Commentary on Harmony of the Law Volume 1 Complete John Calvin (continued)
HARMONY OF THE LAW · VOLUME 1 reconciliation to God. Whence also it appears that He so pardons sinners as still to hate their sins, since He only absolves those who voluntarily condemn themselves, nor admits any into His favor except those who forsake their sins; not that any one perfectly renounces himself or his sins, but through indulgence that penitence is acceptable to God, 695 which might justly be rejected on the ground of its deficiencies. Whereby also what I have just said is confirmed, that it is not on account of the merit of our penitence that God acquits us of our sins; as if we redeemed ourselves from guilt and punishment by weeping, sorrowing, and confession, whereas in the best of us all penitence will always be found to be weak and imperfect. Wherefore the cause and the honor of our pardon must only be ascribed to the gratuitous goodness of God. Hence I have said that in their fast the Israelites professed their guilt and condemnation, whilst they were expiated by the sacrifice, since there is no other means of satisfaction.
29. For whatsoever soul it be that shall not be afflicted. Hence let us learn how greatly the sacrifice of an afflicted and humbled heart pleases God; since He commands so severe a punishment to be inflicted for the contempt of this ceremony. And surely this would have been a proof of most gross indifference, if, when God was inspiring men with the dread of His wrath, and inviting them to tears, they should rest in security and ease, and give themselves up to luxuries. On this account He declares with a terrible oath in Isaiah, that will never pardon the Jews, to whom the hour of repentance never came, but, when he reprovingly called upon them by His prophets to make haste "to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth," merrily feasted and drank together, and said, "Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die." (Isaiah 22:12-14.) And no wonder, since this is the extreme height of impiety, to stupify our consciences in brutal contumacy, and to rob God of His judicial power. As long as the sinner is so far affected, and pricked by a sense of sins, as anxiously to sigh for a remedy, there is some hope of his recovery; whilst he who shakes off fear as well as shame, is in altogether a desperate state. Now, since it was not without reason that God exercised His ancient people under the Law with external rudiments, it was an act of profane and intolerable carelessness to omit what was so necessary; and of still greater hardness of heart purposely, as it were, to despise it, so that no one need wonder at the severity of the punishment. In Numbers 29 the number of the victims is stated; but I pass over this point, as not requiring to be expounded.
34. The fifteenth day of this seventh month. It is shewn in the end of the chapter why God instituted the Feast of Tabernacles, viz, that the children of Israel might remember that they dwelt in tents in the desert, when they had no certain dwelling-place, but, as it were, passed a wandering life. The
"Quand elle n'est point feinte;" when it is not feigned. — Fr.