[93] Although he had become the minister of a community of exiles,
and had engaged in theological works of the greatest importance at
Strasbourg, the activity of Calvin was by no means confined to these
objects. But in the midst of the contending claims on his time and
care, his attention was ever turned towards the Church of which he
had been the pastor--towards "these relics of the dispersion," whom
he exhorted from the depths of his exile, and whom he consoled by
his letters.
Letter of consolation and advice addressed to the Church at
Geneva, deprived of her faithful pastor--testimonies of his
innocence--confidence in God--trust for the future.
FROM STRASBOURG, _this 1st of October 1538_.
To my dearly-beloved brethren in our Lord, who are the relics of the
dispersion of the Church of Geneva.
The mercy of God our Father, and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,
be continually multiplied to you by the communication of the Holy
Spirit.
MY BRETHREN,--I have restrained myself from writing to you until
this present, in the hope that the letter of our brother Farel, who
had taken upon him that charge for both, would prove sufficient;
and also by that means I would take off all occasion, in so far
as was possible, for misrepresentation on the part of those who
are on the lookout for it. That is, in order that they may not
calumniate us by affirming that we purpose, in drawing you closer
to ourselves, to retain you in some degree of partiality toward
us. I have been unable, however, to refrain from writing to you
to assure you of the affection with which I do ever regard you,
and my remembrance of you in the Lord, as it is my bounden duty;
neither shall that fear prevent me which has somewhat withheld me
to the present time, forasmuch as I see right well that the colour
of pretext which the malicious, from the love of detraction, might
put upon it, would be found utterly frivolous and vain. God is our
witness, and your own consciences before his judgment-seat, that
while we had our conversation among you, our whole study has been
to keep you together in happy union and concord of agreement. Those
who, for the sake of making and maintaining a faction apart, had
separated from us, have introduced division as well into your Church
as into your town. Discerning the beginnings of that plague from
the commencement, we have faithfully occupied ourselves as before
God whom we serve, to apply the remedy; wherefore, an appeal to
the past exempts us from all their calumnies. And if now, in thus
communicating with you, we afford you some good reason to retain us
in your memory, this ought not to be made a reproach to us; for our
own conscience is well assured Godward, that it has been by him that
we have been called to the fellowship of this ministry among you.
For which reason it cannot be in the power of men to break asunder
such a tie; and as in time bygone we have been upheld, we hope still
by the guidance of our Lord so to conduct ourselves, that we shall
afford no occasion of trouble, nor present any cause of division,
unless it be to those who are so closely banded against Jesus Christ
and all his people, that they cannot suffer any agreement with his
servants. For to such manner of folk, if this blessed Saviour is
a scandal and an offence, what must we be, who ought to carry his
mark impressed upon our soul and on our body? But herein is our
consolation, that we give them no occasion; even as our kind Master
did not come to throw obstacles in men's path, but rather to be the
way wherein all may walk without stumbling.
To proceed, then, my beloved brethren, for that the hand of the
Lord, from all that I can understand, is continually stretched
forth to visit you, and that by his righteous permission the devil
strives incessantly to scatter the Church which has begun to be
formed among you, there is a manifest necessity to admonish you of
your duty. That is, that you consider and seriously meditate, that
whatsoever perversity of will urges forward to action the men who so
trouble and vex you, the assaults are not made upon you so directly
by them as they are the work of Satan, who uses their malice as his
instrument, for your annoyance. This is what the Apostle teaches in
the word of exhortation when he says, that we do not fight against
flesh and blood, that is to say, against men, but against the powers
of the air, and against the prince of darkness. You are well aware
how necessary it is to reconnoitre an enemy to know by what method
to counterwork his stratagems. If we set ourselves to do battle
with men, thinking only to wreak our vengeance upon them, and so
to have satisfaction for the wrongs which they have done to us, it
may well be doubted whether we could ever conquer so long as we
entertained such views. Nay, it is a certain fact, that by following
that method, we shall ourselves be vanquished by the devil. On the
other hand, if avoiding all conflict with men, except only insomuch
as we are constrained to have them opposed to us, inasmuch as _they_
are the adversaries of Jesus Christ, we _do_ resist the wiles of
our spiritual enemy, being furnished with the armour wherewith the
Lord would have his people to be girded and strengthened; there
need then be no fear about our getting the upper hand. Wherefore, my
brethren, if you seek true victory, do not oppose evil by evil of a
like kind, but laying aside all evil affections, be guided solely by
your zeal for the service of God, moderated by his Spirit according
to the rule of his word.
You have besides to consider, that these things have not thus fallen
out without the dispensation of the Lord, who carries forward
his purposes even by means of the wicked, according to the good
pleasure of his own will. Now, that thought will turn you away from
the pursuit of your enemies, to consider and look into yourselves,
and so to consider, that you may acknowledge that you have well
deserved on your part to receive such a visitation, to chastise your
negligence, your contempt, or even your careless slighting of the
word of God which you had among you; your slothfulness in following
and rendering to him a strict obedience. For you cannot excuse
yourselves from having committed many faults; and how easy soever
you may think it, to justify yourselves in some degree before men,
nevertheless before God, your conscience must yet feel burdened
and chargeable. The servants of God have so demeaned themselves
in their tribulations, that is to say, from whatever direction
their trials came they have ever turned their thoughts to the
hand of God and to their own sins, acknowledging the cause to be
discoverable in themselves, and to afford quite sufficient reason
why the Lord should so afflict them. Daniel understood well what
had been the perverseness of the King of Babylon in his destruction
and scattering of the people of God merely to satisfy his avarice,
arrogance, and cruelty; what also had been his iniquity in unjustly
oppressing them. Yet nevertheless, seeing that the first cause
lay wholly in themselves, inasmuch as the Babylonians could do
nought against them unless by the Lord's permission, that he might
follow and duly observe a right order, Daniel begins first with the
confession of his own faults, and then those of the kings and of the
people of Israel. If the prophet humbled himself in this manner,
bethink yourselves what far greater occasion you have; and if it
was necessary for him to do so in order to obtain the mercy of God,
what purblind folly would it be in you to stand still and engage in
the accusation of your enemies without any acknowledgment of your
own faults, which far surpass, by many degrees of ascent, those of
the holy Seer?
In so far as we ourselves are concerned, if there is any occasion to
argue our case against the ungodly and calumniators who would charge
offence upon us, I know that not only is our conscience clear to
answer before God, but we have also wherewithal to purge ourselves
before the whole world. And this assurance we have testified
sufficiently when we demanded to be heard in our defence; yea, even
in the face of our adversaries, in answer to every thing which they
would lay against us. A man had need to be well furnished with his
justifications when he presents himself at so great disadvantage,
being inferior in every way to his opponents, except in the goodness
of his cause. As oft as the question recurs of compearance before
God, I make no doubt that he has humbled us in this way to make us
acknowledge our ignorance, our imprudence, and those infirmities
which, for my own part, I feel in myself, and do make no difficulty
in confessing before the Church of the Lord. In doing so we must
not be afraid lest thereby we might give occasion to our enemies;
for Daniel did not justify Nabuchodonosor when he attributes to the
sins of the Israelites the oppression which they suffered under that
tyrant, but rather he has confounded him, shewing that he was the
rod of God's wrath as well as the devil and his underlings. Neither
is there any danger that we might subject our cause to reproach or
shame; for if we have presented ourselves before all the Churches,
shewing again and again that duly and faithfully we have discharged
our duty; and if still from day to day we are ready to do so, it
is no sign that we have thereby given the opportunity to bite, or
to detract from us; and if we cannot hinder them from miscalling
us--seeing that some of them are transported, not simply by an
unruly temper, but even by ungovernable rage, we know the promise
which is given, that the Lord will make our innocence appear like
the bright and morning star, and will cause our righteousness to
shine forth like the sun. We may boldly lay hold on this confidence
whenever there is occasion to contend against the wicked, albeit
that we ourselves may be answerable in a very high degree to the
justice of the Lord.
In the day of our humility and downcasting, the Lord, nevertheless,
will not forsake us until he has supplied very full consolation to
uphold and comfort; we have it even ever present and ready to our
hand, when himself hath said in his Scripture of truth, that the
chastisements which he sends on his friends are for their welfare
and salvation, provided they accept them with submission. Wherefore,
my beloved brethren, return always to this consolation, that
although the wicked strive with all their might to bring ruin upon
your Church, and although your faults and offences have deserved far
more than you could ever endure, yet, nevertheless, our Lord will
vouchsafe such an outgate to the corrections which he has sent, as
that they shall be made helpful to your salvation. His wrath towards
his Church, inasmuch as it is only intended to bring her back to
welldoing, is only for a little moment, and then it passes away, as
saith the prophet; his mercy, on the contrary, is eternal, extending
to future generations; for from the fathers it descends to their
children and to children's children. Look at the proceedings of
your enemies; you will clearly discover that all their doings tend
to confusion, and, notwithstanding, they are quite of the opinion
that they have attained to the uttermost point of their enterprise.
Do not, therefore, cast away your consolation, for that it hath
pleased the Lord to abase you for a season, seeing that this is no
more than what the Scripture forewarns you must come to pass, even
that he exalts the humble and the despised, and lifteth them out of
the dust, the needy he raises up from the dunghill; that to those
who are in weeping and in tears he gives a crown of joy; that he
gives light to those who sit in darkness, and raises up to newness
of life those who have dwelt in the valley of the shadow of death.
Hope, therefore, that this gracious God will open such a deliverance
that you shall have good cause to magnify and also to glorify his
clemency. Take comfort from this blessed hope, and strengthen
yourselves also to endure patiently the rod of his correction, until
he shall be pleased to declare himself gracious, which, without a
doubt, will be ere long, provided that we can willingly commit all
to the guidance of his providence who knows the fit opportunity,
and sees what is for our real advantage better than we can anyhow
conceive.
Above all, take heed that you watch unto prayer; for if your whole
expectation rests upon God, as it ought, there is good reason to
infer that your heart should be daily lifted up to heaven in calling
upon the Lord, and earnestly supplicating the mercy which you hope
to obtain from himself. Understand, moreover, that if he delays to
grant the desire of his children, and does not immediately manifest
himself in the time of need for their deliverance, it is generally
because he wishes to stir them up and urge them on to supplicate
his favour. However confident we may be in making a vain-glorious
boast of putting our trust in him, it will be of no avail while we
do not offer any proof of it, by flying to him as our refuge, in
prayer. Besides, it is a matter of tried experience, that there is
never such an earnest fervency of stayed affection and ardour in our
prayers as there ought to be, save when we persevere therein without
ceasing.
I pray the Lord of all consolation to strengthen you and sustain
you in patience, so long as it is his will to prove you in these
tribulations, and to confirm you in the hope of the promises which
he has made to his servants. He has said that he will not try them
beyond what they can endure, but that along with the affliction he
will increase strength and give a prosperous issue.
Your brother and servant in the Lord,
JOHN CALVIN.
[_Fr. copy_--_Archives of Geneva._ No. 1203.]