XVI. SECT. III. gical system that was adopted by John Calvin, CENT. a native of Noyon in France, who was pastor and professor of divinity at Geneva, and whose genius, PART II. learning, eloquence, and talents rendered him respectable, even in the eyes of his enemies. This great man, whose particular friendship for Melancthon was an incidental circumstance highly favourable to the intended reconciliation, proposed an explication of the point in debate, that modified the crude hypothesis of Zuingle, and made use of all his credit and authority among the Swiss, and more particularly at Zurich, where he was held in the highest veneration, in order to obtain their assent to it [f]. The explication he proposed, was not, indeed, favourable to the doctrine of Christ's bodily presence in the eucharist, which he persisted in denying; he supposed however, that a certain divine virtue, or efficacy was communicated by Christ, with the bread and wine, to those who approached this holy sacrament with a lively faith, and with upright hearts; and to render this notion still more satisfactory, he expressed it in almost the same terms which the Lutherans employed in inculcating their doctrine of Christ's real presence in the eucharist [g]. For the great and common error of all those, who, from a desire of peace, assumed the character of arbitrators in this controversy, lay in this, that they aimed rather at a uniformity of terms, than of sentiments; and seemed satisfied when they had engaged the contending parties to use [f] Christ. Aug. Salig. Historia Aug. Confession. tom. ii. lib. vii. cap. iii. p. 1075. [g] Calvin went certainly too far in this matter; and, in his explication of the benefits that arise from a worthy commemoration of Christ's death in the eucharist, he dwelt too grossly upon the allegorical expressions of scripture, which the papists had so egregiously abused, and talked of really eating by faith the body, and drinking the blood of Christ. CENT. use the same words and phrases, though their real difference in opinion remained the same, and each SECT. III. explained these ambiguous or figurative terms in a manner agreeable to their respective systems. PART II. The concord, so much desired, did not, however, seem to advance much. Melancthon, who stood foremost in the rank of those who longed impatiently for it, had not courage enough to embark openly in the execution of such a perilous project. Besides, after the death of Luther, his enemies attacked him with redoubled fury, and gave him so much disagreeable occupation, that he had neither that leisure, nor that tranquillity of mind, that were necessary to prepare his measures properly for such an arduous undertaking. A new obstacle to the execu tion of this pacific project was also presented, by the intemperate zeal of Joachim Westphal, pastor at Hamburg, who, in the year 1552, renewed with greater vehemence than ever, this deplorable controversy, which had been for some time suspended, and who, after Flacius, was the most obstinate defender of the opinions of Luther. This violent theologian attacked with that spirit of acrimony and vehemence, that was too remarkable in the polemic writings of Luther, the act of uniformity, by which the churches of Geneva and Zurich declared their agreement concerning the doctrine of the eucharist. In the book which he published with this view [h], he censured with the utmost severity, the variety of sentiments concerning the sacrament of the Lord's supper that was observable in the reformed church, and maintained, with his usual warmth and obstinacy, [u] This book, which abounds with senseless and extravagant tenets that Luther never so much as thought of, and breathes the most virulent spirit of persecution, is entitled Farrago confusanearum et inter se dissidentium de S. Cœna ●pinionum ex Sacramentariorum Libris congesta." XVI. PART II. stinacy, the opinion of Luther on that subject. CENT. This engaged Calvin to enter the lists with Westphal, whom he treated with as little lenity and for- SECT. III. bearance, as the rigid Lutherans had shewed towards the Helvetic churches. The consequences of this debate were, that Calvin and Westphal had each their zealous defenders and patrons; hence the breach widened, the spirits were heated, and the flame of controversy was kindled anew with such violence and fury, that to extinguish it entirely seemed to be a task beyond the reach of human wisdom or human power [i]. troversy nation. VII. These disputes were unhappily augmented The conin process of time, by that famous controversy concerning. concerning the decrees of God, with respect to the predestieternal condition of men, which was set on foot by Calvin, and became an inexhaustible source of intricate researches, and abstruse, subtile, and inexplicable questions. The most ancient Helvetic doctors were far from adopting the doctrine of those, who represent the Deity as allotting, from all eternity, by an absolute, arbitrary, and unconditional decree, to some everlasting happiness, and to others endless misery, without any previous regard to the moral characters and circumstances of either. Their sentiments seemed to differ but very little from those of the Pelagians; nor did they hesitate in declaring, after the example of Zuingle, that the kingdom of heaven was open to all who lived according to the dictates of right reason [k]. Calvin had adopted a quite different VOL. IV. B b [i] Loscheri Historia Motuum, part II. lib. iii. cap. viii. p. 83.-Molleri, Cimbria Literata, tom. iii. p. 642. Arn. Grevii Memoria Joac. Westphali, p. 62, 106. [k] For the proof of this assertion, see Dallei Apologia pro duabus Ecclesiarum Gallicar. Synodis adversus Frid. Spanheim. part IV. p. 946.--Jo. Alphons. Turretini Epistol. ad Antestitem Cantuariensem, which is inserted in the Bibliotheque Germanic, tom. xiii. p. 52.-Simon, Bibliotheque Critique, published under the fictitious name of Sainior, tom. PART II. CENT. different system with respect to the divine decrees, XVI. He maintained, that the everlasting condition of SECT. III. mankind in a future world was determined from all eternity by the unchangeable order of the Deity, and that this absolute determination of his will and good pleasure, was the only source of happiness or misery to every individual. This opinion was in a very short time propagated through all the Reformed churches, by the writings of Calvin, and by the ministry of his disciples, and in some places was inserted in the national creeds and confessions; and thus made a public article of faith. The unhappy controversy, which took its rise from this doctrine, was opened at Strasburg, in the year 1560, by Jerome Zanchius, an Italian ecclesiastic, who was particularly attached to the sentiments of Calvin; and was afterwards carried on by others with such zeal and assiduity, that it drew, in an extraordinary manner, the attention of the public, and tended as much to exasperate the passion, and foment the discord of the contending parties, as the dispute about the eucharist had already done [1]. The discord the greatest VIII. The Helvetic doctors had no prospect is carried to left of calming the troubled spirits and temperheight. ing, at least, the vehemence of these deplorable feuds, but the moderation of the Saxon divines, who were the disciples of Melancthon, and who breathing tom. iii. ch. xxviii. p. 292, 298. and also the author of a book, entitled, Observationes Gallicæ in Formul, Consensus Helveticum, p. 52. The very learned Gerdes, instead of being persuaded by these testimonies, maintains, on the contrary, in his Miscellan. Groningens. tom. ii. p. 476, 477. that the sentiments of Calvin were the same with those of the ancient Swiss doctors. But this excellent author may be refuted, even from his own account of the tumults that were occasioned in Switzerland, by the opinion that Calvin had propagated in relation to the divine decrees. [1] Loscheri Historia Motuum, part III. lib. v. cap. ii. p. 27. S. c. x. p. 227.-Salig, Historia August. Confession. tom. i. lib. ii. cap. xiii. p. 441. CENT. XVI. SECT. III. breathing the pacific spirit of their master, seemed after his death, to have nothing so much at heart as the restoration of concord and union in the pro- PART II. testant church. Their designs, however, were not carried on with that caution and circumspection, with that prudent foresight, or that wise attention to the nature of the times, which distinguished always the transactions of Melancthon, and which the critical nature of the cause they were engaged in, indispensably required. And hence they had already taken a step, which was adapted to render ineffectual all the remedies they could apply to the healing of the present disorders. For, by dispersing every where artful and insidious writings, with a design to seduce the ministers of the church, and the studious youth, into the sentiments of the Swiss divines, or, at least, to engage them to treat these sentiments with toleration and forbearance, they drew upon themselves the indignation of their adversaries, and ruined the pacific cause in which they had embarked. It was this conduct of theirs that gave occasion to the composition of that famous Form of Concord, which condemned the sentiments of the Reformed churches in relation to the person of Christ, and the sacrament of the Lord's supper. And as this Form is received by the greatest part of the Lutherans, as one of the articles of their religion; hence arises an insuperable obstacle to all schemes of reconciliation and concord. that are servation IX. So much did it seem necessary to premise What those concerning the causes, rise, and progress of the things are, controversy, which formed that separation that most worstill subsists between the Lutheran and Reformed thy of obchurches. From thence it will be proper to pro- in the rise ceed to an account of the internal state of the and prolatter, and to the history of its progress and revo- Reformed lutions. The history of the Reformed church, church. during this century, comprehends two distinct gress of the |