cv.

ANTITYPE

APOCRYPHA

above sentiments are, Crisp, Richardson, Salt- The word antitype occurs twice in the New marsh, Hussey, Eatom, Town, &c. These Testament, viz. in the Epistle to the Hebrews, have been answered by Gataker, Sedgwick, Wit-chap. ix. v. 24. and in the 1st Epistle of St. Peter, sius, Bull, Williams, Ridgley, Beart, De Fleury, 4e. See also Bellamy's Letters and Dialogues between Theron, Paulinus, and Aspasio; with his Essay on the Nature and Glory of the Gospel: Edwards's Crispianism unmasked. ANTIPATHY, hatred, aversion, repugnanHatred is entertained against persons, aversion and antipathy against persons or things, and repugnancy against actions alone. Hatred is more voluntary than aversion, antipathy, or repugnancy: these last have greater affinity with the animal constitution. The causes of antipathy are less known than those of aversion. Repugnancy is less permanent than either the one or the other. We hate a vicious character; we feel an aversion to its exertions. We are affected with antipathy for certain persons at first sight; there are some affairs which we transact with repugnarry. Hatred calumnuates, aversion keeps us at a distance from certain persons. Antipathy makes us detest them; repugnancy hinders us from imitating them.

ANTIPEDOBAPTISTS (from T, against, and rais, fs, child, and BT, baptize) is a distinguishing denomination given to those who object to the baptism of infants. See BAPTISTS, BAPTISM.

chap. iii. v. 21. where its genuine import has been much controverted. The former says, that Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are avTITUT, the figures or antitypes of the true-now to appear in the presence of God. Now TUTOS signifies the pattern by which another thing is made; and as Moses was obliged to make the tabernacle, and all things in it, according to the pattern shown him in the Mount, the tabernacle so formed was the antitype of what was shown to Moses; any thing, therefore, formed according to a model or pattern, is an antitype. In the latter passage, the Apostle, speaking of Noah's flood, and the deliverance of only eight persons in the ark from it, says, ox ημας XVTITUTTOV νυν σώζει βαπτισμα: Βαρ tism being an antitype to that, now saves us; not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God, &c. The meaning is, that righteousness, or the answer of a good conscience towards God, now saves us, by means of the resurrection of Christ, as formerly righteousness saved these eight persons by means of the ark during the flood. The word antitype, therefore, here signifies a general similitude of circumstances; and the particle, whereunto, refers not to the immediate antecedent

ANTIQUITIES, a term implying all testi-varos, water, but to all that precedes. monies or authentic accounts that have come down to us of ancient nations. As the study of antiquity may be useful both to the inquiring Christian, as well as to those who are employed in, or are candidates for the Gospel ministry, we shall here subjoin a list of those which are esteemed the most valuable.-Fabricii Bibliographia Antiquaria; Spencer de Legibus Heb. Ritualibus; Godwyn's Moses and Aaron; Bing-made just, but only pronounced so. ham's Antiquities of the Christian Church; Jennings's Jewish Antiquities; Potter's and Harwood's Greek, and Kennett's and Adams's Roman Antiquities; Preface to the Prussian Testament, published by L'Enfant and Beausobre; Prideaux and Shuckford's Connections; Jones's Asiatic Researches; and Maurice's Indian Antiquities; Brown's Jewish Antiquities; Lewis's Origines Hebrae; Fleury's Manners of the Ancient Israelites.

ANTOSIANDRIANS, a sect of rigid Lutherans, who opposed the doctrine of Osiander relating to justification. These are otherwise denominated Osiandromastiges.-The Antosian drians deny that man is made just, with that justice wherewith God himself is just; that is, they assert that he is not made essentially, but only imputatively just; or that he is not really

ANTISABBATARIANS, a modern religious sect, who deny the necessity of observing the Sabbath Day. Their chief arguments are, 1. That the Jewish Sabbath was only of ceremonial, not of moral obligation; and consequently, is abolished by the coming of Christ.-2. That no other Sabbath was appointed to be observed by Christ or his apostles.-3. That there is not a word of Sabbath-breaking in all the New Testament.-4. That no command was given to Adam or Noah to keep any Sabbath.And, 5. That, therefore, although Christians are commanded "not to forsake the assembling of themselves together," they ought not to hold one day more holy than another. See article SAB

BATH.

APATHY, among the ancient philosophers, implied an utter privation of passion, and an insensibility of pain. The word is compounded of a, priv. and ios, affection. The Stoics affected an entire apathy; they considered it as the highest wisdom to enjoy a perfect calmness or tranquillity of mind, incapable of being ruffled by either plea. sure or pain. In the first ages of the church, the Christians adopted the term apathy to express a contempt of all earthly concerns; a state of mortification such as the Gospel prescribes. Clemens Alexandrinus, in particular, brought it exceed ingly in vogue, thinking hereby to draw such philosophers to Christianity who aspired after such a sublime pitch of virtue.

APELLEANS, so called from Apelles, in the second century. They affirmed, that Christ, when he came down from heaven, received a body not from the substance of his mother, but from the four elements, which at his death he rendered back to the world, and so ascended into heaven without a body.

APOCALYPSE, or Revelation, from the Greek T, to unrei, discover, reveal; the name of the last of the sacred books of the New Testament, and so called from its containANTITRINITARIANS, those who denying important revelations concerning the future the Trinity, and teach that there are not three persons in the Godhead. See TRINITY. ANTITYPE, a Greek word, properly signifying a type or figure corresponding to some other type.

destinies of the church. See REVELATION.-B. APOCRYPHA, books not admitted into the canon of Scripture, being either spurious, or at least not acknowledged as divine. The word is Greek, and is derived from are, from, and

APOSTOLIC

APOSTACY spurt, to hide or conceal. They seem most | fourthly, of those who voluntarily relapsed into of them to have been composed by Jews. None paganism. A postacy may be farther considered of the writers of the New Testament mention as 1. Original, in which we have all participated, hem; neither Philo nor Josephus speak of them. Rom. iii. 23;-2. National, when a kingdom reThe Christian church was for some ages a stran- linquishes the profession of Christianity;-3. ger to them. Origen, Athanasius, Hilary, Cyril Personal, when an individual backslides from of Jerusalem, and all the orthodox writers who God, Heb. x. 38;-4. Final, when men are given have given catalogues of the canonical books of up to judicial hardness of heart, as Judas. See Scripture, unanimously concur in rejecting these BACKSLIDING. out of the canon. The Protestants acknowledge APOSTLE, properly signifies a messenger or such books of Scripture only to be canonical as person sent by another upon some business. it were esteemed to be so in the first ages of the is particularly applied to them whom our Saviour church; such as are cited by the earliest writers deputed to preach.-2. Apostle, in the Greek among the Christians, as of divine authority, and liturgy, is used for a book containing the epistles after the most diligent inquiry, were received and of St. Paul, printed in the order wherein they are judged to be so by the council of Laodicea They to be read in churches through the course of the were written after the days of Malachi, in whom, year.-3. The appellation was also given to the according to the universal testimony of the Jews, ordinary travelling ministers of the church, Rom. the spirit of prophecy ceased, Mal. iv. 4-6. xvi. 7. Phil. ii. 25., though in our translation Not one of the writers in direct terms advances a the last is rendered messenger.-4. It is likewise claim to inspiration. They contain fables, lies, given to those persons who first planted the and contradictions. 1 Maccabees, vi. 4, 16. 2 Christian faith in any place. Thus Dionysius of Maccabees, i. 13, 16. ix. 28. The apocryphal Corinth is called the Apostle of France, Xavier books are in general believed to be canonical by the Apostle of the Indies, &c. the church of Rome; and, even by the sixth article of the church of England, they are ordered to be read for example of life and instruction of manners, though it doth not apply them to establish any doctrine. Other reformed churches do not so much as make even this use of them. See Prideaur's Connection, vol. i. p. 36-42; Lee's Dis. on Esdras; Dick on Inspiration, p. 344; Alexander on the Canon; Horne's Introduction, vol. iv. p. 239.

APOLLINARIANS were ancient heretics, who denied the proper humanity of Christ, and maintained that the body he assumed was endowed with a sensitive and not a rational soul; but that the divine nature supplied the place of the intellectual principle in man. This sect derived its name from Apollinaris, bishop of Laodicea. Their doctrine was first condemned by a council at Alexandria in 362, and afterwards in a more formal manner by a council at Rome in 375, and by another council in 378, which deposed Apollinaris from his bishopric. This, with other laws enacted against them, reduced them to a very small number; so that at last they dwindled away.

APOSTLES' CREED. See CREED.

APOSTOLATE, in a general sense, is used for mission; but it more properly denotes the digty or office of an apostle of Christ. It is also used in ancient writers for the office of a bishop. But as the title apostolicus has been appropriated to the pope, so that of apostolate became at length restrained to the sole dignity of the popedom.

APOSTOLIC, apostolical; something that relates to the apostles, or descends from them. Thus we say, the apostolical age, apostolical doctrine, apostolical character, constitutions, traditions, &c.

APOSTOLIC, in the primitive church, was an appellation given to all such churches as were founded by the apostles; and even to the bishops of those churches, as being the reputed successors of the apostles. These were confined to four, viz. Rome, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem. In after-times, the other churches assumed the same quality, on account, principally, of the conformity of their doctrine with that of the churches which were apostolical by foundation, and because all bishops held themselves successors of the apostles, or acted in their dioceses with the

The first time the term apostolical is attributed to bishops, as such, is in a letter of Clovis to the council of Orleans, held in 511, though that king does not there expressly denominate them apos tolical, but (apostolica sede dignissimi) highly worthy of the apostolical see. In 581, Guntram calls the bishops, met at the council of Macon, apostolical pontiffs, apostolici pontifices.

APOLOGY, a Greek term, literally import-authority of apostles. ing an excuse or defence of some person, cause, or action. Both in ancient and modern times the word has been applied to works written for the professed design of defending or vindicating Christianity from the attacks of its enemies, and also to those written in defence of certain religious sects by their advocates. Thus, among the ancients, we meet with the Apology of Justin Martyr, the Apologetic of Tertullian, &c. And among the moderns, with Watson's Apology, Barclay's Apology, and others.-B.

APOSTACY, a forsaking or renouncing our religion, either by an open declaration in words, or a virtual declaration of it by our actions. The primitive Christian church distinguished several kinds of apostacy: the first, of those who went entirely from Christianity to Judaism: the second, of those who complied so far with the Jews, as to communicate with them in many of their unlawful practices, without making a formal profession of their religion; thirdly, of those who mingled Judaism and Christianity together; and

In progress of time, the bishop of Rome grow ing in power above the rest, and the three patriarchates of Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusa lem falling into the hands of the Saracens, the title apostolical was restrained to the pope and his church alone; though some of the popes, and St. Gregory the Great, not contented to hold the title by this tenure, began at length to insist that it belonged to them by another and peculiar right, as being the successors of St. Peter. The council of Rheims, in 1049, declared that the pope was the sole apostolical primate of the universal church. And hence a great number of apostolicals; apostolical see, apostolical nuncio, apostoli.

APPROPRIATION

cal notary, apostolical brief, apostolical chamber, | apostolical vicar, &c.

APOSTOLICAL CONSTITUTIONS, a collection of regulations attributed to the apostles, and supposed to have been collected by St. Clement, whose name they likewise bear. It is the general opinion, however, that they are spurious, and that St. Clement had no hand in them. They appeared first in the fourth century, but have been much changed and corrupted since. There are so many things in them different from and even contrary to the genius and design of the New Testament writers, that no wise man would believe, without the most convincing and irresistible proof, that both could come from the same hand. Grabe's Answer to Whiston; Saurin's Ser, vol. ii. p. 185; Lardner's Cred. vol. iii. p. 11. ch. ult.; Doddridge's Lect. lec. 119.

ARIANS

mind by which we apply the blessings of the Gospel to ourselves. This appropriation is real when we are enabled to believe in, feel, and obey the truth; but merely nominal and delusive when there are no fruits of righteousness and true holiness. See ASSURANCE.

AQUARIANS, those who consecrated water in the eucharist instead of wine. Another branch of them approved of wine in the sacrament, when received at the evening: they likewise mixed water with the wine.

ARABICI, erroneous Christians, in the third century, who thought that the soul and body died together, and rose again. It is said that Origen convinced them of their error, and that they then abjured it.

ARCHANGEL, according to some divines, means an angel occupying the eighth rank in the APOSTOLIC FATHERS, an appellation celestial hierarchy; but others, not without reausually given to the writers of the first century, son, reckon it a title only applicable to our Sawho employed their pens in the cause of Chris-viour. Compare Jude ix, with Dan. xii. 1. 1 tranity. Of these writers, Cotelerius, and after Thes. iv. 16. him Le Clerc, have published a collection in two volumes, accompanied both with their own annotations, and the remarks of other learned men. See also the genuine epistles of the apostolic fathers by Abp. Wake.

APOSTOLIC SUCCESSION. See Suc

CESSION.

APOTACTITE, an ancient sect, who affected to follow the example of the apostles, and renounced all their effects and possessions. It does not appear that they held any errors at first; but afterwards they taught that the renouncing of all riches was not only a matter of counsel and advice, but of precept and necessity.

APPLICATION is used for the act whereby our Saviour transfers or makes over to us what he had earned or purchased by his holy life and death. Accordingly it is by this application of the merits of Christ that we are to be justified and entitled to grace and glory.

Application is also used for that part of a sermon in which the preacher brings home or applies the truth of religion to the consciences of his hearers. See SERMON.

ARCHBISHOP, the chief or metropolitan bishop, who has several suffragans under him. Archbishops were not known in the East till about the year 320; and though there were some soon after this who had the title, yet that was only a personal honour, by which the bishops of considerable cities were distinguished. It was not till of late that archbishops became metropolitans, and had suffragans under them. The ecclesiastical government of England is divided into two provinces, viz. Canterbury and York. The first archbishop of Canterbury was Austin, appointed by king Ethelbert, on his conversion to Christianity, about the year 598. His grace of Canterbury is the first peer of England, and the next to the royal family, having precedence of all dukes, and all great officers of the crown. It is his privilege, by custom, to crown the kings and queens of this kingdom. The archbishop of York has precedence of all dukes not of the royal blood, and of all officers of state, except the lord high chancellor. The first archbishop of York was Paulinus, appointed by pope Gregory about the year 622.

ARCHDEACON, a priest invested with authority or jurisdiction over the clergy and laity, next to the bishop, either through the whole diocese, or cnly a part of it. There are sixty in England, who visit every two years in three, when they inquire into the reparations and moveables belonging to churches; reform abuses; suspend; excommunicate; in some places prove wills; and induct all clerks into benefices within their respective jurisdictions.

APPROBATION, a state or disposition of the mind, wherein we put a value upon, or become pleased with, some person or thing. Moralists are divided on the principle of approbation, or the motive which determines us to approve or disapprove. The Epicureans will have it to be only self-interest: according to them, that which determines any agent to approve his own action, is its apparent tendency to his private happiness; and even the approbation of another's action flows from no other cause but an opinion of its ARCHONTICS, a sect about the year 160 or tendency to the happiness of the approver, either 203. Among many other extravagant notions, immediately or remotely. Others resolve appro- they held that the world was created by archan bation into a moral sense, or a principle of be-gels; they also denied the resurrection of the body. nevolence, by which we are determined to approve every kind affection either in ourselves or thers, and all publicly useful actions which we imagine to flow from such affections, without any view therein to our own private happiness. But may we not add, that a true Christian's approbation arises from his perception of the will of God? See OBLIGATION.

APPROPRIATION, the annexing a benefice to the proper and perpetual use of some religious house. It is a term also often used in the religious world as referring to that act of the

ARCH-PRESBYTER, or ARCH-PRIEST, a priest established in some dioceses with a superiority over the rest. He was anciently chosen out of the college of presbyters, at the pleasure of the bishop. The arch-presbyters were much of the same nature with our deans in cathedral churches.

ARIANS, followers of Arius, a presbyter of the church of Alexandria, about 315, who maintained that the Son of God was totally and essentially distinct from the Father; that he was the first and noblest of those beings whom God had

ARIAN

ARK OF THE COVENANT ment whatever in the divine dispensations. In modern times, the term Arian is indiscriminately applied to those who consider Jesus simply subordinate to the Father. Some of them believe Christ to have been the creator of the world; but they all maintain that he existed previously to his incarnation, though in his pre-existent state they assign him difierent degrees of dignity. Hence the terms High and Low Arian. See PRE-EXISTENCE. Some of the more recent vindicators of Ariarism have been H. Taylor, in his Apology of Ben Mordecai to his friends for embracing Christianity; Dr. Harwood, in his Five Dissertations; Dr. Price, in his Sermons on the Christian Doctrine. See also the 4th vol. of the Theological Repository, p. 153–163, and Cornish's Tract on the Pre-existence of Christ.

On the opposite side, Bogue and Bennett's Hist of Dissenters, vol. iii. Abbadie, Waterland, Guyse, Hey, Robinson, Ereleigh, Hawker on the Divinity of Christ;-Calamy, Taylor, Gill, Jones, Pike, and Simpson on the Trinity. ARISTOTELIANS. The followers of Aris

and represented the Deity as somewhat similar to a principle of power giving motion to a machine; and as happy in the contemplation of himself, but regardless of human affairs. They were uncer tain as to the immortality of the soul.-As this was rather a philosophical than religious sect, we shall not enlarge on it.

created the instrument, by whose subordinate operation he formed the universe; and, therefore, inferior to the Father both in nature and dignity: also, that the Holy Ghost was not God, but created by the power of the Son. The Arians owned that the Son was the Word; but denied that Word to have been eternal. They held that Christ had nothing of man in him but the flesh, to which the ayos, or word, was joined, which was the same as the soul in us. The Arians were first condemned and anathematized by a council at Alexandria, in 320, under Alexander, bishop of that city, who accused Arius of impiety, and caused him to be expelled from the communion of the church; and afterwards by 380 fathers in the general council of Nice, assembled by Constantine, in 325. His doctrine, however, was not extinguished; on the contrary, it became the reigning religion, especially in the east. Arius was recalled from banishment by Constantine in two or three years after the council of Nice, and the laws that had been enacted against him were repealed. Notwithstanding this, Athanasius, then bishop of Alexandria, refused to admit him and his followers to communion. This so en-totle. They believed in the eternity of the world, raged them, that, by their interest at court, they procured that prelate to be deposed and banished; but the church of Alexandria still refusing to admit Arius into their communion, the emperor sent for him to Constantinople; where upon delivering in a fresh confession of his faith in terms less offensive, the emperor commanded him to be received into their communion; but that very evening, it is said, Arius died as his friends were conducting him in triumph to the great church of Constantinople. Arius, pressed by a natural want, stepped aside, but expired on the spot, his bowels gushing out. The Arian party, however, found a protector in Constantius, who succeeded his father in the East. They underwent various revolutions and persecutions under succeeding emperors; till, at length, Theodosius the Great exerted every effort to suppress them. Their doctrine was carried, in the fifth century, The length of this ark was 300 cubits, which, into Africa, under the Vandals; and into Asia according to Dr. Arbuthnot's calculation, amount under the Goths.-Italy, Gaul, and Spain, were to a little more than 517 feet; its breadth, 50 cualso deeply infected with it; and towards the bits, or 91-2 feet; its height, 30 cubits, or 54-72 commencement of the sixth century, it was tri- feet and its solid contents 2,730-782 solid feet, umphant in many parts of Asia, Africa, and Eu- sufficient for a carriage for 81,062 tons. It conrope: but it sunk almost at once, when the Van-sisted of three stories, each of which, abating the dals were driven out of Africa, and the Goths out thickness of the floors, might be about 18 feet of Italy by the arms of Justinian. However, it high, and no doubt was partitioned into a great revived again in Italy, under the protection of the many rooms or apartments. This vessel was Lombards, in the seventh century, and was not doubtless so contrived, as to admit the air and the extinguished till about the end of the eighth. light on all, though the particular construction of Arianism was again revived in the West by Ser- the windows be not mentioned. vetus, in 1531, for which he suffered death. After this the doctrine got footing in Geneva, and in Poland; but at length degenerated in a great measure into Socinianism. Erasmus, it is thought, aimed at reviving it, in his commentaries on the New Testament; and the learned Grotius seems to lean that way. Mr. Whiston was one of the first divines who revived this controversy in the eighteenth century. He was followed by Dr. Clarke, who was chiefly opposed by Dr. Waterland. Those who hold the doctrine which is usually called Low Arianism, say that Christ pre-existed; but not as the eternal Logos of the Father, or as the being by whom he made the worlds, and had intercourse with the patri archs, or as having any certain rank or employ

ARK, or NOAH'S ARK, a floating vessel built by Noah for the preservation of his family, and the several species of animals, during the deluge. The form of the ark was an oblong, with a flat bottom, and a sloped roof, raised to a cubit in the middle; it had neither sails nor rudder; nor was it sharp at the ends for cutting the water. This form was admirably calculated to make it lie steady on the water, without rolling, which might have endangered the lives of the animals within.

ARK OF THE COVENANT, a small chest or coffer, three feet nine inches in length, two feet three inches in breadth, and two feet three inches in height, in which were contained the golden pot that had manna, Aaron's rod, and the tables of the covenant. The ark was reposited in the holiest place of the tabernacle. It was taken by the Philistines, and detained twenty (some say forty) years at Kirjath-jearim; but, the people being afflicted with emerods on account of it, returned it with divers presents. It was afterwards placed in the temple. The lid or covering of the ark was called the propitiatory or mercy. seat; over which two figures were placed, called cherubims, with expanded wings of a peculiar form. Here the Shechinah rested both in the

ARMINIANS

tabernacle and temple in a visible cloud: hence were issued the Divine oracles by an audible voice; and the high priest appeared before this mercy-seat once every year on the great day of expiation; and the Jews, wherever they worshipped, turned their faces towards the place where the ark stood.

In the second temple there was also an ark, made of the same shape and dimensions with the first, and put in the same place, but without any of its contents and peculiar honours. It was used as a representative of the former on the day of expiation, and a repository of the original copy of the holy Scriptures, collected by Ezra and the men of the great synagogue after the captivity; and, in imitation of this, the Jews, to this day, have a kind of ark in their synagogues, wherein their sacred books are kept.

ARMENIANS, the inhabitants of Armenia, whose religion is the Christian of the Eutychian sect; that is, they hold but one nature in Jesus Christ. See EcrYCHIANS. They assert also the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Father only. They believe that Christ, at his descent into hell freed the souls of the damned from thence, and reprieved them to the end of the world, when they shall be remanded to eternal flames. They believe that the souls of the righteous shall not be admitted to the beatific vision till after the resurrection, notwithstanding which they pray to departed saints, adore their pictures, and burn lamps before them. The Armenian clergy consist of patriarchs, archbishops, doctors, secular priests, and monks. The Armenian monks are of the order of St. Basil; and every Wednesday and Friday they eat neither fish, nor eggs, nor oil, nor any thing made of milk; and during Lent they live upon nothing but roots. They have seven sacraments; baptism, confirmation, penance, the eucharist, extreme unction, orders, and matrimony. They admit infants to the communion at two or three months old. They seem to place the chief part of their religion in fastings and abstinences; and, among the clergy, the higher the degree, the lower they must live; insomuch, that it is said the archbishops live on nothing but pulse. They consecrate holy water but once a year; at which time every one fills a pot, and carries it home, which brings in a considerable revenue to the church.

ARMINIANS

persevere unto the end; and to inflict everlasting punishments on those who should continue in their unbelief, and resist his divine succours; so that election was conditional, and reprobation in like manner the result of foreseen infidelity and persevering wickedness.

II. That Jesus Christ, by his sufferings and death, made an atonement for the sins of all mankind in general, and of every individual in par ticular; that, however, none but those who be lieve in him can be partakers of divine benefits.

III. That true faith cannot proceed from the exercise of our natural faculties and powers, nor from the force and operation of free will; since man, in consequence of his natural corruption, is incapable either of thinking or doing any good thing; and that, therefore, it is necessary, in order to his conversion and salvation, that he be regenerated and renewed by the operations of the Holy Ghost, which is the gift of God through Jesus Christ.

IV. That this divine grace or energy of the Holy Ghost begins and perfects every thing that can be called good in man, and, consequently all good works are to be attributed to God alone; that, nevertheless, this grace is offered to all, and does not force men to act against their inclinations, but may be resisted and rendered ineffectual by the perverse will of the impenitent sinner. Some modern Arminians interpret this and the last article with a greater latitude.

V. That God gives to the truly faithful, who are regenerated by his grace, the means of preserving themselves in this state. The first Arminians, indeed, had some doubt with respect to the closing part of this article; but their followers uniformly maintain "that the regenerate may lose true justifying faith, fali from a state of grace, and die in their sins."

After the appointment of Arminius to the theological chair at Leyden, he thought it his duty to avow and vindicate the principles which he had embraced; and the freedom with which he published and defended them, exposed him to the resentment of those that adhered to the theological system of Geneva, which then prevailed in Holland; but his principal opponent was Gomar, his colleague. The controversy which was thus begun became more general after the death of Arminius, in the year 1609, and threatened to ARMINIANS, persons who follow the doc- involve the United Provinces in civil discord. trines of Arminius, who was pastor at Amster- The Arminian tenets gained ground under the dam, and afterwards professor of divinity at Ley-mild and favourable treatment of the magistrates den. Arminius had been educated in the opinions of Calvin; but, thinking the doctrine of that great man with regard to free will, predestination and grace, too severe, he began to express his doubts concerning them in the year 1591; and, upon further inquiry, adopted the sentiments of those whose religious system extends the love of the Supreme Being and the merits of Jesus Christ to all mankind. The Arminians are also called Remonstrants, because, in 1611, they presented a remonstrance to the states-general, wherein they state their grievances, and pray for relief.

The distinguishing tenets of the Arminians may be comprised in the five following articles relative to predestination, universal redemption, the corruption of man, conversion, and perseve

rance, viz.

I. That God, from all eternity, determined to bestow salvation on those who he foresaw would

of Holland, and were adopted by several persons of merit and distinction. The Calvinists or Gomarists, as they were now called, appealed to a national synod; accordingly the synod of Dort was convened, by order of the states-general, in 1618; and was composed of ecclesiastic deputies from the United Provinces as well as from the reformed churches of England, Hessia, Bremen Switzerland, and the Palatinate. The principal advocate in favour of the Arminians was Episcopius, who at that time was professor of divinity at Leyden. It was first proposed to discuss the principal subjects in dispute, that the Arminians should be allowed to state and vindicate the grounds on which their opinions were founded; but, some difference arising, as to the proper mode of conducting the debate, the Arminians were excluded from the assembly, their case was tried in their absence, and they were pronounced guilty