Dedicatory Epistle · Junius, On True Theology

It is now exactly two years, most noble and distinguished men, my honored lords, since God, best and greatest, by his wonderful counsel set me down in this most flourishing Academy of yours and willed that my labor be spent in it, while I was busy with other things and, by the will and command of a higher authority, had my thoughts set on another place. To that counsel was joined at the same time the authority of the Illustrious States and your own will: when I was thinking only to touch the borders of your country in passing (ἐν παρόδῳ), you bade me plant the foot I was lifting to move on, and to rest in this harbor beside the sea on which I and my family were even then about to be tossed. This most wise counsel of God, this most gracious will of the States and of yourselves toward me, I certainly acknowledge and proclaim, gladly and as is deserved; and if any service can come from me in this mortal life by which I may make you all some return of thanks, I will take care that my labors, as the offspring of my mind, answer to your expectation, or at least to my duty [col. 1369] and ability. I am not unaware that much in men's expectation is sometimes [p. 40] in vain, and that an opinion is easily bred, both by the simple persuasion of others and by the empty arrogance of many Thrasos and braggart storytellers.¹ For my part, I shall love neither, and never have. They do me wrong who promise themselves from me what is not in my power; and while they think they are thinking well of me, they silently reproach me with my ignorance and weakness. But if I were to take much upon myself and proclaim it, I would do a heavier wrong both to myself and to you, as though I did not know how to measure myself by my own rule and foot, or how to weigh what I owe to your dignities. Yet your opinion of me, and the persuasion of others (wherever it came from), brought it about that you desired my services while I was absent and made use of them once I was present. That kind and good readiness of yours in forming an opinion of me was met by my own readiness to comply. Not that I trusted myself able to fulfill the expectation of your desire; rather, I resolved in my mind [col. 1370] that my compliance, however slight, ought to be a witness to my mind and will, even though it falls very far short of the opinion and judgment you had formed beforehand. Accordingly, having been placed by your decision in this most celebrated and flourishing Academy of yours, I have not ceased, both by private study and writing and by public lectures and exercises, to tend the Sparta that has fallen to me by the will of God and your judgment.² I busy myself in this Sparta the more gladly, the more diligently I have learned for many years past to shun other occupations. My mind shrinks from other occupations, especially as I am conscious that I was called to these and not to others, and perhaps also that my gifts are better suited to these than to those. Of this I call you as witnesses; I call the Academy as witness, and the young men who have so far attended my lectures in no small numbers. What more? I bring forward this very little book to you as a witness, having stood bound by a promise for almost two whole years at the request of certain good and most loving colleagues of mine. For in this book I explain what theology is (of which we are priests) and what a theologian is, in such an order and following such a path that, as I consider its argument and dignity, I cannot help exclaiming, "And who is sufficient for these things?" Here is set forth the common dignity of all Christians, [col. 1371] here the singular dignity of the ministers of divine wisdom, here the majesty of divine things, which God willed to be deposited in the weakness of earthen (χοϊκῶν) vessels and potsherds. I desire that all Christians be assured of their dignity in Christ Jesus, and that all theologians and ministers be assured of the gravity of their office: so that the former may strive toward their dignity, and the latter may attend to the stewardship entrusted to them, steer clear of other things as of the most dangerous rocks and Syrtes, and occupy themselves in these things most devoutly day and night before the Lord, who teaches these things through the Spirit to those who consult and reread them. I pray you, most noble and distinguished men, that as you were the first movers and authors of my teaching this subject in your Academy, so you would receive with good will this beginning of my teaching, delivered in that Academy and offered to you, as a pledge of my faithfulness and a proof of my most ready devotion toward you and your Academy, of which you willed me to be a part. Farewell, most noble and distinguished men, and continue to love true piety, the Academy as the training-ground (ἀσκητήριον) of piety, and me and all men of letters, the nurslings of piety, truth, and humanity. Leiden, the fourteenth day before the Kalends of Sextilis [July 19], 1594. [p. 41]

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