He draws a touching picture of terror. It is a graceful parable. ‘I have gone astray like a lost sheep; save thy servant! David,’ he says, ‘was so terrified at his enemies because he suffered such great and cruel persecutions. He was in the midst of them like a poor hunted lamb, which when it catches sight of a wolf, flees to the mountains to hide itself. Here was a poor lamb escaped from the jaws of the wolf, and so terrified that if it come to a well, it will plunge in headlong rather than pursue its way, for it knows not what to do nor what is to become of it. And thus David, being terrified, cried out—Lord, redeem thy servant! thus indicating that he leaned entirely on God’s protection and this is what we must do.’[[176]]
These fragments are taken from sermons on the Old Testament; it is worth while to hear Calvin also on the New. People suppose that he put forward gloomy doctrines, which shut man out from salvation instead of leading him to it, and that he concerned himself with predestination alone. This opinion is at once so widely diffused and so untrue that it is the indispensable duty of the historian in this place to establish the truth. Let us hear him on I Timothy, ii., 3, 4, 5. Calvin declares that it is the will of God that all men should be saved.
‘The Gospel,’ he says, ‘is offered to all, and this is the means of drawing us to salvation. Nevertheless, are all benefited by it? Certainly not, as we see at a glance. When once God’s truth has fallen upon our ears, if we are rebels to it, it is for our greater condemnation. God, therefore, must go further, in order to bring us to salvation, and must not only appoint and send men to teach us faithfully, but must himself be master in our hearts, must touch us to the quick and draw us to himself. Then, adapting himself to our weakness, he lisps to us in his Word, just as a nurse does to little children. If God spoke according to his majesty, his language would be too high and too difficult; we should be confounded, and all our senses would be blinded. For if our eyes cannot bear the brightness of the sun, is it possible, I ask you, for our minds to comprehend the divine majesty? We say what every one sees: It is God’s will that we should all be saved, when he commands that his Gospel shall be preached. The gate of Paradise is opened for us; when we are thus invited, and when he exhorts us to repentance, he is ready to receive us as soon as we come to him.’
Calvin goes further and rebukes those who by their neglect set limits to the extent of God’s dominion.
‘It is not in Judea alone and in a corner of the country that the grace of God is shed abroad,’ he says, ‘but up and down through all the earth. It is God’s will that this grace should be known to all the world. We ought, therefore, as far as lies in our power, to seek the salvation of those who are to-day strangers to the faith, and endeavor to bring them to the goodness of God. Why so? Because Jesus Christ is not the Saviour of three or four, but offers himself to all. At the time when he drew us to himself were we not enemies? Why are we now his children? It is because he has gathered us to himself. Now, is he not as truly the Saviour of all the world? Jesus Christ did not come to be mediator between two or three men, but between God and men; not to reconcile a small number of people to God, but to extend his grace to the whole world. Since Jesus invites us all to himself, since he is ready to give us loving access to his Father, is it not our duty to stretch out our hand to those who do not know what this union is in order that we may induce them to draw nigh? God, in the person of Jesus Christ, has his arms as it were stretched out to welcome to himself those who seemed to be separated from him. We must take care that it be not our fault that they do not return to the flock. Those who make no endeavor to bring back their neighbor into the way of salvation diminish the power of God’s empire, as far as in them lies, and are willing to set limits to it, so that he may not be Lord over all the world. They obscure the virtue of the passion and death of Jesus Christ, and they lessen the dignity which was conferred on him by God his Father; to wit, that to-day for his sake the gate of heaven is opened, and that God will be favorable to us when we come to seek him.’
But Calvin asks how are we to bring a soul to God, and how are we to come to him ourselves?
‘We are but worms of the earth, and yet we must go out of the world and pass beyond the heavens. This, then, is impossible unless Jesus Christ appear, unless he stretch out his hand and promise to give us access to the throne of God, who in himself cannot but be to us awful and terrible, but now is gracious to us in the person of our Lord. If when we come before God, we contemplate only his high and incomprehensible majesty, every one of us must shrink back and even wish that the mountains may cover and overwhelm us. But when our Lord Jesus comes forward and makes himself our mediator, then there is nothing to terrify us, we can come with our heads no longer cast down, we can call upon God as our Father, in such wise that we may come to him in secret and pour out all our griefs in order to be comforted. But such a glory must be given to Jesus Christ that angels and other dignities may be assigned to their own rank, and that Jesus Christ may appear above all and in all things have the pre-eminence. This dignity must always be preserved for him, in that he shed his blood for us and reconciled us with God, discharging all our debts.
‘In every age the world has deceived itself with trifles and trash as means of appeasing God, just as we might try to pacify the anger of a little child with toys. Christ must needs devote himself, at the cost of his passion and death, in order to reconcile us (nous appointer) with God his Father, so that our sins may no longer be reckoned against us. We cannot gain favor in the sight of God by ceremonies or parade; but Christ has given himself a ransom for us. We have the blood of Jesus Christ and the sacrifice which he offered for us of his own body and his own life. In this lies our confidence, and by this means we are forgiven.’[[177]]
Predestination.
This, then, is what Calvin says—‘The gate of paradise is open to us; the Lord is willing to receive us.’ What! some will say, does he give up the doctrine of the election of God, and of the necessity of the operation of the Holy Spirit for the regeneration of man? Certainly not. Calvin believed, in its full import, this saying of the Saviour—‘You have not chosen me, I have chosen you.’ It has been acknowledged by men endowed with a fine intellect, who at the same time did not hold the Christian faith, that there is an election of God, not only in the sphere of grace, but in that of creation. One of them has said—‘The life of children, who differ so much from each other, although they spring from the same stock, and pass through a similar course of education, is well adapted to confirm the followers of Augustine in their doctrine. Minds are not wanting that take offence every time they hear the doctrine of grace set forth without disguise. Have these same minds ever reflected on that strange fatality which stamps us with a mark distinct and deep from our birth and our infancy? If these minds are religious, to what doctrine will they have recourse (to explain this) which does not resolve itself into the doctrine of grace?‘[[178]]