Continued from Part I.
Our indulgence ought to extend much farther in tolerating
imperfection of conduct. Here there is great danger of falling, and
Satan employs all his machinations to ensnare us. For there always have
been persons who, imbued with a false persuasion of absolute holiness,
as if they had already become a kind of aerial spirits, spurn the
society of all in whom they see that something human still remains. Such
of old were the Cathari and the Donatists, who were similarly
infatuated. Such in the present day are some of the Anabaptists, who
would be thought to have made superior progress.
Others,
again, sin in this respect, not so much from that insane pride as from
inconsiderate zeal. Seeing that among those to whom the gospel is
preached, the fruit produced is not in accordance with the doctrine,
they forthwith conclude that there no church exists. The offence is
indeed well founded, and it is one to which in this most unhappy age we
give far too much occasion. It is impossible to excuse our accursed
sluggishness, which the Lord will not leave unpunished, as he is already
beginning sharply to chastise us. Woe then to us who, by our dissolute
license of wickedness, cause weak consciences to be wounded! Still those
of whom we have spoken sin in their turn, by not knowing how to set
bounds to their offence. For where the Lord requires mercy they omit it,
and give themselves up to immoderate severity. Thinking there is no
church where there is not complete purity and integrity of conduct,
they, through hatred of wickedness, withdraw from a genuine church,
while they think they are shunning the company of the ungodly.
They
allege that the Church of God is holy (Eph.5:26). But that they may at
the same time understand that it contains a mixture of good and bad, let
them hear from the lips of our Saviour that parable in which he
compares the Church to a net in which all kinds of fishes are taken, but
not separated until they are brought ashore. Let them hear it compared
to a field which planted with good seed, is by the fraud of an enemy
mingled with tares, and is not freed of them until the harvest is
brought into the barn. Let them hear, in fine, that it is a thrashing
floor in which the collected wheat lies concealed under the chaff,
until, cleansed by the fanners and the sieve, it is at length laid up in
the granary. If the Lord declares that the Church will labour under the
defect of being burdened with a multitude of wicked until the day of
judgement, it is in vain to look for a church altogether free from
blemish, (Math. 13.)
They exclaim that it is
impossible to tolerate the vice which everywhere stalks abroad like a
pestilence. What if the apostle's sentiment applies here also? Among the
Corinthians it was not a few that erred, but almost the whole body had
become tainted; there was not one species of sin merely, but a
multitude, and those not trivial errors but some of them execrable
crimes. There was not only corruption in manners, but also in doctrine.
What course was taken by the holy apostle, in other words, by the organ
of the heavenly Spirit, by whose testimony the Church stands and falls?
Does he seek separation from them? Does he discard them from the kingdom
of Christ? Does he strike them with the thunder of a final anathema? He
not only does none of these things, but he acknowledges and heralds
them as a Church of Christ, and a society of saints. If the Church
remains among the Corinthians, where envyings, divisions, and
contentions rage; where quarrels, lawsuits and avarice prevail; where a
crime, which even the gentiles would execrate, is openly approved; where
the name of Paul, whom they ought to have honoured as a father, is
petulantly assailed; where some hold the resurrection of the dead in
derision, though with it the whole gospel must fall; where the gifts of
God are made subservient to ambition, not to charity; where many things
are done neither decently nor in order. If there the Church still
remains, simply because the ministration of word and sacrament is not
rejected, who will presume to deny the title of church to those to whom a
tenth part of these crimes cannot be imputed? How, I ask, would those
who act so morosely against present churches have acted to the
Galatians, who had done all but abandon the gospel, (Gal. 1: 2,) and yet
among them the same apostle found churches?
On
the surface, it sounds like Calvin is making the bar of being a true
church so low here that pretty much anyone could get in. The toleration
and open approval of perverse sexual sin, denial of the resurrection
(and the whole gospel which depends on it), etc., do not take away the
rightful name of "true church" from a body? Surely these faults are not
greater than those of the papists, all the liberal denominations today,
etc., so are these all true churches?
And
yet later on, Calvin will say that the Romanist church is not a true
church, because it has opposed the gospel. Therefore, I think we must
understand Calvin's words here in a more refined sense. A church does
not lose the rightful title of "true church" simply because within it
there is much corruption, so long as, constitutionally (or the practical de facto equivalent), it has not abandoned the Word of God.
In other words, if a church maintains the Word of God but is too lax in
church discipline, this is a serious problem, and we ought to work hard
for reform, but failure in discipline does not immediately cause a
church to lose its position as a "true church." So long as the church
does not require sin, so long as errors and faults can be protested, so
long as the church has not definitively taken an official stand against
the truth, the church itself can still be said to be a pillar of truth
even when it is lazy in fighting error. But once things have gone so
far that the church itself has abandoned its foundation in the Word of
God and has institutionally embraced error, or it prevents conscientious
protest against error and working towards reform, the church loses its
status as a true church.
They also object, that
Paul sharply rebukes the Corinthians for permitting an heinous offender
in their communion, and then lays down a general sentence, by which he
declares it unlawful even to eat bread with a man of impure life, (1
Cor. 5: 11, 12.) Here they exclaim, If it is not lawful to eat ordinary
bread, how can it be lawful to eat the Lord's bread?
I
admit, that it is a great disgrace if dogs and swine are admitted among
the children of God; much more, if the sacred body of Christ is
prostituted to them. And, indeed, when churches are well regulated, they
will not bear the wicked in their bosom, nor will they admit the worthy
and unworthy indiscriminately to that sacred feast.
Here Calvin clearly affirms that errors and sins are not to be
tolerated in the church. The church is to exercise discipline against
these offenses. But because pastors are not always sedulously
vigilant, are sometimes also more indulgent than they ought, or are
prevented from acting so strictly as they could wish; the consequence
is, that even the openly wicked are not always excluded from the
fellowship of the saints. This I admit to be a vice, and I have no wish
to extenuate it, seeing that Paul sharply rebukes it in the Corinthians.
But although the Church fail in her duty, it does not therefore follow
that every private individual is to decide the question of separation
for himself. I deny not that it is the duty of a pious man to withdraw
from all private intercourse with the wicked, and not entangle himself
with them by any voluntary tie; but it is one thing to shun the society
of the wicked, and another to renounce the communion of the Church
through hatred of them.
Those who think it sacrilege
to partake the Lord's bread with the wicked are in this more rigid than
Paul. For when he exhorts us to pure and holy communion, he does not
require that we should examine others, or that every one should examine
the whole church, but that each should examine himself, (1 Cor. 11: 28,
29.) If it were unlawful to communicate with the unworthy, Paul would
certainly have ordered us to take heed that there were no individual in
the whole body by whose impurity we might be defiled, but now that he
only requires each to examine himself, he shows that it does no harm to
us though some who are unworthy present themselves along with us. To the
same effect he afterwards adds, "He that eateth and drinketh
unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself." He says not to
others, but to himself. And justly; for the right of admitting or
excluding ought not to be left to the decision of individuals.
Cognisance of this point, which cannot be exercised without due orders
as shall afterwards be more fully shown, belongs to the whole church. It
would therefore be unjust to hold any private individual as polluted by
the unworthiness of another, whom he neither can nor ought to keep back
from communion.
We do not sin by association
when we remain in a true church, even when that church is too lax in
discipline and so allows in those it ought to keep out. It is not our
job (as individuals) to excommunicate people, but it is the church's job. It is
our job as individuals to judge between the true church and false
churches and to embrace the former and shun the latter, but it is not
our job to take the work of the true church away from it by attempting
ourselves to impose the sentences which rightly belong to it.
Still,
however even the good are sometimes affected by this inconsiderate zeal
for righteousness, though we shall find that this excessive moroseness
is more the result of pride and a false idea of sanctity, than genuine
sanctity itself, and true zeal for it. Accordingly, those who are the
most forward, and as it were, leaders in producing revolt from the
Church, have, for the most part, no other motive than to display their
own superiority by despising all other men. Well and wisely, therefore,
does Augustine say, "Seeing that pious reason and the mode of
ecclesiastical discipline ought specially to regard the unity of the
Spirit in the bond of peace, which the Apostle enjoins us to keep, by
bearing with one another, (for if we keep it not, the application of
medicine is not only superfluous but pernicious, and, therefore, proves
to be no medicine;) those bad sons who, not from hatred of other men's
iniquities, but zeal for their own contentions, attempt altogether to
draw away, or at least to divide, weak brethren ensnared by the glare of
their name, while swollen with pride, stuffed with petulance,
insidiously calumnious, and turbulently seditious, use the cloak of a
rigorous severity, that they may not seem devoid of the light of truth,
and pervert to sacrilegious schism, and purposes of excision, those
things which are enjoined in the Holy Scriptures, (due regard being had
to sincere love, and the unity of peace,) to correct a brother's faults
by the appliance of a immoderate cure," (August. Cont. Parmen. cap. 1.)
To the pious and placid his advice is, mercifully to correct what they
can, and to bear patiently with what they cannot correct, in love
lamenting and mourning until God either reform or correct, or at the
harvest root up the tares, and scatter the chaff, (ibid. cap. 2.)
Let
all the godly study to provide themselves with these weapons, lest,
while they deem themselves strenuous and ardent defenders of
righteousness, they revolt from the kingdom of heaven, which is the only
kingdom of righteousness. For as God has been pleased that the
communion of his Church shall be maintained in this external society,
any one who, from hatred of the ungodly, violates the bond of this
society, enter on a downward course, in which he incurs great danger of
cutting himself off from the communion of saints.
Let
them reflect, that in a numerous body there are several who may escape
their notice, and yet are truly righteous and innocent in the eyes of
the Lord. Let them reflect, that of those who seem diseased, there are
many who are far from taking pleasure or flattering themselves in their
faults, and who, ever and anon aroused by a serious fear of the Lord,
aspire to greater integrity. Let them reflect, that they have no right
to pass judgement on a man for one act, since the holiest sometimes make
the moat grievous fall. Let them reflect, that in the ministry of the
word and participation of the sacraments, the power to collect the
Church is too great to be deprived of all efficacy, by the fault of some
ungodly men. Lastly, let them reflect, that in estimating the Church,
divine is of more force than human judgement.
Since
they also argue that there is good reason for the Church being called
holy, it is necessary to consider what the holiness is in which it
excels, lest by refusing to acknowledge any church, save one that is
completely perfect, we leave no church at all. It is true, indeed, as
Paul says, that Christ "loved the church, and gave himself for it, that
he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot,
or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without
blemish," (Eph. 5: 25-27.) Nevertheless, it is true, that the Lord is
daily smoothing its wrinkles and wiping away its spots. Hence it follows
that its holiness is not yet perfect. Such, then, is the holiness of
the Church: it makes daily progress, but is not yet perfect; it daily
advances, but as yet has not reached the goal, as will elsewhere be more
fully explained.
Therefore, when the Prophets
foretell, "Then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers
pass through her any more;" - "It shall be called, The way of holiness;
the unclean shall not pass over it," (Joel 3: 17; Isa. 35: 8,) let us
not understand it as if no blemish remained in the members of the
Church; but only that with their whole heart they aspire after holiness
and perfect purity: and hence, that purity which they have not yet fully
attained is, by the kindness of God, attributed to them. And though the
indications of such a kind of holiness existing among men are too rare,
we must understand, that at no period since the world began has the
Lord been without his Church, nor ever shall be till the final
consummation of all things. For although, at the very outset, the whole
human race was vitiated and corrupted by the sin of Adam, yet of this
kind of polluted mass he always sanctifies some vessels to honour, that
no age may be left without experience of his mercy. This he has declared
by sure promises, such as the following: "I have made a covenant with
my chosen, I have sworn unto David my servant, Thy seed will I establish
for ever, and build up thy throne to all generations," (Ps. 89: 3, 4.)
"The Lord has chosen Zion; he has desired it for his habitation. This is
my rest for ever; here will I dwell," (Ps. 132: 13,14.) "Thus saith the
Lord, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of
the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea
when the waves thereof roar; The Lord of hosts is his name: If those
ordinances depart from before me, saith the Lord, then the seed of
Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever," (Jer.
31: 35, 36.)
On this head, Christ himself, his
apostles, and almost all the prophets, have furnished us with examples.
Fearful are the descriptions in which Isaiah, Jeremiah, Joel, Habakkuk,
and others, deplore the diseases of the Church of Jerusalem. In the
people, the rulers, and the priests, corruption prevailed to such a
degree, that Isaiah hesitates not to liken Jerusalem to Sodom and
Gomorrah, (Isa. 1: 10.) Religion was partly despised, partly
adulterated, while in regard to morals, we every where meet with
accounts of theft, robbery, perfidy, murder, and similar crimes. The
prophets, however, did not therefore either form new churches for
themselves, or erect new altars on which they might have separate
sacrifices, but whatever their countrymen might be, reflecting that the
Lord had deposited his word with them, and instituted the ceremonies by
which he was then worshipped, they stretched out pure hands to him,
though amid the company of the ungodly. Certainly, had they thought that
they thereby contracted any pollution, they would have died a hundred
deaths sooner than suffer themselves to be dragged thither. nothing,
therefore, prevented them from separating themselves, but a desire of
preserving unity. But if the holy prophets felt no obligation to
withdraw from the Church on account of the very numerous and heinous
crimes, not of one or two individuals, but almost of the whole people,
we arrogate too much to ourselves, if we presume forthwith to withdraw
from the communion of the Church, because the lives of all accord not
with our judgement, or even with the Christian profession.
Then
what kind of age was that of Christ and the apostles? Yet neither could
the desperate impiety of the Pharisees, nor the dissolute
licentiousness of manners which everywhere prevailed, prevent them from
using the same sacred rites with the people, and meeting in one common
temple for the public exercises of religion. And why so, but just
because they knew that those who joined in these sacred rites with a
pure conscience were not at all polluted by the society of the wicked?
If
any one is little moved by prophets and apostles, let him at least
defer to the authority of Christ. Well, therefore, does Cyprian say,
"Although tares or unclean vessels are seen in the Church, that is no
reason why we ourselves should withdraw from the Church; we must only
labour that we may be able to be wheat; w e must give our endeavour, and
strive as far as we can, to be vessels of gold or silver. But to break
the earthen vessels belongs to the Lord alone, to whom a rod of iron has
been given: let no one arrogate to himself what is peculiar to the Son
alone, and think himself sufficient to winnow the floor and cleanse the
chaff, and separate all the tares by human judgement. What depraved zeal
thus assumes to itself is proud obstinacy and sacrilegious
presumption," (Cyprian, lib. 3. Ep. 5.)
Let both
points therefore, be regarded as fixed; first, there is no excuse for
him who spontaneously abandons the external communion of a church in
which the word of God is preached and the sacraments are administered;
secondly, that notwithstanding of the faults of a few or of many, there
is nothing to prevent us from there duly professing our faith in the
ordinances instituted by God, because a pious conscience is not injured
by the unworthiness of another, whether he be a pastor or a private
individual; and sacred rites are not less pure and salutary to a man who
is holy and upright, from being at the same time handled by the impure.
Their moroseness and pride proceed even to greater
lengths. Refusing to acknowledge any church that is not pure from the
minutes blemish, they take offence at sound teachers for exhorting
believers to make progress, and so teaching them to groan during their
whole lives under the burden of sins and flee for pardon. For they
pretend, that in this way believers are led away from perfection.
I
admit that we are not to labour feebly or coldly in urging perfection,
far less to desist from urging it; but I hold that it is a device of the
devil to fill our minds with a confident belief of it while we are
still in our course. Accordingly, in the Creed forgiveness of sins is
appropriately subjoined to belief as to the Church, because none obtain
forgiveness but those who are citizens, and of the household of the
Church, as we read in the Prophet, (Is. 33: 24.) The first place,
therefore, should be given to the building of the heavenly Jerusalem, in
which God afterwards is pleased to wipe away the iniquity of all who
retake themselves to it. I say, however, that the Church must first be
built; not that there can be any church without forgiveness of sins, but
because the Lord has not promised his mercy save in the communion of
saints. Therefore, our first entrance into the Church and the kingdom of
God is by forgiveness of sins, without which we have no covenant nor
union with God. For thus he speaks by the Prophet, "In that day will I
make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, and with the
fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things of the ground: and I will
break the bow, and the sword, and the battle, out of the earth, and will
make them to lie down safely. And I will betroth thee unto me for ever;
yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgement,
and in loving-kindness, and in mercies," (Hos. 2: 18, 19.) We see in
what way the Lord reconciles us to himself by his mercy. So in another
passage, where he foretells that the people whom he had scattered in
anger will again be gathered together, "I will cleanse them from all
their iniquity whereby they have sinned against me," (Jer. 33: 8.)
Wherefore, our initiation into the fellowship of the Church is, by the
symbol of ablution, to teach us that we have no admission into the
family of God, unless by his goodness our impurities are previously
washed away.
Nor by remission of sins does the Lord
only once for all elect and admit us into the Church, but by the same
means he preserves and defends us in it. For what would it avail us to
receive a pardon of which we were afterwards to have no use? That the
mercy of the Lord would be vain and delusive if only granted once, all
the godly can bear witness; for there is none who is not conscious,
during his whole life, of many infirmities which stand in need of divine
mercy. And truly it is not without cause that the Lord promises this
gift specially to his own household, nor in vain that he orders the same
message of reconciliation to be daily delivered to them. Wherefore, as
during our whole lives we carry about with us the remains of sin, we
could not continue in the Church one single moment were we not sustained
by the uninterrupted grace of God in forgiving our sins. On the other
hand, the Lord has called his people to eternal salvation, and,
therefore, they ought to consider that pardon for their sins is always
ready. Hence let us surely hold that if we are admitted and ingrafted
into the body of the Church, the forgiveness of sins has been bestowed,
and is daily bestowed on us, in divine liberality, through the
intervention of Christ's merits and the sanctification of the Spirit.
To
impart this blessing to us, the keys have been given to the Church,
(Matth. 16: 19; 18: 18.) For when Christ gave the command to the
apostles, and conferred the power of forgiving sins, he not merely
intended that they should loose the sins of those who should be
converted from impiety to the faith of Christ; but, moreover, that they
should perpetually perform this office among believers. This Paul
teaches, when he says that the embassy of reconciliation has been
committed to the ministers of the Church, that they may ever and anon in
the name of Christ exhort the people to be reconciled to God, (2 Cor.
5: 20.) Therefore, in the communion of saints our sins are constantly
forgiven by the ministry of the Church, when presbyters or bishops, to
whom the office has been committed, confirm pious consciences, in the
hope of pardon and forgiveness by the promises of the gospel, and that
as well in public as in private, as the case requires. For there are
many who, from their infirmity, stand in need of special pacification,
and Paul declares that he testified of the grace of Christ not only in
the public assembly, but from house to house, reminding each
individually of the doctrine of salvation, (Acts 20: 20, 21.)
Three
things are here to be observed. First, Whatever be the holiness which
the children of God possess, it is always under the condition, that so
long as they dwell in a mortal body, they cannot stand before God
without forgiveness of sins. Secondly, This benefit is so peculiar to
the Church, that we cannot enjoy it unless we continue in the communion
of the Church. Thirdly, It is dispensed to us by the ministers and
pastors of the Church, either in the preaching of the Gospel or the
administration of the Sacraments, and herein is especially manifested
the power of the keys, which the Lord has bestowed on the company of the
faithful. Accordingly, let each of us consider it to be his duty to
seek forgiveness of sins only where the Lord has placed it. Of the
public reconciliation which relates to discipline, we shall speak at the
proper place.
But since those frantic spirits of whom
I have spoken attempt to rob the Church of this the only anchor of
salvation, consciences must be more firmly strengthened against this
pestilential opinion. The Novatians, in ancient times, agitated the
Churches with this dogma, but in our day, not unlike the Novatians are
some of the Anabaptists, who have fallen into the same delirious dreams.
For they pretend that in Baptism, the people of God are regenerated to a
pure and angelical life, which is not polluted by any carnal
defilements. But if a man sin after baptism, they leave him nothing
except the inexorable judgement of God. In short, to the sinner who has
lapsed after receiving grace they give no hope of pardon, because they
admit no other forgiveness of sins save that by which we are first
regenerated.
But although no falsehood is more clearly
refuted by Scripture, yet as these men find means of imposition, (as
Novatus also of old had very many followers,) let us briefly slow how
much they rave, to the destruction both of themselves and others.
In
the first place, since by the command of our Lord the saints daily
repeat this prayer, "Forgive us our debts," (Matth. 6: 12,) they confess
that they are debtors. Nor do they ask in vain; for the Lord has only
enjoined them to ask what he will give. Nay, while he has declared that
the whole prayer will be heard by his Father, he has sealed this
absolution with a peculiar promise. What more do we wish? The Lord
requires of his saints confession of sins during their whole lives, and
that without ceasing, and promises pardon. How presumptuous, then, to
exempt them from sin, or when they have stumbled, to exclude them
altogether from grace? Then whom does he enjoin us to pardon seventy and
seven times? Is it not our brethren? (Matth. 18: 22.) And why has he so
enjoined but that we may imitate his clemency? He therefore pardons not
once or twice only, but as often as, under a sense of our faults, we
feel alarmed, and sighing call upon him.
And to begin
almost with the very first commencement of the Church: the Patriarchs
had been circumcised, admitted to a participation in the covenant, and
doubtless instructed by their father's care in righteousness and
integrity, when they conspired to commit fratricide. The crime was one
which the most abandoned robbers would have abominated. At length,
softened by the remonstrances of Judah, they sold him; this also was
intolerable cruelty. Simon and Levi took a nefarious revenge on the sons
of Sichem, one, too, condemned by the judgement of their father.
Reuben, with execrable lust, defiled his father's bed. Judah, when
seeking to commit whoredom, sinned against the law of nature with his
daughter-in-law. But so far are they from being expunged from the chosen
people, that they are rather raised to be its heads.
What,
moreover, of David? when on the throne of righteousness, with what
iniquity did he make way for blind lust, by the shedding of innocent
blood? He had already been regenerated, and, as one of the regenerated,
received distinguished approbation from the Lord. But he perpetrated a
crime at which even the gentiles would have been horrified, and yet
obtained pardon.
And not to dwell on special examples,
all the promises of divine mercy extant in the Law and the Prophets are
so many proofs that the Lord is ready to forgive the offences of his
people. For why does Moses promise a future period, when the people who
had fallen into rebellion should return to the Lord? "Then the Lord thy
God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will
return and gather thee from all the nations whither the Lord thy God has
scattered thee," (Deut. 30: 3.)
But I am unwilling to
begin an enumeration which never could be finished. The prophetical
books are filled with similar promises, offering mercy to a people
covered with innumerable transgressions. What crime is more heinous than
rebellion? It is styled divorce between God and the Church, and yet, by
his goodness, it is surmounted. They say, "If a man put away his wife,
and she go from him, and become another man's, shall he return unto her
again? shall not that land be greatly polluted? But thou hast played the
harlot with many lovers; yet return again unto me, saith the Lord."
"Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the Lord; and I will not cause
mine anger to fall upon you; for I am merciful, saith the Lord, and I
will not keep anger for ever," (Jer. 3: 1, 12.) And surely he could not
have a different feeling who declares, "I have no pleasure in the death
of him that dieth;" "Wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye," (Ezek. 18:
23, 32.) Accordingly, when Solomon dedicated the temple, one of the
uses for which it was destined was, that prayers offered up for the
pardon of sin, might there be heard. "If they sin against thee, (for
there is no man that sinneth not,) and thou be angry with them, and
deliver them to the enemy, so that they carry them away captive unto the
land of the enemy, far or near; yet if they shall rethink themselves in
the land whither they were carried captives, and repent, and make
supplication unto thee in the land of them that carried them captives,
saying, We have sinned, and have done perversely, we have committed
wickedness; and so return unto thee with all their heart, and with all
their soul, in the land of their enemies which led them away captive,
and pray unto thee towards their land, which thou gavest unto their
fathers, the city which thou hast chosen, and the house which I have
built for thy name: then hear thou their prayer and their supplication
in heaven thy dwellingplace, and maintain their cause, and forgive thy
people that have sinned against thee, and all their transgressions
wherein they have transgressed against thee," (1 Kings 8: 46-50.) Nor in
vain in the Law did God ordain a daily sacrifice for sins. Had he not
foreseen that his people were constantly to labour under the disease of
sin, he never would have appointed these remedies.
Did
the advent of Christ, by which the fulness of grace was displayed,
deprive believers of this privilege of supplicating for the pardon of
their sins? If they offended against the Lords were they not to obtain
any mercy? What were it but to say that Christ came not for the
salvation, but for the destruction of his people, if the divine
indulgence in pardoning sin, which was constantly provided for the
saints under the Old Testament, is now declared to have been taken away?
But if we give credit to the Scriptures, when distinctly proclaiming
that in Christ alone the grace and loving-kindness of the Lord have
fully appeared, the riches of his mercy been poured out, reconciliation
between God and man accomplished, (Tit. 2: 11; 3: 4; 2 Tim. 1: 9, 10,)
let us not doubt that the clemency of our heavenly Father, instead of
being cut off or curtailed is in much greater exuberance.
Nor
are proofs of this wanting. Peter, who had heard our Saviour declare
that he who did not confess his name before men would be denied before
the angels of God, denied him twice in one night, and not without
execration; yet he is not denied pardon, (Mark 8: 38.) Those who lived
disorderly among the Thessalonians, though chastised, are still invited
to repentance, (2 Thess. 3: 6.) Not even is Simon Magus thrown into
despair. He is rather told to hope, since Peter invites him to have
recourse to prayer, (Acts 8: 22.)
What shall we say to
the fact, that occasionally whole churches have been implicated in the
grossest sins, and yet Paul, instead of giving them over to destruction,
rather mercifully extricated them? The defection of the Galatians was
no trivial fault, the Corinthians were still less excusable the
iniquities prevailing among them being more numerous and not less
heinous, yet neither are excluded from the mercy of the Lord. Nay, the
very persons who had sinned above others in uncleanness and fornication
are expressly invited to repentance. The covenant of the Lord remains,
and ever will remain, inviolable, that covenant which he solemnly
ratified with Christ the true Solomon, and his members, in these words:
"If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgements; if they
break my statutes, and keep not my commandments; then will I visit their
transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes.
Nevertheless, my loving-kindness will I not utterly take from him", (Ps.
89: 30-33.) In short, by the very arrangement of the Creed, we are
reminded that forgiveness of sins always resides in the Church of
Christ, for after the Church is as it were constituted, forgiveness of
sins is subjoined.
Some persons who have somewhat more
discernment, seeing that the dogma of Novatus is so clearly refuted in
scripture, do not make every fault unpardonable, but that voluntary
transgression of the Law into which a man falls knowingly and willingly.
Those who speak thus allow pardon to those sins only that have been
committed through ignorance. But since the Lord has in the Law ordered
some sacrifices to be offered in expiation of the voluntary sins of
believers, and others to redeem sins of ignorance, (Lev. 4) how perverse
is it to concede no expiation to a voluntary sin? I hold nothing to be
more plain, than that the one sacrifice of Christ avails to remit the
voluntary sins of believers, the Lord having attested this by carnal
sacrifices as emblems.
Then how is David, who was so
well instructed in the Law, to be excused by ignorance? Did David, who
was daily punishing it in others, not know how heinous a crime murder
and adultery was? Did the patriarchs deem fratricide a lawful act? Had
the Corinthians made so little proficiency as to imagine that God was
pleased with lasciviousness, impurity, whoredom, hatred, and strife? Was
Peter, after being so carefully warned, ignorant how heinous it was to
forswear his Master? Therefore, let us not by our malice shut the door
against the divine mercy, when so benignly manifested.
I
am not unaware, that by the sins which are daily forgiven to believers
ancient writers have understood the lighter errors which creep in
through the infirmity of the flesh, while they thought that the formal
repentance which was then exacted for more heinous crimes was no more to
be repeated than Baptism. This opinion is not to be viewed as if they
wished to plunge those into despair who had fallen from their first
repentance, or to extenuate those errors as if they were of no account
before God. For they knew that the saints often stumble through
unbelief, that superfluous oaths occasionally escape them, that they
sometimes boil with anger, nay, break out into open invectives, and
labour, besides, under other evils, which are in no slight degree
offensive to the Lord; but they so called them to distinguish them from
public crimes, which came under the cognisance of the Church, and
produced much scandal. The great difficulty they had in pardoning those
who had done something that called for ecclesiastical animadversion, was
not because they thought it difficult to obtain pardon from the Lord,
but by this severity they wished to deter others from rushing
precipitately into crimes, which by their demerits would alienate them
from the communion of the Church. Still the word of the Lord, which here
ought to be our only rule, certainly prescribes greater moderation,
since it teaches that the rigour of discipline must not be stretched so
far as to overwhelm with grief the individual for whose benefit it
should specially be designed (2 Cor. 2: 7,) as we have above discoursed
at greater length.
How much the ministry of the word
and sacraments should weigh with us, and how far reverence for it should
extend, so as to be a perpetual badge for distinguishing the Church,
has been explained; for we have shown, first, that wherever it exists
entire and unimpaired no errors of conduct, no defects should prevent us
from giving the name of Church; and, secondly, that trivial errors in
this ministry ought not to make us regard it as illegitimate. Moreover,
we have shown that the errors to which such pardon is due, are those by
which the fundamental doctrine of religion is not injured, and by which
those articles of religion, in which all believers should agree, are not
suppressed, while, in regard to the sacraments, the defects are such as
neither destroy nor impair the legitimate institution of their Author.
Note that the errors in doctrine that are to be tolerated in a church
(in the sense that they do not cause it to lose its delineation as a
"true church") are those "by which the fundamental doctrine of religion
is not injured, and by which those articles of religion, in which all believers should agree,
are not suppressed" (emphasis added). What are those articles of
religion in which all believers should agree? Surely all the doctrines
clearly taught in Scripture are doctrines all believers should agree
upon, for to do otherwise is to violate the command of God who has
commanded us to believe all that he has taught. No believer is
permitted to ignore or reject the clear teachings of God's Word.
Therefore, the false doctrines that can be tolerated in a true church
are best understood as doctrines that are not clearly revealed in
Scripture, as we saw earlier. Since these doctrines are not clearly
revealed in Scripture, believers should tolerate differences of opinion
regarding them, without "perverseness of dogmatising." Also, what
defects in the sacraments are to be tolerated? Only those that don't
destroy or impair "the legitimate institution of their Author." That
is, they don't get in the way of the fundamental integrity of the
sacraments. Would denying baptism to the children of believers, for
example, violate the fundamental integrity of that sacrament? Surely it
would, for it surely violates the fundamental integrity of baptism to
deny it to an entire class of people to whom God says to administer it.
How about making baptism nothing more than an outward testimony of
repentance while denying that it is a seal and means of grace? Surely
this too violates its fundamental nature. But as soon as
falsehood has forced its way into the citadel of religion, as soon as
the sum of necessary doctrine is inverted, and the use of the sacraments
is destroyed, the death of the Church undoubtedly ensues, just as the
life of man is destroyed when his throat is pierced, or his vitals
mortally wounded. This is clearly evinced by the words of Paul when he
says, that the Church is "built upon the foundation of the apostles and
prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone," (Eph. 2:
20.) If the Church is founded on the doctrine of the apostles and
prophets, by which believers are enjoined to place their salvation in
Christ alone, then if that doctrine is destroyed, how can the Church
continue to stand? The Church must necessarily fall whenever that sum of
religion which alone can sustain it has given way. Again, if the true
Church is the pillar and ground of the truth," (1 Tim. 3: 15,) it is
certain that there is no Church where lying and falsehood have usurped
the ascendancy.
Again, Calvin indicates that when
the doctrines and practices of Scripture are fundamentally rejected or
mutilated, this means the death of the church. We no longer have a true
church. This is perilous to the salvation of those who thus reject or
pervert God's Word, for who can do this with impunity? But is Calvin
saying that it is absolutely impossible that anyone perverting
Scriptural doctrine can be saved? Later on, he will nuance his comments
here in his discussion of the papists (which starts just below).
Since
this is the state of matters under the Papacy, we can understand how
much of the Church there survives. There, instead of the ministry of the
word, prevails a perverted government, compounded of lies, a government
which partly extinguishes, partly suppresses, the pure light. In place
of the Lord's Supper, the foulest sacrilege has entered, the worship of
God is deformed by a varied mass of intolerable superstitions; doctrine
(without which Christianity exists not) is wholly buried and exploded,
the public assemblies are schools of idolatry and impiety. Wherefore, in
declining fatal participation in such wickedness, we run no risk of
being dissevered from the Church of Christ. The communion of the Church
was not instituted to be a chain to bind us in idolatry, impiety,
ignorance of God, and other kinds of evil, but rather to retain us in
the fear of God and obedience of the truth.
We need not retain communion with the Romanist church, because it has violated the doctrine and practice of the Word of God and so has ceased to be a true church.
They,
indeed, vaunt loudly of their Church, as if there was not another in
the world; and then, as if the matter were ended, they make out that all
are schismatic who withdraw from obedience to that Church which they
thus depicts that all are heretics who presume to whisper against its
doctrine, (see sec. 5.) But by what arguments do they prove their
possession of the true Church? They appeal to ancient records which
formerly existed in Italy, France, and Spain, pretending to derive their
origin from those holy men, who, by sound doctrine, founded and raised
up churches, confirmed the doctrine, and reared the edifice of the
Church with their blood; they pretend that the Church thus consecrated
by spiritual gifts and the blood of martyrs was preserved from
destruction by a perpetual succession of bishops. They dwell on the
importance which Irenaeus, Tertullian, Origin, Augustine, and others,
attached to this succession, (see sec. 3.)
How
frivolous and plainly ludicrous these allegations are, I will enable
any, who will for a little consider the matter with me, to understand
without any difficulty. I would also exhort our opponents to give their
serious attention, if I had any hope of being able to benefit them by
instruction; but since they have laid aside all regard to truth, and
make it their only aim to prosecute their own ends in whatever way they
can, I will only make a few observations by which good men and lovers of
truth may disentangle themselves from their quibbles.
First,
I ask them why they do not quote Africa, and Egypt, and all Asia, just
because in all those regions there was a cessation of that sacred
succession, by the aid of which they vaunt of having continued Churches.
They therefore fall back on the assertion, that they have the true
Church, because ever since it began to exist it was never destitute of
bishops, because they succeeded each other in an unbroken series. But
what if I bring Greece before them? Therefore, I again ask them, Why
they say that the Church perished among the Greeks, among whom there
never was any interruption in the succession of bishops - a succession,
in their opinion, the only guardian and preserver of the Church? They
make the Greeks schismatic. Why? because, by revolting from the
Apostolic See, they lost their privilege. What? Do not those who revolt
from Christ much more deserve to lose it? It follows, therefore, that
the pretence of succession is vain, if posterity do not retain the truth
of Christ, which was handed down to them by their fathers, safe and
uncorrupted, and continue in it.
In the present day,
therefore, the pretence of the Romanists is just the same as that which
appears to have been formerly used by the Jews, when the Prophets of the
Lord charged them with blindness, impiety, and idolatry. For as the
Jews proudly vaunted of their temple, ceremonies, and priesthood, by
which, with strong reason, as they supposed, they measured the Church,
so, instead of the Church, we are presented by the Romanists with
certain external masks, which often are far from being connected with
the Church and without which the Church can perfectly exist. Wherefore,
we need no other argument to refute them than that with which Jeremiah
opposed the foolish confidence of the Jews, namely, "Trust ye not in
lying words, saying, The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord, The
temple of the Lord are these," (Jer. 7: 4.) The Lord recognises nothing
as his owns save when his word is heard and religiously observed. Thus,
though the glory of God sat in the sanctuary between the cherubim,
(Ezek. 10: 4,) and he had promised that he would there have his stated
abode, still when the priests corrupted his worship by depraved
superstitions, he transferred it elsewhere, and left the place without
any sanctity. If that temple which seemed consecrated for the perpetual
habitation of God, could be abandoned by God and become profane, the
Romanists have no ground to pretend that God is so bound to persons or
places, and fixed to external observances, that he must remain with
those who have only the name and semblance of a Church (Rom.9:6).
Rome has "only the name and semblance of a Church."
This
is the question which Paul discusses in the Epistle to the Romans, from
the ninth to the twelfth chapter. Weak consciences were greatly
disturbed when those who seemed to be the people of God not only
rejected, but even persecuted the doctrine of the Gospel. Therefore,
after expounding doctrine, he removes this difficulty, denying that
those Jews, the enemies of the truth, were the Church, though they
wanted nothing which might otherwise have been desired to the external
form of the Church. The ground of his denial is, that they did not
embrace Christ. In the Epistle to the Galatians, when comparing Ishmael
with Isaac, he says still more expressly, that many hold a place in the
Church to whom the inheritance does not belong, because they were not
the offspring of a free parent. From this he proceeds to draw a contrast
between two Jerusalems, because, as the Law was given on Mount Sinai,
but the Gospel proceeded from Jerusalem, so many who were born and
brought up in servitude confidently boast that they are the sons of God
and of the Church; nay, while they are themselves degenerate, proudly
despise the genuine sons of God. Let us also, in like manner, when we
hear that it was once declared from heaven, "Cast out the handmaid and
her son," trust to this inviolable decree, and boldly despise their
unmeaning boasts. For if they plume themselves on external profession,
Ishmael also was circumcised: if they found on antiquity, he was the
first-born: and yet we see that he was rejected. If the reason is asked,
Paul assigns it, (Rom. 9: 6,) that those only are accounted sons who
are born of the pure and legitimate seed of doctrine.
On
this ground God declares that he was not astricted to impious priests,
though he had made a covenant with their father Levi, to be their angel,
or interpreter, (Mal. 2: 4;) nay, he retorts the false boast by which
they were wont to rise against the Prophets, namely, that the dignity of
the priesthood was to be held in singular estimation. This he himself
willingly admits: and he disputes with them, on the ground that he is
ready to fulfil the covenant, while they, by not fulfilling it on their
part, deserve to be rejected. Here, then, is the value of succession
when not conjoined with imitation and corresponding conduct: posterity,
as soon as they are convicted of having revolted from their origin, are
deprived of all honour; unless, indeed, we are prepared to say, that
because Caiaphas succeeded many pious priests, (nay, the series from
Aaron to him was continuous,) that accursed assembly deserved the name
of Church. Even in earthly governments, no one would bear to see the
tyranny of Caligula, Nero, Heliogabalus, and the like, described as the
true condition of a republic, because they succeeded such men as Brutes,
Scipio, and Camillus. That in the government of the Church especially,
nothing is more absurd than to disregard doctrines and place succession
in persons.
Nor, indeed was any thing farther from the
intention of the holy teachers, whom they falsely obtrude upon us, than
to maintain distinctly that churches exist, as by hereditary right,
wherever bishops have been uniformly succeeded by bishops. But while it
was without controversy that no change had been made in doctrine from
the beginning down to their day, they assumed it to be a sufficient
refutation of all their errors, that they were opposed to the doctrine
maintained constantly, and with unanimous consent, even by the apostles
themselves. They have, therefore, no longer any ground for proceeding to
make a gloss of the name of Church, which we regard with due reverence;
but when we come to definition, not only (to use the common expression)
does the water adhere to them, but they stick in their own mire,
because they substitute a vile prostitute for the sacred spouse of
Christ.
They "substitute a vile prostitute for the sacred spouse of Christ."
That the substitution may not deceive us, let us, among other
admonitions, attend to the following from Augustine. Speaking of the
Church, he says, "She herself is sometimes obscured, and, as it were,
beclouded by a multitude of scandals; sometimes, in a time of
tranquillity, she appears quiet and free; sometimes she is covered and
tossed by the billows of tribulation and trial." - (August. ad Vincent.
Epist. 48.) As instances, he mentions that the strongest pillars of the
Church often bravely endured exile for the faith, or lay hid throughout
the world.
In this way the Romanists assail us in the
present day, and terrify the unskilful with the name of Church, while
they are the deadly adversaries of Christ. Therefore, although they
exhibit a temple, a priesthood, and other similar masks, the empty glare
by which they dazzle the eyes of the simple should not move us in the
least to admit that there is a Church where the word of God appears not.
The Lord furnished us with an unfailing test when he said, "Every one
that is of the truth hearth my voice," (John 18: 37.) Again, "I am the
good shepherds and know my sheep, and am known of mine." "My sheep hear
my voice, and I know them, and they follow me." A little before he had
said, when the shepherd "putteth forth his own sheep he goes before
them, and the sheep follow him; for they know his voice. And a stranger
will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the
voice of strangers," (John 10: 14, 4, 5.) Why then do we, of our own
accord, form so infatuated an estimate of the Church, since Christ has
designated it by a sign in which is nothing in the least degree
equivocal, a sign which is every where seen, the existence of which
infallibly proves the existence of the Church, while its absence proves
the absence of every thing that properly bears the name of Church? Paul
declares that the Church is not founded either upon the judgements of
men or the priesthood, but upon the doctrine of the Apostles and
Prophets, (Eph. 2: 20.) Nay, Jerusalem is to be distinguished from
Babylon, the Church of Christ from a conspiracy of Satan, by the
discriminating test which our Saviour has applied to them, "He that is
of God, hears God's words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are
not of God," (John 8: 47.)
In short, since the Church
is the kingdom of Christ, and he reigns only by his word, can there be
any doubt as to the falsehood of those statements (cf. Jer.7:4) by which
the kingdom of Christ is represented without his sceptre, in other
words, without his sacred word?
Since the Romanist church has abandoned God's Word and refused to hear and obey God's voice in it, they have ceased to be a true church, and we are justified in rejecting them and refusing to pay them the obedience due to the true church.
As
to their charge of heresy and schism, because we preach a different
doctrine, and submit not to their laws and meet apart from them for
Prayer, Baptism, the administration of the Supper, and other sacred
rites, it is indeed a very serious accusation, but one which needs not a
long and laboured defence.
The name of heretics and
schismatics is applied to those who, by dissenting from the Church,
destroy its communion. This communion is held together by two chains,
viz., consent in sound doctrine and brotherly charity. Hence the
distinction which Augustine makes between heretics and schismatics is,
that the former corrupt the purity of the faith by false dogmas, whereas
the latter sometimes, even while holding the same faith, break the bond
of union, (August. Lib. Quaest. in Evang. Matth.)
Calvin, like Augustine, distinguishes between heresy and schism. Heretics divide the church by false doctrine, while schismatics divide the church even if they also may hold to true doctrine.
But
the thing to be observed is, that this union of charity so depends on
unity of faith, as to have in it its beginning, its end, in fine, its
only rule. Let us therefore remember, that whenever ecclesiastical unity
is commended to us, the thing required is, that while our minds consent
in Christ, our wills also be united together by mutual good-will in
Christ. Accordingly, Paul, when he exhorts us to it, takes for his
fundamental principle that there is "one God, one faith, one baptism,"
(Eph. 4: 5.) Nay, when he tells us to be "of one accord, of one mind,"
he immediately adds, "Let this mind be in you which has also in Christ
Jesus," (Phil. 2: 2, 5;) intimating, that where the word of the Lord is
not, it is not a union of believers, but a faction of the ungodly.
Ecclesiastical
union requires unity in faith/doctrine. Where the doctrine of the Word
of God is rejected, there should be no unity, but we should reject the
false church. (Note, again, that for Calvin there are only two possible
legitimate states of affairs regarding church relationships--full union
and communion between true churches, and true churches divided from false churches. The popular semi-congregationalist
idea going around today in many Reformed circles, that it is sometimes
legitimate for there to be multiple independent true denominations, is
completely foreign and contrary to Calvin's thought.)
Cyprian,
also, following Paul, derives the fountain of ecclesiastical concord
from the one bishopric of Christ, and afterwards adds, "There is one
Church, which by increase from fecundity is more widely extended to a
multitude, just as there are many rays of the sun, but one light, and
many branches of a tree, but one trunk upheld by the tenacious root.
When many streams flow from one fountain, though there seems wide
spreading numerosity from the overflowing copiousness of the supply, yet
unity remains in the origin. Pluck a ray from the body of the sun, and
the unity sustains no division. Break a branch from a tree, and the
branch will not germinate. Cut off a stream from a fountain, that which
is thus cut off dries up. So the Church, pervaded by the light of the
Lord, extends over the whole globe, and yet the light which is
everywhere diffused is one," (Cyprian, de Simplicit. Praelat.) Words
could not more elegantly express the inseparable connection which all
the members of Christ have with each other.
The connection between all the members of Christ is so necessary that they are "inseparable" from each other.
We see how he constantly calls us back to the head. Accordingly, he
declares that when heresies and schisms arise, it is because men return
not to the origin of the truth, because they seek not the head, because
they keep not the doctrine of the heavenly Master.
Let
them now go and clamour against us as heretics for having withdrawn
from their Church, since the only cause of our estrangement is, that
they cannot tolerate a pure profession of the truth. I say nothing of
their having expelled us by anathemas and curses. The fact is more than
sufficient to excuse us, unless they would also make schismatics of the
apostles, with whom we have a common cause. Christ, I say, forewarned
his apostles, "they shall put you out of the synagogues," (John 16: 2.)
The synagogues of which he speaks were then held to be lawful churches.
Note how Calvin here uses the term "lawful" in the same way he often uses the word "true." That is, a "true" church is a "lawful" church.
Seeing then it is certain that we were cast out, and we are prepared to
show that this was done for the name of Christ, the cause should first
be ascertained before any decision is given either for or against us.
This, however, if they choose, I am willing to leave to them; to me it
is enough that we behaved to withdraw from them in order to draw near to
Christ.
The place which we ought to assign to
all the churches on which the tyranny of the Romish idol has seized will
better appear if we compare them with the ancient Israelitish Church,
as delineated by the prophets. So long as the Jews and Israelites
persisted in the laws of the covenant, a true Church existed among them;
in other words, they by the kindness of God obtained the benefits of a
Church. True doctrine was contained in the law, and the ministry of it
was committed to the prophets and priests. They were initiated in
religion by the sign of circumcision, and by the other sacraments
trained and confirmed in the faith. There can be no doubt that the
titles with which the Lord honoured his Church were applicable to their
society. After they forsook the law of the Lord, and degenerated into
idolatry and superstition, they partly lost the privilege. For who can
presume to deny the title of the Church to those with whom the Lord
deposited the preaching of his word and the observance of his mysteries?
On the other hand, who may presume to give the name of Church, without
reservation, to that assembly by which the word of God is openly and
with impunity trampled under foot - where his ministry, its chief
support, and the very soul of the Church, is destroyed?
What
then? (some one will say;) was there not a particle of the Church left
to the Jews from the date of their revolt to idolatry? The answer is
easy. First, I say that in the defection itself there were several
gradations; for we cannot hold that the lapses by which both Judas and
Israel turned aside from the pure worship of God were the same.
Jeroboam, when he fabricated the calves against the express prohibition
of God, and dedicated an unlawful place for worship, corrupted religion
entirely. The Jews became degenerate in manners and superstitious
opinions before they made any improper change in the external form of
religion. For although they had adopted many perverse ceremonies under
Rehoboam, yet, as the doctrine of the law and the priesthood, and the
rites which God had instituted, continued at Jerusalem the pious still
had the Church in a tolerable state.
While the Northern Kingdom of Israel fundamentally corrupted its essential worship, Judah, at least for a time, kept what we might call its "constitutional" integrity, even while, in practice, they engaged in much erroneous thinking and practice. I think that Calvin here is hinting at the same distinction he mentioned earlier when he was discussing how much lack of discipline ought to be tolerated in a church before declaring it a false church. So long as it remains in principle or constitutionally committed to following God's Word, it can still be regarded as a true church even if it has many problems and even scandals. But once it institutionally turns against God's Word, it can no longer be regarded as a true church. Of course, there are nuances to this distinction that require further elaboration. In regard to the Israelites,
matters which, up to the time of Ahab, had certainly not been reformed,
then became worse. Those who succeeded him, until the overthrow of the
kingdom, were partly like him, and partly (when they wished to be
somewhat better) followed the example of Jeroboam, while and without
exceptions were wicked and idolatrous. In Judea different changes now
and then took place, some kings corrupting the worship of God by false
and superstitious inventions, and others attempting to reform it, until,
at length, the priests themselves polluted the temple of God by profane
and abominable rites.
Now then let the Papists, in
order to extenuate their vices as much as possible, deny if they can,
that the state of religion is as much vitiated and corrupted with them
as it was in the kingdom of Israel under Jeroboam. They have a grosser
idolatry, and in doctrine are not one whit more pure, rather perhaps
they are even still more impure. God, nay, even those possessed of a
moderate degree of judgement, will bear me witness, and the thing itself
is too manifest to require me to enlarge upon it.
When
they would force us to the communion of their Church, they make two
demands upon us - first, that we join in their prayers, their
sacrifices, and all their ceremonies; and, secondly, that whatever
honour, power, and jurisdiction, Christ has given to his Church, the
same we must attribute to theirs.
In regard to the
first, I admit that all the prophets who were at Jerusalem, when matters
there were very corrupt, neither sacrificed apart nor held separate
meetings for prayer. For they had the command of God, which enjoined
them to meet in the temple of Solomon, and they knew that the Levitical
priests, whom the Lord had appointed over sacred matters, and who were
not yet discarded, how unworthy soever they might be of that honour,
were still entitled to hold it, (Exod. 29: 9.) But the principal point
in the whole question is, that they were not compelled to any
superstitious worship, nay, they undertook nothing but what had been
instituted by God.
But in these men, I mean the
Papists, where is the resemblance? Scarcely can we hold any meeting with
them without polluting ourselves with open idolatry. Their principal
bond of communion is undoubtedly in the Mass, which we abominate as the
greatest sacrilege. Whether this is justly or rashly done will be
elsewhere seen, (see chap. 18; see also Book 2, chap. 15, sec. 6.) It is
now sufficient to show that our case is different from that of the
prophets, who, when they were present at the sacred rites of the
ungodly, were not obliged to witness or use any ceremonies but those
which were instituted by God.
But if we would have an
example in all respects similar, let us take one from the kingdom of
Israel. Under the ordinance of Jeroboam, circumcision remained,
sacrifices were offered, the law was deemed holy, and the God whom they
had received from their fathers was worshipped; but in consequence of
invented and forbidden modes of worship, everything which was done there
God disapproved and condemned. Show me one prophet or pious man who
once worshipped or offered sacrifice in Bethel. They knew that they
could not do it without defiling themselves with some kind of sacrilege.
We hold, therefore, that the communion of the Church ought not to be
carried so far by the godly as to lay them under a necessity of
following it when it has degenerated to profane and polluted rites.
Separation from Rome in worship is justified on the same grounds as separation from the the worship of the ancient Northern Kingdom of Israel: In both cases, the worship of God has been unavoidably polluted with idolatrous practices, making it impossible to righteously participate in it.
With
regard to the second point, our objections are still stronger. For when
the Church is considered in that particular point of view as the
Church, whose judgement we are bound to revere, whose authority
acknowledge, whose admonitions obey, whose censures dread, whose
communion religiously cultivate in every respect, we cannot concede that
they have a Church, without obliging ourselves to subjection and
obedience.
When we think of the church as that institution that has authority--that is, as a lawful church with lawful authority--we cannot
grant the name of "church" to the Roman church without having to be in
subjection to them in obedience. This is because, as Calvin argued
earlier, true, lawful churches have true, lawful officers and church courts which justly demand our submission, and communion with them is necessarily required. So in order to justify a refusal
of submission to their authority and a refraining from being in
communion with them, we must deny them the name of a lawful church.
Still we are willing to concede what the Prophets conceded to the Jews
and Israelites of their day, when with them matters were in a similar,
or even in a better condition. For we see how they uniformly exclaim
against their meetings as profane conventicles, to which it is not more
lawful for them to assent than to abjure God, (Isa. 1: 14.) And
certainly if those were churches, it follows, that Elijah, Micaiah, and
others in Israel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea, and those of like character
in Judah, whom the prophets, priests, and people of their day, hated and
execrated more than the uncircumcised, were aliens from the Church of
God. If those were churches, then the Church was no longer the pillar of
the truth (1 Tim. 3:15), but the stay of falsehood, not the tabernacle
of the living God, but a receptacle of idols. They were, therefore,
under the necessity of refusing consent to their meetings, since consent
was nothing else than impious conspiracy against God.
For
this same reason, should any one acknowledge those meetings of the
present day, which are contaminated by idolatry, superstition, and
impious doctrine, as churches, full communion with which a Christian
must maintain so far as to agree with them even in doctrine, he will
greatly err. For if they are churches, the power of the keys belongs to
them, whereas the keys are inseparably connected with the word which
they have put to flight. Again, if they are churches, they can claim the
promise of Christ, "Whatsoever ye bind," &c.; whereas, on the
contrary, they discard from their communion all who sincerely profess
themselves the servants of Christ. Therefore, either the promise of
Christ is vain, or in this respect, at least, they are not churches. In
fine, instead of the ministry of the word, they have schools of impiety,
and sinks of all kinds of error. Therefore, in this point of view, they
either are not churches, or no badge will remain by which the lawful
meetings of the faithful can be distinguished from the meetings of
Turks.
The Romanist church is not a
true church, because to call them a "true church" would imply a moral
requirement to be in "full communion" with them, and it would imply that
they have the "power of the keys" (that is, lawful ecclesiastical
authority that must be submitted to). (Again, we see that Calvin would
not recognize the modern idea of "denominationalism," where it is deemed
at some times acceptable to give the title of "true church" or "lawful church" to a body
while remaining out of full communion with that body [such as by remaining
denominationally separate from them] and not submitting to their authority [by not
allowing them to share in the mutually-binding, collegial authority of the whole church, such as is manifested in the binding decrees of lawful
councils--for Calvin's view of councils, see chapter 9].)
Still,
as in ancient times, there remained among the Jews certain special
privileges of a Church, so in the present day we deny not to the Papists
those vestiges of a Church which the Lord has allowed to remain among
them amid the dissipation. When the Lord had once made his covenant with
the Jews, it was preserved not so much by them as by its own strength,
supported by which it withstood their impiety. Such, then, is the
certainty and constancy of the divine goodness, that the covenant of the
Lord continued there, and his faith could not be obliterated by their
perfidy; nor could circumcision be so profaned by their impure hands as
not still to be a true sign and sacrament of his covenant. Hence the
children who were born to them the Lord called his own, (Ezek. 16: 20,)
though, unless by special blessing, they in no respect belonged to him.
So having deposited his covenant in Gaul, Italy, Germany, Spain, and
England, when these countries were oppressed by the tyranny of
Antichrist, He, in order that his covenant might remain inviolable,
first preserved baptism there as an evidence of the covenant; - baptism,
which, consecrated by his lips, retains its power in spite of human
depravity; secondly, He provided by his providence that there should be
other remains also to prevent the Church from utterly perishing. But as
in pulling down buildings the foundations and ruins are often permitted
to remain, so he did not suffer Antichrist either to subvert his Church
from its foundation, or to level it with the ground, (though, to punish
the ingratitude of men who had despised his word, he allowed a fearful
shaking and dismembering to take place,) but was pleased that amid the
devastation the edifice should remain, though half in ruins.
Therefore
while we are unwilling simply to concede the name of Church to the
Papists we do not deny that there are churches among them. The question
we raise only relates to the true and legitimate constitution of the
Church, implying communion in sacred rites, which are the signs of
profession, and especially in doctrine.
Here we have a very important distinction. The Romanist church cannot be called a "true church," in the sense of having "a true and legitimate constitution . . . implying communion in sacred rites . . . and especially in doctrine." That is, they are not a lawful church. In another sense, however, they can be called a church, in that they retain certain characteristics of the church. (See below.)
Daniel and Paul foretold that Antichrist would sit in the temple of
God, (Dan. 9: 27; 2 Thess. 2: 4;) we regard the Roman Pontiff as the
leader and standard-bearer of that wicked and abominable kingdom. By
placing his seat in the temple of God, it is intimated that his kingdom
would not be such as to destroy the name either of Christ or of his
Church. Hence, then, it is obvious, that we do not at all deny that
churches remain under his tyranny; churches, however, which by
sacrilegious impiety he has profaned, by cruel domination has oppressed,
by evil and deadly doctrines like poisoned potions has corrupted and
almost slain; churches where Christ lies half-buried, the gospel is
suppressed, piety is put to flight, and the worship of God almost
abolished; where, in short, all things are in such disorder as to
present the appearance of Babylon rather than the holy city of God. In
one word, I call them churches, inasmuch as the Lord there wondrously
preserves some remains of his people, though miserably torn and
scattered, and inasmuch as some symbols of the Church still remain -
symbols especially whose efficacy neither the craft of the devil nor
human depravity can destroy. But as, on the other hand, those marks to
which we ought especially to have respect in this discussion are
effaced, I say that the whole body, as well as every single assembly,
want the form of a legitimate Church.
The Romanist church is not a "true church"--that is, a "legitimate" church--because they have perverted the true doctrine of Christ found in his Word and therefore do not have the marks of the true church. However, in another sense, they are
a true church, in the sense that "the Lord there wondrously preserves
some remains of his people, though
miserably torn and scattered, and inasmuch as some symbols of the Church
still remain - symbols especially whose efficacy neither the craft of
the devil nor human depravity can destroy." That is, there are true
Christians, true members of the people of God, in the Romanist church, and also
the Romanist church has retained some true doctrine and some symbols of
the church (such as the sacraments) through which God still works
to nourish his people who are there. Despite the corruption, the Body of Christ still lives within the Romanist institution.
Calvin here makes basically the same distinction I have drawn in a number of places using the terms de facto and de jure. (See here and here, for example) I described this distinction in the latter cited article in this way: "The church de facto
refers to the actual existence of the church throughout the world.
Wherever there are those who profess the true religion, and where the
Body of Christ is maintained, there we have, in fact, the Body of
Christ, the church. There is no doubt but that the Body of Christ,
de facto, can exist in
a multiplicity of denominations. The church de jure,
on the other hand, refers to the church as formally recognized and as
being properly and legally constituted. The two are not coextensive."
Is there salvation outside of the de jure church? Calvin says that there is not, but he also indicates that in a sense there can be. There is no salvation outside the de jure church in the sense that complete commitment to the doctrines clearly taught in the Word of God is required for salvation. No command in the Word of God is optional. No command can be rejected with impunity. To reject any clear doctrine of Scripture is to reject God and thus forfeit salvation. However, Calvin earlier cited Augustine who noted that there are "many sheep without" the visible church (as well as "many wolves within"), and here, while denying that the Romanist church (whether as a whole or in any single congregation) is a true (that is, a lawful, or de jure) church, he also acknowledges that the true people of God remain in it and that the means of grace are still operating in it (implying clearly that salvation is possible in it). The resolution, presumably, is that while no doctrine of Scripture can be rejected with impunity, yet due to the fallen condition of this world it often comes to pass that
through various hindrances (ignorance, confusion, lack of opportunity,
etc.) true sheep of Christ are prevented from being a part of the de jure church in various ways or in other ways go astray to some degree. They are still the sheep of Christ, and so the church de facto is present with them, but they lack the legitimate, de jure form of the true church because they institutionally deviate from God's Word in various ways; and therefore while we acknowledge them and presumably maintain informal fellowship with them as much as possible, we cannot formally unite with their ecclesiastical institutions as if they were true de jure churches.
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