Vorstius from the place to which he had been chosen, and also had accepted, he published a declaration 47 concerning the pro cency, for he had well near lost his life by the hands of some of the English ambassador's servants at Madrid, for his want of it. The truth is, no men deserve punishment more than writers of Scioppius's temper. He railed, he reviled, he reproached, he uttered a thousand falsehoods against his adversaries, and stuck at nothing in order to defame. Men's reputations he valued not, nor cared he who was hurt by his calumnies. He deserved chastisement from the hand of the magistrate; and it wou'd have been no more than justice to have treated him as a criminal. For there is a great deal of difference between refuting and defaming an adversary, between shewing the inconclusiveness of his reasonings, and inventing lies in order to blast his character; and I cannot help thinking that he who does the latter, ought to be looked on as a wretch who is a disgrace both to learning and humanity, and exposed to the punishment of calumniators. 47 He published a declaration concerning the proceedings in the cause of Vorstius.] This declaration is "dedicated and consecrated to the honour of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of the eternal Father, the only OEANOРЛпО, mediator and reconciler of mankind, in sign of thankfulness, by his most humble, and most obliged servant, James, &c. If this dedication be thought extraordinary, the declaration itself will be judged more so; for he declares it * See Bayle's Dict. article Scioppius, notes (G) and (H). b2 ceedings with the States General of the United Provinces of the Low Countries in the cause of D. Conradus Vorstius, in which, to be the duty of a christian king to extirpate heresies; professes that it is zeal for the glory of God which alone induces him to move for the banishment of Vorstius, whom he stiles a wretched heretic, or rather atheist, out of the State's dominions; and then goes on to give an account of what he had done in that affair. He gives us a copy of his first letter to Sir Ralph Winwood, in which he orders him to tell the States, that "there had lately come to his hands a piece of work of one Vorstius, a divine in those parts, wherein he had published such monstrous blasphemies, and horrible atheism, as he held not only the book worthy to be burnt, but even the author himself to be most severely punished;" and withal he commands him to "let them know how infinitely he shall be displeased if such a monster receive advancement in the church; and that if they continue their resolution to advance him, he will make known to the world in print how much he detested such abominable heresies, and all allowers and tolerators of them;" and that the states might not want proper information, he sent a catalogue of his damnable positions "."- -But the states were not so furious as James; they had more knowledge, and consequently more discretion. All the answer he could get amounted to no more than a representation of the good character of Vorstius, his great abilities, the reasonableness of allowing him to defend himself against his adversaries, and an assurance that a 2 Works, p. 350. among other things, he declares, that only for the title of one of his books, viz. de filiatione Christi, an author so suspected as if upon examination he should be found guilty, he should not be admitted to the professor's place. Before the receipt of this answer James was determined to shew his zeal, and manifest his indignation against the heretic. He ordered his books to be burnt in St. Paul's church-yard, and both the universities; by this means confuting them in the shortest manner. But he stopt not here; he renewed his instances to the states for the setting aside Vorstius, and again represented his execrable blasphemies, and assures them never any heretic better deserved to be burnt than he; and lest they should hearken to his denials of what was charged on him, he asks them, "what will not he deny, that denieth the eternity and omnipotency of God. He concludes with threatening them that if they should fail of that which he expected at their hands, and suffer such pestilent heretics to nestle among them, he should depart and separate himself from such false and heretical churches, and also exhort all other reformed churches to join with him in a common council, how to extinguish and remand to hell those abominable heretics "."-But notwithstanding these threatenings, Vorstius came to Leyden. This caused Winwood to present himself before the States, who in a set speech backed his master's letters, and gave in a catalogue of Vorstius's errors. But the States answered coldly, and nothing to James's expectation. Winwood therefore, according to his orders, protested against the States receiving Vorstius; and at length an answer was given he, is worthy of the faggot; and that if he had been his own subject, he would have by them more satisfactory to James. This pleased him, but still in his writings he went on to expose the professor, and entered into a very tedious and insipid reply to his apology for his writings.-This was the treatment which a man of piety, parts, and learning met with from James, upon account of some metaphysical reasonings on the nature and attributes of God, and an error which he held with some of the fathers, concerning the corporeity of deity. I should not wonder to hear an inquisitor talk after the manner he did; it would only be in the way of his profession. But, I own, I can hardly tell how to bear such language from a professed protestant, and a temporal prince. And it excites my indignation to behold a man who made no scruple of breaking the laws of the gospel, and living in defiance of God himself, by acting counter to his commands: I say it fills me with indignation to hear such a one making a loud cry about heresy, and stirring up men to punish it. But thus it has been, thus, perhaps, it always will be. The greatest persecutors have been some of the most wicked and abandoned of men. Without a sense of God, or religion on their minds, they have pretended to be actuated by a great zeal for them; and covered with this pretence they have gone on, even with the applause of the superstitious and bigotted, to glut their ambition, their pride, their revenge.- -James is said to have been excited to declare against Vorstius, by Abbot, archbishop of Canterbury; and it is not unlikely. a See Dupin's Hist. of Ecclesiastical Writers, vol. I. p. 92. fol. Lond. 1692. b Abridgment of Brandt's Hist. of the Reformation of the Low Countries, vol. I. p. 318. 8vo. Lond. 1725. and Winwood, vol. III. p. 296. forced him to have confessed those wicked heresies that were rooted in his heart; and Most of the ecclesiastics of that time abounded with a fiery zeal, which frequently hurried them into actions not to be justified. But had not James had an inclination to the work, Abbot would not have been able to have prevailed upon him to undertake it. He thought, doubtless, that he should acquire fresh honour by his pen; that his people would applaud his zeal, and hold in admiration his piety; and it is not to be doubted but many were imposed on by him. However Sir Ralph Winwood did not escape censure at home, for what he had done in this affair. He had protested, as I had just observed, against the States receiving of Vorstius; but he added also, that he protested against the violence offered unto the alliance between his majesty and those provinces, which, said he, "being founded upon the preservation and maintenance of the reformed religion, you have not letted (so much as in you lies) absolutely to violate in the proceeding of this cause."James, when he first heard of this, said, Winwood hath done secundum cor meum: but soon afterwards he changed his note, and said "the protest was made at an unreasonable time, when he was to receive kindness (namely reimbursement of money) at the States hands; and so calling for the copies of his letters, found that the ambassador had exceeded his commission, in protesting against the alliance which should have been but against the religion." This it is to serve weak princes; they take up their resolutions without consideration, and are soon turned from them. To-day their servants are Winwood, vol. III. p. 319. a King James's Works, p. 363. |
