menu_book Chapter 21

institutes of the christian religion book two by john calvin translated by henry beveridge chapter ten part two twelve isaac is less afflicted but he enjoys very few of the sweets of life he also meets with those vexations which do not permit a man to be happy on the earth famine drives him from the land of canaan his wife is torn from his bosom his neighbors are ever and anon annoying and vexing him in all kinds of ways so that he is even obliged to fight for water at home he suffers great annoyance from his daughters-in-law he is stung by the dissension of his sons and has no other cure for this great evil than to send the son whom he had blessed into exile genesis twenty six verse twenty seven jacob again is nothing but a striking example of the greatest wretchedness his boyhood is passed most uncomfortably at home amidst the threats and alarms of his elder brother and to these he is at length forced to give way genesis twenty seven verse twenty eight a fugitive from his parents and his native soil in addition to the hardships of exile the treatment he receives from his uncle laban is in no respect milder and more humane genesis twenty nine

as if it had been little to spend seven years of hard and rigorous servitude he is cheated in the matter of a wife for the sake of another wife he must undergo a new servitude during which as he himself complains the heat of the sun scorches him by day while in frost and cold he spends the sleepless night genesis thirty one verses forty and forty one for twenty years he spends this bitter life and daily suffers new injuries from his father-in-law nor is he quiet at home which he sees disturbed and almost broken up by the hatreds quarrels and jealousies of his wives when he is ordered to return to his native land he is obliged to take his departure in a manner resembling an ignominious flight even then he is unable to escape the injustice of his father-in-law but in the midst of his journey is assailed by him with contumely and reproach genesis thirty one verse twenty by and by a much greater difficulty befalls him genesis thirty two and thirty three for as he approaches his brother he has as many forms of death in prospect as a cruel foe could invent hence while waiting for his arrival he is distracted and excruciated by direful terrors

and when he comes into his sight he falls at his feet like one half dead until he perceives him to be more placable than he had ventured to hope moreover when he first enters the land he is bereaved of rachel his only beloved wife afterwards he hears that the son whom she has borne him and whom he loved more than all his other children is devoured by a wild beast genesis thirty seven verse thirty three how deep the sorrow caused by his death he himself evinces when after long tears he obstinately refuses to be comforted declaring that he will go down to the grave to his son mourning in the mean time what vexation anxiety and grief must he have received from the carrying off and dishonor of his daughter and the cruel revenge of his sons which not only brought him into bad odor with all the inhabitants of the country but exposed him to the greatest danger of extermination genesis thirty four then follows the horrid wickedness of reuben his first-born wickedness than which none could be committed more grievous genesis thirty six verse twenty two

the dishonor of a wife being one of the greatest of calamities what must be said when the atrocity is perpetrated by a son some time after the family is again polluted with incest genesis thirty eight verse eighteen all these disgraces might have crushed a mind otherwise the most firm and unbroken by misfortune towards the end of his life when he seeks relief for himself and his family from famine he is struck by the announcement of a new misfortune that one of his sons is detained in prison and that to recover him he must entrust to others his dearly beloved benjamin genesis forty two and forty three who can think that in such a series of misfortunes one moment was given him in which he could breathe secure accordingly his own best witness he declares to pharaoh few and evil have the days of the years of my life been genesis forty seven verse nine in declaring that he had spent his life in constant wretchedness he denies that he had experienced the prosperity which had been promised him by the lord jacob therefore either formed a malignant and ungrateful estimate of the lord's favor or he truly declared that he had lived miserable on the earth

if so it follows that his hope could not have been fixed on earthly objects thirteen if these holy patriarchs expected a happy life from the hand of god and it is indubitable that they did they viewed and contemplated a different happiness from that of a terrestrial life this is admirably shown by an apostle by faith he sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange country dwelling in tabernacles with isaac and jacob the heirs with him of the same promise for he looked for a city which has foundations whose builder and maker is god these all died in faith not having received the promises but having seen them afar off and were persuaded of them and embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth for they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country and truly if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out they might have had opportunity to have returned but now they desire a better country that is an heavenly wherefore god is not ashamed to be called their god for he has prepared for them a city and quote hebrews eleven verses nine ten and thirteen through sixteen

they had been duller than blocks in so pertinaciously pursuing promises no hope of which appeared upon the earth if they had not expected their completion elsewhere the thing which the apostle specially urges and not without reason is that they called this world a pilgrimage as moses also relates genesis forty seven verse nine if they were pilgrims and strangers in the land of canaan where is the promise of the lord which appointed them heirs of it it is clear therefore that the promise of possession which they had received looked farther hence they did not require a foot-breadth in the land of canaan except for sepulture thus testifying that they hoped not to receive the benefit of the promise until after death and this is the reason why jacob set so much value on being buried there that he took joseph bound by oath to see it done and why joseph wished that his bones should some ages later long after they had mouldered into dust be carried thither

genesis forty seven verse twenty nine and thirty and chapter fifty verse twenty five fourteen in short it is manifest that in the whole course of their lives they had an eye to future blessedness why should jacob have aspired so earnestly to primogeniture and intrigued for it at so much risk if it was to bring him only exile and destitution and no good at all unless he looked to some higher blessing and that this was his feeling he declared in one of the last sentences he uttered i have waited for thy salvation o god genesis forty nine verse eighteen what salvation could he have waited for when he felt himself breathing his last if he did not see in death the beginning of a new life and why talk of saints and the children of god even when one who otherwise strove to resist the truth was not devoid of some similar impression for what did balaam mean when he said let me die the death of the righteous and let my last end be like his numbers twenty three verse ten unless he felt convinced of what david afterward declares precious in the sight of the lord is the death of his saints

psalm one hundred sixteen verse fifteen and chapter thirty four verse twelve if death were the goal and the ultimate limit no distinction could be observed between the righteous and the wicked the true distinction is the different lot which awaits them after death fifteen we have not yet come farther down than the books of moses whose only office according to our opponents was to induce the people to worship god by setting before them the fertility of the land and its general abundance and yet to every one who does not voluntarily shun the light there is clear evidence of a spiritual covenant but if we come down to the prophets the kingdom of christ and eternal life are there exhibited in the fullest splendor first david as earlier in time in accordance with the order of the divine procedure spoke of heavenly mysteries more obscurely than they and yet with what clearness and certainty does he point to it in all he says the value he put upon his earthly habitation is attested by these words i am a stranger with thee and a sojourner as all my fathers were

verily every man at his best estate is altogether vanity surely every man walketh in a vain show and now lord what wait i for my hope is in thee psalm thirty nine verse twelve five six and seven he who confesses that there is nothing solid or stable on the earth and yet firmly retains his hope in god undoubtedly contemplates a happiness reserved for him elsewhere to this contemplation he is wont to invite believers whenever he would have them to be truly comforted for in another passages after speaking of human life as a fleeting and evanescent show he adds the mercy of the lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him psalm one o three verse seventeen to this there is a corresponding passage in another psalm of old thou hast laid the foundation of the earth and the heavens are the work of thy hands they shall perish but thou shalt endure yea all of them shall wax old like a garment as a vesture shalt thou change them and they shall be changed but thou art the same and thy years shall have no end

the children of thy servants shall continue and their seed shall be established before thee psalm one o two verses twenty five to twenty eight if notwithstanding of the destruction of the heavens and the earth the godly cease not to be established before god it follows that their salvation is connected with his eternity but this hope could have no existence if it did not lean upon the promise as expounded by isaiah the heavens shall vanish away like smoke and the earth shall wax old like a garment and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner but my salvation shall be for ever and my righteousness shall not be abolished isaiah fifty one verse six perpetuity is here attributed to righteousness and salvation not as they reside in god but as they are experienced by men sixteen nor can those things which are everywhere said as to the prosperous success of believers be understood in any other sense than as referring to the manifestation of celestial glory

of this nature are the following passages he preserveth the souls of his saints he delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked light is sown for the righteous and gladness for the upright in heart his righteousness endureth for ever his horn shall be exalted with honour the desire of the wicked shall perish surely the righteous shall give thanks unto thy name the upright shall dwell in thy presence the righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance the lord redeemeth the soul of his servants but the lord often leaves his servants not only to be annoyed by the violence of the wicked but to be lacerated and destroyed allows the good to languish in obscurity and squalid poverty while the ungodly shine forth as it were among the stars and even by withdrawing the light of his countenance does not leave them lasting joy wherefore david by no means disguises the fact that if believers fix their eyes on the present condition of the world they will be grievously tempted to believe that with god integrity has neither favour nor reward

so much does impiety prosper and flourish while the godly are oppressed with ignominy poverty contempt and every kind of cross the psalmist says but as for me my feet were almost gone my steps had well-nigh slipped for i was envious of the foolish when i saw the prosperity of the wicked at length after a statement of the case he concludes when i thought to know this it was too painful for me until i went into the sanctuary of god then understood i their end some seventy three verses two three sixteen and seventeen seventeen therefore even from this confession of david let us learn that the holy fathers under the old testament were not ignorant that in this world god seldom or never gives his servants the fulfilment of what is promised them and therefore has directed their minds to his sanctuary where the blessings not exhibited in the present shadowy life are treasured up for them this sanctuary was the final judgment of god which as they could not at all discern it by the eye they were contented to apprehend by faith

inspired with this confidence they doubted not that whatever might happen in the world a time would at length arrive when the divine promises would be fulfilled this is attested by such expressions as these as for me i will behold thy face in righteousness i shall be satisfied when i awake with thy likeness psalm seventeen verse fifteen i am like a green olive tree in the house of god psalm fifty two verse eight again the righteous shall flourish like the palm tree he shall grow like a cedar in lebanon those that be planted in the house of the lord shall flourish in the courts of our god they shall still bring forth fruit in old age they shall be fat and flourishing and quote some ninety two verses twelve to fourteen he had exclaimed a little before o lord how great are thy works and thy thoughts are very deep when the wicked spring as the grass and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish it is that they shall be destroyed for ever where was this splendor and beauty of the righteous unless when the appearance of this world was changed by the manifestation of the heavenly kingdom lifting their eyes to the eternal world they despised the momentary hardships and calamities of the present life

and confidently broke out into these exclamations he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved but thou o god shalt bring them down into the pit of destruction bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days psalm fifty five verses twenty two and twenty three where in this world is there a pit of eternal destruction to swallow up the wicked of whose happiness it is elsewhere said they spend their days in wealth and in a moment go down to the grave job twenty one verse thirteen where on the other hand is the great stability of the saints who as david complains were not only disturbed but everywhere utterly bruised and oppressed it is here he set before his eyes not merely the unstable vicissitudes of the world tossed like a troubled sea but what the lord is to do when he shall one day sit to fix the eternal constitution of heaven and earth as he in another place elegantly describes they that trust in their wealth and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches none of them can by any means redeem his brother nor give to god a ransom for him

for he sees that wise men die likewise the fool and the brutish person perish and leave their wealth to others their inward thought is that their houses shall continue for ever and their dwelling-places to all generations they call their lands after their own names nevertheless man being in honour abideth not he is like the beasts that perish this their way is their folly yet their posterity approve their sayings like sheep they are laid in the grave death shall feed on them and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning and their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling and quote some forty nine verses six seven ten to fourteen by this derision of the foolish for resting satisfied with the slippery and fickle pleasures of the world he shows that the wise must seek for a very different felicity but he more clearly unfolds the hidden doctrine of the resurrection when he sets up a kingdom to the righteous after the wicked are cast down and destroyed for what prey are we to understand by the morning unless it be the revelation of a new life commencing when the present comes to an end

eighteen hence the consideration which believers employed as a solace for their sufferings and a remedy for their patience his anger endureth but a moment in his favour is life psalm thirty verse five how did their afflictions which continued almost throughout the whole course of life terminate in a moment where did they see the long duration of the divine benignity of which they had only the slightest taste had they clung to earth they could have found nothing of the kind but looking to heaven they saw that the period during which the lord afflicted his saints was but a moment and that the mercies with which he gathers them are everlasting on the other hand they foresaw that for the wicked who only dreamed of happiness for a day there was reserved an eternal and never-ending destruction hence those expressions the memory of the just is blessed but the name of the wicked shall rot proverbs ten verse seven precious in the sight of the lord is the death of his saints psalm one sixteen verse fifteen again in samuel the lord will keep the feet of his saints and the wicked shall be silent in darkness first samuel two verse nine showing they know well that however much the righteous might be tossed about their latter end was life and peace

that how pleasant soever the delights of the wicked they gradually lead down to the chambers of death they accordingly designated the death of such persons as the death of the uncircumcised that is persons cut off from the hope of resurrection Ezekiel 28 verse 10 and chapter 31 verse 18. Hence David could not imagine a greater curse than this, Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous. Psalm 69 verse 28.

19. The most remarkable passage of all is that of Job. I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. and though after my skin worms destroy this body yet in my flesh shall i see god whom i shall see for myself and mine eyes shall behold and not another end quote job nineteen verses twenty five to twenty seven those who would make a display of their acuteness pretend that these words are to be understood not of the last resurrection but of the day when job expected that god would deal more gently with him granting that this is partially meant we shall however compel them whether they will or not to admit that job never could have attained to such fulness of hope if his thoughts had risen no higher than the earth

it must therefore be confessed that he who saw that the redeemer would be present with him when lying in the grave must have raised his eyes to a future immortality to those who think only of the present life death is the extremity of despair but it could not destroy the hope of job though he slay me said he yet will i trust in him job thirteen verse fifteen let no trifler here burst in with the objection that these are the sayings of a few and do not by any means prove that there was such a doctrine among the jews to this my instant answer is that these few did not in such passages give utterance to some hidden wisdom to which only distinguished individuals were admitted privately and apart from others but that having been appointed by the holy spirit to be teachers of the people they openly promulgated the mysteries of god which all in common behaved to learn as the principles of public religion when therefore we hear that those passages in which the holy spirit spoke so distinctly and clearly of the spiritual life were public oracles in the jewish church it were intolerably perverse to confine them entirely to a carnal covenant relating merely to the earth and earthly riches

twenty when we descend to the latter prophets we have it in our power to expatiate freely as in our own field if when david job and samuel were in question the victory was not difficult much easier is it here for the method and economy which god observed in administering the covenant of his mercy was that the nearer the period of its full exhibition approached the greater additions which were daily made to the light of revelation accordingly at the beginning when the first promise of salvation was given to adam genesis three verse fifteen only a few slender sparks beamed forth additions being afterwards made a greater degree of light began to be displayed and continued gradually to increase and shine with greater brightness until at length all the clouds being dispersed christ the son of righteousness arose and with full refulgence illumined all the earth malachi chapter four in appealing to the prophets therefore we can have no fear of any deficiency of proof

but as i see an immense mass of materials which would occupy us much longer than compatible with the nature of our present work the subject indeed would require a large volume and as i trust that by what has already been said i have paved the way so that every reader of the very least discernment may proceed without stumbling i will avoid a prolixity for which at present there is little necessity only reminding my readers to facilitate the entrance by means of the key which was formerly put into their hands namely that whenever the prophets make mention of the happiness of believers a happiness of which scarcely any vestiges are discernible in the present life they must have recourse to this distinction that the better to commend the divine goodness to the people they used temporal blessings as a kind of lineaments to shadow it forth and yet gave such a portrait as might lift their minds above the earth the elements of this world and all that will perish and compel them to think of the blessedness of a future and spiritual life

twenty one one example will suffice when the israelites were carried away to babylon their dispersion seemed to be the next thing to death and they could scarcely be dissuaded from thinking that ezekiel's prophecy of their restoration ezekiel thirty seven verse four was a mere fable because it seemed to them the same thing as if he had prophesied that putrid carcasses could be raised to life the lord in order to show that even in that case there was nothing to prevent him from making room for his kindness set before the prophet in vision a field covered with dry bones to which by the mere power of his word he in one moment restored life and strength the vision served indeed to correct the unbelief of the jews at the time but it also reminded them how much farther the power of the lord extended than to the bringing back of the people since by a single nod it could so easily give life to dry scattered bones wherefore the passage may be fitly compared with one in isaiah thy dead men shall live together with my dead body shall they arise awake and sing ye that dwell in dust for thy dew is as the dew of herbs and the earth shall cast out the dead

come my people enter thou into my chambers and shut thy doors about thee hide thyself as it were for a little moment until the indignation be overpast for behold the lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity the earth also shall disclose her blood and shall no more cover her slain and quote isaiah twenty six verses nineteen to twenty one twenty two it were absurd however to interpret all the passages on a similar principle for there are several which point without any veil to the future immortality which awaits believers in the kingdom of heaven some of them we have already quoted and there are many others but especially the following two the one is in isaiah as the new heavens and the new earth which i will make shall remain before me saith the lord so shall your seed and your name remain and it shall come to pass that from one new moon to another and from one sabbath to another shall all flesh come to worship before me saith the lord and they shall go forth and look upon the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against me

for their worms shall not die neither shall their fire be quenched and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh and quote isaiah sixty six verses twenty two to twenty four the other passage is in daniel at that time shall michael stand up the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people and there shall be a time of trouble such as there never was since there was a nation even to that same time and at that time thy people shall be delivered every one shall be found written in the book and many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt and quote daniel chapter twelve verses one and two twenty three in proving the two remaining points that is that the patriarchs had christ as the pledge of their covenant and placed all their hope of blessing in him as they are clearer and not so much controverted i will be less particular let us then lay it down confidently as a truth which no engines of the devil can destroy that the old testament or covenant which the lord made with the people of israel was not confined to earthly objects but contained a promise of spiritual and eternal life

the expectation of which behaved to be impressed on the minds of all who truly consented to the covenant let us put far from us the senseless and pernicious notion that the lord proposed nothing to the jews or that they sought nothing but full supplies of food carnal delights abundance of wealth external influence a numerous offspring and all those things which our animal nature deems valuable for even now the only kingdom of heaven which our lord jesus christ promises to his followers is one in which they may sit down with abraham and isaac and jacob matthew eight verse eleven and peter declared of the jews of his day that they were heirs of the gospel grace because they were the sons of the prophets and comprehended in the covenant which the lord of old made with his people acts three verse twenty five and that this might not be attested by words merely our lord also approved it by act matthew twenty seven verse fifty two at the moment when he rose again he deigned to make many of the saints partakers of his resurrection and allowed them to be seen in the city thus giving a sure earnest that everything which he did and suffered in the purchase of eternal salvation belonged to believers under the old testament just as much as to us

indeed as peter testifies they were endued with the same spirit of faith by which we are regenerated to life acts fifteen verse eight when we hear that that spirit which is as it were a kind of spark of immortality in us whence it is called the earnest of our inheritance ephesians one verse fourteen dwelt in like manner in them how can we presume to deny them the inheritance hence it is the more wonderful how the sadducees of old fell into such a degree of sottishness as to deny both the resurrection and the substantive existence of spirits both of which were attested to them by so many striking passages of scripture nor would the stupidity of the whole nation in the present day in expecting an earthly reign of the messiah be less wonderful had not the scriptures foretold this long before as the punishment which they were to suffer for rejecting the gospel god by a just judgment blinding minds which voluntarily invite darkness by rejecting the offered light of heaven they read and are constantly turning over the pages of moses

but a veil prevents them from seeing the light which beams forth in his countenance second corinthians three verse fourteen and thus to them he will remain covered and veiled until they are converted to christ between whom and moses they now study as much as in them lies to maintain a separation end of section twenty one