the preses tell them how much they were beholden to the synod, that had so patiently heard them, notwithstanding that they had no leave granted them to speak, and that they ought to have expected the mandate of the synod. To this Episcopius replies, that he had required leave before he began to speak. True,' said the 'but you stayed not till leave was granted you. Besides,' said he, you are to know that no man may, no not of those that are the members of the synod, offer to declaim without leave first had, and without manifesting the argument and drift of his speech." The only answer which Episcopius gave to this remark, was, that he had been ignorant of the existence of such a law." Armimius, pp.

preses,

425, 426.

A still more extraordinary reply to the speech of Episcopius was of fered by the synod, in an irrelevant and captious attempt to implicate him in the guilt of a lie respecting his alleged non-possession of a fair copy!

"In the afternoon of that day, a trick was played off against Episcopius, which was every way unworthy of honourable

men, much more of Christians and divines

The lay commissioners sent for him, and asked him many questions, which with all the artlessness of an innocent and upright mind he answered. Their questions were apparently intended to elicit information, whether his speech, and the copy of it which he had given up to Bogerman, were nearly alike in sense and meaning. He said, they were the same, with the excep tion of a word or two; and added, that he had the first rough draft of it still by him, but it was so greatly interlined as scarcely to be intelligible to others. With his frank replies they seemed well satisfied; and, after exhorting him to labour for peace, they dismissed him in a friendly manner. Soon after, Heinsius, the secretary of the commissioners, came to the lodgings of Episcopius, and desired of him, in the name of one of the body, to have the perusal of the rough draft of which he had spoken. He delivered it up to Heinsius, under a promise that it should be speedily returned." Arminius, p. 426. What use was made of it by the synod, it would be quite unworthy our time or that of our readers to discuss; only Mr. Nichols concludes,

"The cited Remonstrants were often compelled to receive, with patience, this instance of imputed prevarication, and bad faith, from the lips of their persecutors.' Arminius, p. 428.

Whatever might have been the consciousness of truth, and of power, on the part of the synodists, it is

clear they acted, as Mr. Scott would admit, at least an injudicious part in placing themselves in the position of inquisitors, and the "poor Arminians" in that of victims. Either, as Mr. Scott observes in another case, the fact must have been wilfully and directly perverted by eye-witnesses, or else those men were really in the power of the synod, precisely as our English Reformers were, in the presence of Bonner and Gardiner, or as other unhappy victims in after-times before the Star-Chamber and Court of High Commission; or as the son of James himself before the president Bradshaw. Manliness and temper

seem to have been on this occasion

the exclusive charter of the Remon

strants.

In the discussion relative to the authority of the synod, after a remark from a member, "that it was never known that any law allowed parties to be judges,"

66

if you were in our places and we in yours, Episcopius then said, Mr. president, Bogerman replied, If it had so happened, would you submit to our judgment? we must have endured it; and since government has ordered matters in a different way, it becomes you to bear it with patience.' Episcopius rejoined, 'It is one thing to acknowledge a person for a judge, and it is another to bear with patience the will endure it; but our consciences cansentence which he may impose. We also not be persuaded to acknowledge you for the judges of our doctrines, since you are our sworn adversaries, and have churches totally separated from ours.' Arminius,

p. 429.

After they had delivered their final protest, which, however, did not hinder their proceeding to the proofs of their positions, the Professor Barlæus, a spectator,

66

on hearing this document read, and

seeing the magnanimity of the Remon

strants under all the disadvantages which they encountered, and the studied insults which they received, exclaimed in one of his letters, When I heard these things, I admired the courage of the men. They synod, as equals with their equals. Their were really intrepid, and spoke in the countenances were unruffled and serene, and they were prepared, as they confessed, to endure all extremities." Árminius, p.

430.

333

Episcopius, it is true, had not himself so much to say for Mr. Pre

name,

"Bogerman opened out his characteristic fury, and in a great passion exclaimed. If you will not name them, I will. They are Zuinglius, Bucer, Calvin, Beza, Marlorat, Martyr, Zanchius, Pis...cator, Perkins, and Whitaker! those venerable men, those brave heroes, those noble lights of the church, those happy souls whose memory is blessed both by God and man! These are the persons whom you intend to expose !' This speech was pronounced with so much warmth, and in such a thundering tone, that his countenance changed, his joints trembled, and his words seemed to possess no coherence. When Episcopius describes this scene, he What eyes, and what a countenance did the man exhibit! The perturbation which he manifested I can compare to nothing better than that of a man the tender pupil of whose eye had been pricked by some sharp instrument, the pain of which caused him to writhe with agony.'" Arminius, p. 445.

says,

We feel ourselves entrapped into the details of the proceedings of this far-famed synod, with respect to whose actual decrees of doctrine, we repeat it, we give no opinion. We shall therefore add only further, in place of a thousand extracts of the same nature as those above, that Mr. Nichols has given the entire body of Bishop Womack's history of this synod, as collected from the letters of Messrs. Hales and Balcanqual, the agents of Sir Dudley Carlton, the British ambassador at the Hague, and who were actually present, as parties vehemently engaged against the Remonstrants.

"The Calvinistic and highly prejudiced feelings of both the writers, and the exasperation of their spirits against the Remonstrants, are perceptible in all their communications to his excellency. Yet these men, in the opinion both of their countrymen and of foreigners, have furnished the most valuable account of the Synod of Dort which has ever yet been given. Its value consists in the honest disclosure of many reprehensible practices to which the managers of that synod had recourse, and in the frank confession of the outrageous dispositions of the Dutch clergy, and the flimsy pretences under which they diguised several of their most objectionable proceedings, and all this without the least abatement of their ge

In justice to the character and authority of the Arminian Brandt, whose work is so often quoted, we add the conclusion of Mr. Nichols's paragraph.

"That highly respectable and upright historian, the elder Brandt, has made great use of them [letters of Hales and Balcanqual]; not because the temperate statements of the Remonstrants needed any such confirmation, for, as the good old man most properly observes, the contra-remonstrants had sufficient opportunities to contradict their accounts, if they had contained any untruths: but this, as far as I know, they have never yet done. A short time, however, after making this declaration, Leydekker wrote against Brandt, and in vindication of the synod. On this work, and that which it professes to censure, the learned Mosheim makes this remark: After diligently comparing these two productions, I could see no enormous error in Brandt; for, in truth, these two writers do not so much differ about facts, as they do in the and in their accounts of the causes from reasoning which they deduce from them, which they proceeded. The reader will do well to consult the letters of the learned and worthy Mr. John Hales, of the proceedings of this famous synod, Eton, who was an impartial spectator of and who relates with candour and simplicity what he saw and heard." Arminius, p. 477.

We give also a sentiment from Mr. Nichols, in reference to Mr. Scott's translation, which we find he discusses in pp. 510-515, &c. of his multifarious volume, and views, as might be expected, in no favourable light.

"When Mr. Scott intimates......... that the measure adopted by the rulers of Belgium, in respect of the decisions of the Synod of Dort, ought not to be judged according to the generally prevailing sentiments of modern times,' he has forgotten to subjoin, that the measures in question ought rather to be judged according to the enlightened and pacific sentiments of Arminius and his early followers." Arminius, p. 514.

This oversight of Mr. Scott, we must add, is made the more remarkable after the highly liberal concession we have already quoted tigation of opinions; as well as refrom him, respecting a free invesspecting the inexpediency of such a rigorous and exclusive subscrip

is to be noted, that all the errors the Synod condemns, are errors connected with the rejection of the Calvinistic scheme, but that not one error is denounced on the side of its perverted reception; although it was the dread of errors of this class which unquestionably opened the first fissure in that portentous schism of which Arminius was represented as the author.

(To be continued.)

GREAT BRITAIN. PREPARING for publication:-Scripture Diary, or Christian Almanack; by the Rev. J. Whitridge ;-The Correspondence and Diary of Lord Clarendon, from 1687, to 1690, from the original MSS., with Notes; by S. Singer.

In the Press-Religion in India, or a Voice directed to Christian Churches, for Millions in the East;-The Diary of a Member of Parliament, from 1656 to 1659, from the Autograph; by W. Upcott;-Lectures on Paul's Epistles to the Corinthians; by William Lothian, St. Andrews.

The first arch of the New London Bridge is completed, and the whole work is in a state of rapid progress. The foundations of the pier are said to be deeper than those of any bridge in Europe. The edifice is constructed of several sorts of granite. The centre arch will have a span of 150 feet, with a height of 30. The length of the bridge, including the abutments, will be 928 feet, with a clear water way of 690.

The Suspension Bridge at Hammersmith is completed. The extent of water way between the suspension towers is about 400 feet, and the distance between these and the piers on shore about 145, leaving a clear water way of 688. The road way is 30 feet wide, and 16 feet above high water.

The first volume of the Transactions of the London Asiatic Society, contains a translation of an extract from an Indian work, written about the middle of the

thirteenth century, entitled, "On the Knowledge of the Human Soul, which is likewise called the Reasoning Spirit." The following argument is curious, both as approaching to the modern doctrine of chemistry on the division and composition of matter, and as including some of the reasonings of Christian divines respecting the resurrection. "Any person, who minutely considers the properties of bodies, has an accurate knowledge of their dependence on the laws of composition and association, decomposition and disjunction, and is well versed in the whole science of the world of corruption and decay, must know, that no body whatever becomes entirely destroyed; but that accidents, modes, composition, association, figures, and qualities, which subsist in a compound subject, may be changed, while the amount of matter shall still remain the same. For example; water may become air, and air fire, but the matter which receives these three separate appearances will still subsist. Now, seeing that material substances are not susceptible of annihilation, uncompounded essences, which are purer than base matter, will stand still higher touching the impossibility of annihilation."

Another paper in the same work, in giving an account of an Indian sect, the Characas, presents the following sample of their doctrines. The passage, grossly absurd as it is, might have been almost literally copied from the writings of some of our European Materialists, who gravely tell us that the soul is only a name for the functions of bodily organization, and that

"the brain secretes thought as the liver secretes bile." These writers will doubtless be thankful for the following apt oriental illustrations of their doctrine.

"The faculty of thought results from a modification of the aggregate elements, in like manner as sugar with a ferment and other ingredients becomes an inebriating liquor; and as betel, areca, lime, and extract of catechu, chewed together, have an exhilarating property, not found in those substances severally, nor in any one of them singly. So far there is a difference between animate body and inanimate substance. Thought, knowledge, recollection, &c., perceptible only where organic body is, are properties of an organized frame, not appertaining to exterior substances, or earth and other elements simple or aggre. gate, unless formed into such a frame. While there is body, there is thought, and sense of pleasure and pain; none when body is not; and hence, as well as from self-consciousness, it is concluded that self and body are identical."

It is stated, in an interesting memoir just published of the Warwick County Asylum, that, of the whole number of boys tried and convicted of crime and admitted into that institution, not one had received instruction under the national system-it is not stated that they had under any other system. It is added, that during the course of nine years there are only three instances of asylum boys being placed out in situations as reformed, who afterwards returned to criminal practices. On the contrary, some who had run away from the institution were yet so far reformed by the instructions received while there, that they had forsaken their former pursuits, and betaken themselves to honest industry.

UNITED STATES.

The remains of a mastodon have been discovered in Ontario County, New York. The whole skeleton was in such a state of decomposition as to be incapable of being preserved. The tusks were four feet in length. Of the two superior incisors no trace could be discovered, but the eight lower ones were in sight. The length of the largest tooth was six inches; of the smallest three and a half.

INDIA.

The duty and practicability of suppressing by judicious but effectual means the burning of widows, appears to be increasingly felt among intelligent and benevolent persons in India as well as in England: nor is this impression likely, we trust, to be counteracted by such flippant extenu

ations as the following, urged by Mr. Chaplin, the commissioner in the Deccan. "I apprehend the practice of suttees will again become frequent. As however it is a species of voluntary death, which resembles that of a high-spirited female, who prefers loss of life to loss of honour, we cannot look upon it in the light of selfmurder; nor are we, in my opinion, justified in taking any active steps to prevent these acts of infatuation, which the fanatics themselves consider as 'light afflictions, working for them an eternal weight of glory!' Humanity is apt to shudder at these sacrifices, and true religion very properly condemns them; but recent observation convinces all who have been present that much of the horror of the sacrifice itself is the effect of the imagination of the spectators, which has no foundation in reality. It is an idle fancy to suppose that the torture is prolonged even for a minute, and it is quite certain that a woman drowning herself in a well, or swallowing a little arsenic, would undergo much greater bodily suffering. Whilst such sacrifices are religiously deemed meritorious, we cannot suppress them by any half measures."

In this last remark we perfectly agree with Mr. Chaplin; and it would therefore be wise to substitute effectual measures for "half" ones, especially if what he adds is true, that "the Brahmins appear to be far from satisfied with the mode of our interposition; and some have suggested to me, that in preference to continuing it, the community would be infinitely better pleased were Government absolutely to prohibit women altogether from becoming

suttees."