Tracts & Letters (Vol 3) - Calvin - X - Tract 2 continued

Required reading
Tracts and Letters (Volume 3) by John Calvin (Available from Amazon or free here) - Continue Tract II (The Adultero-German Interim) by concluding 'John Calvin on the true method of giving peace to Christendom and reforming the church'.

My summary
Today we conclude Calvin's rebuttal of the 'Interim, or declaration, of religion of his imperial majesty Charles V'.

Firstly he continues to demonstrate that the Protestant view of the Lord's supper is the Scriptural view.

Then Calvin moves onto the subject of prayers for the dead which he observes has no Biblical support.

Next he condemns other Roman Catholic doctrines such as feast days, dedicating churches to saints and abstaining from meat on particular days.

Then he turns to the subject of priestly celibacy.  Calvin includes a discussion of a writing from Robert Cenalis which was supposed to be an antidote to the Interim as well, but Calvin demonstrates Cenalis is actually an advocate of it, particularly on the subject of priestly celibacy.

Calvin then concludes his antidote.

What grabbed me
Calvin gave a good concluding exhortation: 'Whatever pretexts may be sought out on this hand and on that, by those who in the present day are more ingenious than they ought in excusing their effeminacy, it were most unworthy in us to pay a greater regard to our own reputation than to the glory of God, to defer to the foolish and presumptuous opinions of men, rather than look to Christ, sole Judge of heaven and earth, and through him to all angels and saints who submit to his authority ; to think less of the blessedness and immortality which have been promised us, and laid up in heaven, than of the world and this transitory life. The time now demands that the faith which we have hitherto professed with the tongue and pen shall be sealed with our blood. Long ago, if we had duly profited in the school of Christ, must this thought have been present to our minds. Our first experience is a kind of apprenticeship by which he trains his own to deny themselves, and take up his cross, and hasten with unwearied course to death, but now we are just as great novices in enduring danger for the testimony of the gospel, as if the Son of God, instead of constantly inculcating it upon us, had never said a word about it. '

We must be prepared to seal our conviction regarding the truth with our blood if necessary.

Next week's reading
Read the Appendix to Tract II (The Adultero-German Interim).

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