TESTIMONY OF THE SYNOD OF DORT.
We come next to the testimony furnished by the famous Synod of Dort, which was convoked in the year 1618, by the authority of the States General of Holland, in consequence of the dissensions which had arisen from the prevalence of certain new opinions promulgated by James Arminius and his followers. Dr. Lyman Beecher says, that at this Synod there was "a most ample representation of the opinions of the whole Calvinistic world." Besides the deputies from the Belgic churches, there were present representatives from the churches of England, Scotland, Geneva, Switzerland, Embden, Bremen, and the Palatinate of Hesse. The Arminians had published a paper called a Remonstrance, containing ten articles, wherein they had taken the liberty to dissent from the standards of the Belgic church, on several points of doctrine, and at the same time to explain and defend their own opinions. These articles were taken up in order, and the deputies from the several reformed churches of Europe, composing the Synod, were requested to deliver their judgment in writing respecting the alleged heresies of Arminius; which they did. And we are told by the Encyclopædia of Religious Knowledge, that "these paperes, read before the Synod, furnish a rich body of sound theology, and are all preserved in the journal or minutes of the body, the whole of which have been published." One of the alleged heterodox
