The “Unknown” Voetius Remembered

This year is the 400th anniversary of the birth of Cysbertus Voetius in Heusden, the Netherlands. Although we wrote a biographical article about him three years ago, we wish to again draw your attention to this champion of Reformed orthodoxy. Voetius’ life was one of strife and conflict, erudition, and education. This physically small man became a pillar of great stature in the church of the Reformation. His long life was used to oppose the wolves which attacked the sheepfold of Christ and those whose dangerous and erroneous views departed from the truth in all its simplicity.

As a young student in Leyden he had to experience that the conflict for the truth often resulted in discrimination and suffering. When Voetius made known that he agreed with the views of Comarus and opposed the views of Arminius, he was put out of his dormitory and had to find lodging with individuals who were willing to provide him housing.

Voetius experienced the same enmity and hatred when he left his first pastorate to assume his new pastorate in Heusden, which was his native city. The circumstances under which he began his labors there were extremely harsh and difficult. Voetius was the assistant pastor of this church. His colleague, Grevius, was an avowed Remonstrant who was very much opposed to the coming of Voetius to the flock where he himself labored, and who therefore tried to obstruct and prevent his coming.

May 24, 1617 became an unforgettable day for the new minister of Heusden. With the help of several diplomatic and political means, and the assistance of some members of the city council Grevius had already tried to nullify the calling of Voetius. But in that he failed. When finally the morning when Voetius would preach his inaugural sermon arrived, the secretary of the governor claimed the pulpit for Grevius shortly before the service was to begin, at 8 o’clock in the morning. As Voetius was about to begin the service, the governor himself entered into the church and ordered Voetius to leave the pulpit. Just imagine the confusion! — and then in the first service in his new congregation! Voetius was not afraid. He asked the governor if he had a written document “ supporting this ruling. An emotional discussion arose in the sanctuary about the legality of this order. Angrily shouting, the governor left the church and the service finally began. But during the prayer, soldiers stormed into the church and one of them ascended the pulpit, put a letter into the hand of Voetius, and said, “Here is the document; read it publicly.” Voetius, being convinced that God Himself called him to this church, refused boldly, after which the officer and his soldiers departed. The service was then concluded without any further disturbances. His opponent, Grevius, left the next year and so peace returned to Heusden.

Not only the beliefs of the Remonstrants, but also the ideas of Descartes, or Cartesius, who was called ‘the father of Rationalism,” had to be rejected and opposed, and Voetius resisted those dangerous theories with all his might. Sad to say, not with the desired fruits, for later the ideas of the “Enlightenment” gradually prevailed, and the consequences of this we can still see today in many areas of science, also in liberal theology.

Finally, Voetius also attacked the dogmatic and exegetical views advanced by Johannes Cocceius who was a professor in the University of Franeker and later of Utrecht. In that conflict Voetius was a real champion for the practice of godliness, defending the sanctity of the Lord’s day against Cocceius and his followers. For they insisted, due to their dispensational tendencies, that the Lord had not intended that one day of the week would be a special day of worship for the New Testament church. The Sabbath command was only ceremonial to them. The Lord used Voetius also in this battle to preserve the strict hallowing of His day.

However, Voetius’ life was not only one of conflict and polemical labor, he was also a man of great erudition and used in God’s hand to train many young men for laboring in His vineyard. Voetius was very sure of the way in which he wanted to go. Theory and practice were not conflicting matters in Voetius’ view. Science and learning were not promoted at the expense of the practice of godliness. It was certainly not a dead orthodoxy which Voetius favored and promoted when in 1636 he became the first rector of the Theological Seminary in Utrecht.

Voetius laid out his agenda, so to say, in his inaugural sermon, on Sunday, March 16, using as his text Luke 2:46. This sermon was printed with the title, Sermoen van de Nutticheid der Academien en Scholen (Sermon about the Usefulness of Academies and Schools).

Theory and practice were not conflicting matters in Voetius? view. Science and learning were not promoted at the expense of the practice of godliness.

We are impressed when we read this sermon about the child Jesus sitting in the midst of the doctors, and see what high ideals Voetius had for science and academics. It was very important to him that there would be a relationship between educational labor, and the instruction which Christ Himself gives. Evidently Voetius’ goal was to use science for the coming of God’s kingdom. This means, very implicitly, that the theological education should be beneficial for the church. Theological candidates taught at the academy must be useful and qualified instruments who could serve the churches in the fear of God, and who knew how to apply their theological knowledge in the practice of pastoral life. This was Voetius’ high goal, which we clearly see in his inaugural lecture with which he began his educational labors in Utrecht. The theme of it was, the necessary relationship of knowledge and piety (oratio de pietate cum scientia conjungenda).

Voetius himself practiced what he taught. For approximately forty years he put his stamp upon the theological instruction in Utrecht to such a degree that a professor at the University of Groningen called the University of Utrecht “The Academia Voetiana.” He influenced not only the theological instruction but the entire academy and its spiritual climate. Beside his many lectures in all theological subjects and the oriental languages, he also gave “dispute-lectures” on Saturdays. There the young students were trained in the defense of the Reformed doctrine against many errors prevalent in his day.

All knowledge, also in other subjects, had to be subject to the service of God and His glory. Although Voetius mastered that theory thoroughly (for he was a man of great erudition), his goal was to practice this every day, in church, in society, and at school; and future ministers had to be trained how to do this. Their knowledge had to provide an armor for the battle against the enemies of the truth and to guide, advise, and teach the sheep of the flocks. It was for this reason that he saw the great importance of disputing the great variety of ethical, moral, practical, and current subjects. Voetius stood with both feet on the ground and he wanted his students to do the same. They had to study hard and the curriculum of the university was impressive and the level of education was high.

Above all, however, he insisted that the doctrine had to be applied to daily life, education, preaching and pastoral labors. This was his life’s program, theory, and practice — learning and walk had to go together. Voetius knew the condition of the churches because he had served them as pastor for nineteen years before he began his professorship. He knew that the doctrine was sound, and Reformed, but that congregational and individual life was often far from pious — there was a breach between doctrine and life. As a scholar, writing in Latin, he did all he could to promote the awareness of the necessity of the “Nadere Reformatie,” the Second Reformation, among his students.

Voetius was not afraid to point to the sins of the rich and poor, of government and the common people. He opposed firmly and publicly sinful customs such as: dancing, acting, and gluttony; he warned against luxury in homes and dress, and condemned lotteries, wagering and card playing.

At the end of his life, in 1672, trials and afflictions were also his portion. Voetius had to witness the French coming into Utrecht, and changing the church where he had preached so often into a Roman Catholic place of worship. However, in November 1673, they had to leave the city again and Voetius spoke in the first service after this from Ps. 126:1,2. And it became true that the Lord turned the captivity of Zion. In 1675 the 86-year-old Voetius was appointed as “rector magnificus” of “his” academy.

On November 1, 1676, he came to the end of his pilgrimage here below and departed to be forever with his Master. With a very applicable text his friend, Rev. C Centman memorialized him in his sermon with the words from 2 Samuel 3:38, “Know ye not that there is a great prince and a great man fallen this day in Israel?”

We are also called to commemorate what the Lord has done and given in former years. Many empty places can be found in the church, also today, and pillars are taken away. Men who had gifts and knowledge, but who also were by grace living examples of what they taught. And if the pillars are taken away, the building will fall and decay. May the Lord by His Spirit, undeservedly, raise up others — sons in the place of their fathers, daughters in the place of their mothers, students in the stead of their teachers — and may they build up, in God’s power, the broken walls of Jerusalem.

And then, eventually it will not be a Voetius or a Comrie or a Kersten or any other person who upheld the building of the church. But, and may this be our only hope and supplication: “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.” Then God, through weak means, not to be compared with our forefathers, would also be glorified.

Comparison

“Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, He is none of His.” — Romans 8:9b

We will make a comparison between a person who is naturally dead, and one who is spiritually dead. A person is dead when life is gone out of him. An unre-generated person is spiritually dead because he lacks the quickening Spirit. Because he lacks the Spirit, he has decayed into a kind of bestiality. In the beginning when God created man, and before He had breathed the breath of life in his nostrils, the creature had eyes, ears, hands and feet, but he could not use them. So it is also with the unregenerate. All he tries to do is nothing because there is no spiritual life in it Therefore he is as if dead, cold, and stiff. His prayer is cold, his hearing is cold, the use of the sacraments and all his religious duties are cold, since he lacks spiritual life. A dead person has no perception. The senses of the unregenerate are altogether without feeling. His ears are closed. He refuses to take heed. It is as if he is closing his ears so that he cannot hear.

The Spirit quickens a new life in the soul of the regenerate. From that time on he begins to complain about the corruption left within. Paul knew about this when he said: “But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” Through this spiritual life the person really becomes what he ought to be, namely, a Christian, someone who follows and serves Christ.

The purpose of the quickened soul is to love God and to honor Him above all. If our life’s purpose exists in developing our senses as much as possible, many animals would outdo the Christian. If our life’s purpose lies in philosophy to dominate our spirit, then many heathen would stand supreme. They would surpass many Christians in virtue because Christians must often lower the flag in surrender.

—Wilhelmus à Brakel

Rev. C Vogelaar is pastor of the Netherlands Reformed Congregation of Franklin Lakes, New Jersey.

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