preached with fidelity and zeal by Farel and his brethren. It is curious to observe the instinctive horror of the Scriptures which the partizans of Popery betrayed. The first French version of the New Testament appeared at Geneva in 1533, and was allowed by the council, who also ordered that "only the gospel should be preached, and nothing delivered from the pulpit which could not be proved from Scripture." A mandate from the bishop was then issued,

"Which he desired to have published with the sound of the trumpet,' prohibiting the reading of the Scriptures in the vulgar tongue. It was followed the beginning of the next year by one from his grand vicar, commanding all persons who possessed copies of the Bible, either in the French or the German tongue, 'to burn them immediately, under pain of excommunication.' But it was now too late to issue such injunctions at Geneva: and the impious order only produced effects the reverse of those which were intended. But well may the historian (Ruchat) demand, Was ever such a proceeding heard of among the followers of Mohammed or Zoroaster, or under any other profession of religion? It has been reserved exclusively for men calling themselves Christian priests, but who are assuredly wolves in sheep's clothing, to command the books which they themselves acknowledge as sacred-God's merciful gift to mankind to teach them the way to eternal life-to be committed to the flames. Yet such atrocities have been renewed in our own days. [Mr. Scott says in a note, 'and we may add, in our's also.'] Infidels will surely rise up in the judgment against such Christians, and will condemn them." -p. 280.

It was on the first of March, 1534, that Farel was conducted by a numerous body of citizens to the convent of the Franciscans, and in their church for the first time publicly preached the doctrines of the Reformation. The see of Geneva was declared vacant by the Council in the September of that year; a public disputation took place in May, 1535; and the Reformation was established by a public edict the 27th of the following August. The Confession of Faith drawn up by Farel was sanctioned by the

Council the next year, from which we must give the following abstract, that it may be seen what foundations the Reformers uniformly laid.

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"It was comprised in twenty-one articles. In article 3, the law of God is asserted to be the only rule of life, and exclusively to have authority over the conscience:' and the Ten Commandments Man is acknowledged to be by nature are given as a summary of it. Art. 4. blinded in his understanding, and full of corruption and perverseness of heart: so that of himself he has no power to attain the true knowledge of God, or to give himself to good works: but on the contrary, if left to himself, he can only continue in ignorance, and be abandoned to all iniquity.' Hence, Art. 5, he can in himself expect nothing but the wrath and curse of God, and must seek out of himself (in another) for salvation-namely, (Art. 6, 7) in Christ. Art. 8: By the Spirit of Christ we are regenerated to a new and spiritual nature: that is, the evil concupiscences of our flesh are mortified by his grace, so that they no more reign in us; and on the contrary our will is rendered conformable to that of God, to follow his way, and seek those things which are pleasing to him.' Art. 9: 'This regeneration is (only) so far effected, that, even till we are delivered from this mortal body, there remain always in us great imperfection and infirmity: so that we are ever poor and miserable sinners before God.... We have, therefore, always need of the mercy of God for the remission of our faults and offences; and must constantly seek our righteousness in Christ, and not in ourselves, and repose and assure ourselves in him, attributing nothing to our own works.' Art. 10: And to the end that all the glory and praise may (as they are due) be given to God, and that we may enjoy true repose and peace of conscience; we understand and confess that we receive all the above recited benefits from God by his mercy and grace alone, without any consideration of our deserts or of the merit of our works-to

which no other reward is due than eternal confusion. Nevertheless our (gracious) God, having, of his goodness, received us to the communion of his Son Jesus Christ, accepts the works which we do in faith as they merit this, but that he does not impleasant and agreeable to him; not that pute to us their imperfection, but recognises only what proceeds from his Spirit.' Art. 11: The way of admission opened for us to the enjoyment of so great treafaith-when in sure affiance and confisures, and this real bounty of God, is by dence of heart we believe the promises of

the Gospel, and receive Jesus Christ as he is presented to us by the Father, and described to us by the word of God.'" pp. 311-313.

We may well here pause, to adore the wisdom and grace of God which thus prepared the way for the labours of Calvin, by men perhaps more adapted than himself for that particular work; and which, so far as we can judge, he was incapable of effecting; just as they would have been inadequate to that consolidation and defence of the whole cause of pure religion, which he for nearly thirty years carried on, and then resigned to the able hands of his disciple and fellow-labourer, Beza. Nor can we fail to notice the concurrence of events in the Divine Providence, which enabled this small state to struggle into liberty, from the thraldom of Friburg and the court of Savoy, that it might become the strong hold of truth and the centre of the Protestant cause.

We come now to our notices of Calvin, whose history occupies nearly three hundred pages of this volume-a space, long as it may appear, not in the least too extended. We question if, in the whole eight volumes of ecclesiastical annals of the Milners and Mr. Scott, there is any portion more important, more impartially conducted, more remarkably opportune to the circumstances of the present times than this. We cannot spare a single page, and scarcely a quotation. Nor can we sufficiently admire the calmness, the independence of mind, the clear and penetrating judgment which our author exhibits, and which make us look forward with strong anticipation to his intended account of the English Reformation.

John Cauvin, Chauvin, or, according to the Latin and usual form, Calvin, was born at Noyon, in Picardy, July 10, 1509. He received his early education with the children of a family of rank, and

accompanied them to Paris, where the celebrated grammarian Cordery was his teacher. From his youth he was remarkable for gravity, and rather stern rebukes of vice. In 1521, at the age of twelve, he obtained a benefice in the Church of Rome at Noyon; and afterwards, in 1527 and 1529, the parochial cures of Marteville and Pont l'Evêque, where he is related to have delivered discourses to the people, even before his admission into full orders. He afterwards changed his pursuits from theology to the civil law, at the instance of his father, though he still continued to study the Sacred Scriptures with intense eagerness. He published his first work in 1532, at the age of twenty-threea commentary on Seneca's De Clementia. Soon after this, his father being now dead, he determin-' ed to dedicate himself wholly to the service of God, his mind having been gradually more and more directed to this object by his study of the Scriptures, and the acquaintance of several pious men. Accordingly he came to Paris, and began to propagate his sentiments, but was soon compelled to retire from it by the persecution which his zeal excited. This was in November, 1533. He ventured there again the following year; but was again forced to fly by the violence of Francis the First, who was persecuting the Protestants of his own country, whilst, for political purposes, he was seeking to support those in Germany. Calvin, after visiting Strasburg, fixed himself at Basle, and here published, in 1535, at the age of twenty-seven, his most celebrated work, The Institutes of the Christian Religion, without his name, and merely to defend the Protestants against the calumny which would confound them with the wildness and fanaticism of the Anabaptists. The work had then only six chapters; but though it was the labour of his

life to revise, enlarge, and rearrange it, the last edition, in 1559, containing eighty, all the main positions and doctrines continue precisely the same: the views of predestination, for instance, in the first and last edition are identical; so little truth is there in the insinuation that he did not begin to publish his sentiments on that solemn subject till the year 1557.

In 1536 he visited Italy, and afterwards, for the last time, France. His design, on his return, was to fix himself at Basle or Strasburg; but the war which then raged compelling him to pass through Dauphiny and Savoy, he was obliged, contrary to his inclination, to pass through Geneva. Farel here met him, and urged him to remain; he felt, for a considerable time, little inclination to comply, but at last he yielded to importunity, and in August, 1536, accepted the office of a Professor of Divinity. The state of public morals, however, amongst the population-the ignorance and vice and superstition which remained-the relaxation of civil order, which their long struggle for independence had occasioned-the party spirit and family feuds, not appeased at once by the reception of the Reformation which prevailed-the free constitution of the state, which allowed almost every man a voice-the large number of individuals who had no real religious principle-the tumults excited by the Anabaptists -the chicanery and perseverance of the surrounding Papal states, rendered the situation of Calvin no easy post. A strict discipline in religious concerns, and especially on admission to the Lord's Supper, formed a part of his plan of conduct, and was carried forward in a manner not, perhaps, altogether well adapted to the circumstances of the case. In two years from his arrival at Geneva, he was banished from the republick. His remark on being informed of the

decree corresponded with the humility and simplicity of mind with which he undertook his charge: "Had I been the servant of man,' he observed, "I must have complained of being ill requited" (he had received no stipend); “but it is well for me that I have served One who never deserts those who devote themselves to him." He was recalled, however, in 1542, in a manner the most honourable to his character; not by any steps taken by himself, but in consequence of confusion prevailing at Geneva, the death or removal of the principal persons concerned in opposing him, and the general conviction of his piety, talents, and intègrity. It was a penitent people entreating their injured pastor to return. From 1542 till the period of his death in 1564, Calvin devoted his almost unrivalled powers to the establishment and diffusion of the principles of the Gospel. His published works extended to nine closely printed folios, seven of which are occupied with his invaluable commentaries on most parts of the Old Testament, and the whole of the New, with the exception of the Apocalypse. The last of these commentaries, that on the Book of Joshua, was finished only just before his death. He married in 1540, but left no children. In 1548, and again'in 1551, he wrote his letters to the protector Somerset, and Bishops Hooper and Cranmer,

and, after the accession of Elizabeth, those to Cecil and Grindal. The case of Servetus, to which we shall soon refer more at length, occurred in 1553. His health began sensibly to decline in 1557; and it was in 1564, in the fifty-fifth year of his age, that he was gathered to his fathers, and to that heavenly rest in the mansions prepared for him by his Redeemer, which he had so long earnestly desired and pressed forward to, amidst the sins and sorrows of an evil and jarring

world. His habitual labours, contrasted with the weakness of his health and his habitual infirmities, shows the power of his conscientious conviction of his responsibility for the use of his time and talents, the strength of the grace of God supporting him, and those mighty endowments of mind with which he was blessed.

"An extraordinary account is given of Calvin's labours, from the time of his return to Geneva. In every fortnight he preached one entire week'-whether daily or not does not appear. Thrice in every week he delivered divinity lectures: on the Thursdays he presided in the consistory, and on the Fridays in what was called the congregation, a meeting for the collation and exposition of Scripture. Frequently he was called to assist the council with his advice, which his skill in the science of law, combined with his ge

neral wisdom and talent, made him very competent to do. His correspondence, also, was very extensive, the fame of his learning and piety causing him to be consulted from all quarters: and he himself complains of the continual interruptions which, as might naturally have been expected, he encountered from the visits of strangers, and from other avocations. Yet his copious commentaries on the Scriptures, and other writings, chiefly in a polished Latin style, are known to be very elaborate and accurate.-Such were the performances of a man, whose constitution was delicate, and his health bad, and

who never completed his fifty-fifth year."

p. 370.

"He was naturally of a spare and feeble frame, of a sallow complexion and bilious habit, tending to consumption. He was subject to severe headachs, from which strict abstinence alone afforded him relief. Hence, for more than ten years together, he took only one meal in the day, generally in the evening; and frequently he fasted for thirty-six hours together. His digestion was bad; and his sleep scarcely deserved the name. Five years before his death, he was attacked by a spitting of blood; and, when his long continued intermitting fever left him, that'host' of disorders to which we have alluded, and which he himself enumerates-asthma, gout, (ascending from his feet to his knees,) stone, gravel, cholic, and a severe hæmorrhoidal affection-began to show themselves, and, as he observed in writing to the physicians, the inaction to which the pains in his legs and feet, together with the complaint which rendered him unable to ride, reduced him, left him no hope of Ch. Adv.-VOL. X.

recruiting his strength. He strictly observed the directions of his medical attendants, but otherwise, and when not under their care, he suffered nothing to interrupt his work; preaching often under a headach which would have confined most men to their couch.'" pp. 472, 473.

We pass on to the case of Servetus, of which every one has heard exaggerated statements, and which the infidel rejoices to appeal to. Gibbon hesitates not to declare,“ I am more deeply scandalized at the single execution of Servetus, than at the hecatombs which have blazed in the auto-da-fés of Spain and Portugal." He then says, that "Calvin's zeal was summoned by personal malice, and perhaps envy;" that he "accused his adversary before their common enemies, the judges of Vienna; and betrayed, for his destruction, the sacred trust of private correspondence." Mr. Roscoe also, in his Leo X., gravely pronounces that "the annals of persecution cannot furnish a more atrocious instance of bigotry and cruelty, than the burning of Servetus in a Protestant city, and by Protestant priests." The plain fact is, that the subject of toleration was not understood at the period when this mournful event occurred. Men

falsely supposed that the Mosaical enactments against the blasphemer bound Christian countries. The judgment as to particular instances of imprisonment, banishment, or death, rested on the nature of the laws in each state, the truth and supposed enormity of the facts alleged, and the impartiality of the trial. Cranmer in England went far greater lengths in this false

road than Calvin. The ministers at Berne and Constance acted upon it with respect to the fanatical Anabaptists. Fourteen years after the execution of Servetus, a public proposition was made at Geneva by Gentiles, an Antitrinitarian, to hold a disputation with the orthodox, on the condition that "the party who could not prove their doctrine from

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the word of God, should be put to death as impostors."

The whole of this spirit we need not say how unequivocally we condemn; we are decided and warm advocates for the most unfettered toleration; but we do not the less distinguish between an action performed under a false principle, from obedience to the existing laws, in compliance with what was uniformly considered as a duty of the civil magistrate, at the period when it took place, and which proceeded from no private malice; and the same action, if it had been committed three centuries later, when the extent and obligation of toleration were known, and nothing but personal revenge and a strained interpretation of the laws could dictate the crime.

We boldly affirm, then, with our author, that most, if not all, the peculiar indignation excited in modern times against the individual reformer whose life we are reviewing, is a calumny, an infliction of false punishment for an offence which did not exist in the sense in which it is alleged. For this Servetus was, by the confession of all, a monster of blasphemy; not only venting the most fearful insults against the Saviour, but relying on the seditious libertine faction in Geneva for protection. In this course he persevered from the year 1532, to 1553. Calvin first offered to meet him in Paris, in 1534, in order to reclaim him from his errors; and as late as 1546, corresponded with him for the same purpose. At that time he also solemnly warned him from coming to Geneva, assuring him that the laws would in such a case have their course against him; so thoroughly was the state of the law as to blasphemy then understood. In fact, Servetus was in 1552, imprisoned by the Popish authorities in Vienne, and only escaped the death pronounced against him by flight: he was burned, however, in

effigy, with five bales of his books. With this Calvin had no concern, except that a citizen of Lyons residing at Geneva obtained from him by great importunity some of Servetus's letters, which were however never brought forward in evidence. Servetus came next to Geneva, with this sentence out against him; and he was committed to prison at Calvin's instance, according to the existing statutes of the republic, by one of the syndics. A series of articles was extracted from his works, and preferred against him, and as much time allowed him as he required, to retract, explain, or deny them. In short, it would be difficult to point out a case where either the errors and the behaviour of the accused were so aggravated, or all the advantages of a fair hearing so fully granted. Every pains was taken to the very last, and by Calvin himself, in the greatest sincerity, to reclaim him; time without limit was allowed him; all papers and documents were submitted to him, with such books as he desired.

And at last his violent and insolent conduct when under examination, and his confidence that he should triumph over his prosecutors, by the aid of the powerful faction then opposed to Calvin, were such, that the learned Chauffepié (whose account Gibbon pronounces the best), says, that he "fell a victim to his own pride and false anticipations."

Nor was this all the alleviation which the case, so far as regards Calvin, receives, when calmly considered. Before sentence was passed, copies of the proceedings were transmitted to the churches of Zuric, Berne, Basle, and Schaffhausen: the replies from which agreed on the fact of Servetus's enormous heresies, and on the duty of using the power committed to them in preventing his doing further mischief to the church. After the sentence had been pass