Reformed Wisdom

On Acts 5:31 (cont.) –

“That is, the papists are so wretched and cursed, so fiendish that they try to do all they could to bring down the Son of God. They have snatched away his glory by usurping what belongs to him alone. There is not a wretched creature among them, no matter how base, who does not think he receives the forgiveness of his sins. A lecher, a panderer, a pillar of a whorehouse, after whoring all year and committing the most damnable abominations you can imagine, acquires forgiveness of his sins, provided he comes and kisses the foot of an idol at Easter. A usurer who spends all his time grasping greedily and perpetrating a thousand extortions against poor people finds himself saved and washed of all his sins, provided he offers up a mea culpa, without giving the Son of God a second thought. Is it not an exceedingly abominable sacrilege when wicked scum full of contagion and stench come like that and usurp the authority which belongs to Jesus Christ? And who are you pitiable creatures who come like that and rise up against the majesty of the Son of God, whom angels bow before and whom the devils are forced to recognize as their Judge because they cannot have him as their Saviour. So whenever the papists want to use the diabolical and infernal word ‘satisfaction,’ being proud to point out that they think they can make satisfaction for their sins, let us realize that theirs is a diabolical doctrine invented by Satan, a are all the other means which they have fabricated for come to Jesus Christ.

“We note among other things the presumptuousness of their mass, which is their principal idol. There are so many damnable blasphemies in the abominations that the devils in hell themselves tremble. Jesus Christ will not have to open his mouth to condemn them. The devils alone will suffice to judge them for committing such damnable things that the thought of them is terrifying”
– John Calvin, Sermons on the Acts of the Apostles, Chapters 1-7, 271-272.