Tracts & Letters (Vol 3) - Calvin - III - Tract 1 continued

Required reading
Tracts and Letters (Volume 3) by John Calvin (Available from Amazon or free here) - Continue Tract I (Canons and decrees of the council of Trent, with the antidote) by reading up to (but not including) the section beginning 'On the sixth session of the Council of Trent' (which is Calvin's antidote to the sixth session).

My summary
We now read the decrees of the fifth session.  The first decree concerns original sin, regeneration through baptism (including infants) and that there is no sin in those regenerated.  The second decree concerns the appointment of clergy.

This is followed by Calvin's antidote to the fifth session.  Regarding the first decree, Calvin has no problem with their doctrine of original sin, but does object to their teaching that the regenerate do not sin: 'Accordingly, sin truly remains in us, and is not instantly in one day extinguished by baptism, but as the guilt is effaced it is null in regard to imputation.'  As for the second decree on Roman Catholic clergy, Calvin points out that the Council 'leaves men who are unlearned and utterly unfit in possession of the place which they have usurped by fraud, injustice, and sacrilege...'

Then we read the decrees and canons of the sixth session which are on the subject of justification.  They clearly condemn Protestant teaching.

Not surprisingly, we did not have time for Calvin's lengthy antidote to the decrees on justification.  All of next week's reading will be devoted to it.

What grabbed me
After reading the sixth session on justification, no honest person could claim that Roman Catholicism and Protestantism teach the same way of salvation.

Just one sample: 'IX. Whosoever shall say that the wicked is justified by faith alone, in such a sense that nothing else is required in the way of co-operation to obtain the grace of justification, and that it is in no respect necessary that he be prepared and disposed by the movement of his own will, let him be anathema.'

It doesn't get much clearer than that.

Next week's reading
Continue Tract I (Canons and decrees of the council of Trent, with the antidote) by reading up to (but not including) the section beginning 'Antidote to the Canons of the Council of Trent' (page 147 in the Banner edition).

Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.