rection of tyrannical domination is the vengeance of God, we are not, therefore, to conclude that it is committed to us, who have received no other command than to obey and suffer. This observation I always apply to private persons. For if there be, in the present day, any magistrates appointed for the protection of the people and the moderation of the power of kings, such as were, in ancient times, the Ephori, who were a check upon the kings among the Lacedæmonians, or the popular tribunes upon the consuls among the Romans, or the Demarchi upon the senate among the Athenians; or with power such as perhaps is now possessed by the three estates in every kingdom when they are assembled; I am so far from prohibiting them, in the discharge of their duty, to oppose the violence or cruelty of kings, that I affirm, that if they connive at kings. in their oppression of their people, such forbearance involves the most nefarious perfidy, because they fraudulently betray the liberty of the people, of which they know that they have been appointed protectors by the ordination of God. XXXII. But in the obedience which we have shown to be due to the authority of governors, it is always necessary to make one exception, and that is entitled to our first attention, that it do not seduce us from obedience to him, to whose will the desires of all kings ought to be subject, to whose decrees all their commands ought to yield, to whose majesty all their sceptres ought to submit. And, indeed, how preposterous it would be for us, with a view to satisfy men, to incur the displeasure of him on whose account we yield obedience to men! The Lord, therefore, is the King of kings; who, when he has opened his sacred mouth, is to be heard alone, above all, for all, and before all; in the next place, we are subject to those men who preside over us; but no otherwise than in him. If they command any thing against him, it ought not to have the least attention; nor, in this case, ought we to pay any regard to all that dignity attached to magistrates; to which no injury is done when it is subjected to the unrivalled and supreme power of God. On this principle Daniel denied that he had committed any crime against the king in disobeying his impious decree; (i) because the king had exceeded the limits of his office, and had not only done an injury to men, but, by raising his arm against God, had degraded his own authority. On the other hand, the Israelites are condemned for having been too submissive to the impious edict of their king. For when Jeroboam had made his golden calves, in compliance with his will, they deserted the temple of God and revolted to new superstitions. Their posterity conformed to the decrees of (i) Dan. vi. 22. their idolatrous kings with the same facility. The prophet severely condemns them for having "willingly walked after the commandment:" (k) so far is any praise from being due to the pretext of humility, with which courtly flatterers excuse themselves and deceive the unwary, when they deny that it is lawful for them to refuse compliance with any command of their kings; as if God had resigned his right to mortal men when he made them rulers of mankind; or as if earthly power were diminished by being subordinated to its author, before whom even the principalities of heaven tremble with awe. I know what great and present danger awaits this constancy, for kings cannot bear to be disregarded without the greatest indignation; and "the wrath of a king," says Solomon, "is as messengers of death." (1) But since this edict has been proclaimed by that celestial herald, Peter, "We ought to obey God rather than men," (m) — let us console ourselves with this thought, that we truly perform the obedience which God requires of us, when we suffer any thing rather than deviate from piety. And that our hearts may not fail us, Paul stimulates us with another consideration that Christ has redeemed us at the immense price which our redemption cost him, that we may not be submissive to the corrupt desires of men, much less be slaves to their impiety. (n) (k) Hos. v. 11. (m) Acts v. 29. END OF THE INSTITUTES. INDEX OF THE PRINCIPAL MATTERS. The first number indicates the Book; the second, the Chapter. Adam's fall, the cause of the curse inflicted on all mankind, and of their degeneracy Angels, their creation, nature, names, and offices, i. 14. Articles of faith, power of the Church relating to them, iv. 8, 9. Ascension of Christ, i. 15. Baptism, a sacrament; its institution, nature, administration, and uses, iv. 15. Celibacy of priests, iv. 12. of monks and nuns, iv. 13. Christ proved to be God, i. 13. necessity of his becoming man in order to fulfil the office of a mediator, ii. 12. the union of the two natures constituting his one person, ii. 14. the only Redeemer of lost man, ii. 6. the consideration of his three offices, prophetical, regal, and sacerdotal, neces- his death, resurrection, and ascension to heaven, to accomplish our salvation, truly and properly said to have merited the grace of God and salvation for imperfectly revealed to the Jews under the law, ii. 7, 9. Christian liberty, its nature and advantages, iii. 19. Christian life, scriptural arguments and exhortations to it, iii. 6. Church, the necessity of our union with the true Church, iv. 1. true and false compared and distinguished, iv. 2. teachers and ministers of the Church, their election and office, iv. 3. in making laws, iv. 10. in jurisdiction, iv. 11. discipline of the; censures and excommunication, iv. 12. state of the ancient, and the mode of government practised before the ancient form of its government entirely subverted by the Papal tyranny, Confession, auricular, iii. 4. true, iii. 4. Confirmation, Papal, iv. 19. Conscience, its nature and obligations, iii. 19. Councils, their authority, iv. 9. Creation, of the world of angels; this clearly distinguishes the true God from all fictitious deities, i. 14. Cross, bearing of, a branch of self-denial, iii. 8. Death of Christ, ii. 15. Depravity, human, total, ii. 3. Descent of Christ into hell, ii. 16. Devils, their existence, power, subtlety, malignity, i. 14. Discipline of the Church, iv. 12. Election, eternal, or God's predestination of some to salvation, and of others to this doctrine, iii. 23. Excommunication, iv. 12. Extreme unction, iv. 19. Faith defined, and its properties described, iii. 2. , justification by faith, iii. 11. , prayer its principal exercise, iii. 20. Fanaticism of discarding the Scripture, under the pretence of resorting to imme- Fasting, its use and abuse, iv. 12. Free-will lost by the fall; man in his present state miserably enslaved, ii. 2. a refutation of the objections commonly urged in support of free-will, ii. 5. God truly known only from the Scriptures, i. 6. what kind of being God is; exclusively opposed in the Scripture to all the contradistinguished from idols as the sole and supreme object of worship, i. 12. ascription of a visible form to, unlawful, and all idolatry a defection from the the creator of the universe, i. 14. his preservation and support of the world by his power, and his government the proper use and advantages of this doctrine, i. 17. his operations in the hearts of men, ii. 4. his use of the agency of the wicked, without the least stain of his perfect purity, i. 18. one Divine essence containing three persons, 13. Gospel and law compared and distinguished, ii. 9, 10, 11. Government of the Church, iv. 3, 4, 5. civil; its nature, dignity, and advantages, iv. 20. Holy Spirit proved to be God, i. 13. his testimony requisite to the confirmation of the Scripture, and the his secret and special operation necessary to our enjoyment of Christ the sin against, iii. 3. Humility of believers, iii. 12. Idolatry a defection from the true God; all worship of images idolatry, i. 1. Image of God in man, i. 15. Imposition of hands, iv. 15. Indulgences and pardons, iii. 5. Intercession of saints, iii. 20. Judgment, last, iii. 25. Jurisdiction of the Church, iv. 11. Justification by faith; the name and thing defined, iii. 11. VOL. II. 84 Justification, a consideration of the Divine tribunal necessary to a serious conviction things necessary to be observed in gratuitous, iii. 13. boasting of the merit of works equally subversive of God's glory in a refutation of the injurious calumnies of the Papists against the doc- by works, the promise of a reward no argument for, iii. 17. Kingdom of Christ, ii. 15. Knowledge of Christ, imperfect under the law, ii. 7, 9. ness, i. 4. clearly unfolded under the gospel, ii. 9. of God connected with the knowledge of ourselves, i. 1. naturally implanted in the human mind, i. 3. extinguished or corrupted, partly by ignorance, partly by wicked- conspicuous in the formation and government of the world, i. 5. Law of Moses; its office, use, and end, ii. 7. Laws given to the Jews; moral, ceremonial, and judicial, iv. 20. Law and gospel, compared and distinguished, ii. 9, 10, 11. civil and political, iv. 20. Liberty, Christian, iii. 19. Life, Christian, iii. 6, 7, 8. present, and its supports, right use of, iii. 10. future, meditation on, iii. 9. Lord's prayer, exposition of, iii. 20. Lord's supper, its institution, nature, and advantages, iii. 17. not only profaned, but annihilated by the Papal mass, iii. 18. Man, his state at his creation, the faculties of his soul, the Divine image, free-will, in his present state, despoiled of freedom of will, and subjected to a miserable every thing that proceeds from his corrupt nature worthy of condemnation, his mind naturally furnished with the knowledge of God, i. 3. the knowledge of God in the human mind extinguished or corrupted by igno- Magistracy, iv. 20. Marriage, ii. 8. Matrimony, falsely called a sacrament, iv. 19. Mass, the Papal, not only a sacrilegious profanation of the Lord's supper, but a total annihilation of it, iv. 18. Mediator. See Christ, ii. 14. Merit of Christ, ii. 17. of works disproved, iii. 15, 18. Monks, iv. 13. Neighbour, love of our, ii. 8. Nuns, iv. 13. Oaths, ii. 8. Offences given and taken; what to be avoided, iii. 19. Orders, ecclesiastical, no sacrament, iv. 19. Original sin, the doctrine of, ii. 1. Pædobaptism. See Baptism, iv. 16. Papacy, its entire subversion of the ancient form of ecclesiastical government, iv. 5. |