Boreel, Adam

BOREEL, bo´´rêl´, ADAM: Preacher and sectary; b. at Middelburg, in Zealand, 1603; d. in Amsterdam 1666. He was pastor of a Reformed congregation, but resigned his office, and became the leader of a separatistic party, which acknowledged no other religious authority than the Scripture. His work, Ad legem et testimonium (1645), attracted great attention. Here he developed that the written word of God, without any human commentary, was the sole means of awakening faith; that the Church had fallen completely away from the Lord; that the Christian ought to shun all connection with the Established Church, and confine himself to his private devotion, etc. His minor writings, fifteen in number, were collected at Amsterdam, 1683. His followers, known as Boreelists, never attained to much importance.