Necessity of Reforming the Church 1 of 4 (1544) — John Calvin

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Calvin's Threefold Case for Reform

The Necessity of Reforming the Church, by John Calvin, presented to the Imperial Diet at Spires, A .D. 1544, in the name of all who wish Christ to reign. As read by Samantha Ellosys. Preface. The next, and unquestionably the most important tract of the volume, is The Necessity of Reforming the Church, which is written in the form of an address to the Diet which met at Spires in 1543, and bears to be presented in the name of all who would have Christ to reign.

It does not appear that Calvin was actually employed by the Protestants of Germany, but he writes in their name and with an ability which must have been of essential service to their cause. His object being to justify the course which the Reformers had taken, he proposes to consider the three following points.

First, the evils which compelled the Reformers to have recourse to remedies. Second, the particular remedies which they employed. And third, the necessity of an immediate application of these remedies.

It is obvious that these heads embrace the whole question at issue between the Protestants and those who, whether nominally of the Romish Church or not, favor its pretensions. This treatise, accordingly, is not of the ephemeral interest of the Diet which gave occasion to it, but embraces the great questions by which the Church is agitated at the present day.

Indeed, in reading it, one is often led insensibly into the belief that instead of being the production of three centuries ago, it is a powerful protest written by some modern hand against the prevailing errors and threatened dangers of our own times.

It is certainly melancholy to think that the Church should still be combating errors which were so long ago triumphantly refuted. But it is pleasing to think that that refutation still exists and is now to obtain through the medium of Calvin Translation Society a circulation far more extensive than it has ever had yet.

Everyone who studies it thoroughly puts himself in possession of a weapon offensive and defensive which will enable him within his own sphere to fight the battle of true Protestantism against open enemies and treacherous friends.

The occasion on which the necessity of reforming the Church was written was well fitted to call forth Calvin's utmost powers. He had undertaken to plead the cause which was dearest to his heart before an assembly perhaps the most august that Europe could then have furnished.

In similar circumstances, the advocate is usually dispirited by a consciousness that his efforts will be unavailing, but on this occasion there was some ground to hope that he might not plead in vain.

Not only were several princes of the Empire and other members of the Diet avowedly in favor of the Protestant cause, but the Emperor himself seemed not indisposed to do it justice. The strongest passions of his mind were ambition and bigotry and when both could be gratified the Protestants had everything to fear.

Now, however, the two passions were at variance and it was generally supposed that when the Emperor found it impossible to prosecute his ambitious schemes without conciliating the Protestants he would take the necessary steps for that purpose though it should be at the expense of a rupture with Rome.

Hence this Diet was looked forward to with the deepest interest by all parties. Calvin's task thus was not merely to give a solid unimpassioned defense of Protestant doctrine but to work upon the minds of those whom he addressed and suggest and enforce considerations which, while founded on Christian principles, would not be without influence on mere politicians.

His style accordingly is more animated than he might have deemed necessary or becoming in an ordinary theological discussion and passages occasionally occur which, in point of eloquence, would not lose by comparison with anything in the celebrated dedication prefixed to his institutes.

Those who betray their ignorance while they would display their wit by sneering at Calvin as a dry, crab-lumbering theologian would do well to read this treatise which certainly proves that his distinguished author had he been so disposed might easily have obtained a first place in literature and political science.

Happily for himself and for the world at large he was directed to a better course a course which, while it might have seemed to have shut him out from fame has given it to him in a purer form and to a wider extent than mere literature and statesmanship could have bestowed.

The expectations which the Protestants had entertained though not fully realized by the Diet of Spires were not altogether disappointed. Of this we have a very complete and interesting proof in the next tract of the present volume.

The Diet decreed that in the meantime Protestants should continue in the possession of their rights and a promise was given by the Emperor that no time would be lost in assembling a general council for the final determination of religious differences.

His Holiness Pope Paul III appears to have been horrified at these concessions. He was equally grieved and provoked at the threatened revolt of his very dear son, the Emperor and having, as he says, the example of Eli before him felt bound to eschew it in order that he might not expose himself to Eli's punishment.

He accordingly addressed the Emperor in what is designated a paternal admonition warning him of the dangers to which his evil communication with heretics was exposing him and concluding with a very significant hint of the punishment which His Holiness, notwithstanding of his natural meekness might be compelled by an imperative sense of duty to inflict.

The whole admonition affords a curious and if any need it a very convincing specimen of the arrogant pretensions of the Church of Rome. Calvin's remarks are occasionally written in a harsher spirit than might be wished.

The animate versions may not be beyond the Pope's deserts but it must be admitted that Calvin while thinking only of what was due to his opponent has sometimes forgotten what was due to himself. The excuse that he wrote in the spirit of his age though the best that can be offered is not quite satisfactory as it may be rejoined that men endowed with such talents as Calvin possessed are bound not to follow but to guide and when necessary to contradict the spirit of their age.

Still, overlooking the occasional harshness of the remarks it is impossible to deny that they are full of talent and learning and most effectually refute the arrogant pretensions of the Romish see. In particular, the Pope's unfortunate allusion to the case of Eli's sons is made to tell so powerfully against him that Pellavicini, in his history of the Council of Trent has judged it necessary to come to the rescue.

His defense, however, is more zealous than wise. Without denying the immoralities with which Calvin had charged the Pope he merely argues that such immoralities if held to exclude the party guilty of them from proceeding against other delinquents would put an end to all discipline in government.

It may be made a question by which of the two the Pope suffered most the severity of Calvin's remarks or the ingeniousness of Pellavicini's defense. End of Preface. To the most invincible Emperor Charles V and the most illustrious princes in other orders now holding a Diet of the Empire at Spires a humble exhortation seriously to undertake the task of restoring the Church presented in the name of all those who wish Christ to reign.

The Necessity of Immediate Ecclesial Reform

August Emperor You have summoned this Diet that, in concert with the most illustrious princes in other orders of the Empire you may at length deliberate and decide upon the means of ameliorating the present condition of the Church which we all see to be very miserable and almost desperate.

Now, therefore, while you are seated at this consultation I humbly beg and implore first of your Imperial Majesty and at the same time of you also most illustrious princes and distinguished personages that you will not decline to read and diligently ponder what I have to lay before you.

The magnitude and weightiness of the cause may well excite in you an eagerness to hear and I will set the matter so plainly in your view that you can have no difficulty in determining what course to adopt.

Whoever I am I am here to profess I here profess to plead in defense both of sound doctrine and of the Church. In this character I seem at all events entitled to expect that you will not deny me audience until such time as it may appear whether I falsely usurp the character or whether I faithfully perform its duties and make good what I profess.

But though I feel that I am by no means equal to so great a task I am not at all afraid that after you have heard the nature of my office I shall be accused either of folly or presumption in having ventured thus to appear before you.

There are two circumstances by which men are wont to recommend or at least to justify their conduct. If a thing is done honestly and from pious zeal we deem it worthy of praise. If it is done under the pressure of public necessity we at least deem it not unworthy of excuse.

Since both of these apply here I am confident from your equity that I shall easily obtain your approval of my design. For where can I exert myself to better purpose or more honesty where to in a matter at this time more necessary than in attempting according to my ability to aid the church of Christ whose claims it is unlawful in any instance to deny and which is now in grievous distress and in extreme danger.

But there is no occasion for a long preface concerning myself. Receive what I say as you would do if it were pronounced by the united voice of all those who would either have already taken care to restore the church or are desirous that it should be restored to true order.

In this situation are several princes of not the humblest class and not a few distinguished communities. For all these I speak though as an individual yet so that it is more truly they who at once and with one mouth speak through me.

To these add the countless multitude of pious men who scattered over the various regions of the Christian world still unanimously concur with me in this pleading. In short, regard this as the common address of all who so earnestly deplore the present corruption of the church that they are unable to bear it longer and are determined not to rest till they see some amendment.

I am aware of the odious names with which we are branded but meanwhile whatever be the name by which it is thought proper to designate us hear our cause and after you have heard judge what the place is which we are entitled to hold.

First then, the question is not whether the church labors under diseases both numerous and grievous this is admitted even by all moderate judges but whether the diseases are of a kind the cure of which admits not of longer delay and as to which therefore it is neither useful nor becoming to await the result of slow remedies.

We are accused of rash and impious innovation for having ventured to propose any change at all on the former state of the church. What? Even if it had not been done either without cause or imperfectly?

I hear there are persons who even in this case do not hesitate to condemn us their opinion being that we were indeed right in desiring amendment but not right in attempting it. From such persons all I would ask at present is that they will for a little suspend their judgment until I have shown from fact that we have not been prematurely hasty have not attempted anything rashly anything alien from our duty have in fine done nothing until compelled by the highest necessity.

To enable me to prove this it is necessary to attend to the matters in dispute. We maintain then that at the commencement when God raised up Luther and others who held forth a torch to light us in the way of salvation and who by their ministry founded and reared our churches those heads of doctrine in which the truth of our religion those in which the pure and legitimate worship of God and those in which the salvation of men are comprehended were in a great measure obsolete.

We maintain that the use of the sacraments was in many ways vitiated and polluted and we maintain that the government of the church was converted into a species of foul and insufferable tyranny. But perhaps these averments have not forced enough to move certain individuals until they are better explained.

This therefore I will do not as the subject demands but as far as my ability will permit. Here however I have no intention to review and discuss all our controversies that would require a long discourse and this is not the place for it.

I wish only to show how just and necessary the causes were which forced us to the changes for which we are blamed. To accomplish this I must take up together the three following points. First, I must briefly enumerate the evils which compelled us to seek for remedies.

Secondly, I must show that the particular remedies which our reformers employed were apt and salutary. Thirdly, I must make it plain that we were not at liberty any longer to delay putting forth our hand in as much as the matter demanded instant amendment.

The Foundations of Christian Religion

The first point, as I merely advert to it for the purpose of clearing my way to the other two, I will endeavor to dispose of in a few words but in wiping off the heavy charge of sacrilegious audacity and sedition founded on the allegation that we have improperly and with intemperate haste beserved an office which did not belong to us I will dwell at greater length.

If it be required then by what things chiefly the Christian religion has a standing existence amongst us and maintains its truth it will be found that the following two not only occupy the principal place but comprehend under them all the other parts and consequently the whole substance of Christianity that is, a knowledge first, of the mode in which God is duly worshipped and secondly, of the source from which salvation is to be obtained.

When these are kept out of view though we may glory in the name of Christians our profession is empty in vain. After these come the sacraments and the government of the church which as they were instituted for the preservation of these branches of doctrine ought not to be employed for any other purpose and indeed the only means of ascertaining whether they are administered purely and in due form or otherwise is to bring them to this test.

If anyone is desirous of a clearer and more familiar illustration I would say that rule in the church, the pastoral office and all other matters of order resemble the body whereas the doctrine which regulates the due worship of God and points out the ground on which the consciences of men must rest their hope of salvation is the soul which animates the body renders it lively and active and in short, makes it not to be a dead and useless carcass.

As to what I have yet said there is no controversy among the pious or among men of right and sane mind. Let us now see what is meant by the due worship of God. Its chief foundation is to acknowledge Him to be as He is the only source of all virtue, justice, holiness, wisdom, truth power, goodness, mercy, life and salvation.

In accordance with this to ascribe and render to Him the glory of all that is good to seek all things in Him alone and in every want have recourse to Him alone. Hence arises prayer hence praise and thanksgiving these being attestations to the glory which we attribute to Him.

This is that genuine sanctification of His name which He requires of us above all things. To this is united adoration by which we manifest for Him the reverence due to His greatness and excellency. And to this ceremonies are subservient as helps or instruments in order that in the performance of divine worship the body may be exercised at the same time with the soul.

Next after these comes self-abasement when renouncing the world and the flesh we are transformed in the renewing of our mind and living no longer to ourselves submit to be ruled and actuated by Him. By this self-abasement we are trained to obedient and devotedness to His will so that His fear reigns in our hearts and regulates all the actions of our lives.

That in these things consists the true and sincere worship which alone God approves and which alone He delights is both taught by the Holy Spirit throughout the scriptures and is also antecedent to the discussion the obvious dictate of piety.

Nor from the beginning was there any other method of worshipping God the only difference being that this spiritual truth which with us is naked and simple was under the former dispensation wrapped up in figures and this is the meaning of our Saviour's words The hour cometh and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth.

John 4 verse 23. For by these words He meant not to declare that God was not worshipped by the fathers in the spiritual manner but only to point out a distinction in the external form that is, that while they had the spirit shadowed forth by many figures we have it in simplicity but it has always been an acknowledged point that God, who is a spirit, must be worshipped in spirit and in truth.

Moreover, the rule which distinguishes between pure and vitiated worship is of universal application in order that we may not adopt any device which seems fit to ourselves but look to the injunctions of Him who alone is entitled to prescribe.

Therefore, if we would have Him to approve our worship this rule which He everywhere enforces with the utmost strictness must be carefully observed. For there is a twofold reason why the Lord, in condemning and prohibiting all fictitious worship requires us to give obedience only to His own voice.

First, it tends greatly to establish His authority that we do not follow our own pleasure but depend entirely on His sovereignty. And secondly, such is our folly that when we are left at liberty all we are able to do is to go astray.

And then when once we have turned aside from the right path there is no end to our wanderings until we get buried under a multitude of superstitions. Justly, therefore, does the Lord in order to assert His full right of dominion strictly enjoin what He wishes us to do and at once reject all human devices which are at variance with His command.

Justly, too, does He in express terms define our limits that we may not, by fabricating perverse modes of worship provoke His anger against us. I know how difficult it is to persuade the world that God disapproves of all modes of worship not expressly sanctioned by His word.

The opposite persuasion which cleaves to them being seated as it were in their very bones and marrow is that whatever they do has in itself a sufficient sanction provided it exhibits some kind of zeal for the honor of God.

But since God not only regards as fruitless but also plainly abominates whatever we undertake from zeal to His worship if at variance with His command what do we gain by a contrary course? The words of God are clear and distinct.

Obedience is better than sacrifice. In vain do they worship Me teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. Every addition to His word especially in this matter is a lie. Mere will-worship is vanity.

This is the decision and when once the judge has decided it is no longer time to debate. Will Your Imperial Majesty now be pleased to recognize and will You, most illustrious princes lend me Your attention while I show how utterly at variance with this view are all the observances in which throughout the Christian world in the present day divine worship is made to consist.

Worship, the Saints, and the Glory of God

In word, in deed, they concede to God the glory of all that is good but in reality they rob Him of the half or more than the half by partitioning His perfections among the saints. Let our adversaries use what evasions they may and defame us for exaggerating what they pretend to be trivial errors I will simply state the fact as every man perceives it.

Divine offices are distributed among the saints as if they had been appointed colleagues to the Supreme God and in a multitude of instances they are made to do His work while He is kept out of view. The thing I complain of is just what everybody confesses by a vulgar proverb for what is meant by saying the Lord cannot be known for apostles unless it be that by the height to which apostles are raised the dignity of Christ is sunk or at least obscured.

The consequence of this perversity is that mankind forsaking the function of living waters have learned as Jeremiah tells us to hew them out cisterns broken cisterns that can hold no water. Jeremiah 2 verse 13.

For where is it that they seek for salvation and every other good? Is it in God alone? The whole tenor of their lives openly proclaims the contrary they say indeed that they seek salvation and every other good in Him but it is merely pretense seeing they seek them elsewhere.

Of this fact we have clear proof in the corruptions by which prayer was first vitiated and afterwards in a great measure perverted and extinguished. We have observed that prayer affords a test whether or not suppliants render due glory to God.

In like manner will it enable us to discover whether after robbing Him of His glory they transfer it to the creatures. In genuine prayer something more is required than mere entreaty. The suppliant must feel assured that God is the only being to whom he ought to flee both because he only can succor Him in necessity and also because he has engaged to do it.

But no man can have this conviction unless he pays regard both to the command by which God calls us to Himself and to the promise of listening to our prayers which is annexed to the command. The command was not thus regarded when the generality of mankind invoked angels and dead men promiscuously with God and the wiser part if they did not invoke them instead of God at least regarded them as mediators at whose intercession God granted their requests.

Where then was the promise which is founded entirely on the intercession of Christ? Passing by Christ the only mediator each betook himself to the patron who had struck his fancy or if at any time a place was given to Christ it was one in which he remained unnoticed like some ordinary individual in a crowd.

Then although nothing is more repugnant to the nature of genuine prayer than doubt and distrust so much did these prevail that they were almost regarded as necessary in order to pray aright. And why was this?

Just because the world understood not the force of the expression in which God invites us to pray to Him engages to do whatsoever we ask in reliance on His command and promise and sets forth Christ as the advocate in whose name our prayers are heard.

Besides, let the public prayers which are in common use in churches be examined. It will be found that they are stained with numberless impurities. From them, therefore, we have it in our power to judge how much this part of divine worship was vitiated.

Nor was there less corruption in the expressions of thanksgiving. To this fact, testimony is borne by the public hymns in which the saints are lauded for every blessing just as if they were the colleagues of God.

Images, Ceremonies, and Human Inventions

Then what shall I say of adoration? Do not men pay to images and statues the very same reverence which they pay to God? It is an error to suppose that there is any difference between this madness and that of the heathen.

For God forbids us not only to worship images but he also forbids us to regard them as the residents of his divinity and worship it as residing in them. The very same pretext which the patrons of this abomination employ in the present day were formerly employed by the heathen to cloak their impiety.

Besides, it is undeniable that saints, nay their very bones, garments, shoes and images are adored even in the place of God. But some subtle disfusion will object that there are diverse species of adoration that the honor of dulya, as they term it, is given to saints, their images and their bones and that latria is reserved for God as due to him only unless we are to accept hyperdulya a species which, as the infatuation increased was invented to set the blessed virgin above the rest.

As if these subtle distinctions were either known or present to the minds of those who would prostrate themselves before images. Meanwhile, the world is full of idolatry not less grossed and, if I may so speak, not less capable of being felt than was the ancient idolatry of the Egyptians which all the prophets everywhere so strongly reprobate.

I am merely glancing at each of these corruptions because I will afterwards more clearly expose their demerits. I come now to ceremonies which, while they ought to be grave attestations of divine worship are rather a mere mockery of God.

A new Judaism as a substitute for that which God had distinctly abrogated has again been reared up by means of numerous puerile extravagancies collected from different quarters and with these have been mixed up certain impious rites partly borrowed from the heathen and more adapted to some theatrical show than to the dignity of our religion.

The first evil here is that an immense number of ceremonies which God had by his authority abrogated once and for all have been again revived. The next evil is that while ceremonies ought to be living exercises of piety men are vainly occupied with numbers of them that are both frivolous and useless.

But by far the most deadly evil of all is that after men have thus mocked God with ceremonies of one kind or other they think they have fulfilled their duty as admirably as if these ceremonies included in them the whole essence of piety and divine worship.

With regard to self-abasement on which depends regeneration to newness of life the whole doctrine was entirely obliterated from the minds of men or at least half buried so that it was known to few and to them but slenderly.

But the spiritual sacrifice which the Lord in a special manner recommends is to mortify the old and be transformed into a new man. It may be perhaps the preachers stammer out something about these words that they have no idea of the things meant by them is apparent even from this that they strenuously oppose us in our attempt to restore this branch of divine worship.

If at any time they discourse on repentance they only glance as if in contempt at the points of principal moment and dwell entirely on certain external exercises of the body which as Paul assures us are not of the highest utility.

Colossians 2 .23 and 1st Timothy 4 .8. What makes this perverseness the more intolerable is that the generality under a pernicious error pursue the shadow for the substance and overlooking true repentance devote their whole attention to abstinences, vigils and other things which Paul terms beggarly elements of the world.

Having observed that the word of God is the test which discriminates between his true worship and that which is false and vitiated we sense readily infer that the whole form of divine worship in general use in the present day is nothing but mere corruption.

For men pay no regard to what God has commanded or to what he approves in order that they may serve him in a becoming manner but assume to themselves a license of devising modes of worship and afterwards obtruding them upon him as a substitute for obedience.

If in what I say I seem to exaggerate let an examination be made of all the acts by which the generalities suppose that they worship God. I dare scarcely accept a tenth part as not the random offspring of their own brain.

What more would we? God rejects, condemns, abominates all fictitious worship and employs his word as a bridle to keep us in unqualified obedience. When shaking off this yoke we wander after our own fictions and offer to him a worship the work of human rashness how much so ever it may delight ourselves in his sight it is a vain trifling nay vileness and pollution.

The advocates of human traditions paint them in fair and gaudy colors and Paul certainly admits that they carry with them a show of wisdom but as God values obedience more than all sacrifices it ought to be sufficient for the rejection of any mode of worship that it is not sanctioned by the command of God.

Salvation by Christ Rather Than Works

We come now to what we have set down as a second principal branch of doctrine Christian doctrine that is knowledge of the source from which our salvation is to be obtained. Now the knowledge of our salvation presents three different stages first we must begin with a sense of individual wretchedness filling us with despondency as if we were spiritually dead.

This effect is produced when the original and hereditary depravity of our nature is set before us as the source of all evil a depravity which begets in us distrust, rebellion against God pride, avarice, lust and all kinds of evil concupiscence and making us averse to all rectitude and justice hold us captive under the yoke of sin and when moreover each individual on the disclosure of his own sins feeling confounded at his turpitude is forced to be dissatisfied with himself and to account himself and all that he has of his own as less than nothing then on the other hand conscience being cited to the bar of God becomes sensible of the curse under which it lies and as if it had received a warning of eternal death learns to tremble at the divine anger.

This I say is the first stage in the way to salvation when the sinner overwhelmed and prostrated despairs of all carnal aid yet does not harden himself against the justice of God or becomes stupidly callous but trembling and anxious groans in agony and sighs for relief.

From this he should rise to the second stage. This he does when animated by the knowledge of Christ he again begins to breathe for to one humbled in the manner in which we have described no other course remains but to turn to Christ that through his interposition he may be delivered from misery.

But the only man who thus seeks salvation in Christ is the man who is aware of the extent of his power. That is acknowledges him as the only priest who reconciles us to the Father and his death as the only sacrifice by which sin is expiated the divine justice satisfied and a true and perfect righteousness acquired.

Who in fine does not divide the work between himself and Christ but acknowledges it to be by mere gratuitous favor that he is justified in the sight of God. From this stage also he must rise to the third when instructed in the grace of Christ and in the fruits of his death and resurrection he rests in him with firm and solid confidence feeling assured that Christ is so completely his own that he possesses in him righteousness and life.

Now see how sadly this doctrine has been perverted on the subject of original sin. Perplexing questions have been raised by the schoolmen who have done what they could to explain away this fatal disease.

For in their discussions to reduce it to little more than excess of bodily appetite. For in their discussions they reduce it to little more than excess of bodily appetite and lust of that blindness and vanity of intellect.

Whence unbelief and superstition proceed of inward depravity of soul of pride ambition stubbornness and other secret sources of evil. They say not a word and sermons are not a wit more sound then as to the doctrine of free will as preached before Luther and other reformers appeared.

What effect could it have but to fill men with an overweening opinion of their own virtue swelling them out with vanity and leaving no room for the grace and assistance of the Holy Spirit. But why dwell on this.

There is no point which is more keenly contested. None in which our adversaries are more inveterate in their opposition than that of justification namely as to whether we obtain it by faith or by works.

On no account will they allow us to give Christ the honor of being called our righteousness unless their works come in at the same time for a share of the merit. The dispute is not whether good works ought to be performed by the pious and whether they are accepted by God and rewarded by Him but whether by their own worth they reconcile us to God.

Whether we acquire eternal life as their price. Whether they are compensations which are made to the justice of God so as to take away guilt and whether they are to be confided in as a ground of salvation we condemn the error which enjoins men to have more respect to their own works than to Christ by the means of rendering God propitious of meriting His favor and obtaining the inheritance of eternal life in short as a means of becoming righteous in His sight.

First they plume themselves on the merit of works as if they laid God under obligations to them pride such as this what is it but a fatal intoxication of soul. For instead of Christ they adore themselves and dream of possessing life while they are immersed in the profound abyss of death.

It may be said that I am exaggerating on this head. But no man can deny the trite doctrine of the schools and churches to be that it is by works we must merit the favor of God and by works acquire eternal life.

That any hope of salvation unpropped by good works is rash and presumptuous. That we are reconciled to God by the satisfaction of good works and not by gratuitous remission of sins. That good works are meritorious of eternal salvation not because they are freely imputed for righteousness through the merits of Christ but in terms of law.

And that men as often as they lose the grace of God are reconciled to him not by a free pardon but by what they term works of satisfaction these works being supplemented by the merits of Christ and martyrs provided only the sinner deserves to be so assisted.

It is certain that before Luther became known to the world all men were fascinated by these impious dogmas. And even in the present day there is no part of our doctrine which our opponents impugn with greater earnestness and obstinacy.

Lastly there was another most pestilential error which not only occupied the minds of men but was regarded as one of the principal articles of faith and of which it was impious to doubt. That is that believers ought to be perpetually in suspense and uncertainty as to their interest in the divine favor.

By this suggestion of the devil the power of faith was completely extinguished the benefits of Christ purchased destroyed and the salvation of men overthrown. For as Paul declares that faith only is Christian faith which inspires our hearts with confidence and emboldens us to appear in the presence of God Romans 5 verse 2.

On no other view could his doctrine in another passage be maintained. That is that we have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba Father. Romans 8 verse 15 footnote that we have the testimony of our adoption inwardly from the Holy Spirit trusting to which we call God our Father.

End of footnote. But what is the effect of that hesitancy which our enemies require in their disciples save to annihilate all confidence in the promises of God. Paul argues that if they which are of the law be heirs faith is made void and the promise made of none effect.