contradicted that of Gomar: and in these sentiments he persevered till
his death.


II. The partisans of Arminius, desirous to efface the bad impressions
which Gomar's discourses and those of his adherents had made on the
minds of the public, met privately, and drew up a Remonstrance, dated
January 14, 1610, which they addressed to the States of Holland, setting
forth, that they did not believe, like their adversaries.

1. "That God, by an eternal and irreversible decree, had predestinated
men, whom he did not consider as created, and still less as culpable,
some to everlasting life, and others to everlasting death, without
regard to their good or evil actions, from his mere good pleasure, for
the praise of his Mercy, or his Justice, or, as others say, to manifest
his saving grace, his wisdom, and his absolute power: And that God has
also, by an eternal and immutable decree, preordained the proper methods
of executing his will, by which those who are predestinated to salvation
are saved in a necessary and inevitable manner, so that it is impossible
they should perish; and such as are predestinated to eternal death (who
are the greater part of mankind) are necessarily and inevitably damned,
so that they cannot be saved.

2. "That God, according to others, willing from all eternity to make a
decree for electing some men and rejecting others, considered the human
race not only as created, but also as fallen and corrupted in Adam and
Eve our first parents, and thereby deserving of the curse; and that he
resolved to deliver by his grace some men from this fall and damnation,
for the manifestation of his mercy, and to leave others, both young and
old, and even the children of those who are in the Covenant, and died in