The Synod of Dort.
In the third session,-the deputies from Geneva produced their commission: it was expressed in terms decidedly hostile to the Remonstrants.
In the fourth session,-the grand preliminary question,-in what manner the Remonstrants were to be summoned,-came under consideration. After much argument, it was settled, by a great majority of voices, that "Episcopius and some other Remonstrants should within a fortnight, appear before the Synod, as the sovereign ecclesiastical tribunal of the United States."
The Remonstrants and the advocates of their cause protested against this proceeding: they called in question the authority of the Synod to sit as judges upon them, or even to decide any point of doctrine definitively: they averred it contrary to the evangelical liberty professed and taught by the first Reformers. Every friend to the true principles of the reformation must admit the force of this objection.
The 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th and 13th Sessions of the intermediate fortnight, were consumed in debates upon a projected new translation of the Scriptures; the 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th and 21st Sessions were employed in discussions, upon a new catechism, and other ecclesiastical arrangements.
CHAP. VI. 1618.
The 22d Session was held on the 6th of December. The Remonstrants appeared before the Synod, and requested further time for preparing their defence on the articles with which they were charged. Their request was denied: and Episcopius having said, that "They wished to enter into a conference with the Synod," a resolution was passed, by which the Synod declared, that "the Remonstrants had not been cited to confer with the Synod; but to propound their opinions, and submit to its judgment."
The Remonstrants then paid their visits to the foreign theologians: these they found greatly prejudiced against them; they therefore published two short writings, explaining and justifying their sentiments.
In the 23d Session, Episcopius made a long discourse. Mr. John Hales praised it highly, in a letter addressed by him to the English ambassador An oath was prescribed to the members, by which they promised, that, in the examination of the five articles, "or any other points of doctrine which should be discussed, they would confine themselves to the Scriptures, and resort to no human authority." But, what was the Synod itself more than human authority? The oath was not tendered to the Remonstrants; it was declined by the Swiss.
The Synod of Dort.