280 THE REFORMATION IN FRENCH SWITZERLAND.
those only who work with real conviction. Lacking that vivid, deep, sympathetic ardor which was one of the secrets of Luther's success, lacking the charm, the perilous, languishing tenderness of Francis of Sales, Calvm succeeded more than all, in an age and in a country which called for a reaction towards Christianity, simply because he was the most Christian man of his century (fhomme le plus chre'tien de son siecle, p. 342)."
Felix Bungener (1814-1874).
Pastor of tbe national Church of Geneva, and author of several historical works.
From Calvin, sa vie, son ceiivre et ses cents, Paris, 1862; English translation (Edinburgh, 1863), pp. 338, 349.
" Let us not give him_ praise which he would not have accepted. God alone creates ; a man is great only because God thmks lit to accomplish great things by his instrumentality. Never did any great man understand this better than Calvin. It cost him no effort to refer all the glory to God; nothing indicates that he was ever tempted to appropriate to himself the smallest portion of it. Luther, in many a passage, complacently dwells on the thought that a petty monk, as he says, has so well made the Pope to tremble, and so well stirred the whole world. Calvin will never say any such thing; he never even seems to say it, even in the deepest recesses of his heart ; everywhere you perceive the man, who applies to all things — to the smallest as to the greatest — the idea that it is God who does all and is all. Read again, from this point of view, the very pages in which he appeared to j'ou the haughtiest and most despotic, and see if, even there, he is anything other than the workman referring all, and in all sincerity, to his master. . . . But the man, in spite of all his faults, has not the less remained one of the fairest types of faith, of earnest piety, of devotedness, and of courage. Amid modern laxity, there is no character of whom the contemplation is more instructive ; for there is no man of whom it has been said with greater justice, in the words of an apostle, ' he endured as seeing him who is invisible.' "
FROM DUTCH SCHOLARS.
James Arminius (1560-1609).
The founder of Arminianism.
" Next to the study of the Scriptures which I earnestly inculcate, I exhort my pupils to peruse Calvin's Commentaries, which I extol in loftier terms than Helmich himself [a Dutch divine, 1551-1608] ; for I affirm that he excels beyond comparison (incomparabilem esse) in the interpretation of Scripture, and that his commentaries ought to be more highly valued than all that is handed down to us by the library of the fathers ; so that I acknowledge him to have possessed above most others, or rather above all other men, what may be called an eminent spirit of prophecy (spiritum aJiquem prophetice eximium). His Institutes ought to be studied after the [Heidelberg] Catechism, as containing a fuller explanation, but with discrimination {cum delectu), like the writings of all men."
§ 68. TRIBUTES TO THE MEMORY OF CALVIN, 281
Dan. Gerdes (1698-1767).
Historia Evangelii Renovati, IV. 41 sq. (Groningse, 1752).
" Calvin's labors were so highly useful to the Church of Christ, that there is hardly any department of the Christian world to be found that is not full of them, — hardly any heresy that has arisen which he has not successfully encountered with that two-edged sword, the Word of God, or a portion of Christian doctrine which he has not illustrated in a remarkable manner. Certainly his commentaries on the Old and New Testaments arc all that could be desired; every one of his sermons is full of unction; his Institutes bear the most complete and finished execution ; his doctrinal treatises are distinguished by solidity; his critical works by warmth and fervor; his practical writings by virtue and piety ; and his letters by mildness, prudence, gravity, and wisdom."