h, Van Os was censured for
heresy. But he took the first opportunity to preach the Protestant
doctrine that every one had the right to test the church-creed by the
word of God. In the opinion of the people this course amounted to a
total renunciation of the creed, and he was accordingly dismissed.
Another dispute, which created attention and attracted the suspicion of
the watchful church, was on toleration. All who dared to defend even the
word, were stigmatized as unpardonable heretics, for Voltaire had just
written in its favor. Pastor De Cock placed himself in danger of
excommunication because he was so rash as to advocate it. He was only
rescued by the interference of the government, and by luckily publishing
that he distinguished between Christian and ecclesiastical toleration.

There were controversies concerning minor points of doctrine, but amid
them all, it was very perceptible that there was a well-organized
disposition to break through the stringent rules of order, and escape
from the control of the vigilant guardians of the church. But whoever
departed a hair's breadth from the doctrinal system laid down in the
confession of faith was charged with skepticism. Van der Marck's
employment of a single term cost him his professorship. But he was
afterwards restored, and died in 1800. Kleman wrote a book, in 1774, on
the _Connection between Grace and Duty_, in which he held that the right
use of those intellectual and spiritual gifts which God has imparted to
us is the condition of his further blessings. He was compelled to
retract his heresy. Ten Broek, of Rotterdam, considered only the death
of Christ expiatory, while his colleagues wished the same to be said of
every act of his life. Because that rash theologian ventured to use the
word "world," in John iii. 16, in its broadest sense instead of
circumscribing it to "the world of the elect," he had the choice either
to recant or give up his office. The government interfered and saved
him.

But while all these influences were at work in the church of Holland, a
still stronger current was setting in from England. The impolitic
ecclesiastical rigor became an enemy to truth, and contributed
powerfully to the development of Rationalism. Never have church and
state presented a more complete contrast. The government of Holland was
the most liberal in the world, but the ecclesiastical authorities have
not been surpassed in bigotry during the whole history of
Protestan