useful. Enjoying favourable opportunities for retirement and study, and blessed with three excellent Colleagues, of whom he venerated two as his fathers, and loved the third as a brother, he often wished to live to old age in that tranquil retreat. But in November 1667, a most earnest and affectionate invitation was given to him by the church of Leewarden, the capital of West Friesland; and, after mature deliberation, he accepted their call, and commenced his ministry amongst them in the month of April 1668. The fidelity, prudence, and vigilance, which he discovered in this important station, and the courage and firmness he displayed in a season of extraordinary difficulty, when the United Provinces were harassed and alarmed by the tumults of war and the incursions of the enemy, commanded universal admiration. Dr Marck, who was then a student, and residing in that district, affirms that he knew no other man of God, whose labours were more abundantly blessed. To the church, the nobility, and the court, his services were equally grateful. Nor should it be omitted, that he was for some time tutor to HENRY CASIMIR, the most serene Prince of Nassau, who was cut off by an early death;-that, with happy effect, he instructed AMELIA, the sister of HENRY, a Princess of eminent piety, who afterwards gave her hand to the Duke of SAXE-EISENACH;— and that he had the honour to preside when, in the presence of their illustrious mother ALBERTINA, both of them, much to the edification of the church, made a public profession of faith.

In the year 1675, in order to repair the heavy losses sustained by the death of the venerable CHRISTIANUS SCHOTANUS, and that of JOHN MELCHIOR STEINBERG, Witsius was elected Professor of divinity in the

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University of FRANEKER, and also invited to take the pastoral charge of the church in that city. He removed, in consequence, to Franeker, where, after being honoured with the degree of Doctor in Divinity, he was installed Professor, April 15th; on which occasion he delivered before a numerous audience an excellent oration upon the character of a True Divine. In this new situation, he filled both the pulpit and the academical chair with great dignity and extensive success; and the most perfect cordiality subsisted between him and NICHOLAS ARNOLD, his aged and venerable colleague.

But the superior endowments, and increasing celebrity of Witsius, procured for him further honours. In the year 1679, he was invited by the patrons of the University of GRONINGEN to succeed the excellent JAMES ALTINGIUS, as well in the theological and philological chairs, as in the university-church. This proposal, however, he was prevailed with to decline. But at the beginning of the year immediately following, after the death of the celebrated BURMAN, the citizens of UTRECHT despatched an honourable deputation to Franeker, to importune him to adorn their university and church with his residence; and notwithstanding the opposition made to his removal by his friends in Friesland, he considered himself bound in duty and gratitude to embrace the opportunity thus presented, of advancing the interests of literature and religion in a city to which he had been indebted for inestimable advantages in the days of youth. Accordingly, having come to that city, he was invested with the ministry of the church on the 25th of April, and, four days after, commenced Professor of Divinity. He introduced himself to his academical labours with an elegant oration on the excellence of Evangelical Truth,

which fully equalled the high expectations previously formed. At Utrecht he spent more than eighteen years of his valuable life, discharging his various functions with indefatigable industry, and enjoying great happiness in the society of JOHN LEUSDEN his former tutor, PETER MAESTRICHT that illustrious divine, and his other learned and pious colleagues in the university, and in the church. His public sermons produced strong impressions on his audiences; his academical lectures were numerously attended, and exceedingly valued; his talents, integrity, and prudence, secured universal esteem. He was twice honoured with the supreme government and headship of the university; first in the year 1686, and afterwards in 1697. It deserves also to be recorded, that in the year 1685, when the States of Holland sent a splendid embassy to James II. King of Great Britain, who at that time was pursuing measures which led to his ruin, the three Ambassadors, at the suggestion of Lord DYKEVELT, himself one of the three, agreed in making choice of Witsius to accompany them to England, in the capacity of chaplain. In this appointment he cheerfully acquiesced; and after a stay of four months in England, he expressed, on his return, a sincere regard for the English divines, both conformists and dissenters, and acknowledged that he had found their company at once agreeable and highly instructive. The English, too, thought themselves happy in that opportunity of

• In Middleton's Evang. Biography, vol. iv. p. 163. it is said, that Witsius continued Professor at Utrecht "more than 22 years." But this is obviously a mistake of the respectable Author or his printer. The expression of Dr Marck is ultra duodeviginta annos. See his Funebris Oratio subjoined to his Scripturariæ Exercitationes, p. 723.

becoming more intimately acquainted with Witsius, and did not conceal the great respect and esteem in which they subsequently held him. One striking expression of the veneration which the Divines of England bore for him, was, that towards the conclusion of the seventeenth century, when controversies respecting several articles of faith were keenly agitated amongst them, under the discordant names of Antinomians and Neonomians, they agreed to refer their differences to him as an able and impartial umpire. Nor did Witsius perform a slight office of kindness to them, when, after carefully perusing the books they sent to him on each side of the question, which, from his imperfect acquaintance with the English language, cost him considerable labour, and after thoroughly unraveling the subtleties and intricacies in which the question was involved, he wrote his "Conciliatory Animadversions," which were first printed at Utrecht in the year 1696; and which, from the judgment, candour, impartiality, and perspicuity with which they are composed, were excellently calculated to unite the sentiments and allay the animosities of the contending theologians.

In the year 1698, when the death of SPANHEIM seemed to be approaching, the governors of the university of LEYDEN resolved to give Witsius an invitation to succeed that great man, in the professorship of divinity. And, notwithstanding his obligations to the citizens of Utrecht, and their unwillingness to part with him, he complied with the invitation to Leyden; partly because he was informed by HEINSIUS, the administrator of Holland, that it had the marked approbation of WILLIAM III., Stadtholder of the United States and King of Great Britain, a Prince for whom

he entertained a profound respect,* and who afterwards assured him, in a personal conference with which he was honoured, that he was highly pleased with his acquiescence in that call, and that himself had been the first mover of it; and partly because he deemed it equally conducive to the interest of the Church and his own comfort, that he should now desist from the labours of the pulpit, and devote exclusively his few remaining years to academical employments. He commenced the duties of his office at Leyden on the 16th of October 1698, by delivering an oration on the character of a candid and modest Divine; and for the space of ten years he continued to perform them, with unwearied diligence, and universal applause. Here he was attended, as he had formerly been at Franeker and Utrecht, by a numerous circle of promising youths from every part of the Protestant world, who listened with delight to his pious, learned, and eloquent instructions. Many candidates for the ministry from Holland, Germany, France, Poland, Prussia, Switzerland, and Great Britain, and even individuals from America, amongst whom, too, were some native Indians, resorted to the seats of learning where he successively taught; and after finishing their studies, returned to their several native countries, equally built up in piety, and improved in learning. Even Doctors in divinity and Professors of the sciences, in great numbers, did him the honour to hear him daily. His acquaintance, too, was prized and solicited by the learned SELDEN,

• Witsius had an equally sincere regard for MARY, the Queen; as appears, according to Dr Marck, from a discourse which he preached and published on occasion of her death, and in which he celebrated her virtues with peculiar dignity and elegance.