Schaff - History of the Christian Church Vol. 8 - Media Sabda Org

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Zwingli, and Calvin, is the greatest in the history of the Protestant
Reformation. f1250
In the seventeenth century Scotch Presbyterianism and English Puritanism
combined to produce a second and more radical reformation, and
formulated the rigorous principles of Puritanic Calvinism in doctrine,
discipline, and worship. The Westminster standards of 1647 have since
governed the Presbyterian, and, in part, also the Congregational or
Independent, and the regular Baptist Churches of the British Empire and
the United States, with such modifications and adaptations as the progress
of theology and church life demands. f1251
CHAPTER 18.
THE CLOSING SCENES IN CALVIN’S LIFE.
§ 164. CALVIN’S LAST DAYS AND DEATH.
Calvin had labored in Geneva twenty-three years after his second arrival,—
that is, from September, 1541, till May 27, 1564, f1252 — when he was
called to his rest in the prime of manhood and usefulness, and in full
possession of his mental powers; leaving behind him an able and worthy
successor, a model Reformed Church based on the law of Moses and the
gospel of Christ; a flourishing Academy, which was a nursery of
evangelical preachers for Switzerland and France, and survives to this day;
and a library of works from his pen, which after more than three centuries
are still a living and moulding power. f1253
He continued his labors till the last year, writing, preaching, lecturing,
attending the sessions of the Consistory and the Venerable Company of
pastors, entertaining and counselling strangers from all parts of the
Protestant world, and corresponding in every direction. He did all this
notwithstanding his accumulating physical maladies, as headaches, asthma,
dyspepsia, fever, gravel, and gout, which wore out his delicate body, but
could not break his mighty spirit.
When he was unable to walk he had himself transported to church in a
chair. On the 6th of February, 1564, he preached his last sermon. On