Brill, which was the first tangible token of Dutch independence, we
have to wait until the last chapter of all. The reader who is endowed
with sufficient history to reconcile these divagations should, I think,
by the time the book is finished, have (with Motley's assistance)
a vivid idea of this great war, so magnificently waged by Holland,
which lowers in the background of almost every Dutch town.

A later congress at Dort was the famous Synod in 1618-19, in which
a packed house of Gomarians or Contra-Remonstrants, pledged to
carry out the wishes of Maurice, Prince of Orange, the Stadtholder,
affected to subject the doctrines of the Arminians or Remonstrants to
conscientious examination. These doctrines as contained in the five
articles of the Arminians were as follows, in the words of Davies,
the historian of Holland: "First, that God had resolved from the
beginning to elect into eternal life those who through his grace
believed in Jesus Christ, and continued stedfast in the faith; and,
on the contrary, had resolved to leave the obstinate and unbelieving
to eternal damnation; secondly, that Christ had died for the whole
world, and obtained for all remission of sins and reconciliation with
God, of which, nevertheless, the faithful only are made partakers;
thirdly, that man cannot have a saving faith by his own free will,
since while in a state of sin he cannot think or do good, but it is
necessary that the grace of God, through Christ, should regenerate and
renew the understanding and affections; fourthly, that this grace is
the beginning, continuance, and end of salvation, and that all good
works proceed from it, but that it is not irresistible; fifthly,
that although the faithful receive by grace sufficient strength to
resist Satan, sin, the world, and the flesh, yet man can by his own
act fall away from this state of grace."