Institutes of Christian religion - Calvin - LXXVIII - Chapter 19 of Book 4 commenced

Required reading
Institutes of Christian religion by John Calvin (Available from Amazon or free here) - Commence Chapter 19 of Book 4 by reading Chapters 1 to 17.

My summary
This week Calvin examines the other 'sacraments' of the Roman Catholic church.

Firstly he teaches us about sacraments in general and concludes 'that the power of instituting a sacrament belongs to God alone, since a sacrament ought, by the sure promise of God, to raise up and comfort the consciences of believers, which could never receive this assurance from men.'

Secondly Calvin dismisses the arguments for the sacrament of confirmation.  The Roman Catholic church argues for confirmation due to:
(i) apostolic example;
(ii) Christ's example;
(iii) the completeness it brings to baptism;
(iv) the maturity it brings to Christians;
(v) the superiority it has to baptism.

Then Calvin speaks against the sacrament of penitence.  He says: 'I deny that it can justly be regarded as a sacrament; first, because there exists not to this effect any special promise of God, which is the only ground of a sacrament; and, secondly, because whatever ceremony is here used is a mere invention of man; whereas, as has already been shown, the ceremonies of sacraments can only be appointed by God'.

What grabbed me
Calvin is so blunt about his disregard for confirmation. Thus I find it rather surprising that so many Protestants still practice some form of it today.

I was also interested to read Calvin's position on miraculous gifts: 'But those miraculous powers and manifest operations, which were distributed by the laying on of hands, have ceased. They were only for a time. For it was right that the new preaching of the gospel, the new kingdom of Christ, should be signalised and magnified by unwonted and unheard-of miracles. When the Lord ceased from these, he did not forthwith abandon his Church, but intimated that the magnificence of his kingdom, and the dignity of his word, had been sufficiently manifested.'

Calvin is clearly a cessationist.

Next week's reading
Conclude Chapter 19 of Book 4.

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