Institutes of the Christian Religion

by John Calvin

and great ground of terror to the...

The certainty of this is the principal thing here taught. Moreover, the Lord, as it were by the way, commends the riches of his mercy by extending it to thousands, while he limits his vengeance to four generations.

The purport of this Commandment is, that the majesty of the name of God is to be held sacred.

In sum, therefore, it means, that we must not profane it by using it irreverently or contemptuously.

Wherefore it becomes us to regulate our minds and our tongues, so as never to think or speak of God and his mysteries without reverence and great soberness, and never, in estimating his works, to have any feeling towards him but one of deep veneration.

But the Commandment refers especially to the case of oaths, in which a perverse employment of the divine name is particularly detestable; and

God has, for good reason, divided his Law into two tables.

Understanding that the Lord would have our oaths to be a species of divine worship, we must be the more careful that they do not, instead of worship, contain insult, or contempt, and vilification.

His purpose was, neither to relax nor to curtail the Law, but to restore the true and genuine meaning,

If we attend to this we shall not suppose that Christ condemned all oaths but those only which transgressed the rule of the Law.

It is evident, from the oaths themselves, that the people were accustomed to think it enough if they avoided perjury, whereas the Law prohibits not perjury m...

Therefore our Lord, who is the best interpreter of the Law, reminds them that there is a sin not only...

How in swearing? Namely, by swea...

He rather refutes the sophistical subtilty of those who thought it nothing vainly to utter indirect oaths, imagining that they thus spared the holy name of God, whereas that name is inscribed on each of his mercies.

For this rash swearing has always prevailed in the world, notwithstanding that it is a profanation of the name of God.

These words make it clear, that the object in view was to meet the cavils by which the Jews thought they could extenuate their fault.

hold, therefore, that there is no better rule than so to regulate our oaths that they shall neither be rash, frivolous, promiscuous, nor passionate, but be made to serve a just necessity;

in other words, to vindicate the glory of God, or promote the edification of a brother. This is the end of the Commandment.

First, under the rest of the seventh days the divine Lawgiver meant to furnish the people of Israel with a type of the spiritual rest by which believers were to cease from their own works, and allow God to work in them.

Secondly he meant that there should be a stated day on which they should assemble to hear the Law, and perform religious rites, or which, at least, they should specially employ in meditating on his works, and be thereby trained to piety.

We are taught in many passages[19] that this adumbration of spiritual rest held a primary place in the Sabbath.

but the sum of what he says amounts to this: that the sabbath is a sign by which Israel might know that God is their sanctifier.

We must rest entirely, in order that God may work in us;

must resign our own will, yield up our heart, and abandon all the lusts of the flesh.

In short, we must desist from all the acts of our own mind, that God working in us, we may rest in him, as th...

It may seem, therefore, that by the seventh day the Lord delineated to his people the future perfection of his sabbath on the last day, that by continual meditation on the sabbath, they might throughout their whole lives aspire to this perfection.

This is not contented with one day, but requires the whole course of our lives, until being completely dead to ourselves, we are filled with the life of God. Christians, therefore, should have nothing to do with a superstitious observance of days.

Calvin has not really proved that we should not have a day

room among us, first, to assemble on stated days for the hearing of the Word, the breaking of the mystical bread, and public prayer; and, secondly, to give our servants and labourers relaxation from labour.

Would that we were privileged to do so! Spiritual wisdom undoubtedly deserves to have some portion of every day devoted to it. But if, owing to the weakness of many, daily meetings cannot be held, and charity will not allow us to exact more of them, why should we not adopt the rule which the will of God has obviously imposed upon us?

but we adopt it as a necessary remedy for preserving order in the Church.

that during our whole lives we may aim at a constant rest from our own works, in order that the Lord may work in us by his Spirit; secondly that every individual, as he has opportunity, may diligently exercise himself in private, in pious meditation on the works of God,

Hence, the Lord orders all who rebel against their parents to be put to death, they being, as it where, unworthy of the light in paying no deference to those to whom they are indebted for beholding

that the honour here referred to consists of three parts, reverence, obedience, and gratitude.

We must consider that long life is promised only in so far as it is a blessing from God,

It ought to be observed by the way, that we are ordered to obey parents only in the Lord.

The same holds in the case of rulers, masters, and superiors of every description. For it were unbecoming and absurd that the honour of God should be impaired by their exaltation - an exaltation which, being derived from him, ought to lead us up to him[25].

In general, therefore, all violence and injustice, and every kind of harm from which our neighbour's body suffers, is prohibited.

The hand, indeed, commits the murder, but the mind, under the influence of wrath and hatred, conceives

Let us beware, therefore, of yielding to indulgence, seeing we are assured that the curse of God lies on every man and woman cohabiting without marriage.

that it is a special grace which the Lord bestows only on certain individuals, in order that they may be less encumbered in his service, do

For Paul's definition of chastity is purity of mind, combined with purity of body.

Marriage contracted in the Lord ought to exhibit measure and modesty - not run to the extreme of wantonness.

Therefore, if you aspire to obedience, let not your mind burn within with evil concupiscence, your eyes wanton after corrupting objects,

requires every man to exert himself honestly in preserving his own.

First, our mind must be completely filled with love to God, and then this love must forthwith flow out toward our neighbour.

And, indeed, since men are naturally prone to excessive self-love, which they always retain, how great soever their departure from the truth may be, there was no need of a law to inflame a love already existing in excess.

He rather transfers to others the love which we naturally feel for ourselves.

Our Saviour having shown, in the parable of the Samaritan, (Luk 10: 36), that the term neighbour comprehends the most remote stranger,

there is no reason for limiting the precept of love to our own connections.

The covenant made with all the fathers is so far from differing from ours in reality and substance, that it is altogether one and the same: still the administration differs.