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for bringing them to wait upon him instead of his waiting upon them, he proceeded to address them to a purport which he had for some time wished to do, but had chosen to defer till he had a sure foresight of his approaching dissolution. He renewed his thanks for the great kindness he had experienced from them, the honours they had conferred on him, and the forbearance they had manifested towards his infirmities, particularly his vehemence,' which he confessed had sometimes exceeded due bounds.' He was bound to acknowledge, he said, that God had been pleased to employ him in rendering them some service, and in his heart he had been ever devoted to their republic: but he was conscious of his many deficiencies. Where he had failed he hoped they would forgive him, and impute it to his want of ability rather than his want of will to serve them: and he trusted that God had pardoned all his offences. With respect however to his doctrine, he could solemnly declare that he had not taught rashly and uncertainly, but had delivered purely and sincerely the word of God with which he was put in trust. Had he done otherwise, he must have been as much assured of God's anger impending over him, as he now was that his labours as a teacher had not been unacceptable to the Divine Majesty. And this,' said he, I am the more anxious to testify, because I cannot doubt that Satan, as his practice is, will raise up heady, light-minded, ungodly men to corrupt the sound doctrine which you have heard from me.'" pp. 478-480.

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Again, I pray you to pardon all my infirmities, which I acknowledge and confess before God and his angels, and here before you, my venerable lords.' He prayed Almighty God to shower down upon them more abundantly the gifts of his grace and good providence, and by his Holy Spirit to direct all their consultations to the good of the whole republic. He then shook hands with each of them, and they took their leave of him with tears, parting from him as from a common parent.'

"The following day (April 28,) by his desire all the ministers under the jurisdiction of Geneva came to him, and he addressed them to the following effect:

Far

Stand fast, my brethren, after my decease, in the work on which you have entered, and let not your hearts fail you, for the Lord will preserve this church and republic against all its enemies. from you be all discords among yourselves: embrace one another in mutual charity. Think what you owe to this church, in which the Lord hath stationed you, and desert it not.... When first I came to this city, the Gospel indeed was preached, but every thing was in disorder as if Christianity had consisted in nothing else than the overturning of images. Not a few wicked men were found in the church, CHRIST. OBSERV. App.

from whom I suffered much shameful treatment; but the Lord our God so strengthened me, even me who am by nature far from bold, (I here speak what is the fact,) that I yielded to none of their attempts. I afterwards returned thither from Strasburg, in obedience to a call which was against my inclination because I thought it tended not to usefulness: for I knew not what the Lord had appointed; and the situation was full of most serious difficulties. But, proceeding in my work, I found at length that the Lord had really blessed my labours. Do you therefore also persist in your vocation : uphold the established order: and see that the people be at the same time retained in obedience to the doctrine delivered to them for some are yet wicked and contumacious. Things, as you see, are now not ill settled: on which account you will be the more criminal before God if by your neglect they are suffered to go to decay. I avow that I have lived united with you, brethren, in the strictest bonds of true and sincere affection: and I take my leave of you with the same feelings. If you have at any time found me harsh or peevish under my affliction, I entreat your forgiveness.' He then returned them his warmest thanks for having taken upon them the burden of his duties, while he was unable to discharge them; shook hands with them all; and we took leave of him,' says Beza, with sad hearts, and by no means with dry eyes.'

"On the second of May, having received a letter from Farel, (now an old man of seventy-five, and in infirm health,) stating that he had determined to come to see him from Neuchâtel, he wrote to him the following brief and affectionate reply:

Farewell, my best and most faithful brother! and, since it is God's pleasure that you should survive me in this world, retain the remembrance of our friendship, which has been useful to the church of God, and the fruits of which await us in heaven. Do not expose yourself to fatigue for my sake. I respire with difficulty, and continually expect my breath to fail me but it is enough that to Christ I both live and die, who to his people in life and death is gain. Again, farewell with the brethren. Geneva, 2d May, 1564.' The good old man, however, came to Geneva according to his purpose, and, after an interview with his sinking friend, returned the next day to Neuchâtel.

"The remainder of his days,' Beza tells us, Calvin passed in almost perpetual prayer. His voice indeed was interrupted by the difficulty of his respiration; but his eyes (which to the last retained their brilliancy,) uplifted to heaven, and the expression of his countenance, shewed the fervour of his supplications. His doors,' he proceeds, must have stood open day and night, if all had been admitted who from sentiments of duty and

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affection wished to see him: but, as he could not speak to them, he requested they would testify their regard by praying for him rather than by troubling them. selves about seeing him. Often also, though he ever shewed himself glad to receive me, he intimated a scruple respecting the interruption thus given to my employments: so thrifty was he of time which ought to be spent in the service of the church.' The 19th of May was the day on which the ministers were again to meet on the affairs of the church, and at this time with special reference to the celebration of the sacrament at Whitsuntide. On these occasions he was accus

tomed to partake of a friendly meal with

them and he would now have the meeting held and supper prepared at his house. When the time came, he caused himself to be removed from his bed to the room in which they were assembled, and thus briefly addressed them: 'I come to you for the last time, never more to sit down with you at table.' He then offered up a short prayer, took a small portion of food, and conversed with them for a little time in a cheerful manner: but before supper

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was finished he was obliged to be carried back to his chamber. He looked pleasantly upon his friends as he went out, and said, This will not prevent my being present with you in spirit.' He never afterwards left his bed. On the 27th of May, he spoke with less difficulty and in a stronger voice: but this was the last effort of nature. At about eight o'clock in the evening the symptoms of dissolution suddenly came on. Beza, who had recently left him, was sent for, and on hastening to the house found that he had expired. He had departed without even a sigh, and in the full possession of his powers to the last." pp. 481-484.

We proceed to offer some concluding reflections, and they shall be brief, on particular points in the character and theology of Calvin. We of course allude to his doctrines relating to the predestination and election of Almighty God. These are the chief grounds of odium against his theology, for which we at once frankly avow that some cause was given. He carried his metaphysical deductions from Scripture beyond the statements of the inspired oraeles; he employed the word reprobate in a sense in which it does not occur in the Bible; he alluded too frequently to the secret will and purposes of God, and spoke of men in that point of view, so as sometimes to seem to contradict the general

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The consequence of this admixture of over-statement was, that a controversial air was given to Protestantism; that the Lutheran churches were by degrees cooled in their communion with those of Switzerland, and the separation occasioned by the Sacramental question was widened. And, what is worse, the first encouragement was given to all those subsequent systems and courses of preaching, which, going far beyond Calvin, and omitting the sound and practical views, which in his theology corrected his opinions on predestination-paved the way for the Calvinistic controversy, and for that decline in vital religion and really Scriptural truth which overstatements invariably occasion. Arminianism, Semi-Pelagianism, coldhearted orthodoxy without spiritual life, and the acerbity of theological debate throughout the Reformed churches, were in no small measure the consequences of Calvin's incautious language.

But, after this admission, let it still be remembered, that his doctrines upon the deep and difficult subject of the Divine purposes, were, upon the whole, no peculiarities of his; that they were not his main subject; and that on nearly all the additional points which have been called Calvinism in later times, he took the opposite side to that which his supposed followers occupied. We will briefly corroborate these statements.

With regard to the first, it is remarkable, as Mr. Scott justly observes, that we pass through more than half of the twenty-eight years of Calvin's ministry without even hearing of the question of predestination. His sentiments were before the world on that subject, and he never varied respecting it; but no controversy arose upon it among

Protestants. Calvin, though he reduced the tenets he held on this head to a more regular system, and sometimes carried them, as we have remarked, to a faulty excess, yet invented none: he has said nothing which St. Augustine had not said eleven hundred years before he was born. And, what is more important, he rather softened than aggravated what had previously been taught by Luther, Melancthon, Zuingle, and others in the earlier period of the Reformation, As that blessed work proceeded, the other churches sunk back, and Geneva went somewhat beyond them, without being considered as furnishing the least ground of variance between them. To the last, Calvin venerated and loved Melancthon, and used to call him the "The Divine:" and it was not till 1552 that he published his work on Predestination.

We entirely concur with Mr. Scott's observation on this point, and especially on the fault of imputing motives to pious and devout men who take different views of this profound question. Let the facts be allowed, that man is capable of nothing spiritually good by himself, and that it is God who worketh in him to will and to do of his good pleasure, and the doctrines of the Divine purposes, in whatever way they are explained, or if they are even wholly abstained from in public discourses, will not disturb Christian unity. We have not room for the passage to which we allude, pp. 47-49; but we must cite two remarks of much moment. The first is in the second volume of the Continuation, p. 218. "It can hardly have failed to be observed how very undefined, how popular, and almost entirely practical, are all those passages which have been adduced either by Dr. Milner or myself, from this great Reformer's (Luther) writings on the subject of the predestination of men to eternal life. In fact, both he and Melancthon but sparingly apply the doctrine to the great and awful subject of human salvation, to which in modern times we are apt almost exclusively

to apply it; the term Predestination seems, in the apprehension of numbers, synonymous, or nearly synonymous, with election or its opposite; though it is obvious that the former term has an unlimited extent, while the latter is confined to one particular subject. And it is in the wide view, rather the restricted one, that both Luther and Melancthon seem chiefly to contemplate the doctrine."

The other passage is in the volume before us. It relates to the interpretation of particular texts of Scripture.

The text is the much controverted one, Romans vii.; but the remark is peculiarly applicable to the passages which speak of the Divine purposes.

"It is to be regretted that those who have strongly taken opposite sides of the question, respecting this important pas sage of Scripture, should so often have overlooked the obvious fact, that, according to the general view which they take of the meaning and application of the whole, will be the interpretation which they respectively put on particular phrases or sentences. He, who understands the passage at large to describe the experience of the true and even advanced Christian, qualifies his exposition of the clauses carnal, sold under sin '-' the good that I would, I do not; but the evil which I would not, that do I,' &c. so as to render them compatible with that interpretation. He, on the other hand, who reduces the passage to little more than a description of the protests of conscience against prevailing depraved inclination, must at least equally lower down the meaning of the sentences, I delight in the law of God would not that do I now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me,' &c. to make them at all agree with such an interpretation. Let each party, apply to the other's general interpretation his own exposition of particular parts, and he will find it easy to fix upon his oppo nent charges of absurdity and even impiety, which by no means really belong to him." pp. 207, 208.

after the inner man' the evil which I

So much for the doctrines themselves, as propounded by Calvin. The proportionate space which they occupy in his theology should next be noted, in order to form an impartial view of the case. For instead of these deep questions filling the volumes of Calvin, there is little comparatively on the subject in them.

Even in the Institutes they occupy only about a twentieth part of the work. The longest chapters are on Prayer and the Moral Law. Out of eight hundred pages, scarcely more than fifty are allotted to this mysterious topic: and not only so, but all the other doctrines, precepts, and warnings of Scripture hold their proportionate position in his instructions; a position more prominent, more extensive, more influential than the one to which so much objection is raised. Read his learned and most able Commentaries from one end of the seven

folios to the other—you find the most luminous and conscientious exposition of the Holy Scriptures-a penetration which solves almost all difficulties an honesty and good sense which seize on the main point-a fairness and impartiality which seem to know no system. After three centuries, the comments of John Calvin remain unrivalled. The doctrine of predestination was not his great subject; it was not that which mainly engaged his powers, much less that on which he exclusively dwelt.

Our third remark was, that on almost all the additional points which have been called Calvinism in later times, he took the opposite side to that which his supposed followers occupy. We can only enumerate; we cannot quote. Calvin held the universality of redemption, and expressly avowed his belief of it, as if carefully to prevent any mistake as to his opinion, in his will. Four times within a few lines does he on one occasion assert the universality of the promises and offers of the Gospel. On free-will, he is far more moderate than Luther or Melancthon in their early writings. He did not hold the doctrine of the imputation of Adam's sin to all his posterity; he maintained the authority and obligations of the moral law as the rule of life he enforced the necessity of evidences of faith being appealed to; though, in opposition to the Popish doctrine of perpetual doubt as to acceptance, he sometimes seemed to confound the assurance with the es

sence of faith: he scruples not to use the word condition as indispensable to acceptance with God; he allows of the term co-operation, on the part of man, after grace received. On final perseverance, he is so moderate, that he

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speaks of the 'special call,' when by the inward illumination of the Spirit, God causes the word preached to sink into the heart,' as for the most part vouchsafed only to the faithful;' but sometimes communicated to those who, on account of their ingratitude, are afterwards forsaken and struck with greater blindness.'" p. 578.

These points practically modify and guard to an extraordinary degree his doctrine of the Divine purposes; and we mention them in justice to a great name, of which a wrong estimate has been very generally formed.

We should have been glad, if our space allowed, of adding various other extracts: but we must content ourselves with referring without citation to the letters to our Reformers in England, pp. 387, 464, 469; the passages illustrating Calvin's views of baptism, pp. 251, 305, 312, 323, 415, 466, 468, 551, 592, 594; and those which detect the mischiefs occasioned by new doctrines, and an unsteady changeable mind, which are well deserving of notice at pp. 95, 97, 158, 162, 172, 251, 272, 347, 355, 362, 364, 377, 379, 382, 453, 456, 459, 469, 480, 505.

We might, in justice to the author, add numerous passages illustrative of the soundness of mind, the moderation in doubtful points, and the impartiality which he has displayed throughout his work. We can afford space only for a brief specimen. The following are of the highest order. The propositions relate to the profound question of the Divine predestination.

"God controls all things, yet without being the author of evil: surely Scripture proclaims this, and reason must assent to it. Yet man acts from choice, without constraint, and is therefore accountable: both consciousness, and Scripture, and the common sense of mankind assure us of this. And beyond these two propositions we shall not advance far in our present state. Let us hold them both fast, not suffering what we do know to

be disturbed by what we do not know.'" history, with a few remarks on him as p. 226.

We have not room to quote; but we must refer to two places in which our author copes with the gigantic Hooker, and proves that misinformation had cast some prejudice into the judgment of that candid and perspicacious divine, (p. 366, &c., and p. 450, &c.) He was, however, one of the most zealous eulogists of Calvin, much as he objected to the Geneva system of discipline.

We are mistaken if our readers will not thank us for the following remarks:

"Each of the three great branches of the Reformation, at an early period, suffered a check, which to the apprehension of contemporaries must have threatened its destruction. Such was the case in Switzerland by the victories obtained by the Roman Catholics over the Reformed (1531): in Germany, by a similar cause, followed by the suppression of the League of Smalkald, and the introduction of the Interim (1547), and in England by the death of the good king Edward, and the succession of the bigoted and bloody Mary (1553). Yet in each case the fears of its friends and the hopes of its enemies were alike disappointed.

In each case the church was taught that her help cometh from the Lord,' and that he will not forsake his people,' but in the time of exigency will appear for their deliverance: that the wrath of man shall praise him, and the remainder of wrath all that would go beyond his purposes will he restrain. In each case, what might have been thought destruction proved to be only correction: it was pruning, and not excision; and promoted, not prevent ed, the production of good fruit, to the glory of God and the benefit of mankind." pp. 118, 119.

We conclude our extracts with our author's concise, but masterly comparison of the great leaders of the Reformation.

"We will conclude this review of Calvin's character, and this portion of our

"It is a truly golden sentence of Dr. Paley's, in his Natural Theology, the wide application of which I recommend to all my younger readers to study- True fortitude of understanding consists in not suffering what we do know to be disturbed by what we do not know.' It contains the seed' of answers not only to the great mass of infidel objections, but to almost every perversion of Christian, if not also of philosophical, truth."

compared with some of his great contemporaries-leaders in the work of Reformation. Five persons of this description have more particularly engaged our attention, and we have now traced, even to their close, the histories of Luther and Melancthon, of Zwingle, and Ecolampadius, and Calvin. These five persons may perhaps be admitted into one class, which, as far as Germany and Switzerland are concerned, must be exclusively their own: though among them, whether we regard the mental powers which they exerted, or the effect of their labours, we must acknowledge a 'first three,' unto which the others have not attained.' In Calvin we trace not indeed the chivalrous heroism of the great Saxon reformer; nor the sometimes too adventurous' elevation of the father of the Swiss reforma

tion; nor, certainly, the genius and the

the

tenderness of Melancthon; nor meekness of wisdom' which peculiarly adorned Ecolampadius. But in some other important qualities he excelled them all. Perhaps in learning he was superior to any one of them: in sound and correct judgment, formed upon a comprehensive and dispassionate consideration of all the points involved in a great question, I should certainly conclude him to have been

So.

Firm as Luther, without his impetuosity, he avoided all the embarrassments which arose from the scrupulous anxiety of Melancthon. Inferior to none, superior to most of them, in sagacity and penetration, he was more a man of system and order in all things, whether relating to doctrine, to discipline, or to his compositions as an author, than any other of their number. The first among them, we may perhaps pronounce, in sheer intellect,

he fell short of more than one of them in the powers of imagination, and of all of them in warmth of heart. Hence, while he commands our veneration, he does not equally attract our affection." pp. 491, 492.

Two reflections press upon our minds in rising from the study of this truly valuable volume,

The first is, the great importance of genuine ecclesiastical history-the history of good and great men; of their times, their services, their principles; the errors into which they fell, or against which they contended; their holy temper and frame of heart; their temptations, their struggles with enemies within and without the spiritual church; their blessed and triumphant deaths. If it were only from the pleasure which interesting narratives inspire, and the common instruction they convey

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