him a gown.[110] [Sidenote: Calvin’s Colleagues.] And now the work must be begun. Calvin saw the difficulties of the task. He did not put his trust in himself; he hoped above all for the help of God; but he desired also the co-operation of his brethren. Three days after his appearance before the Council he wrote to Farel: ‘I am settled here as you wished. The Lord grant that it may turn out well! For the present I must keep Viret. I will not on any account permit him to be taken from me.’ He wished also to have Farel with him. He thought that the presence of these two as his colleagues was essential to success, and he spared no effort to secure them.[111] ‘Aid me here,’ he said to Farel, ‘you and all the brethren with all your might, unless you mean to have me tortured for nothing.’ But, whatever distrust he felt of himself, he had no doubt of the victory. ‘When we have to contend against Satan,’ he continues, ‘and when we join battle under the banner of Christ, he who has invested us with our armor and impelled us to the fight will give us the victory.’[112] But although he attributed the victory to God he knew that he himself must fight. This observation applies to his whole life. Of all men in the world Calvin is the one who most worked, wrote, acted, and prayed for the cause which he had embraced. The co-existence of the sovereignty of God and the freedom of man is assuredly a mystery; but Calvin never supposed that because God did all he personally had nothing to do. He points out clearly the twofold action, that of God and that of man. ‘God,’ said he, ‘after freely bestowing his grace on us, forthwith demands of us a reciprocal acknowledgment. When he said to Abraham, “I am thy God,” it was an offer of his free goodness; but he adds at the same time _what he required of him_: “Walk before me, and be thou perfect.” This condition is tacitly annexed to all the promises: they are to be to us as spurs, inciting us to promote the glory of God.’ And elsewhere he says: ‘This doctrine ought to create _new vigor in all your members_, so that you may be fit and alert, with might and main, to follow the call of God.’[113] Never, perhaps, did Calvin exhibit his great capacity for action more remarkably than at the epoch of which we are treating. It is certainly a mistake to assert that ‘Calvin regarded himself, by virtue of the Divine decree, as little more than an instrument in the hand of God, without any personal co-operation.’[114] What! could Calvin, who far more than Pascal was the conqueror of the Jesuits, have said as they did: _Sicut baculus in manu!_ This Calvin is the man of Roman or infidel tradition, but not the man as he appears in history. [Sidenote: A Day Of Humiliation.]