XVI.

borious application, constancy of mind, force ofc E N T. eloquence, and extent of genius, returned to Ge-scr. III. neva, from whence the opposition of his enemies PART. II. had obliged him to retire. On his settlement in that city, the affairs of the new church were committed to his direction [], and he acquired also a high degree of influence in the political administration of that republic. This event changed entirely the face of affairs, and gave a new aspect to the Reformed church. The views and projects of this great man were grand and extensive. For he not only undertook to give strength and vigour to the rising church, by framing the wisest laws and the most salutary institutions for the maintenance of order and the advancement of true piety, but even proposed to render Geneva the mother, the seminary, of all the Reformed churches, as Wittemberg was of all the Lutheran communities. He laid a scheme for sending forth from this little republic, the succours and ministers that were to promote and propagate the protestant cause through the most distant nations, and aimed at nothing less than rendering the government, discipline, and doctrine of Geneva the model and rule of imitation to the Reformed churches throughout the world. The undertaking was certainly great, and worthy of the extensive genius and capacity of this eminent man; and, great and arduous as it was, it was executed in part, nay, carried on to a very Bb4 considerable

[o] Calvin, in reality, enjoyed the power and authority of a bishop at Geneva; for, as long as he lived, he presided in the assembly of the clergy, and in the consistory or ecclesiastical judicatory. But when he was at the point of death, he advised the clergy not to give him a successor, and proved to them evidently the dangerous consequences of entrusting with any one man, during life, a place of such high authority. After him, therefore, the place of president ceased to be perpetual. See Spon, Histoire de Geneve, tom. ii. p. 111.

CENT considerable length, by his indefatigable assiduity, XVI. and inextinguishable zeal. It was with this view, PART II that, by the fame of his learning, as well as by

SECT. III

his epistolary solicitations and encouragements of various kinds, he engaged many persons of rank and fortune, in France, Italy, and other countries, to leave the places of their nativity, and to settle at Geneva; while others repaired thither merely out of a curiosity to see a man, whose talents, and exploits had rendered him so famous, and to hear the discourses which he delivered in public. Another circumstance, that contributed much to the success of his designs, was the establishment of an academy at Geneva, which the senate of that city founded at his request; and in which he himself, with his colleague Theodore Beza, and other divines of eminent learning and abilities, taught the sciences with the greatest reputation. In effect, the lustre which these great men reflected upon this infant seminary of learning, spread its fame through the distant nations with such amazing rapidity, that all who are ambitious of a distinguished progress in either sacred or profane erudition, repaired to Geneva, and that England, Scotland, France, Italy, and Germany, seemed to vie with each other in the numbers of their studious youth, that were incessantly repairing to the new academy. By these means, and by the ministry of these his disciples, Calvin enlarged considerably the borders of the Reformed church, propagated his doctrine, and gained preselytes and patrons to his theological system, in several countries of Europe. In the midst of this glorious career he ended his days, in the year 1564; but the salutary institutions and wise regu lations, of which he had been the author, were both respected and maintained after his death. la a more especial manner the academy of Geneva flourished

flourished as much under Beza, as it had done CENT, during the life of its founder [p].

XVI SECT. IIL

XII. The plan of doctrine and discipline, that PART IL had been formed by Zuingle, was altered and The form corrected by Calvin; and that more especially of doctrine. in three points, of which it will not be improper siastical goto give a particular account.

and eccle

vernment

drawn up

Ist, Zuingle, in his form of ecclesiastical go-by this Revernment, had given an absolute and unbounded former. power in religious matters, to the civil magistrate, to whom he had placed the clergy in a degree of subjection that was displeasing to many. But at the same time he allowed of a certain subordination and difference of rank among the ministers of the church, and even thought it expedient to place at their head a perpetual president, or superintendent, with a certain degree of inspection and authority. over the whole body. Calvin, on the contrary, reduced the power of the magistrate, in religious matters, within narrow bounds. He declared the church a separate and independent body, endowed with the power of legislation for itself. He maintained, that it was to be governed, like the primitive church, only by presbyteries and synods, that is, by assemblies of elders, composed both of the clergy and laity; and he left to the civil magistrate little else than the privilege of protecting and defending the church, and providing for what related to its external exigencies and concerns. Thus this eminent Reformer introduced

into

[A] The various projects and plans that were formed, conducted, and executed with equal prudence and resolution by Calvin, in behalf both of the Republic and Church of Geneva, are related by the learned person who, in the year 1730, gave a new edition (enriched with interesting historical notes, and authentic documents) of Spon's Histoire de Geneve. The particular accounts of Calvin's transactions, given by this anonymous editor, in his notes, are drawn from several curious manuscripts of undoubted credit. See Spon, Histoire de Goneve, tom. i. p. 87, 100, &c.

CEN T. into the republic of Geneva, and endeavoured to XVI. introduce into all the Reformed churches throughPART II Out Europe, that Form of ecclesiastical govern

SECT. III.

ment, which is called Presbyterian, from its neither admitting of the institution of bishops, nor of any subordination among the clergy; and which is founded on this principle, that all ministers of the gospel are, by the laws of God, declared to be equal in rank and authority. In consequence of this principle, he established at Geneva a consistory, composed of ruling elders, partly pastors, and partly laymen, and invested this ecclesiastical body with a high decree of power and authority. He also convened synods, composed of the ruling elders of different churches, and in these consistories and synods had laws enacted for the regulation of all matters of a religious nature; and among other things, restored to its former vigour the ancient practice of excommunication. All these things were done with the consent of the greatest part of the senate of Geneva.

2dly, The system that Zuingle had adopted with respect to the eucharist, was by no means agreeable to Calvin, who, in order to facilitate the desired union with the Lutheran church, substituted in its place another, which appeared more conformable to the doctrine of that church, and, in reality, differed but little from it. For while the doctrine of Zuingle supposed only a symbolical or figurative, presence of the body and blood of Christ in the eucharist, and represented a pious remembrance of Christ's death, and of the benefits it procured to mankind, as the only fruits that arose from the celebration of the Lord's supper, Calvin explained this critical point in a quite different manner. He acknowledged a real, though spiritual, presence of Christ in this sacrament; or, in other words, he maintained, that true Christians, who approached this holy ordi

nance

XVI.

nance with a lively faith, were, in a certain man-C EN T. ner, united to the man Christ; and that from SECT. III. this union the spiritual life derived new vigour in PART II. the soul, and was still carried on, in a progressive motion, to greater degrees of purity and perfection. This kind of language had been used in the forms of doctrine drawn up by Luther; and as Calvin observed, among other things, that the divine grace was conferred upon sinners, and sealed to them by the celebration of the Lord's supper, this induced many to suppose that he adopted the sentiment implied in the barbarous term impanation [q], and differed but little from the doctrine of the Lutheran church on this im

portant

[q] The term Impanation (which signifies here the presence of Christ's body in the eucharist, in or with the bread that is there exhibited) amounts to what is called Consubstantiation. It was a modification of the monstrous doctrine of Transubstantiation, first invented by some of the disciples. of Berenger, who had not a mind to break all measures with the church of Rome, and was afterwards adopted by Luther and his followers, who, in reality, made sad work of it. For, in order to give it some faint air of possibility, and to maintain it as well as they could, they fell into a wretched scholastic jargon about the nature of substances, subsistences, attributes, properties, and accidents, that did infinite mischief to the true and sublime science of gospel theology, whose beautiful simplicity it was adapted to destroy. The very same perplexity and darkness, the same quibbling, sophistical, and unintelligible logic, that reigned in the attempts of the Roman catholics to defend the doctrine of Transubstantiation, were visible in the controversial writings of the Lutherans in behalf of Consubstantiation, or Impanation. The latter had, indeed, one absurdity less to maintain; but being obliged to assert, in opposition to intuitive evidence, and unchangeable truth, that the same body can be in many places at the same time, they were consequently obliged to have recourse to the darkest and most intricate jargon of the schools, to hide the nonsense of this unaccountable doctrine. The modern Lutherans are grown somewhat wiser in this respect; at least, they seem less zealous than their ancestors about the tenet in question.