development, although he was dogmatic, impatient of opposition, and vehement in attacking his opponents.

Calvin was more suddenly brought to truth and God, and he as suddenly perceived the length and breadth of what he believed to be the Gospel. He grasped the truth, and never changed his opinions; the whole thing shaped itself forth in gigantic proportions, and remained ever afterwards to his mind the

same.

This, perhaps, because Luther was intent on solving one great problem; Calvin on arriving at a principle by which to solve all. Thus, Luther observed, so to speak, a pole-star, by which he and all men might navigate the stormy sea of life, and know the general bearings of their course; while Calvin may be said to have unriddled the mystery of the heavens, so that at any moment the wanderers over the ocean of time might henceforth know their absolute position upon it. Luther throws floods of light over one great fact; Calvin teaches the Divine science. The Scriptures and the Fathers, antiquity and the Church, were all valuable to Luther when he wished to establish the means of a sinner's justification before God, and he valued them as he found their testimony confirm his view; he tried them in this crucible, and estimated them as they added to his defence of his great doctrine. Election and Divine decrees, as expounded by Calvin, may have done much to supplement the theological tenets of his German colleague, and to account for some of the vast difficulties they suggested. But they were only held by Calvin as he found them in the Word of God. Luther valued the Scriptures because of their testimony to the doctrine; Calvin received the doctrines because he found them in the Scriptures. The might of Luther was his heart, his will, and his history; the might of Calvin was his mind, his system, and his pen. Lutheranism was exposed to constant fluctuations; Calvinism has stood upon a rock. The opponents of Luther were either the wildest fanatics, enthusiastic and dangerous false prophets, who would carry his principles to an extreme or the strong arm of power, that would excommunicate or destroy him. The opponents of Calvin were theological disputants or heretics, whether they came from Rome or France. His enemies were the polished Sadoletus, or the crafty Michael Servetus.

If the doctrine of Luther had been the sole principle of the Reformation, if there had been no new combination made of the Divine informants of man, then, perhaps, had all certainty, all high probability failed, the very ground on which he presented the Gospel would have been obscured, and, while the authority of the Church had been destroyed, no other assur

ance would have been given of its Divine truth and heavenly certainty.

If, on the other hand, the Reformation had only succeeded in opposing to the infallibility of the Church the authority of the Bible, and the right of man to exercise his opinion and private judgment upon it; if it had not brought from this treasure the truths of life; if it had not constructed the channels through which the water of life might flow; if no example had been set of criticism, and no proof given that the Scriptures could form for themselves a Church and be the statute book of discipline and order; if the earnest struggles of German mind and free study of truth that characterized Luther, had not prepared the way for Calvin; we might only have received from the Reformation a stereotyped translation of the Bible, or found the infallibility of the Church replaced by the Popery of a Genevan doctor. The two men and the two movements have thus been the complements of each other. We are living in the light of both.

Our object is (1), To explain Calvin's view of the authority and sufficiency of the Scriptures; (2), To show how far this principle of his may be considered a final statement of this momentous and profound question.

There are two sets of opponents that bring their heavy artillery to bear against the Bible, and use for different purposes, the same arguments to weaken its authority. Those who assert that we do not need a revelation at all; and those who maintain that no man is able to comprehend satisfactorily, without additional aid, the principles and truths that are wrapped up in this revelation. These again are divided into two great classes -those who say that the creeds of the ancient Church are authoritative deductions from the Scriptures of truth, and others who say, "You may have the Scriptures and creeds, but you still need the living teacher, the Divinely-appointed instructor who shall give you the development of the faith of the Church up to the present time." There is, again, yet another class, who say, "this Book, and this Book alone, without note or comment, is sufficient for the world: it contains everything that we want for our guidance, discipline, or faith." We will endeavour to show how John Calvin believed. We say how he believed, for it would be difficult to bring a large number of unmistakeable passages from his writings to prove the point to which we are calling attention. As the Catholic Church assumes its infallibility, so John Calvin assumes throughout his writings the two great propositions, That the Scriptures are the ultimate standard of appeal; and that every Christian has a right to study them for himself, and make his own deductions from them.

The great work of Calvin is entitled the "Institutes of the Christian Religion," of which there are three important editions -one published at Basel, 1535-6; one at Strasburg, 1539— repeated again both at Strasburg and Geneva several times between 1539 and 1555-and an entire revision published in 1559 by Calvin himself. This work was dedicated to Francis I. of France, whom Calvin strove to convert to a true knowledge of Christ. In this sublime dedication it is true that he referred for his principle to antiquity and the Fathers; but he said his design had been "to prepare theological students for the reading of God's Word, and to arrange the subjects in such order, and so to explain them, that the reader might comprehend without difficulty what he would find in the Holy Scriptures." It cannot be said that this work enters at length into any defence of the Canon or any argument on the inspiration of the Scriptures; but it starts from them as from first principles. Calvin did not deem it necessary to prove this point, as he felt that the testimony of the Spirit witnesses to the conscience of believers that the Scriptures are true; and while he denied the doctrine of the Anabaptists that every man might be inspired by the Spirit without the Word, he everywhere implied his strong conviction that by diligent and devout perusal of the Word, the sincere man cannot be led astray; that the Holy Spirit still works in the mind, not by imparting fresh truth, but by making truth previously revealed, start out into power and life. It was his conviction that the belief in the inspired authority of the Scriptures grows with the devout acquaintance with them, and that "He that doeth the will of God shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God." The plan of the work established Calvin's great principle, that the Bible is the fountain of all theology, and the well-spring of all truth, and that he had a right to draw from its resources at his pleasure. His great points he defended by quotations from the Scriptures as though they were the ultimate appeal, and after he had brought criticism and sound exegesis to his aid, after antiquity and experience were allowed to help in the interpretation, the point was settled for his mind. He repeatedly insisted on the thought that the Spirit works by the Word, producing conviction of the truth of the Scriptures, and that when that is the case the soul possesses the true and the sufficient guide.

The "Institutes" became the watchword and the battle cry of the Reformed Church; enjoyed a wondrous popularity; were translated into French, German, Italian, Dutch, Spanish, and even into Greek and Arabic. And why? Because they were the proof that the fetters had been broken; they were the living testimony to the power of the mind of man to grasp the truth of God independently of tradition, or Church authority; they

expounded thus in every page a new principle, and developed the force of a forgotten if not new idea. As "Locke's Essay and as "Newton's Principia" were the most powerful arguments in favour of the principle of induction, because they assumed the Baconian theory and acted upon it, so Calvin's "Institutes contained the most powerful arguments that had ever been given to the world for the truth and sufficiency of the Scriptures, because the Word of God was made the ultimate standard of appeal, and solved the query by stating the fact.

We might quote many passages from his various works bearing on this fundamental law of his theology; for instance, from his letter to Sadoletus, the Roman controversialist, who sought, during Calvin's temporary absence from Geneva, to confound the young Church by sophistry, learning, and authority, and who received a terrible and elegant infliction from the exiled preacher. In that letter Calvin takes up the argument touching the Divine informant of man, in the following terms:The Church is limited as well as originated and preserved by the Word of God. God verily foresaw how dangerous it would be to bestow His Spirit without a written Word. He determined, indeed, that the Church should be guided by the Spirit; but He combined this guidance with His Word, that there might be no danger of its being wavering or uncertain. As often as prophets prophesy of the Church, they invariably in the first place refer to the Word." He accused Sadoletus of not "knowing that the Word is as a test whereby all the doctrines of the Church may be tried." Again, he said, "However many opinions there may be in the world, the genuine Christian will always find his right path. I do not dream of the exactness in the knowledge of the truth that never errs, nor suppose that all believers can comprehend all mysteries. I insist on this only, that if they thoroughly examine the Word of God, they can never so err as to perish." There are many indications throughout this letter of all the resolution and heroic confidence which had inspired this conviction, how firmly he believed for himself, how mighty the instrument became which he thus wielded.

Let it not be forgotten that by far the most voluminous of Calvin's writings consist of his able commentaries on the sacred books. From the time of the early Fathers, nothing so thoughtful, so profound, had been written, and, though his learning was great and his acquaintance with all sources of illustration large, yet he evidently wrote in a style that was meant for the common people as well as for the theological student. This laborious undertaking, coupled with his edition of Scripture in the French tongue, prove the general principle of his whole life. With a few exceptions, he

commented on the whole Bible; nor is that sagacity to be despised which led him to make the Apocalypse one of those exceptions, deeming himself unequal to the task and unable to pry into its mysteries. The commentaries and the kind of use he made of the Scriptures in his other writings, were proofs of the modification with which he regarded the bold Protestant principle, that the Bible only is their religion; and the order and system with which he marshalled the leading dogmas of Christianity were loud denials of the taunt thrown by the Church on all who would refuse to accept its symbols and believe in its infallibility. The arms of all the sovereigns of Europe could not add to the power of those commentaries; the blessings of all the Popes of Rome could not augment their earnestness nor their veracity. The power with which they bring God to the sinner's ear, and make the child of earth hear the Word of the Lord, proclaim that they have to do with realities, and that the living contact of a great heart and mind with God's truth does more for that mind than all the Seven Sacraments of Rome, than all the consecration of a so-called Apostolical Church could confer. However, we shall see the principle more fully expounded by the great aim of his life.

This was to establish (independently of the Church of Rome) a Visible Church, to maintain its unity with all true believers, and to vindicate its own discipline at all hazards. Considering the nature of the times, and of his great principle, there was a necessity laid upon him thus to act. The real germ of Calvin's theology may perhaps have been a settled dissatisfaction with the authority claimed by the Church, because though he may have felt that the Church is visible, that the kingdom of Christ is here, though not from hence': he was convinced that the organization which called itself the Church did not answer to the scriptural description of the Church. Even then, acknowledging that the Church is the true interpreter of Scripture, and expounder of experience, Calvin asked, "Where is the Church? Show it to

Until that Church could be pointed out he could accept no creeds, no symbols, no doctrines, besides his own. The Catholic beheld the Church in the unity of a faith in some common doctrine, and uniformity of practice in many common ceremonies; Calvin saw it only in that communion of believers who are bound together in faith and love through the Word and the Spirit. The entire difference between these two definitions of the Church had reference to their respective bearing on the Word of God. Having, as we think, apostatized from the Church of Rome on a different principle from Luther, he was forced to a different course of action; he strove through his whole life to perfect a new system of Church discipline and unity. He had