Tracts & Letters (Vol 3) - Calvin - V - Tract 1 concluded

Required reading
Tracts and Letters (Volume 3) by John Calvin (Available from Amazon or free here) - Conclude Tract I (Canons and decrees of the council of Trent, with the antidote).

My summary
Today we firstly read Clavin's antidotes to the Canons of the Sixth session concerning justification.  Calvin says 'Amen' to a number of them but of course is against their doctrines of free-will, penance and purgatory.

Then we read the Seventh Session of the Council of Trent.  Seven sacraments are upheld (Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist, Penance, Extreme Unction, Orders and Matrimony) with particular clarification shown for Baptism and Confirmation.  They also provide 'Decrees on Reformation' which concern the appointment and tenure of clergy.

This is followed by Calvin's antidote to the Seventh Session.  Calvin is happy to admit truth in some of the Roman Catholic canons, but rejects their assertion of seven sacraments and their underlying theology of Baptism and Confirmation.  Calvin also speaks again of the abuses of the Roman Catholic clergy.

What grabbed me
I went hunting for this famous quote from Calvin sometime ago and was unable to find the reference for months: 'It is therefore faith alone which justifies, and yet the faith which justifies is not alone'.  So it was nice to see it there in black and white in Calvin's antidote to Canon XI of the Sixth Session of the Council of Trent.

But I really should give the surrounding lines as well: 'I wish the reader to understand that as often as we mention Faith alone in this question, we are not thinking of a dead faith, which worketh not by love, but holding faith to be the only cause of justification. (Gal. v. 6 ; Rom. iii. 22.) It is therefore faith alone which justifies, and yet the faith which justifies is not alone : just as it is the heat alone of the sun which warms the earth, and yet in the sun it is not alone, because it is constantly conjoined with light. Wherefore we do not separate the whole grace of regeneration from faith, but claim the power and faculty of justifying entirely for faith, as we ought. '

If you have true faith, good works will be present in your life.  If good works are not there, then you don't have true faith.

Next week's reading
Commence Tract II (The Adultero-German Interim) by reading Chapters 1 to 18.

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