Commentary on Harmony of the Law Volume 1 Complete John Calvin (continued)
JOHN CALVIN
not led even the most sharp-sighted into error by this artifice, Xenophon,293 the disciple of Socrates, would not have so often mentioned among the chief praises of Cyrus,294 that he was devoted to augury, and had learnt to be so from his father. Finally, the experience of all ages teaches us that men of depraved curiosity have often received from Satan, by means of magicians, a knowledge of things which could not have been obtained naturally. As to the actual operations of Satan, whether he raises the dead, or bewitches men and beasts, or invests any substances with new forms through enchantment, we must consider that whatever miracles he appears to work are mere delusions; and, since he is the father of darkness, it is clear he has no power except upon unbelievers, whose minds are darkened, so as not to distinguish black from white. Yet we have already seen how Pharaoh's magicians rivalled Moses in their miracles. Wherefore we need not wonder if, by God's permission, he should disturb the elements, or afflict the reprobate with diseases and other evils, or present phantoms to their sight. On this account we should more earnestly implore of God to restrain from us an enemy armed against us with so many destructive arts.
12. For all that do these things are an abomination. First, he would have the authority of God act as a rein to guide them; and then sets before them that vengeance which they were soon about to see inflicted upon the heathen, nay, of which they were themselves to be the executioners and ministers. For since it could not be a matter of the slightest doubt, but that the inhabitants of the land of Canaan were rooted out from their peaceful habitations only by God's hand, he assigns as the cause of this destruction that they had polluted themselves and their country by these blasphemous and abominable superstitions. By this striking example, then, he deters them from imitating the sins which facts themselves shewed to be thus severely punished. Thus Paul admonishes believers to seek diligently to avoid the sins which provoke God's wrath against the disobedient. (Ephesians 5:6.)
13. Thou shalt be perfect. He refers to the mutual obligation of that holy covenant whereby as on the one side He had pledged Himself to the Jews, so on the other He had made them His debtors, not to prostitute themselves to idols, or to hanker after strange religions, whereby men's minds are led astray. This perfectness, then, is opposed to all those mixtures or corruptions which withdraw us from the sincere worship of the one true
Homme de jugement. — Fr.
See, for example, at the end of the 1st Book of the Cyropaedia, the advice of Cyaxares: Μάθε δὲμς, ὦπαῖ, καὶτάδε, ἔφη, τὰμέγιςα· Παρὰγὰρ ἱερὰ, καὶοἰωνοὺς μήτ ᾿ἐν σαυτῷμηδέποτε μηδ ᾿ἐν τὣστρατιᾷκινδυνεῦσὟς, κατανοὼν ὡς ἄνθρωποι μὲν αἱροῦνται πράξεις εἰκάβοντες, εἰδότες δὲοὐδὲν ἀπὸποίας ἔςαι αὐτοῖς τἀγαθόν· κ. τ. λ.