Nodige bedenkingen op de niewe beweegingen, onlangs verwekt door den circulairen brief en andere middelen, tegen den auteur van 't boek de betoverde weereld

have crossed out both Scripture and Writer in the most hateful manner; as if I taught fundamental errors, and the Church would go to ruin if I were not resisted. There is no common heretic someone with religious views opposing the church to whom they dare compare me: but to David Joris, Hobbes, and Spinoza; in order to paint me in the most hateful way. They attribute to me that I teach those opinions, for which the one was dug up and burned after his death, and the other two generally stand in bad name. Nevertheless, I have never seen the slightest letter of David Joris's writings; nor looked into Spinoza, nor even thought of Hobbes, in all the time that I was busy with that subject. It is the upright truth, Reader, what I tell you. Meanwhile, people avoid my books as such, and forbid others to read them. They make resolutions against me, they make them public through the press, they imprint them on the congregations, they run to the Authorities government officials to have the Book forbidden, yes, where possible, to have it burned. They embitter the congregation, they make them popish acting like followers of the Pope; in such a way that, without knowledge or investigation, they would be as ready to burn me as my writings, or perhaps both together. They point at me, saying: that is the man who believes in neither devil nor God, who teaches that there is neither Devil nor Hell. And they laugh at me who are younger than I in days, whose fathers I would have disdained to set with the dogs of my flock. Job 30: 1. Those who speak well of me, and defend my work with understanding, get a share of the shame, and the hatred and contempt that is done to me. Those who seek to bring me honor, though never sought by me, nor ever undertaken with my knowledge; bring me into even more distress against their good intention. For it serves as a reproach to me: they count my steps, they weigh my words, they investigate my company; they hate those who love me, and they curse those who bless me. They interpret everything for the worst: if my opinion (just like that of Paul himself) is misinterpreted by a worldly person; they say that my teaching makes careless and godless people. If they know nothing to say about the life of the one who speaks for me: they complain that even the finest people are corrupted by my Book. If a part of the ignorant people is against it: see, they say, how the congregation is offended by that man; and what