Vliet, John George van, a Dutch painter and en-
graver, was born at Delft in 1610. He was a disciple of Uembrandt, hut little is known of his work as a paint- er. He left about ninety prints, from his own designs, after Rembrandt and after J. Lievens, which are exe- cuted in an excellent manner and with good effect. Among his best prints are, after Kembrandt, Lot and his Daughters ; the Baptism of the Eunuch ; and St. Jerome ['raying in a Cavern: — after J. Lievens, Jacob Obtaining his Fathc7-'s Blessing ; Susanna and the Elders ; and tlie Resurrection of Lazarus. See Spooner, Biog. JJist. of the Fine A }-ts, s. v.
Vocation, or Cai^ling, in theology, is a gracious act of (Jod in Christ by which, through his word and Spirit, he calls forth sinful men, who are liable to con- demnation and placed under the dominion of sin, from the condition of the animal life, and from the pollutions and corruptions of this world (Gen. vi. 3; Matt, xi, 28; Rom. X, 13-15; Gal. i, 4; 2 Tim. i. 9; 1 Pet. ii, 9, 10; iii, 19; 2 Pet. ii, 20), unto ''the fellowship of Jesus Christ,'' and of his kingdom and its benefits ; that, being united unto him as their head, they may derive from him life, sensation, motion, and a plenitude of every spiritual blessing, to the glory of (iod and their own salvation (1 Cor. i, 9; Gal. ii, 20; Eph. i, 3, 6; 2 Thess. ii, 13, 14). See Call.
Voel, Jean, a French ecclesiastic, was born in 1541 at Vaux-le-Monclot. and entered the Order of St. Igna- tius at the age of eighteen. He taught the humanities in various colleges, especially at Lyons and Dttle, where he filled the office of rector. In 1591 he was sent to occupy the chair of rhetoric and Greek at Tournon, and he died there March 10, 1610, leaving a number of educational works, for which see ihe. Biograjjhie Uni- vei'selle, s. v.
Voet, Alexander, a Flemish engraver, was born at Antwerp in 1613. He executed a number of plates after the Flemish masters, in imitation of the style of Paid Pontius. He handled the graver well, but his drawing was incorrect, leaving the effect of his prints unsatisfactory. Some of his best prints are the follow- ing: after Rubens, Judith with the Head of I/olofernes ; The Holy Family Returning from Egypt ; The Virgin and Infant ; and the Martyi'dom of St. A ndretv : — after Van- dyke, the Entombing of Christ. See Spooner, Biog. Hist, of the Fine A rts, s. v.
Voetius (Foc^jGysbertus, D.D., theological pro- fessor at Utrecht, and one of the most noted men in the Dutch Reformed Church of the 17th century. He was born March 3, 1588, at Heusden, in Holland. He early distinguished himself, while a student at Leyden, by his industry and extraordinary memory, and profited greatly by the teachings of Gomarus, Arminius, and Trelcatius, Jr. — the first-named having the greatest in- fluence over his mind. Assuming the station of a tutor in the Logica, he became noted for his keen and bold defence of the strictest form of Calvinism. In 1611 he became pastor at Blymen, and labored among the Ro- man Catholic population of that village for the exten- sion of Protestantism with great success. In 1617 he accepted a call to his native town of Heusden, his lead- ing motive being a desire to antagonize Remonstrant- ism, which was there flourishing. He preached eight times in each week, and often acted as reader and pre- centor to his congregations. In 1618 he was delegated to the Sj'uod of Dort, and was influential in shaping the actions and results of that body. He afterwards re- mained at Heusden, but extended the area of his labors so as to make his influence felt against Arminianism and for the support of the Reformed theology in other cities also. In 1634 he was called to tlie post of pro- fessor of theology and Oriental science atUtreclit; and to this he added, three years afterwards, the ofhce of pastor to the Utrecht congregation. When the Utrecht school was elevated into a university in 1636, he inau- gurated its new career with a sermon on Luke ii, 46. In the same year he issued a work entitled Proof of
VOETIUS
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the Poiver of Godliness, which is important as a charac- terization of his tendency to insist upon a consecrated life as the attestation of an orthodox faith. This ten- dency he iUustrated in his own person by the fidelity with which he performed every pastoral duty. The street in Utrecht on which he lived bears his name to this day, and his portrait is honorably placed in the senate -chamber, in recoynitiou of his services to the commiuiity.
Voetius was especially noteworthy as a scholar. His industry was such that he rose at font o'clock in the morning to begin the stuilies whose results he imparted to his academical hearers, or to the |)ublic in his luimer- ous books. He gave instruction, public and private, in Hebrew, Arabic, and Syriac, as well as theology, and in the forty-two years of his professorship gathered about him a circle of cultured friends which included many of the foremost personages of the time. His great am- bition was the achievement of the overthrow of Armin- ianism, and this influenced his scholar!}' character as well as his general conduct. His exegesis lacked inde- pendence, and aimed less at the discovery of what con- stitutes religious truth than at the invention of philo- logical and other arguments to defend the theological system he preferred. His dogmatics were pervaded with the spirit of scholasticism, and were expressed in a ''barbarous artiticial terminology" (Tholuck, Akxtd. Lehen des \lten Jahrh. ii, 21G) and an insufferably dry and diffuse style. He was predominantly polemical, the Aristotelian philosophy, as modified and improved by Christian thought, being one of his chief supports. He had no sympathy with Zwinglianism or Melanc- thonianism, and no admiration for Grotius. Erasmus was to his mind an Arian, Pelagian, Socinian, and scep- tic. He hated, with a perfect hatred, every person who could be even suspected of scattering the seed of tloubt. He was a Calviiiist, also, in his conception of the rela- tion sustained to each other by the Church and the State, and steadily claimed for the former the right to govern her own spiritual possessions and appoint her ministers. His views upon this question were violent- ly assailed by L. IMolinanis, of Lonilon, in IGtiS.