Introduction

In his exposition of Rom. 4:23 (49, 86) and the preface to his exposition of Acts (48, vii), Calvin quotes a saying from classical antiquity to the effect that history is life’s teacher.! On this saying he made the interesting comment that if the telling of history can teach us so much about what we humans do and fail to do, and is worthy of so much praise, then how much more honor ought we to give to sacred history, the stories that not only help to make our external lives virtuous but also — which is far more important — show us how God had his church in view from the very first, how he is always present as a true Helper to those who rely upon his riches and protection, and how he grants grace and a hearing to poor sinners, so that as the stories teach us faith they also lift us up to heaven.”

A significant and fruitful principle of distinguishing between history and sacred history lies behind this statement. All history is morally instructive, said Calvin. But sacred history is instructive as regards our relation to God, or, more accurately, our relation to the salvation that comes from God. He found this history, of course, in biblical history, which was for him, first, at least a sphere of its own, and second, something sharply different from secular history. If we ponder this, we can hardly abandon this sharp distinction, contrast, and tension between the two histories. It is by no means obvious that history should be instructive not

1. CR 49, 86, and 48, VII, quoting Cicero, De oratore 2.36.

DACRE WAN