What, then, were the spirit, the aim, and the constitution of the church demanded by Calvin?
The Kingdom of God is the essence of the church. Jesus Christ came to establish it by communicating to fallen men a divine life. The Reformers had this in mind when, in January, 1537, they had presented to the Council the first articles concerning the organization of the church, ‘because it had pleased the Lord the better to _establish his kingdom here_.’ But this kingdom can be established only by means of _the church_ or _the assembly_ of believers. It is, therefore, important that this church should be organized in conformity with holy Scripture; and this is Calvin’s practical point of view in the new Ordinances. They begin with the following words:
‘We, Syndics, Little and Great Councils, with our people assembled at the sound of the trumpet and of the great bell, according to our ancient customs,
‘Having considered that it is a matter worthy above all others of recommendation that the doctrine of the holy Gospel of our Lord should be indeed preserved in its purity, that the Christian church should be duly maintained, that the young should for the future be faithfully instructed, and that the hospital should be kept in good condition for the support of the poor, it has seemed good to us that the spiritual government, _as our Lord institutes it by his Word_, should be reduced into proper form to be kept among us; and thus we have ordained and established for observance in our own town and territory the ecclesiastical policy set forth below, _seeing that it is taken_ from the Gospel of Jesus Christ.’[123]
Thus Calvin wished to establish the church of Geneva after the model of the primitive church. More than that, it was in the _word_ itself, in _the Gospel of Jesus Christ_, that he would seek its nature, its rules, and its character. Here is no question of tradition, not even of the most ancient. This is the characteristic feature of the church as Calvin wished to establish it.
[Sidenote: Geneva An Evangelical Fortress.]
In pagan antiquity legislators had made it their foremost aim to train their peoples for war by exercises adapted to develop their strength and their dexterity. Moses, at the same time that he set forth a living God, the Creator, and his holy will, had been obliged, in order to keep the people from evil, and to represent in figures things to come, to bind them up in a network of numerous ceremonies. The Popes of modern Rome, putting at the head of their system their own infallible and absolute sovereignty, checked the development of the peoples; while by their indulgences and their absolutions, they loosened the bonds of duty, and struck a blow at morals. Calvin, who knew that _sin is the ruin of nations_, desired for Geneva the conditions which are essential to the real prosperity of a people, namely, that it should be good, pure, and sound in body and in mind. His purpose was larger still. He wished to make of the city which received him that which it in fact became—a fortress, capable not only of offering resistance to Rome, but, in addition, of winning the victory over her, and of substituting for her superstitions and her despotism truth and freedom. Nothing less than the salvation of modern Christendom was to be the result of his efforts. In order to make of Geneva a _Villafranca_, as at a later period it was sometimes named, it was not enough that he should deliver discourses, as had frequently been demanded of him; it was necessary to watch over this seed of the Word when cast into men’s hearts to the end that it might flourish there. The ruin of Rome had been her separation of morals from faith. Had not the world seen a Pope, John XXIII., when charged ‘with all the mortal sins, infinite in number, and likewise abominable,’[124] make answer ‘that he had indeed, as a man, committed some of these sins, but that it was not possible to condemn a Pope except for heresy’? Immorality had found its way not only into the abodes of the laity, but into convents, presbyteries, bishoprics, and the palace of the Pope. And thenceforward the Papacy was ruined. Calvin longed for Christianity in its integrity, for its faith and its works. It is not enough that a stream of water be near a meadow. It may pass beside it, and leave it dry. There must be conduits and canals by which the water may pass, spread over, and fertilize the lands. Calvin thought that he was bound to do something of this sort for the establishment of the church which he had at heart.