“He remained for the rest of his life a ‘Seeker,’ cut loose from all existing Church organizations and usages, longing for a true Church of God, but unable to find one on the face of the whole earth. He conceived ‘that the apostasy of Antichrist hath so far corrupted all that there can be no recovery out of that apostasy till Christ send forth, new apostles to plant churches anew…”
ROGER WILLIAMS
THE CREEDS OF CHRISTENDOM
Phillip Schaff
Volume 8, Chapter 105 Calvinistic Baptists
“The greater Bernard of Clairvaux exclaimed, “Oh! that I might, before dying, see the Church of God led back to the ideal of her early days. Then the nets were cast, not to catch gold and silver, but to save souls…”
BERNARD CLAIRVAUX
HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH
VOLUME 5 CHAPTER 16, PP. 136-137
Geneva was no more the city of Calvin or Edinburgh of Knox than was Florence the city of Savonarola. Portraying the insincerity of the clergy, he said: — “In these days, prelates and preachers are chained to the earth by the love of earthly things. The care of souls is no longer their concern. They are content with the receipt of revenue. The preachers preach to please princes and to be praised by them. They have done worse. They have not only destroyed the Church of God. They have built up a new Church after their own pattern. Go to Rome and see…!”
History of the Christian Church
Phillip Schaff
Volume 6, Chapter 9, p. 76
“Lastly, Luther attacks the traditional number of the sacraments. He allows “only two sacraments in the Church of God, Baptism and Bread; since it is in these alone that we see both a sign divinely
instituted, and a promise of remission of sins.”
History of the Christian Church
Phillip Schaff
Volume 7, Chapter 3, p.44-46
“Shortly before his death Calvin informed him of his illness, May 2, 1564, in the last letter from his pen: “Farewell, my best and truest brother! And since it is God’s will that you remain behind me in the world, live mindful of our friendship, which as it was useful to the
Church of God, so the fruit of it awaits us in heaven…”
History of the Christian Church
Phillip Schaff
Volume 8, Chapter 7, pp.59-64
“Let it, therefore, be a fixed point, that a holy unity exists amongst us, when, consenting in pure doctrine, we are united in Christ alone. And, indeed, if concurrence in any kind of doctrine were sufficient, in what possible way could the Church of God be distinguished from the impious factions of the wicked?…”
John Calvin
History of the Christian Church
Phillip Schaff
Volume 8, Chapter 13, p. 99-103
Zwingli replied: “This is indeed a thing insufferable in the Church of God. Therefore do everything possible to prevent the spread of such dreadful blasphemy.” Zwingli never saw the objectionable book in print.
History of the Christian Church
Phillip Schaff
Volume 8, Chapter 16, p. 140-146
“The Church of God was his home, and that Church knows no boundaries of nationality and language. The world was his parish. Having left the papacy, he still remained a Catholic in the best sense of that word, and prayed and labored for the unity of all believers. Like his friend Melanchthon, he deeply deplored the divisions of Protestantism. To heal them he was willing to cross ten oceans…”
John Calvin
History of the Christian Church
Phillip Schaff
Volume 8, Chapter 17, p 159-163
“Sire, it is in truth the lot of the Church of God, in whose name I am speaking, to endure blows, and not to strike them. But also may it please you to remember that it is an anvil that has worn out many hammers.”
Beza
History of the Christian Church
Phillip Schaff
Volume 8, Chapter 19, pp. 167-176
EKKLESIA TOU THEOU 