Tracts & Letters (Vol 3) - Calvin - IV - 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 'Antidote to the Canons of the Council of Trent' (page 147 in the Banner edition).

My summary
Today we read Calvin's sizeable antidote to the sixth session on the subject of justification.

Calvin quickly passes over the first heads of the session (not even touching the third and fourth) and then deals with the rest in turn.

Included in the antidote, Calvin condemns the Roman Catholics for teaching that:
(i) the will is weak, not wholly depraved;
(ii) justification is a sharing the work between God and ourselves;
(iii) justification and sanctification are one and the same;
(iv) baptism alone is the instrumental cause of justification;
(v) that it is not possible to hold it as certain that our sins are forgiven through faith;
(vi) the sacrament of penitence is valid;
(vii) the grace of justification is lost not only by unbelief but by any mortal sin.

What grabbed me
I liked Calvin's defence of the assurance Protestants have in comparison to Roman Catholics: 'It is not strange that those who, having discarded the foundation of faith, lean rather on their works, should waver to and fro. For it is a most true saying of Augustine, (in Psalm Ixxxviii.,) "As the promise is sure, not according to our merits, but according to his grace, no man ought to speak with trepidation of that of which he cannot doubt." '

If our salvation depended upon our works, we would doubt whether we are saved.  But instead we stand with Augustine and know that we are safe in God's grace. 

Next week's reading
Conclude Tract I (Canons and decrees of the council of Trent, with the antidote).

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