nished. Calvin went to Bern, and defended himself against Bolsec, who was banished for accusing him of false doctrine. Calvin regulated the church of Poland; he comforted the persecuted in England, and encouraged the afflicted in France. But, in 1556, a tertian ague seized upon him as he was preaching, which obliged him to quit the pulpit, and it was rumoured abroad that he was dead. He recovered and went to Frankfort to pacify some controversies which had lately sprung up in the French church.

In 1557, he published his commentaries upon the Psalms, to which he prefixed a very curious preface. He prevailed on the German princes to intercede for the French Protestants, and allayed the tempest of persecution in France.

In 1558, a new league was made between Geneva and Bern; but a disturbance happened in the former church. Valentine Gentilis, and some Italians, collected from the books of Servetus more than he had advanced against the Trinity. They were enjoined by the council to subscribe to the general confession of the church, which seven of them absolutely refused, among whom was Gentilis, who was committed to prison, from whence he was brought to dispute against Calvin before the council. He charged Calvin with oppressing the truth, and run himself into Arianism; his drift being to shew, that the divine essence belonged properly to none but the Father. Calvin, in a full assembly of the senators, ministers, and elders, so fully confuted him out of the scripture, that all the Italians. immediately subscribed to the established faith. It was the opinion of some lawyers, that the heresy of Gentilis deserved death: But he thought to escape all punishment by a seeming repentance, and retracting his opinion by a formal writing made for that purpose. The magistrates took notice of this, and inflicted no other punishment on him than the burning of his writings, and a command not to stir out of the city without their leave, which he submissively obeyed till he had an opportunity of making his escape. The bailiff of Gex obliged him to make a new recantation; and Calvin wrote a book against him, wherein he excellently confuted this heresy. But Gentilis returned to his old error, and was beheaded as an heretic at Bern, in 1566.

This year Calvin was seized with a quartan ague, which preyed greatly upon his weak body, already debilitated and worn out with his incessant labours and study: But he published his Commentary upon Isaiah, and the last edition of his Institutions in French and Latin.

The

The number of youth, who came from all parts to study at Geneva, increased so much, that the old school was not large enough to contain them. The council therefore resolved to erect a new college for seven classes, and three professors of Hebrew, Greek, and philosophy; besides divinity lectures, which Calvin read himself, to whom was joined Theodore Beza, who preached the following week after Calvin. The statutes of this college were first published in St Peter's church, before the magistrates, minis-, ters, and scholars, by Calvin, who seemed to consecrate so holy and profitable a foundation.

In 1560, Calvin confuted Sancarus, who asserted, that Christ was Mediator only according to his human nature. Calvin was consulted by the Bohemian Waldenses, whom he exhorted to enter into a nearer conjunction with other Reformed churches. He sent Galacius to plant a French church in England, where Q. Elizabeth gave protection. to the refugees: And he published his lectures upon Da. niel, which he dedicated to the French churches. Francis II. was then upon the throne of France, where the public affairs were conducted by the duke of Guise, and the cardinal de Lorrain, whose administration offended the Protestants, and occasioned the celebrated conspiracy of Amboise, which was formed against the princes of the house of Guise, by the prince of Condé, brother to the king of Navarre. The conspiracy was discovered, and the prince ordered for execution, which was prevented by the death of the king. He was succeeded by Charles IX. who honourably pardoned the prince of Condé; and he ordered the Catholics and Protestants to live in peace with each other: But both parties began to call themselves by the invidious names of Papists and Hugonots, in 1561. The origin of the word Hugonot is not certainly known: Some believe it took its rise from certain deputies of the Protestants coming to address the King in Latin; when he who was to speak stopped short at the beginning of what he should have said, and having repeated the word,

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nos, huc venimus,' could proceed no farther: Though others are of opinion, that this name was given them at Tours, because they assembled late to teach in a part of the town, where the superstitious people believed the apparition of king Hugo appeared every night.

The duke of Guise, the king of Navarre, and Catherine de Medicis the mother of Charles IX. formed an union, which was called the triumvirate, and governed the kingdom during the minority of the king. In 1562, the

prince of Condé appeared in arms, for their consciences who had embraced the Reformed religion, and the French Protestants received assistance from the queen of England. The duke of Guise was assassinated by Poltrot, a Protestant gentleman; and the queen concluded a peace with the prince of Condé; whereby the Protestants were granted the liberty of assembling publicly for the exercise of their religion. But the war was renewed in 1564; and when peace was again concluded in 1568, the Protestants soon found the accomplishments of what had been foretold by the admiral de Coligny; That peace had been offered only to disarm them, and thereby destroy them, with greater ease.' The great Coligny was assassinated, and the bloody massacre of Paris was put in execution, which was extended all over the kingdom, and the war was carried on against the Protestants till 1573.

Calvin lived only to see the beginning of this civil and religious war in his native country, which so much affected him, that it increased his disease. In 1562, he published that excellent Confession of Faith, which was sent to the states of the empire at Frankfort, in the name of the prince of Condé, and also the Protestants of France. The year following he published his Commentaries upon the four books of Moses, which he also translated out of Latin into French; and he began his Commentary upon Joshua, which he finished a little before his death.

On the sixth of February, 1564, Calvin preached his last sermon. He was faint, thin, and consumptive. He had for ten years together abstained from dinners; for he was frequently troubled with the head-ach, which his abstinence only could cure. By straining his voice, and using of aloes, he brought on the hemorrhoids, which at last proved ulcerous; and he had also a spitting of blood. When his ague left him, the gout took him in his right leg; then the cholic, and lastly the stone, which he never perceived till a few months before his death.

Though he was tormented with so many violent diseases, he never uttered a word unbecoming a Christian, and so great a divine; only lifting up his eyes to heaven, he used to say, "How long, Lord!" which was an expression he constantly used, when he heard of the calamities which afflicted his protestant brethren, for which he felt more than for any thing that could befal himself. On the twenty-seventh of March he was carried in his chair to the senate, when he presented to them a new rector for the school; then uncovered his head, and thanked them

for

for all their favours, and particularly for their great care of him in his sickness: "For 1 perceive (said he,) this "is the last time I shall come into this place." His voice failed him as he spoke, and the assembly took leave of him in tears.

On the second of April, which was Easter-day, he was carried to the church, where Beza administered to him the sacrament. He made his will on the twenty-fifth, and on the twenty-seventh died, having, by over-much study, brought upon him several distempers.' He died in the fifty-fourth year of his age, and was buried the next morning, in the common church-yard of the large palace, according as he had desired in his will, without any pomp or epitaph. Simon Goulard, of Senlis, who came to Geneva a while after, was chosen in his place: And Theodore Beza wrote a discourse of his life and death, which was published in the same year, together with his Testament.

Burnham, in his Pious Memorials, translates from Melch. Adam, the following account of his last will and death; he dictated his will to the public notary of Geneva in these words: "I, John Calvin, minister of the word ❝ of GOD in the church of Geneva, being so oppressed "and afflicted with divers diseases, that I conclude the "Lord GOD hath appointed shortly to take me out of "this world; therefore have determined to make my last "will and testament in this form following:

"First, I give thanks to GOD, that, taking pity on "me, whom he created and placed in this world, he hath "delivered me out of the deep darkness of idolatry, into "which I was plunged; and hath brought me into the "light of his gospel, and made me a partaker of the doc"trine of salvation, whereof I was most unworthy. And "he hath not only gently and graciously borne with my "faults and sins, for which I deserved to be rejected of "him and cast out, but hath treated me with such meek❝ness and mildness, that he hath vouchsafed to use my "labours in preaching and publishing the truth of his "gospel. And I witness and declare, that I intend to "pass the remainder of my life in the same faith and re"ligion which he hath delivered to me by his gospel; "and not to seek any other aid, or refuge for salvation,

than his free adoption; in which alone salvation resteth. «And, with my whole heart, I embrace the mercy "which he hath used towards me for Jesus Christ's sake; "recompensing my faults with the merit of his death and "passion, that satisfaction might be made, by this means,

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for all my sins and crimes, and the remembrance of "them be blotted out. I witness also and declare, that "I humbly beg of him, that being washed and cleansed "in the blood of that highest Redeemer, shed for the sins "of mankind, I may stand at his judgment-scat, under "the image of my Redeemer.

"Also, I declare, that I have diligently endeavoured, "according to the measure of grace received, and the "bounty which GOD hath used towards me, that I "might preach his word holily and purely, as well in ́ "sermons, as in commentaries, and other writings; and "interpret his holy scripture faithfully.

"But, alas! that study and zeal of mine, (if worthy "so to be called) have been so remiss and languishing, "that. I confess, innumerable things have been wanting "in me to the well performing of my duty. And, un"less the unmeasurable bounty of God had been pre"sent, my studies had been vain and vanishing. For "which causes, I witness and declare, that I hope for "no other help for salvation than this only; that seeing "GOD is the Father of mercy, I trust he hath shewed himself a father to me, who acknowledge myself a "miserable sinner.

"As for other things, after my departure out of this « life, I would have my body committed to the earth, in "that order and manner which is usual in this church "and city, till the blessed day of resurrection com"eth, &c."

To the four syndics, and all the magistrates, who in a body honoured him with a visit before his death, he spoke to the following effect:

"Honoured sirs, I give you great thanks that you have "done me this honour, having not deserved it from you; "and that you have so often borne with my infirmities: "Which, to me, hath always been an argument of your singular goodness for me.

"Touching the doctrine you have heard from me, I "take GOD to witness, that I have not rashly and un"groundedly, but carefully and purely taught the word "of GOD intrusted to me; whose wrath I should other"wise now perceive hanging over me. But I am certainly assured, that my labours in teaching it have not "been displeasing to him.

"And I testify this the more willingly, both before "GOD and yourselves; because, I doubt not but the

devil, according to his custom, will raise up wicked,