During his residence in Amsterdam, under Blondel's influence he abandoned Lutheranism and joined the Reformed Church; and in 1656 he was called by the Elector of Brandenburg to the chair of rhetoric in the University of Duisburg. Two years afterwards, on the recommendation of Gronovius, he was chosen to succeed that scholar at Deventer; in 1662 he moved to the University of Utrecht, where he occupied first the chair of rhetoric, and in addition, from 1667 until his death, that of history and politics.