Gomarus, who was accompanied with a corresponding number of orthodox divines. Here again the sinister designs and artful management of Arminius and his companions were manifested, but overruled; and he was constrained, to a considerable extent, to explain and defend himself. But before this conference was terminated, the agitation of his mind seems to have preyed upon his bodily health. He was first taken apparently in a small degree unwell and excused himself for a few days, to the States General; but at length grew worse; was greatly agitated in mind; and expired on the 19th day of October, 1609, in the forty-ninth year of his age. His mind, in his last illness, seems to have been by no means composed. “He was sometimes heard,” says Bertius, his warm friend and panegyrist, “He was sometimes heard, in the course of his last illness, to groan and sigh, and to cry out, ‘Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast borne me a man of strife, and a man of contention to the whole earth. I have lent to no man on usury, nor have men lent to me on usury; yet every one doth curse me!’”

— to be continued —

God’s Providence

God, the great Creator of all things, doth uphold, direct, dispose, and govern all creatures, actions, and things, from the greatest even to the least, by His most wise and holy providence, according to His infallible foreknowledge, and the free and immutable counsel of His own will, to the praise of the glory of His wisdom, power, justice, goodness, and mercy.

— The Westminster Confession of Faith

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Bekijk de hele uitgave van zondag 1 januari 1995

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The Synod of Dordt

Bekijk de hele uitgave van zondag 1 januari 1995

The Banner of Truth | 28 Pagina's