Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 4.djvu/796

720 said that we through Adam s sin have become obnoxious to the divine judgment, it is not to be taken as if we, being ourselves innocent and blameless, bear the fault of his offence, but that, we having been brought under a curse through his transgression, he is said to have bound us. From him, however, not only has punishment overtaken us, but a pestilence instilled from him resides in us, to which punishment is justly due. Thus even infants, whilst they bring their own condemnation with them from their mother s womb, are bound not by another s but by their own fault. For though they have not yet brought forth the fruits of their iniquity, they have the seed shut up in them ; nay, their whole nature is a sort of seed of sin, there fore it cannot but be hateful and abominable to God (Instit. bk. ii. ch. i. sect. 8). To redeem man from this state of guilt, and to recover him from corruption, the Son of God became incarnate, assum ing man s nature into union with His own, so that in Him were two natures in one person. Thus incarnate He took on Him the offices of Prophet, Priest, and King, and by His humiliation, obedience, and suffering unto death, followed by His resurrection and ascension to heaven, He has perfected His work and fulfilled all that was required in a Redeemer of men, so that it is truly affirmed that He has merited for man the grace of salvation (bk. ii. ch. 13-17). But until a man is in some way really united to Christ so as to partake of Him, the benefits of Christ s work cannot be attained by him. Now it is by the secret and special operation of the Holy Spirit that men are united to Christ and made members of His body. Through faith, which is a firm and certain cognition of the divine benevolence towards us founded on the truth of the gracious promise in Christ, men are by the operation of the Spirit united to Christ and are made partakers of His death and resurrection, so that the old man is crucified with Him and they are raised to a new life, a life of righteousness and holiness. Thus joined to Christ the believer has life in Him and knows that he is saved, having the witness of the Spirit that he is a child of God, and having the promises, the certitude of which the Spirit Lad before impressed on the mind, sealed by the same Spirit on the heart (bk. iii. ch. 33-3G). From faith pro ceeds repentance, which is the turning of our life to God, proceeding from a sincere and earnest fear of God, and consisting in the mortification of the flesh and the old man within us and a vivification of the Spirit. Through faith also the believer receives justification, his sins are forgiven, he is accepted of God, and is held by Him as righteous, the righteousness of Christ being imputed to him, and faith being the instrument by which the man lays hold on Christ, so that with His righteousness the man appears in God s sight as righteous. This imputed righteousness, however, is not disjoined from real personal righteousness, for regeneration and sanctification cofne to the believer from Christ no less than justification ; the two blessings are not to be confounded, but neither are they to be disjoined. The assurance which the believer has of salvation he receives from the operation and witness of the Holy Spirit ; but this again rests on the divine choice of the man to salvation ; and this falls back on God s eternal sove reign purpose, whereby He has predestinated some to eternal life while the rest of mankind are predestin ated to condemnation and eternal death. Those whom God has chosen to life He effectually calls to salva tion, and they are kept by Him in progressive faith and holiness unto the end (bk. iii. passim). The external means or aids by which God unites men into the fellow ship of Christ, and sustains and advances those who believe, are the church and its ordinances, especially the sacraments. The church universal is the multitude gathered from diverse nations, which though divided by distance of time and place, agree in one common faith, and it is bound by the tie of the same religion ; and wherever the word of God is sincerely preached, and the sacraments are duly administered, according to Christ s institute, there beyond doubt is a church of the living God (bk. iv. ch. 1, sect. 7-11). The permanent officers in the church are pastors and teachers, to the former of whom it belongs to preside over the discipline of the church, to administer the sacra ments, and to admonish and exhort the members ; while the latter occupy themselves with the exposition of Scrip ture, so that pure and wholesome doctrine may be retained. With them are to be joined for the government of the church certain pious, grave, and holy men as a senate in each church ; and to others, as deacons, is to be entrusted the care of the poor. The election of the officers in a church is to be with the people, and those duly chosen and called are to be ordained by the laying on of the hands of the pastors (ch. 3, sect. 4-16). The sacraments are two- Baptism and the Lord s Supper. Baptism is the sign of initiation whereby men are admitted into the society of the church and, being grafted into Christ, are reckoned among the sons of God ; it serves both for the confirmation of faith and as a confession before men. The Lord s Supper is a spiritual feast where Christ attests that He is the life-giving bread, by which our &quot;souls are fed unto trus and blessed immortality. That sacred communication of His flesh and blood wheroby Christ transfuses into us His life, even as if it penetrated into our bones and marrow, He in the Supper attests and seals ; and that not by a vain or empty sign set before us, but there He puts forth the efficacy of His Spirit whereby He fulfils what He promises. In the mystery of the Supper Christ is truly exhibited to us by the symbols of bread and wine ; and so his body and blood, in which He fulfilled all obedience for the obtaining of righteousness for us, are presented. There is no such presence of Christ in the Supper as that He is affixed to the bread or included in it or in any way circumscribed ; but whatever can express the true and substantial communication of the body and blood of the Lord, which is exhibited to believers under the said symbols of the Slipper, is to be received, and that not as perceived by the imagination only or mental intelligence, but as enjoyed for the aliment of the eternal life (bk. iv. ch. 15, 17). The incessant and exhausting labours to which Calvin gave himself, could not but tell on the strongest constitution : how much more on one so fragile as his ! Amid many suffer ings, however, and frequent attacks of sickness, he manfully pursued his course for twenty-eight years ; nor was it till his frail body, torn by many and painful diseases fever, asthma, stone, and gout, the fruits for the most part of his sedentary habits and unpausing activity had, as it were, fallen to pieces around him, that his .indomitable spirit relinquished the conflict. In the early part of the year 1564 his sufferings became so severe that it was manifest his earthly career was rapidly drawing to a .close. On the 6th of February of that year he preached his last sermon, having with great difficulty found breath enough to carry him through it. He was several times after this carried to church, but never again was able to take any part in the service. With a noble disinterestedness he refused to receive his stipend, now that he was no longer able to discharge the duties of his office. In the midst of his sufferings, however, his zeal and energy kept him in continual occupation; when expostulated with for such unseasonable toil, he replied, &quot; Would you that the Lord should find me idle when He comes 1 &quot; After he had retired from public labours he lingered for some months, enduring the severest agony without a murmur, and cheer fully attending to all the duties of a private kind which his

