Lincoln Chambers, Chancery Lane, Jan. 14. 1851.
_Epigram on Synod of Dort_ (Vol. iii., p. 23.).--The statement in the
_Biographie Universelle_, that this epigram was made _in England_, is
probably taken from Mosheim (_Eccl. Hist_.), who says the same; but his
authority Neal (_Hist. of the Puritans_) does not say that it was made _in
England_; and one can hardly read the sentence in which he quotes it
without feeling satisfied that he did not know _who_ made it. After stating
that the proceedings of the synod were much approved of by the English
divines, and quoting expressions of Mr. Baxter and the learned Jacobus
Capella in its favour, he proceeds--
"P. du Moulin, Paulus Servita, and the author of the life of Waleus,
speak the same language. But _others_ poured contempt upon the Synod,
or burlesqued their proceedings in the following lines:
'Dordrechti Synodus, nodus; chorus integer, aeger;
Conventus, ventus; sessio stramen. Amen.'
Lewis du Moulin, with all the favourers of the Arminian doctrine, as
Heylin, Womeck, Brandt, &c., charge them with partiality and
unjustifiable severity."
When a writer, in the midst of a shower of authorities, refers a particular
expression to "others," it may almost be laid down as a rule, that he does
not know whose property it is. Here, therefore, the inquiry seems brought
to a dead stop, in this tract at least.