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istry altogether. He was always poor, so as not to be able to have many books. The sufferings of his body from headache, weakness, and other complaints, were constant and intense, so that he was obliged to recline on his couch a part of every day. It was only the remnants of his time, left from preaching and correspondence, he devoted to study and writing. And yet, every year of his life may be chronicled by his various works. In the midst of convulsions and interruptions of every kind, he pursued his commentaries on the Bible, as if sitting in the most perfect calm, and undisturbed repose. His labours were indeed incredible and beyond all comparison. He allowed himself no recreation whatever. He preached and wrote with headaches that would, says Beza, have confined any other person to bed. He preached every day of every other week;on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, he gave lectures in theology;-on Thursday, he presided in the meeting of the presbytery;

-on Friday, he expounded the holy scriptures to the congregation. His correspondence, commentaries, and controversial writings, &c., would form annually, during the period of thirty-one years, between two and three octavo volumes; and yet he never reached the age of fifty-five. When laid aside by disease from preaching, he dictated numberless letters, revised for the last time his Christian Institutes, almost re-wrote his commentary on Isaiah, frequently observing

that "nothing was so painful to him as his present idle life." And when urged by his friends to forbear, he would reply, "would you have my Lord to find me idle when he cometh?"

SECTION IV.

CALVIN VINDICATED FROM THE CHARGE OF AMBITION, AND HIS TRUE GREATNESS AND WONDERFUL INFLUENCE SHOWN.

GIFTED with such powers of mind, and stored with such treasures of knowledge, who can question the sincerity of Calvin's adherence to the principles of the Reformation? He has been charged, however, with ambitious motives, and with aspiring to a new popedom. Shameless calumny! With the pathway to honour, emolument and fame opened to him, did he not choose, like Moses, "rather to suffer with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season?" Did he not resign the benefices which he held, and which, by a covert conduct, he might still have retained, and throw himself poor and unpatronized among the houseless. wanderers who were every where spoken against as not worthy to live? Did he not design to spend his time in retirement as deeming himself unfit to take part in the noble strife? Was he not led to visit Geneva by the invisible hand of God, who had obstructed his route through Dauphiny and

Savoy to Basle or Strasburgh, where he meant to retire? Was it not after many refusals, and the extremest urgency he consented to remain in that city? And when appointed professor of divinity by the consistory and magistrates, did he not earnestly decline the office of pastor which they also insisted upon his undertaking? When banished from that place did he not again seek retirement, and with manifest reluctance resume the duties of professor and of pastor which Bucer, Capito, Hedio and the Senate of Strasburgh conferred upon him? And when the whole city of Geneva entreated his return among them, did he not say that "the further he advanced the more sensible he was how arduous a charge is that of governing a church, and that there was no place under heaven he more dreaded than Geneva." How did he praise and exalt Melancthon and Luther!* How did he bear with their opposition to his views, and their silence when he wrote to them in friendship! Did he not, when he had succeeded in founding the college at Geneva, prefer Beza to the presidency, and himself become a professor under him? Did he not as late as 1553, in a letter to the minister of Zurich, call Farel "the father of the liberties of Geneva and the father of that church?" Ambitious! "a most extraordinary charge, says Beza, to be brought against a man who chose his kind

* Scott's Contin. of Milner, vol. 3. 175, 414, 382, 387. t Ibid. p. 466.

of life, and in this state, in this church, which I might truly call the very seat of poverty." No! the love of truth and of the cause of Christ, was the master passion of his soul. He realized what millions only profess, and judging with the apostle, that if Christ died. for all, then were all dead, and that he thus died that they, who are made alive by his Spirit, should not henceforth live unto themselves, he consecrated his body, soul and spirit unto God. "Since," says he, "I remember that I am not my own, nor at my own disposal, I give myself up tied and bound, as a sacrifice to God." When, therefore, he was driven from Geneva by a blinded faction, amid the lamentations of his whole flock, he could say, "Had I been in the service of men, this would have been a poor reward; but it is well-I have served HIM, who never fails to repay his servants whatever he has promised." When the people of Strasburgh consented for a season to lend his service to the people of Geneva, they insisted on his retaining the privileges of a citizen and the stipend they had assigned him while resident among them. Was it ambition that led Calvin resolutely to decline the generous offer? Was it ambition which led him to settle at Geneva where his stipend, which was one hundred crowns a year, barely supported his existence, and which nevertheless he pertinaciously refused to have increased? Did he not for years abstain from all animal food at dinner, rarely eating any thing after break

fast till his stated hour for supper-and was not the whole amount of his remaining property, including his library which sold high, less than three hundred crowns? Let the infidel Bayle, who was struck with astonishment by these facts, put to silence the ignorance of foolish men.*

The charge of ambition is founded upon the innate and surpassing greatness of Calvin. An exile from his country, without money, without friends, he raised himself, by merit alone, to a dominion over the minds of men. His throne was in the hearts of those who knew him; his sceptre, truth; his laws, the silent influence of principle. Consider the difficulties which he encountered at Geneva. When he arrived in that place, in 1536, the city had neither religious nor political organization. Calvin undertook the task of giving it both.† But in order to do so, he had first to cleanse the Augean stable, to which the demoralized condition of Geneva might be well compared. The long reign of ignorance and superstition, the extreme corruption of the romish clergy, the relaxation of manners consequent upon intestine feuds and open war; the licentiousness, anarchy, and insubordination, resulting from the first excesses of unrestrained freedom, the disorders occasioned by party spirit and factious demagogues, and the secret attachment of many

* Bayle's Dict.-art. Calvin. BB. and Scott, 489. + Dr. Taylor's Biography of the Age of Elizabeth, vol. 2. p. 24.

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