Calvin on the Church

Well, considering that I am not going to be working as much as I used to, I think I will be posting occasionally—particularly along with the materials I am reading. I've been doing some studies in Reformed ecclesiology, mostly by John Calvin. John Calvin, like most of the Reformed theologians of his day, sought to cleanse the church from corruption, but that doesn't mean that the church is going to be, to use Calvin's words, without spot or blemish. Many people that I know tend to see that the Reformed doctrine of ecclesiology calls for radical purging. Other critiques, which aren't critiques but rather complaints, embellish a sort of individualism in Christian piety over against a corporate piety of the church at large. They seek to remove the theology of the church (corpus) and propagate a theology of the individual. Others would even complain that the church is too corrupt to be inhabited; Calvin himself provides reasons for seceding when the church becomes corrupt. Fortunately enough, Calvin deals with cessation in the same chapter where he deals with significant import on the sin of schism or the sin of breaking away from the visible church. So it's not mistaken, there are logical reason to leave the church. However, those reasons which I usually deal with are largely unfounded and unbiblical. I would even venture to say that those reasons tend to be in the majority, which comes from ignorance of the Reformed doctrine of the church or even a simple history of the church.