Erasmus finishes the preface by refusing to measure the truth by a count of votes, and then refusing to hand the meaning of Scripture to a private spirit. He grants that Scripture alone outweighs every human voice, and adds at once that both sides embrace the same Scripture and dispute its sense. Against Wycliffe he does not ask what is left to grace. He asks what is left to our prayers and our endeavor. He will not say these things of Luther in particular, whom he has never seen. He says them of men who demand belief because they claim the evangelical Spirit, though none of them has yet healed a lame horse. The preface ends where he says it ends: half the book is done, and truth may flash from the comparison of Scriptures as fire from the striking of flints.

Today’s Readings

Desiderius Erasmus — On the Freedom of the Will, A Discussion or Comparison

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Erasmus does not open with a proof. He opens by refusing a fight. He has never sworn to Luther’s words, he will not match him sword for sword, and he would rather leave the labyrinth of free choice unentered than publish, before everyone, the claim that whatever we do we do by sheer necessity. The first reading stays inside that preface: the fly and the elephant, the Corycian cave, what he thinks piety already knows, and the warning that some truths, even if true, are not expedient to spread. He stops on the crowd. Their minds, he says, are gross and carnal, prone to unbelief, and there is no need to add oil to the fire.

Today’s Readings

Desiderius Erasmus — On the Freedom of the Will, A Discussion or Comparison

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Calvin will not let the command to serve Nebuchadnezzar be treated as a special case for Israel. The ground is the gift of the kingdom. On whomsoever God confers it, him the subject is bound to serve. Exiles are told to pray for the peace of the city that carried them away. David, already anointed, will not stretch out his hand against Saul, because Saul is the Lord's anointed.

Mutual duty does not release the subject. A harsh father and a cruel husband do not free child or wife from their own duty. The private man is not the avenger. God raises deliverers by a lawful call, and he also uses men who do his work without knowing it. Lesser magistrates, appointed to curb kings, may not connive at tyranny. But obedience to men stops where it conflicts with obedience to God. Daniel refuses the decree. Israel is condemned for obeying Jeroboam. We ought to obey God rather than men.

Today's Reading John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 4, Chapter 20, Sections 28–32

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Calvin has described the magistrate as he ought to be: father of his country, pastor of the people, guardian of peace. Then he turns to the prince who is none of these things. Some live in sloth. Some sell judgments. Some pillage the poor and spend the plunder. Natural feeling hates the tyrant and loves the just king. Scripture goes farther.

The unjust prince also holds his power from God. The good ruler is a specimen of God's kindness. The tyrant is raised up to punish the people's iniquity. Both carry the same sacred majesty. Nebuchadnezzar, who stormed Jerusalem, was called king of kings because the God of heaven had given him the kingdom. Samuel told Israel what their kings would take, and still left them no right to resist. Jeremiah is plainer still. The nation that will not put its neck under Nebuchadnezzar's yoke, God himself will punish. The decree that sets a king on the throne is the same decree that forbids the subject to treat him according to his deserts.

Today's Reading John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 4, Chapter 20, Sections 24–27

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Calvin answers those who condemn every appeal to a judge. Paul claimed the rights of a Roman citizen and appealed to Caesar. That was not revenge. Revenge is the private desire to return evil for evil. The magistrate's sword is God's vengeance, exercised by the ministry of man.

Turning the other cheek remains. A Christian is born to bear injury, to pray for the one who curses him, and to overcome evil with good. That patience of heart does not forbid him to seek the magistrate's aid for his goods, or, for the public good, to call for the punishment of a man whom nothing but death will reform. Paul rebuked the rage for lawsuits at Corinth, not every just defence. Charity is the adviser. If the plea carries a man past charity, the cause is already lost.

The first duty of subjects is honour. Not the man, as if office could cloak cruelty, but the station, as a jurisdiction delegated from God. Obedience follows: edicts, tribute, public burdens, and prayer for those in authority. To resist the magistrate is to resist God. Private men do not put their hands to a public correction unless his command first frees them.

Today's Reading John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 4, Chapter 20, Sections 19–23

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Calvin answers the hard question. Christians are forbidden to kill. How, then, can a pious magistrate shed blood? He does not act for himself. The Lawgiver who forbade murder puts the sword in his minister's hand, so that murder does not go unpunished. Mercy still sits on the throne. Severity that only wounds, and clemency that lets the wicked run, are both cruelty.

The same office reaches war, when a whole country is robbed and no other remedy remains. John did not tell the soldiers to throw away their arms. He told them to be content with their pay. Anger, hatred, and private feeling are excluded. Taxes belong to the public burden. They are almost the blood of the people, and a prince who wastes them without cause is a robber.

Today's Reading John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 4, Chapter 20, Sections 10–13

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Calvin presses the magistrate to remember whose seat he holds. The tribunal is the throne of the living God. An unjust sentence pollutes it. The same thought is the consolation: the work is not a profane trade. It is an embassy.

To revile the office is to assail the One who gave it. Christ’s word to the disciples was about their own ministry, not a ban on kings. Forms of polity differ. Monarchy slides toward tyranny, aristocracy toward faction, popular rule toward sedition. He prefers several rulers where the choice is open, because men are defective. Where God has already appointed a form, the private wish for another is useless and harmful. The duty covers both tables: the honour of God, and justice to the poor, the stranger, and the innocent.

Today’s Reading John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 4, Chapter 20, Sections 6–9

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Calvin opens the chapter on civil government. The gospel promises a liberty that looks to Christ alone. Some hear that and want the courts pulled down. He will not have it. The kingdom of Christ is spiritual. Bond and free, Jew and Greek, stand in it together. None of that makes a magistrate an intruder.

Civil order is not pollution. While we are pilgrims, it keeps the peace, guards property, and restrains open blasphemy. It does not invent a worship. It refuses to let the worship God has given be publicly torn. The magistrate holds a commission. Scripture calls such men gods, not because they are divine, but because the judgment is committed to them. David, Isaiah, and Paul do not tell kings to abdicate. They tell them to kiss the Son and to be nursing-fathers of the Church.

Today’s Reading

John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 4, Chapter 20, Sections 1–5

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