Calvin's "Institutes" (8.1-6): Limits on Church Authority

Calvin continues his review of the Papacy, but enlarges the issue to the limitations of church authority (8.1-9). This has applications to charismatics with their extra-canonical revelations, TBN enthusiasts with their numerous charlatans, pimps of prosperity and related enthusiasms, antichristian Popedom, and contemporary evangelicals with their absence of Confessional boundaries and insights. We must address these contemporary matters directly. Calvin will discuss the limits of the church's doctrinal authority, including the Mosaic priests, the prophets, and apostles along with (8.6) the outline of the scriptural foundation of the Word of God for the Old Covenant. These limitations apply to bishops (senior presbyters), presbyters, deacons, church decrees, councils whether provincial or general, and the priesthood (of all believers).

As to Popedom, that antchristian dominion, the title of chapter eight says it all: THE POWER OF THE CHURCH RESPECTING ARTICLES OF FAITH, AND ITS LICENTIOUS PERVERSION, UNDER THE PAPACY, TO THE CORRUPTION OF ALL PURITY OF DOCTRINE.

Although the Institutes should be on everyone's shelf and read again and again, Calvin is free and downloadable at:

http://www.archive.org/stream/institutesofchrindex02calv/institutesofchrindex02calv_djvu.txt

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CHAPTER VIII

THE POWER OF THE CHURCH RESPECTING ARTICLES OF FAITH, AND ITS LICENTIOUS PERVERSION, UNDER THE PAPACV, TO THE CORRUPTION OF ALL PURITY OF DOCTRINE

The next subject is the power of the Church, which is to be considered as residing, partly in the respective bishops, partly in councils, and those either provincial or general. I speak only of the spiritual power which belongs to the Church. Now, it consists either in doctrine, in legislation, or jurisdiction. The subject of doctrine contains two parts — the authority to establish doctrines, and the explication of them. Before we enter on the Particular discussion of each of these points, we would apprize the pious readers, that whatever is asserted respecting the power of the Church, they should be mindful to refer to the end for which Paul declares it to have been given, namely, "to edification, and not to destruction;" and all who make a legitimate use of it, consider themselves as nothing more than "servants of Christ," and the people's "servants for Jesus' sake." Now, the only way to edify the Church is, for the ministers themselves to study to preserve to Jesus Christ his rightful authority, which can no longer be secure than while he is left in possession of what he has received from the Father, that is, to be the sole Master in the Church. For of him alone, and of no other, is it said, "Hear ye him." The power of the Church, therefore, is not to be depreciated, yet it must be circumscribed by certain limits, that it may not be extended in every direction, according to the caprice of men. It will, therefore, be highly useful to observe how it is described by the prophets and apostles. For if we simply grant to men the power which they may be pleased to assume, it must be obvious to every one, what a door will be opened for tyranny, which ought never to be seen in the Church of Christ.

II. Here, therefore, it is necessary to remember, that whatever authority and dignity is attributed by the Holy Spirit, in the Scripture, either to the priests and prophets under the law, or to the apostles and their successors, it is all given, not in a strict sense to the persons themselves, but to the ministry over which they were appointed, or, to speak more correctly, to the word, the ministration of which was committed to them. For if we examine them all in succession, we shall not find that they were invested with any authority to teach or to answer inquiries, but in the name and word of the Lord. For when they were called to their office, it was at the same time enjoined that they should bring forward nothing of themselves, but should speak from the mouth of the Lord. Nor did he send them forth in public to address the people, before he had instructed them what they should say, that they might speak nothing beside his word. Moses himself, the prince of all the prophets, was to be heard above all others ; but he was first furnished with his commission, that he might not be able to announce any thing except from the Lord. Therefore the people, when they received his doctrine, were said to " believe the Lord and his servant Moses." The authority of the priests also, that it might not fall into contempt, was confirmed by the severest punishments, But, on the other hand, the Lord shows on what condition they were to be heard, when he says, "My covenant was with Levi. The law of truth was in his mouth." And just afterwards, "The priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth ; for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts." Therefore, if a priest would be heard, it was necessary for him to prove himself the messenger of God, by faithfully communicating the commands which he had received from his master ; and Avhere attention to the priests is enjoined, it is expressly stated, that "they shall teach the sentence of the law" of God.

IIL The power of the prophets is fully and beautifully described in Ezekiel. "Son of man," says the Lord, "I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel ; therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me." When he is commanded to hear from the mouth of the Lord, is he not prohibited to invent any thing of himself? And what is it to give warning from the Lord, but, to speak in such a manner as to be able to declare with confidence that the message he has brought is not his own, but the Lord's? The Lord expresses the same thing in other words in the prophecy of Jeremiah: " The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream ; and he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully." (9') He clearly delivers a law for them all; its import is, that he permits no one to teach more than he has been commanded ; and he afterwards gives the appellation of "chaff" to every thing that has not proceeded from himself alone. Not one of the prophets opened his mouth, therefore, without having first received the words from the Lord. Hence their frequent use of these expressions: "The word of the Lord," " The burden of the Lord," " Thus saith the Lord," " The mouth of the Lord hath spoken ; " and this was highly necessary; for Isaiah exclaimed, "I am a man of unclean lips;" and Jeremiah said, " Behold, I cannot speak, for I am a child." What could proceed from the pollution of the one, and the folly of the other, but impure and foolish speeches, if they had spoken their own words ? But their lips were holy and pure, when they began to be the organs of the Holy Spirit." While the prophets were bound by this law to deliver nothing but what they had received, they were likewise adorned with eminent power and splendid titles. For when the Lord declares, " See, I have this day set thee over the nations, and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, and to build, and to plant," he at the same time assigns the reason — "Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth."

IV. If we advert to the apostles, they are certainly honoured with many extraordinary characters. It is said that they are "the light of the world," and "the salt of the earth;" that "he that heareth" them "heareth Christ ; " that "whatsoever" they" shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever" they "shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." But their very name shows what degree of liberty they were allowed in their office ; that if they were apostles, they were not to declaim according to their own pleasure, but to deliver with strict fidelity the commands of him who had sent them. And the language of Christ is sufficiently clear, in which he has defined their message by the following commission : "Go ye, and teach all nations whatsoever I have commanded you." He had even received and imposed on himself the same law, in order that no one might refuse to submit to it. " My doctrine," says he, "is not mine, but his that sent me." He who was always the eternal and only counsellor of the Father, and was constituted by the Father the Lord and Master of all, yet because he sustained the office of a teacher, prescribed, by his own example, the rule which all ministers ought to follow in their teaching. The power of the Church, therefore, is not unlimited, but subject to the word of the Lord, and, as it were, included in it.

V. But whereas it has been a principle received in the Church from the beginning, and ought to be admitted in the present day, that the servants of God should teach nothing which they have not learned from him, yet they have had different modes of receiving instruction from him, according to the variety of different periods ; and the present mode diff'ers from those which have preceded it. In the first place, if the assertion of Christ be true, that "no man knoweth the Father except the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him," it must always have been necessary for those who would arrive at the knowledge of God, to be directed by that eternal wisdom. For how could they have comprehended the mysteries of God, or how could they have declared them, except by the teaching of him, to whom alone the secrets of the Father are intimately known? The saints in former ages, therefore, had no other knowledge of God than what they obtained by beholding him in the Son, as in a mirror. By this observation I mean that God never manifested himself to man in any other way than by his Son, his only wisdom, light, and truth. From this fountain Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and others, drew all the knowledge which they possessed of heavenly doctrine ; from this fountain the prophets themselves drew all the celestial oracles which they spoke and wrote. But this wisdom has not always manifested itself in the same way. With the patriarchs God employed secret revelations; for the confirmation of which, however, he at the same time added such signs that they could not entertain the least doubt that it was God who spake to them. What the patriarchs had received, they transmitted from hand to hand to their posterity; for the Lord had committed it to them on the express condition that they should so propagate it. Succeeding generations, from the testimony of God in their hearts, knew that what they heard was from heaven, and not from the earth.

VI. But when it pleased God to raise up a more visible form of a church, it was his will that his word should be committed to writing, in order that the priests might derive from it whatever they would communicate to the people, and that all the doctrine which should be delivered might be examined by that rule. Therefore, after the promulgation of the law, when the priests were commanded to teach "out of the mouth of the Lord," the meaning is, that they should teach nothing extraneous, or different from that system of doctrine which the Lord had comprised in the law ; it was not lawful for them to add to it or to diminish from it. Afterwards followed the prophets, by whom God published new oracles, which were to be added to the law ; yet they were not so new but that they proceeded from the law, and bore a relation to it. For in regard to doctrine, the prophets were merely interpreters of the law, and added nothing to it except prophecies of things to come. Except these, they brought forward nothing but pure explication of the law. But because it pleased God that there should be a more evident and copious doctrine, for the better satisfaction of weak consciences, he directed the prophecies also to be committed to writing, and to be accounted a part of his word. To these likewise were added the histories, which were the productions of the prophets, but composed under the dictation of the Holy Spirit. I class the Psalms with the prophecies, because what we attribute to the prophecies is common to the Psalms. That whole body of Scripture, therefore, consisting of the Law, the Prophets, the Psalms, and the Histories, was the word of God to the ancient Church; and to this standard the priests and teachers, even to the coming of Christ, were bound to conform their doctrine ; nor was it lawful for them to deviate either to the right hand or to the left, because their office was wholly confined within these limits, that they should answer the people from the mouth of God. And this may be inferred from that remarkable passage of Malachi, vhere he commands the Jews to remember the law, and to be attentive to it, even till the publication of the gospel. For in that injunction he drives them off from all adventitious doctrines, and prohibits even the smallest deviation from the path which Moses had faithfully showed them. And it is for this reason that David so magnifies the excellence of the law, and recounts so many of its praises ; to prevent the Jews from desiring any addition to it, since it contained every thing necessary for them to know.