صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

or public calamities; the rise and fall of empires; every thing, in short, in the order of eternal counsels, must co-operate to the formation and increase of this holy Jerusalem. Tyrants have purified it by persecutions: believers perpetuate it by charity: infidels and libertines prove and confirm it by scandal: the just are witnesses of its faith; the pastors depositaries of its doctrine: great men and princes the protectors of its truth.

Massillon.

END OF PART I.

THE

POWER OF RELIGION

EXEMPLIFIED IN

THE LIVES AND DYING TESTIMONIES

OF

EMINENT CHARACTERS.

MR. PHILIP MELANCTHON.

He was born at Bretta, in the Lower Palatinate, A.D. 1497, and was eminent for learning and piety. In the beginning of his sickness he said,-"I desire to be dissolved, and to be with Christ."

When his intimate friend, Camerarius, took leave of him, commending him to God, Melancthon said,— "Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who sitteth at the right hand of his Father, and giveth gifts to men, preserve you and yours, and us all."

Being very sick, he cried,-" O Lord, make an end."

The Pastors and Deacons of the church visiting him, he said to them;-" Through the goodness of God, I have no domestic grief to disquiet me. As for my nephews and nieces, who stand here before me, and whom I love very dearly; this is my comfort, concerning them, that they have godly parents."

66

Having received letters from his friends at Francfort Mart, concerning the persecution of some godly men in France, he said, That his bodily disease was not comparable to the grief of his mind for his godly friends, and for the miseries of the church.”

Raising himself up in his bed, he said, that God had brought into his mind again that speech of Paul, "If God be for us, who can be against us?" Then the Pastors and Deacons, by turns, read to him Psalm xxiv, Isa. liii, John xvii. After which he said," I often think upon the saying of St. John, The world received him not: But to those that received him, to them he gave power to become the sons of God; even to them that believe in his name,"

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

After this he prayed secretly; and being at length asked by his son-in-law, if he would have any thing; he answered," Nothing but heaven; therefore trouble me no more with speaking to me. And so he gave up the Ghost, Aged 63, A.D. 1560.

[ocr errors]

When he was first converted, he thought it impossible for his hearers to withstand the evidence of the truth in the ministry of the Gospel: but after preaching a while, he complained,-" That old Adam was too hard for young Melancthon."

He wrote his own epitaph, which was to this effect:

Here lies interr'd beneath these stones,
Much afflicted Philip's bones:
For always such in life was he,

I know not what in death he'll be.

Burnham's Pious Memorials.

MR. JOHN CALVIN.

MR. JOHN CALVIN was born at Noviodune, a city of France, June 6, A. D. 1509. His father's name was Gerrard Calvin; his mother's, Joan Franca. Both of them were of good repute.

He was first instructed in the reformed religion by his kinsman, Peter Robert Olevitane; on which he gave himself to the study of the Sacred Scriptures, and began to abominate, and withdraw himself from, the superstitious services of the church of Rome.

I should exceed all proper bounds, were I to set down here so much as the principal points of this great man's life and labours. I shall, therefore, only give some account of the sweet and peaceable close of his life.

On the 19th of December, 1562, (being the Lord's day) Calvin being in bed, said to several persons about him, "I know not what the matter is, but I thought, last night, I heard drums beating very loud, and I could not persuade myself but it was so. Let us therefore go to prayer; for surely some great business is in hand."

And on that very day, a great battle was fought between the Guisians and the Protestants, not far from Paris; news whereof was brought to Geneva a few days after.

In 1564 he had a complication of diseases upon him; yet no one heard him utter a word unbecoming a Christian. All he used to say was, lifting up his eyes to heaven,-"How long, Lord?" And these words he often uttered in his health, when he spake of the calamities of his brethren; which always more afflicted him than his own.

When his friends would have dissuaded him, in his

sickness, from dictating, but especially from writing himself, he answered,-" What, would you have me idle when my Lord comes?"

[ocr errors]

March 10. When all the Ministers of Geneva came to see him, they found him sitting at his little table, where he used to write and meditate. As soon as he saw them, rubbing his forehead with his hand, as he used to do when he meditated; with a cheerful countenance, he said, "I give you hearty thanks, my dear brethren, for the great concern you have shown for me; and, I hope, within these fifteen days (when they were to meet about church censures) I shall be present at your Consistory: for then, I believe, God will declare what he hath determined concerning me, and will receive me to himself."

March 27. He was carried in his chair to the gate of the Senate-House; from whence, being supported by two persons, he walked into the assembly, presented to the Senators a new Rector for the School; and, with his head uncovered, returned them thanks for all their former favours; and, particularly, for the great concern they had shown for him in his sickness: "For I perceive," said he, "this is the last time that I shall appear in this place." Which words he could scarcely utter, his voice failing him: and then, while many tears were shed on both sides, he took his leave.

April 2. Though he was very weak, yet he would be carried to the church in his chair; where, after sermon, he received the sacrament of the Lord's supper from Beza's hands; and, with a cheerful countenance, though weak voice, sung the Psalm with the congrega tion; showing, even in a dying countenance, signs of much inward joy.

April 25. He made his will, a part of which I shall here insert, as it farther evidences the power of religion in him. Being now so weak that he could not write,

« السابقةمتابعة »