Neither was he inclined easily to be in despair concerning any man, provided he was willing to listen to the voice of Christ speaking in the scriptures. God was indeed not only naturally formed for candour, but was likewise further moulded by the sanctifying precepts of Christ, and by his Holy Spirit, so as to bear with placid composure any one who differed from him in sentiment. But those unpleasant circumstances were only " froin without " in the bosom of her family, she enjoyed uninterrupted and enviable felicity living in the greatest connubial harmony with her admirable husband, and superintending ibe early part of the education of nine children, (seven sons and two daughters,)
In addition to her great genius, she possessed uncommon firmness of mind and an unsubdued courage,-for which it was unhappily ber lot to find sufficient exercise in the untoward events which ensued.
The daughter of such a man was a great acquisition to Arminius in his subsequent conflicts for she was nurtured in the school of adversity, baving, when only fourteen years old, accompanied her beloved parents in their exile, when Holland was subjected to the Duke of Alva's bloody administration. The name of this lady was Elizabeth, the daughter of LAURENCE JACOBSON Real, one of the Judges and Senators of Amsterdam, whose name is immortalized in the annals of the Dutch historians for the prudent and decided part which he took in promoting the Reformation from Popery in the Low Countries,-and this during the Spanish tyranny, often at the risk of all his property as well as his personal safety.-See in Appendix 1, a few more particulars of this excellent person and of the infant Church to wbich he belonged. He had for some time previously paid his addresses to a young lady of great accomplishments and eminent piety and was united to her in the holy bands of matrimony, on the sixteenth day of September, 1600, ju the Old Churcb at Amsterdam,-bis reverend colleague, Johu Ambrosius, performing the sacred ceremony. + After having been settled upwards of two years as minister at Amsterdam, and immediately subsequent to his discovery of the true and scriptural doctrine of predestination, he resolved to marry, being then in the thirtieth year of his age. He died in 1586, and bequeathed his valuable collection of books to the public library of the University, for the use of the students. # This man ofĭonellus, who had imbibed and maintained the Genevan opinions concerning Predestination, Holmanus said, “ You make God both a Tyrant and an executioner !” Meursius, in his Athene, styles him “ an extraordinary man.”. † But their violent impetuosity was suddenly restrained by the authority of the Senate and the moderation and candour of the brethren: So that he always lived with his colleagues at Amsterdam in a state of tranquility nay, their friendship and union were of a most fraternal description, and at no time obscured by the least cloud or speck of concealed animosity, hatred or envy.
Though this liberty was formerly granted, yet there were not wanting some persons in Amsterdam who would have brought Arminius into trouble on that occasion, and wished to accuse him of departing from the common and received opinion of our churches. Who, at the pressing instance and by the mature advice of profound Divines, and particularly their Lordships the Curators, received a call to this University, (after Pezelius, Mollerus, and some others had been in vain solicited to accept of it,) and publicly taught in the very place in which I am now standing: Yet we all know, that he had embraced the doctrine of Hemingius respecting Predestination, and was one of its warmest advocates.