Abrahamz Galen

Abrahamz Galen,  Van Haan, was a Doctor of Medicine, and founder of the sect of Galenists, which sprang up in Holland about the year 1664, and was a branch or offshoot of the Waterlandians, or more liberal portion of the Dutch Anabaptists. He was the Pastor of a Mennonite congregation at Amsterdam; and such was the reputation which he acquired, that even his enemies bore testimony to his uncommon penetration and eloquence. Like the Arminians, he considered the Christian religion as a system of practice rather than of faith; and contended, that every one was entitled to the privileges of Christian communion, who acknowledged the divine authority of the Old and New Testament, and led a holy and virtuous life. His sentiments concerning the person of Christ, and the nature of Christian Redemption, were similar to those of the Polish Unitarians.

William Penn, the celebrated Quaker, gives the following account of a disputation, which he and several other Friends had with Galen Abrahamz and his followers. "1677, 8^th Month, Amsterdam.—We had a meeting with Galen Abrahams, (the great father of the Socinian Mennists in these parts,) accompanied with several Preachers, and others of his congregation: divers of our friends were also present. It continued about five hours. He affirmed, in opposition to us, that 'there was no Christian Church, ministry, or commission apostolical, now in the world. But the Lord assisted us with his wisdom and strength to confound his attempts."

As it will probably not be uninteresting to the reader of these volumes, to learn something more of this branch of the Mennonite Baptists, the following remarks, from the pen of the Rev. Fred. Adrian Vander Kemp, may not be deemed altogether out of place. They are extracted from the concluding part of a communication, made by that gentleman to the late Rev. Robert Aspland, and inserted in the Monthly Repository for the year 1817,—a periodical of which Mr. A. was for a long series of years the able and disinterested editor, and which was conscientiously devoted by him to the support of truth and liberty.

"The two principal and most numerous divisions [of the Mennonite Baptists] are, 1. that, which I shall designate as rigid, calling themselves Mennonists. They have numerous congregations in the north part of Holland, Friesland, Groningen, and a Seminary of learning at Amsterdam, for the education of students for the ministry. Their first Professor was Jac. Rysdyck, his successor Petr. Schmid, as late as 1788. They are generally rigid Calvinists, and in harmony with the most zealous Orthodox in the Reformed Churches. The name of their principal meeting-house is designated by the name of the Sun, borrowed probably from a building in the vicinity. 2. The other section, which I shall call liberal, in opposition to them, are known generally as Baptists, approving the tenets defended generally by the congregations of De Toren, (turris,) an edifice in its neighbourhood, and het lam, (lamb,) a name of a brewery next to it. They have no creeds, no formularies whatever, and are numerous in the principal cities of SudHolland, Friesland, Utrecht. Their members are chiefly Unitarians, as well as their Ministers, though many have adopted the Arian hypothesis; many the system of Dr. S. Clarke; and often in the same congregations opposite tenets are defended, with a Christian spirit, without a shadow of rancour. Many eminently learned men have appeared among them: Jo. Hinstra, Allard Hulshoft, Nic. de Fries; and before them, Galenus Abrahams. Their Seminary at Amsterdam flourished under the care of Tjerk Nieuwenhuys, since 1735, Heere Oosterbaen and Hesselink, and was endowed with a splendid apparatus for Experimental Philosophy, in which their Professor every week gave lectures to his students, as well as in Theology, who, besides this, were benefited by the lectures of the Professors of the Athenaeum, and the Seminary of the Remonstrants. They had, in the latter part of the 18th century, five Ministers at Amsterdam, four at Haerlem, two at Leyden, three at Rotterdam, and one at Dordrecht."

(Vidend. Moshemii Inst . H. E. Stec. xvii. Sect . ii. P. ii. C. v. § vii.

p. 892. Bock, Hist. Ant. T. I. p. 137. William Penn's Travails, 12mo. 1694, p. 243. Mon. Rep. Vol. XU. pp. 449—454.)