In 1544, Calvin wrote The Necessity of Reforming the Church, which is essentially a defense of the Protestant or reformed catholic cause. Calvin is addressing Charles V, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, who was convening a Diet in Speyer that year. The Reformation had been going on already for almost 30 years. Calvin himself is about 35 years old. He’s already established as a prominent figure head in the Reformation. Luther is going to die in two years, in 1546. So, we are moving into a new phase of the Reformation, where the baton is being passed on to the next generation.

Sometimes when I read the polemics against Rome by some of the Reformers, I think to myself that it might be too much. And I find myself unsympathetic with the intense denunciations. But then I have to remind myself that I am not living in their time. The Roman Church now is not the same as the Roman Church then. Also, doctrinal issues are usually not the main thing at play, but there are wider political and personal conflicts involved. And more importantly there are egregious moral issues at play. So, it could very well be that I am not able to see Rome as monstrous as they because I am not living with all these countless factors contributing to my judgment that were contributing to there’s. I’m only reading about them, not living them. However, Calvin does a good job explaining why the Church, or Rome specifically, needs to be reformed.

This isn’t an exhaustive review of all the issues Calvin relates. Most of the issues are the standard ones we hear about.

Repentance Replaced by Ritual

So, what was so bad about Rome? One of the main things is that there was widespread corruption and sin among the clergy. This is a point conceded even by Romanists now. Calvin brings this out, and it carries a lot of weight in this book. His take is that true repentance was substituted for ceremonies, prayers to the saints, bowing down before images and statues and the like.

Calvin says, “[B]ecause ceremonies should coexist with the living practice of godliness, the world has many frivolous, useless customs with which it is uselessly occupied. To be sure, this is far deadlier than the plague because, in whatever ceremonies they have played with God, they think that they have been beautifully discharged and thus as if the whole force of godliness and worship of God were contained in them.” (p. 11)

Liturgy snobs run the risk of falling into these sins.

Calvin contines, “In regard to self-denial, on which regeneration to the newness of life depends, the whole doctrine was either entirely removed from the minds of people or was half-buried so that it was known to few and tenuously at that. But this is the spiritual sacrifice that the Lord commends above all: that, the old man having been put to death, we may be transformed into the new man. It may be possible that some preachers babble about those words. But the force of these things is no kept by them, from which it is established that they firmly contradict us because we are trying to restore this part of the worship of God. If they ever dispute about penance, which is special, they only draw on it contemputously, mentioning it only in the external exercises of the body. As Paul testifies, such external exercises do not have much use (Col. 2:23; 1 Tim. 4:8). This perversion must be endured less, because the world truly strives after a shadow of a destructive error. While true repentance is ignored, they rush with their who hearts into abstinences, vigils, et cetera – the empty principles of the world, as Paul calls them.” (p. 11)

A New Form of Money-Changers

Calvin discusses the racket that had become the Church. There were relics being sold which were obvious frauds. He mentions three foreskins of Christ’s, 14 nails from the cross, five sets of linen clothes that Christ was wrapped in. People point to Benny Hinn as being a fraud, or evangelicals making a big deal out of an 8 year old who went to heaven and then wrote a book about it. But the Roman Church had been committing these acts of fraud going all the way back to the late middle ages.

Abuse of the Eucharist

Calvin talks about the excommunication that occurs at the mass. “For the priest separates himself from the rest of the assembled so that he may separately gulp down what should have been held forth and distributed among them.” (p. 16) We do this to our children now. The early church did not.

Calvin discusses the sacramentalism among the Papists. He says, “They act like the sacraments alone are sufficient for salvation, and care nothing about repentance, faith, or even Christ Himself.” (p. 17) Today it is grace alone that is sufficient for salvation, and they care nothing about repentance. As Protestants, we are recovering a biblical and higher view of the sacraments, but we always must remember that the sacraments must be paired with faith and repentance.

A Wicked and Neglectful Priesthood

Calvin mentions the failures of the pastors. They didn’t teach. They would visit prostitutes. Sometimes literal children would occupy the office of bishop. The clergy were being bribed by pimps, sorcerers, and criminals. Sometimes the clergy were just simply absent. There was little account given to the manner of clerical life.

There was no excommunication. And if excommunication was exercised it was done abusively and inappropriately. Calvin says excommunication is a very beneficial remedy for correcting sinners, but with Rome it was only used to harass the poor and innocent.

The Reformed Churches Preach True Repentance

Calvin contrasts the Romanist churches with the Reformed churches. “Our books and sermons are witnesses that we frequently and zealously commend true repentance, so that people may renounce the way and the desires of their flesh and themselves entirely, by which, disposed to obedience to the one God, they may live no longer for themselves but for Him.” (p. 25)

The Whole World?

Calvin says the whole world teems with idolatry. (p. 27) The whole world.

Nothing New: The Faithful are Called Heretics

“They make us out to be heretics – we who dare to overthrow the worship of God currently approved of by the church.” (p. 25)

The Tone Police

The tone police existed then, too. Calvin talks about the severity of rebuke the Reformers engaged in. He has to defend its necessity. “Therefore, it was necessary to urge people with these prophetic rebukes and to drag them away forcefully as it were from that madness, in order that they might no longer believe that God is satisfied with mere ceremonies like childish theatrical shows.” (p. 29)

Calvin says elsewhere, “So far I am confident that I have sufficiently demonstrated what I proposed: that in correcting the vices of the church we were by no means more vehement than the thing itself demanded.” (p. 72)

Regulative Principle of Worship

Calvin, in my opinion does engage in regulative principle excesses. But given what he was dealing with, I think it was probably necessary. What he gets absolutely correct is this: It is not that human traditions are bad, but that human traditions that replace or are elevated above God’s law are bad. This I can affirm as a normative principle guy.

Calvin says, “Furthermore, while they thrust upon Him external pomp, they think that by this cunning they have escaped from the duty to offer themselves to Him.” True sacrifice of worship which is one’s whole life is replaced with elaborate ceremonies. He continues, “It is easy to mention faith and repentance, but the things are very difficult to produce…People allow themselves to be bound by very many harsh laws, to be reduced to very many laborious observances, to have imposed upon them a rigid, heavy yoke, and to have any kind of harm done to them, provided that the heart is not mentioned….with external ceremonies as beautiful masks, we hide the inner malice of the heart and prop up services of they body as an intermediary wall, lest we be forced to approach Him with the heart.” (p. 31)

Fantastic. These are the things that Jesus rebukes the Pharisees of, which Calvin mentions. It’s much easier to offer all kinds of manmade sacrifices to God, rather than the kinds of sacrifices God desires.

Impoverished Prayer Life

Calvin discusses the impoverished prayer life of the people. Because the Roman church had their members muttering prayers they did not understand in a language they did not know, Calvin says the leadership robbed the faithful of a great benefit.

Calvin says the people would pray to saints like one would pray to God. “People about to pray imagine that God is far away and that there is no access to Him except by the Leadership of Some patron…Next, superstition swells more and more, so that they indiscriminately invoke saints – no differently than God.” This kind of thing we see in Roman practice now today. Calvin continues by saying not a single syllable in Scripture about praying to dead saints. And with some hilarious sarcasm, he says, “People will pardon us if we follow the sure truth of God rather than their worthless inventions.” (p. 34)

Eucharistic Practice and Theology

Calvin talks about the differences of Eucharistic practice. Where Jesus enjoins everyone to take and eat, and for it to be distributed among the people, but in the Roman church there is no invitation, there is no distribution among the people, the priest alone partakes alone. The Reformers restored the use of the cup to the people. The reformers got rid of the ceremonial excess. They rejected transubstantiation and preserving and carrying the bread around. They brought back frequent communion, rather than communion that somtimes only occurred once a year.

The Reformers emphasized the eating of the bread and drinking of the wine by faith. That’s what Christ tells us to do. “Take, eat. Take, drink.” Calvin, says, “Here our critics have nothing to pick at except that we simply follow Christ’s command.” (p. 45) He goes on, “[F]or both baptism and the Lord’s Supper we have faithfully and with as much care as possible taught the people their purpose, efficacy, benefit and use.” The Reformers aren’t Quakers who have given up on the sacraments. “First of all, we exhort everybody to bring faith with which they may inwardly perceive what is represented to the eyes there, that is, the spiritual nourishment with which alone souls are fed for eternal life.” Notice the exhortation to faith, to trusting in God, to having a heart religion, rather than an external, empty, going through the ceremonial religion. He goes on to affirm the reality of true presence in the Eucharist. “We testify that the Lord promises or symbolizes nothing here in signs that He does not offer in reality.” This is very Augustinian. Signs and things signified. “Therefore, we declare that in the supper the body and blood of Christ are both offered to us by the Lord and received by us. Moreover, we do not teach that the bread and wine are symbols without constantly adding that the truth that they signify is united to them at the same time. We are not silent about how excellent is the benefit that He renders to us from them and how our consciences have a very clear guarantee of salvation and life here.” (p. 45) Elsewhere he says, ” For in the supper the Lord offers His body and blood to us, but so that we may eat it and drink it. Therefore, in the first place He lays down the mandate in which He bids them to receive, eat, and drink. Second, He adds and joins a promise to this, by which He testifies that what we eat is His body and what we drink is His blood.” (pp. 44-45) He goes on to say that the Romanists separate the promise from the mandate. That instead of eating and drinking, they carry the bread around, gaze at it, bow down to it, but don’t eat it. They turn it into another activity.

Later in the work (p. 70), Calvin exhorts the Emperor to remember that the Corinthian abuse in Scriptures concerned the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, and like Rome similarly excluded some people from participating. “Paul declares that it was for this reason that they were chastised by the Lord with a fierce and furious plague; he admonished, nevertheless, that this was a fatherly whip with which He would call them to repentance (1 Cor. 11:30).” (p. 70) Calvin goes on to say that God had been judging the world for many years for these severe abuses in the Church.

Church Government

  Regarding church government, Calvin says, “In the government of the church we maintain only what we can establish with a very good reason.” (p.46) He goes on to say that those who rule the church ought to be able to teach. Those who rule ought to be chosen carefully. That there ought to be regular preaching of the Word of God. He then goes on to speak of Apostolic Succession.

The enemies of the Reformers then and still today say that what they were doing was unlawful because they didn’t have Apostolic Succession. Calvin says, “They complain loudly that we have usurped their power with sacrilegious rashness, because we carry on the duties of the ministry apart from their authority.” He goes on to talk about these men who are appointed to be bishops, in the line of apostolic succession, “In choosing them, no account is taken of their lives or doctrine…They act as if Christ sometime taught as law that, whatever sort of lives they may live, those who are in charge of the church should be acknowledged as Apostles, or as if there were some inherited power that is transferred to the unworthy no less than to the worthy.” P. 48

He mentions the Fourth African Council which is likely the Council of Carthage in 419, which says that a man who is to be received into the episcopate or presbytery first be tested by a just examination of both his doctrine and life. He says the clergyman could be accepted or rejected by the people and the magistrate. “The person who is to preside over all is chosen by all.” (Leo the Great, Epistle 90) “Let the testimony of those who are honored by regarded, as well as the subscription of the clergy and the consensus of the rank and file. There is no reason for it to be done otherwise.” (Leo the Great, Epistle 87) He says Cyprian and Gregory the Great also say the same.

Calvin is making an appeal to ancient practices here. Congregational consent of who their bishops and priests were going to be, referencing to Popes in the process.

But more importantly, the main issue is the issue of life and doctrine. “We assert that those who preside over churches today under the name of bishops are not faithful guardians and ministers of godly doctrine, so much that instead, they are its fiercest enemies.” (p. 49) I would say this statement is just as true now, as it was then. Calvin says something else along these lines that I would agree with, “I do not deny that there are few good men among them. But either they are silent out of fear or they are not heard.” (p. 49)

Rome Is The Shepherding Movement Writ Large

The Reformers respected the conscience of the people. Whereas Rome would bind men’s consciences with man-made laws. Calvin says, “We do not deny that laws must be diligently kept, which are endured for the sake of external polity. But to rule consciences, there is no legislator except God. Therefore, let this authority remain with Him alone, which He claims for Himself in many passages of Scripture.” (p.51) He continues, “Paul especially forbids to be subjected to the will of men. Therefore, because it belonged to our duty to release the consciences of the faithful from unjust bondage in which they were tightly bound, we have taught that they have been set free and liberated from the laws of men. This freedom, which was obtained by the blood of Christ, must not be prostituted.” (p. 52)

He lists several examples. “There are three matters about which they are especially angry at us: (1) we have allowed freedom to eat meats on any day; (2) we have permitted marriage to priests; (3) we have done away with private confession that was made in the ear of a priest. Let the enemies respond to me in good faith: Is not a person who has eaten meat on Friday more harshly punished among them than the person who regularly visits prostitutes throughout the whole course of the year? Or, is it not regarded as a deadlier crime if a priest takes a wife than if he were caught in adultery a hundred times? Or, do they not more readily ignore it if somebody despises the many commands of God than if he has neglected to confess his sins in to the ear of a priest once a year? How monstrous is it, I ask, that it appears as a minor vice and worthy of pardon if someone violates the most holy law of God, but that if someone breaks the precepts of men, it is regarded as an evil deed that cannot be atoned for? To be sure, I confess that this is not a new example. For, as I have said, Christ accuses the Pharisees of this wickedness: they make the commandments of God ineffective because of their own traditions (Matt. 15:6).” (p. 52)

In the seventies, there was a movement among charismatics, which attempted to give structure. What resulted was heavy handed clerics and gross acts of submission, both of which were ways of bypassing the role of the Holy Spirit in the lives of the clerics and the lay people. This, in my view, is a drop in the bucket compared to the type of governance Rome engaged in and now engages in.

Peace, Peace, When There is No Peace – No Fruit, No Fruit, When There is Fruit

Calvin compares his Roman adversaries to Ahab, who reproached Elijah for disturbing Israel. Elijah, like Calvin, argues, “I am not doing so, but you and the house of your father are. For you have abandoned the Lord and have gone after Baals” (1 Kings 18:17-18). Calvin says, “There was one condition of obtaining peace – that by being silent we might betray the truth. It would not have been sufficient, however, to remain silent, unless we had approved with a silent consensus wicked doctrine, open blasphemies against God, and the worst superstitions. Therefore, what else could we do than at least testify with a clear voice that we are strangers to participation in godlessness? Therefore, we simply devoted ourselves to do what belonged to our duty.” (p. 59)

The Reformers did what all God-fearing men should have done. He later says, “But if we had been silent when there was such great necessity to speak out, we would have been not only ungrateful and unfaithful toward God but also inhumane toward humans…” (p. 68) “[W]ould we not be faithless by winking at and being silent before it? If a dog sees any violence inflicted on its owner, it will immediately bark. Shall we look on silently while God’s holy name is violated by so many sacrileges?” (p. 63) Should we just stand by and do nothing? No, this is neither manly, nor Christian. The necessity of speaking out is something even animals have. “If a dog should see its owner inflicted with as much harm as the outrage that is inflicted in the sacraments, it would bark immediately, and it would rather put its own life in danger than silently allow its owner to be treated badly in this way. Should we show less obedience to God than a beast usually does to a person?” (p. 68) The Reformers spoke out because they had at least as much love as a beast has for its owner.

The Romanists accused the Reformers of being too harsh, of enacting too harsh of remedies, that they shouldn’t be painfully exacted, but rather gently chastised and others tolerated. Calvin says, yeah we know that there are and always will be certain vices in the church. We understand and do not try to do die on every hill, so to speak. We are not causing trouble because of trivial and light errors. We are objecting to serious errors.

He defends the Reformer’s use of harsh rebuke. When the Church was prostituting itself and disgracefully abusing the sacraments, “should we have pretentiously tolerated it?” Christ drove the money changers out of the temple with a whip, overturned their tables with His hand, and drove out the merchants. I admit that it is not permitted to everyone to take a whip in the hand, but it is fitting for all those who profess to belong to Christ to burn with that zeal with which Christ was stirred to vindicate the glory of the Father.” (p. 68)

Those who desire unity and peace are persecuted. “We who desire nothing else than unity, for the rule of which the eternal truth of God is a bond, have endured every accusation and form of hatred, as if we were the instigators of the quarrels. They complain that no fruit has followed from our doctrine.” (p. 73)

There is no fruit. Calvin addresses this in two ways. Saying that men must do what God commands and leave the results to God. And that the Reformers have indeed seen fruit.

“To be sure, I know that we have been mocked by corrupt men for this same reason: by touching incurable diseases, we have only inflamed them. For this is what they think: given the very perilous state of the church, it is useless to attempt remedies, since there is no hope for healing. For that reason, they conclude that nothing is better than not to disturb a well-placed evil. Those who speak in this way do not understand that the renewal of the church is a work of God that relies no more on the hope and opinion of men than the resurrection of the dead or any other miracle of that sort. Therefore, here the readiness to act must be expected not from the will of men nor from the inclination of the times, but be fit to burst forth through the midst of the despair. The Lord wants His gospel to be preached. We comply with this mandate and follow what He calls us to do. It does not belong to us to inquire what success will result, but we should ask it from Him in our prayers and desire Him as our supreme good in our supplications. We should also exert ourselves with all devotion, zeal, and diligence, so that such may come to pass. Meanwhile, however, we must endure whatever comes to pass with a calm mind.” (p. 73)

“Therefore, this is unjustly attributed to us as a charge: that we did not do as much good as we desired and others had desired. God commands us to plant and to water. We have done so. It is He alone who gives the increase. What if He does not will to grant our prayer? If it is agreed that we have faithfully done our part, let our enemies no longer require anything from us – let them complain to God about less prosperous success. However, that which they allege is also most false: that there is no fruit of our doctrine. I leave unmentioned the correction of outward idolatry and very many superstitions and errors, which must not be regarded as nothing. But is this really no fruit – that many truly godly people relate that, after they received us, they learned how to worship God with a pure heart at last? That they began to invoke Him with a peaceful conscience? That, freed from constant torments, they took in a true taste of Christ, in whom they found rest? But if proofs are sought that are evident in the sight of men, it does not go so badly with us that we are not able to boast in very many. How many people, although they were previously characterized by a more corrupt life, so repented that they appeared to have been converted into new people?…Our enemies can disgrace us and indeed defame us with their false accusations, especially among those in power, but they will not take this away from us: among those who have embraced our doctrine, more innocence, integrity, and true holiness is found than among all those who are regarded as most distinguished to them.” (p. 74)

Division

The final and chief charge, Calvin mentions, is that of making a division in the church. “And on this point they arrogantly insult us that there is no reason for which it is allowed to sever the unity of the church.” He mentions that these kinds of struggles existed among the prophets and Apostles with the bewitched church of their age. He brings up the example of Jeremiah. Was Jeremiah dividing the church? “If they did not convict the holy prophet of the guilt of schism before, let them not proceed against us under the pretentious word church.” (p. 85) “The point here is that you understand that the servants of the Lord were never accustomed to entertain the empty title church when it was offered as an excuse to establish the kingdom of wickedness. For this reason, it is not sufficient to claim the church; instead, judgment must be applied, so that we may know what the true church is and what characterizes its unity.” (p. 85)

I would probably prefer to use the terms faithful and unfaithful church, rather than true and false church. When Israel was in gross apostasy and idolatry, God still addressed her Israel. He rarely said you are a false Israel.

Calvin mentions the marks of a true church are, “sound preaching of doctrine and the pure exercise of the sacraments.” (p. 85) Again he brings up the example of Jeremiah. “wicked priests boast in deceitful words in vain when they shout, ‘The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord,’ although they make a den of robbers out of the temple of the Lord (Jeremiah 7:4).”

“[W]e testify that the unity of the church – the sort described by Paul – is most holy to us, and we hurl anathemas at all those who have violated it in any way…holy unity will exist among us only when, agreeing on pure doctrine, we take root in one Christ.” (pp. 86-87)

Respecting Authority

The Reformers had a difficult task before them. On the one hand they had to resist authority for the sake of truth. But this was not done lightly. This was done because the offenses were so egregious that it was necessary to resist. This was in contrast to the Romanists. On the other hand they had to resist unnecessary disorder and rebellion and disrespect to authority. This was in contrast to the Anabaptists.

Calvin says, “To be sure, I certainly confess that priests must be respected and that there is great danger in the contempt of ordinary authority. Therefore, if they say that ordinary authority must not be rashly resisted, we agree without difficulty. For we are not so crude to fail to see how great the disorder would be if authority were not deferred to those who are in charge. Therefore, let this respect exist for pastors, but in such a way that nothing may encroach upon the supreme rule of Christ, to whom both they and everyone else must submit. For God testifies through Malachi that He once entrusted the government of the Israelite church to the priests on this condition: that they would keep faith in the covenant that He had made with them (Mal. 2:7).” (pp. 87-88).

Calvin discusses claims still made today. That the Romanists believe nothing else really matters except for their hierarchy and communion with the bishop of Rome. He says, “For the writings of the holy fathers, the acts of councils, and the histories make it clear that Roman pontiffs gradually rose to this height of honor, which they have occupied for about four hundred years.” (p. 90)

Calvin makes an appeal to the proper role of presbyters and bishops. “[T]he ancient councils describe that these are the duties of a bishop: to feed the people with the preaching of the Word, to administer the sacraments, to keep the clergy and laity in holy discipline, and lest he be distracted from these things, to withdraw himself from all the profane cares of this age. Presbyters should be assistants to the bishop in all these things. Which of these duties do the pope and cardinals pretend to perform? Therefore, let them say by what mark they want to be regarded as lawful pastors who do not engage in any part of the office, not even in appearance or even with one finger…For several centuries now, wicked superstitions, public idolatry, and perverse doctrines have occupied the seat there, since those heads of doctrine in which the Christian religion is most powerfully contained have been overturned…I deny that that seat is Apostolic where nothing besides dreadful apostasy is constantly seen…I deny that he is the successor of Peter who rushes at every attempt to demolish whatever Peter built; I deny that he is the head of the church who by his tyranny mangles and mutilates the church that has been cut off from Christ, its true and one Head.” (pp. 90-91)

Must We Wait For Obstinate Clerics?

Rome insists on postponing correction of these sins to a future age. I have heard similar things regarding divorce and remarriage. Let us just wait for the next generation. Let’s teach the children. Let’s postpone the correction to a future age.

Calvin says, “[W]e undertook to purge the church of the filth of doctrine and ceremonies without waiting for the Roman pontiff’s nod of assent. For they deny that it was lawful for private men to do so…When everything was still intact, Luther humbly asked the pontiff to convince himself to heal the very severe diseases of the church. What good did it do?” (p. 91)

“Now let us look at the only remedy that those have left for us who think that it is unlawful for a finger to be moved, regardless of however many evils are oppressing the church.” (p. 92

Exhortations to Reformers

Speaking of the task of Reformation, Calvin says this. “[T]he procedure will be quicker and less of a burden than is generally supposed, provided that there is enough courage to attempt it. But since it was announced in the ancient proverb that there is nothing excellent that is not also at the same time difficult and challenging, are we surprised that we have to struggle through many hardships for the greatest and most excellent thing of all? Next…unless we want to do grave insult to God, it is appropriate here for us to raise our spirits very high. For surely we measure the power of God by the capacity of our own mind, if we hope for nothing more regarding the restoration of the church than what the condition and state of current affairs promises. However weak our hope may seem, God requires us to be in good spirits, so that, having cast every fear far away, we may cheerfully undertake the work. Let us at least show Him this honor: relying on the assurance of His power, let us not refuse to find out what kind of success He wants to give us.” (p. 101)

He is making a direct appeal to the Emperor and the princes before him. “[F]ix before your eyes this filthy, humiliating condition and vast dispersion that is in the sight of all. How long will you allow Christ’s bride, the mother of all of you, to lie prostrate and afflicted in this way? Especially since a method for alleviating it appeals to your faith and is at hand for you?” (p. 102)

He makes a comparison to the Corinthian judgment. “How would He, who severely avenged the Corinthians for a small defilement of His supper, pardon us, if we continue to defile it with so many heinous sacrileges?” (p. 103) He mentions other examples in Scripture along these lines.

He mentions the Turkish war, and says that the remedy against external foes is addressing internal problems. “The source of the Turkish war is within – enclosed in our bowels. It is necessary to remove it first, if we ant to successfully ward off the war itself.” (p. 103)

Calvin has a right sense of addressing worship first, before we can be successful in worldly affairs.

His closing remarks are fantastic.

“Therefore, afterward, whenever this saying is sung to you – that the matter of reforming the church must be postponed for the present moment – after other things have been accomplished, the time will be sufficiently ripe to address it. Be mindful, O most invincible Caesar and most illustrious princes, that you must deliberate about it, whether you want your empire to leave something behind for your posterity or not. But why do I speak about posterity? For now, while you are watching, waht is half-ruined is sinking to its final ruin. In regard to us, however the matter turns out, this awareness will always sustain us in the sight of God: we wanted to serve His glory and benefit His church, and we were faithfully inclined toward that goal, which we finally accomplished as much as we were able. For we devoted ourselves so that all our efforts and desires had nothing else in view. We are sufficiently aware of this fact ourselves, and we have proved it with excellent testimonies. And, to be sure, since we have established that we attend to and do the work of the Lord here, we trust that He will by no means fail to support Himself and His work. But whatever the outcome may be, we will never regret that we began and advanced this far. The Holy Spirit in us is a faithful and certain witness of our doctrine. We know that what we preach is the eternal truth of God. We certainly desire, as is proper, that our ministry may bring salvation to the world. But it belongs to God – not to us – for us to attain that. If it is a win for those with whom we want to make progress, partly from stubborness and partly from ingratitude, so that progress is despaired of an everything sinks, I will say what is worthy of a Christian man (an let whoever wants to respond to this very holy profession agree): we will die. But in death we will also be conquerors, not only because from it we will certainly pass on to a better life, but also because we know that our blood, in order to hand down the truth of God, which is rejected now, will be like a seed.” (pp. 103-104)

Conclusion

Excellent stuff here. He goes in cycles. Revisiting various issues. So, it can become tedious a bit. But overall, it’s fantastic. Attached to this book is Calvin’s Reply to Cardinal Sadoleto. For a time, Geneva was being courted by Romanists, and Cardinal Sadoleto set out to persuade them to return to Rome. Calvin, having been kicked out of Geneva for a time, and gaining maturity under the tutelage of his mentor Martin Bucer, was then asked by Geneva to reply to Sadoleto. It would be too much to jump into here, but Calvin does a fantastic job of pointing out that Rome is a sect, and that the Reformers were justified in their denunciations of the evils in the Church, just as the Apostles and Prophets were.