can act up to them, without compromising his own principles.1 The world, observing this, has considered it a circumstance for congratulation; as if the former minister, who acted a double part, had been caught in his own snare. It is neither decorous, nor necessary, nor altogether fair, to urge the parallel rigidly; but it will explain what it is here meant to convey. The Protestant Confession was drawn up with the purpose of including Catholics; and Catholics now will not be excluded. What was an economy in the reformers, is a protection to us. What would have been a perplexity to us then, is a perplexity to Protestants now. We could not then have found fault with their words; they cannot now repudiate our meaning.
Source: Tracts for the Times ( London, 1834- 1841), VI, No. 90, 2, 4, 80-83.
References for Documents 83 and 84.
Act of Separation or Return [of the Congregation of Ulrum, Netherlands] October 13, 1834
In the Netherlands, as in some other Reformed countries, the Evangelical Awakening produced a vigorous protest against the theological moderation and compromise inherited from the Enlightenment that dominated the state church. While many evangelicals sought to revitalize the national church, some came to feel that strict Calvinistic orthodoxy was best served by secession and a free church. Hendrik de Cock ( 1801- 1842), a pastor at Ulrum in theologically conservative Groningen, criticized ministers and practices of the state church, and when deposed by synod, led the larger part of his congregation into separation. Similar secessions under other pastors, notably Hendrik Pieter Scholte, made possible the formation of the Christelijke Gereformeerde Kerk in 1836, which was harassed by fines and imprisonment at first, but won state toleration in 1840.
1We the undersigned, Deacons and Members of the Reformed congregation of Jesus Christ in Ulrum, having marked the decay in the Dutch Reformed Church for some
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