The vessel of reform, indeed, had been energetically launched by Luther; but there soon appeared on her decks, from Italy, Spain, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Poland, men of acute and cavilling spirit, of restless disposition, who, by their agitations and their disputations, might cause the ship to capsize; while at the same time a well-armed and well-appointed galley, under Roman colors, running at full speed with oars and sails, struck the vessel with its beak-head, intending to sink her in the deep. What errors and what dangers were threatening! But God delivered the reformation from them, and no man contributed more to this deliverance than Calvin did. A skilful and trustworthy pilot, he saved the ship. He had, doubtless, some formidable conflicts with those proud spirits; but the truth won the day. He provoked in the Roman camp spite and hate against himself which have never been quelled. But evangelical truth has held its ground, and is at this day making the conquest of the world. When a healthful wind blows over a sickly land, and drives away the poisonous exhalations, there will sometimes be seen, it is true, after the passage of the wind, some shattered branches strown here and there upon the ground; but the air has been purified and life restored to the people. It is generally imagined that the doctrines of Calvin were of an extreme and intolerant character; but, in fact, they were moderate, mediating, and conciliatory. He took a position between two extremes, and established the truth. Of all the teachers of the reformation, Zwinglius is the one who pushed furthest the doctrine of election; for, in his view, election is the cause of salvation, while faith is nothing more than its sign.[209] Calvin, in opposition to Zwinglius, places the cause of salvation in the faith of the heart. He teaches that ‘the will of man must be aroused to seek after the good and to surrender itself to it;’ and, as we have already seen, he declares that those who ‘to be assured of their election enter into the eternal counsel of God plunge into a deadly abyss.’ But if Zwinglius was at one extreme, the semi-Pelagians, some of whom were outside the pale of Rome, were at the other, and attributed to the natural will an importance in the work of salvation which enfeebled the grace of God. Calvin opposes their error, and says ‘that man is not impelled of his own good pleasure to seek Jesus Christ until he has been sought by him.’[210] And he teaches, as Augustine did, that God begins his work in us, places it in the will of man, and, like a good rider, guides it at a proper pace, urges it on when it is too backward, holds it back when it is too eager, and checks it if too much given to skirmishing. Nowhere does the mediating character of Calvin appear more distinctly than in his view of the Lord’s Supper. We have seen this, and it is needless to repeat it. We refrain likewise from