The Remonstrants and the advocates of their cause protested against this proceeding:  they called in question the authority of the Synod to sit as judges upon them, or even to decide any point of doctrine definitively:  they averred it contrary to the evangelical liberty professed and taught by the first Reformers.  Every friend to the true principles of the reformation must admit the force of this objection.

The 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th and 13th Sessions of the intermediate fortnight, were consumed in debates upon a projected new translation of the Scriptures; the 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th and 21st Sessions were employed in discussions, upon a new catechism, and other ecclesiastical arrangements.

[Sidenote:  CHAP.  VI. 1618.]

The 22d Session was held on the 6_th_ of December.  The Remonstrants appeared before the Synod, and requested further time for preparing their defence on the articles with which they were charged.  Their request was denied:  and Episcopius having said, that “They wished to enter into a conference with the Synod,” a resolution was passed, by which the Synod declared, that “the Remonstrants had not been cited to confer with the Synod; but to propound their opinions, and submit to its judgment.”

The Remonstrants then paid their visits to the foreign theologians:  these they found greatly prejudiced against them; they therefore published two short writings, explaining and justifying their sentiments.

In the 23d Session, Episcopius made a long discourse.  Mr. John Hales praised it highly, in a letter addressed by him to the English ambassador An oath was prescribed to the members, by which they promised, that, in the examination of the five articles, “or any other points of doctrine which should be discussed, they would confine themselves to the Scriptures, and resort to no human authority.”  But, what was the Synod itself more than human authority?  The oath was not tendered to the Remonstrants; it was declined by the Swiss.

[Sidenote:  The Synod of Dort.]

The 24th Session was consumed in debates:  on the 25th, Episcopius read a long document, and afterwards presented it to the Synod.  He protested in it against the authority of the Synod, and asked the searching question, whether the Calvinists would “submit to a Synod of Lutherans?” To this question, no answer was given:  an angry discussion followed.

It continued during the 27th and 28th Sessions.

On the 29th, the opinions of foreign divines were produced in favour of the authority of the Synod:  those of the English divines, and the divines of Bremen, were expressed with more moderation than the others.  The divines of Geneva stated, that, “if a person obstinately refused to submit to the just decisions of the church, he might be proceeded against in two ways; the magistrate might coerce him, and the church might publicly excommunicate him as a violator of the law of God.”