Calvin's Commentary on Malachi
(... continued from file 6)
Lecture One Hundred and Seventy-fifth.
We said yesterday, that the priests of the ancient
Church were made its guides on the condition that they
faithfully discharged their office, and further, that
when wicked priests who acted perfidiously in their
office boasted of their dignity, this false pretence was
to be deemed as nothing, the title being claimed without
the reality. These two things we have explained.
We must now see whether this applies to the state
and discipline of the Christian Church. The Papists deny
this, for they wish to rule freely and with unbridled
license, and to perform nothing to God, as though their
very dignity nullified his authority; but they cannot
shake off the yoke, except they deprive God of all his
right. Nor is it a wonder that they act in this way; for
even under the law the Prophet had a hard contest with
ungodly priests, who had fallen away from the duties of
their office, their calling being ever in their mouths,
though they very far departed from the law which God had
prescribed to them. There is therefore nothing new in the
case of the Papists, who seek to be free from every law,
that they may do whatever they please and despise all
reproofs; for they indeed possess power, and that
tyrannical and barbarous. But what they say we ought to
disregard, for God declares from above what we here read
in the Prophet's words, - that he so rules the Church,
that he is supreme above all mortals. It was not God's
will, most surely, after Christ's coming in the flesh, to
abandon the care and government of his Church, nor was it
his will to be forced to submit as a private individual.
If then the authority of God remains at this day safe and
secure, it follows that nothing is changed in this
respect as to his right over the priesthood. Whatever
authority they pretend, who would be deemed pastors of
the Church, they must necessarily so continue in their
station as faithfully to perform the office which has
been committed to them from above; for as God has raised
them to that great honour, so he has also stipulated with
them, that they should faithfully rule the Church.
But if the Papal clergy compare themselves with the
Levitical priests, they will find that the latter had the
advantage; for God, as it is well known, instituted an
hereditary priesthood under the law. His purpose was,
that after the coming of Christ pastors should be made by
the suffrages of the Church; but the Levitical tribe
claimed this honour as their own right under the law; for
God had deposited the right and honour of the priesthood
in that tribe. If then the Papists contend that more is
due to them than to the Levitical priests, their claim is
absurd; for there is no hereditary right, so that sons
succeed their fathers in the ministry or pastoral office.
We hence see that if a comparison be in this respect
made, the priesthood under the law was as to succession
far more important. And we know also what God had
promised to Aaron and to his successors. From Aaron the
dignity passed to the posterity of Phinehas, and he seems
to have been favoured, and also his descendants, with an
unalienable right. But God here expostulates with the
priests, because they had violated the compact; and hence
he says that he was no longer bound to them, because they
had become covenant-breakers and apostates. Let now the
Pope, with all his party, pretend what they please, most
certain it is, that all they can allege vanish into
nothing compared with the lofty claims which the
Levitical priests might have apparently made.
The Pope says that the apostolic seat was fixed at
Rome, because it was said to Peter, "Thou art Peter," &c.
(Matt. 16:18.) I will not stop here to refute trifles of
this kind; for there is no need of many words in
discussing this point - whether this ought to be confined
to the person of Peter, or whether it is to be extended
to others; as it is not there stated. He says that Peter
was a Roman bishop. Though this be conceded, (which yet
can be easily disproved by history,) it does not follow
that the primacy by a sort of hereditary right was
transferred to all Roman bishops. Hence the succession,
of which they proudly boast, is a mere fume. But were we
to grant all they require, we must make this exception, -
that the priesthood was not fixed to the place, so that
every one called the bishop of the Roman Church should at
the same time obtain the primacy, and be reputed head of
the whole Church.
We must also in the second place see what sort of
thing is the Papal priesthood; for though that beast
appoints his own priests, it follows not that it is the
ordination of Christ: nor is it anything like it. For
what is a priest under the Papacy? even one who
sacrifices Christ, that is, who robs Christ of that
honour which the heavenly Father has confirmed to him by
a solemn oath. Christ was called a priest; and this
honour, as I have just said, was confirmed to him by an
oath. All the Papal priests are inaugurated into their
office, it at they may sacrifice: "We give to thee power
to offer appeasing sacrifices;" for thus they inaugurate
them: and such words are suitable to the Papists; for
those magical superstitions, which the Romans formerly
used, continue still under the Papacy. We hence see, that
when we examine the Papal priesthood according to the
rule of Christ, it is altogether profane, nay, wholly
sacrilegious.
But were their calling lawful, were we to grant that
they are pastors of the Church, by a continued succession
from the apostles, we must yet deny that they are to be
allowed to claim all kinds of liberty and to tyrannize
over the Church without being reproved; for whence do
they derive such a privilege?
We therefore in short draw this conclusion - that
what we read here of the Levitical priests not only
applies to the Papal priests, but also bears with much
more force against them; for they have no hereditary
honour, their calling is not true nor legitimate, and
they cannot be counted the pastors of the Church; on the
other hand, they deprive Christ of his honour, yea, they
daily sacrifice and slay him. We hence conclude, that
they ought by no means to be suffered in the Church, for
the covenant of God ought to remain inviolable; and what
is it? that they keep the law of God in their mouth, and
be his messengers and interpreters. When we see that
these are dumb idols, yea, when we see that they turn the
whole truth of God into falsehood, how can this barbarity
be suffered? God is excluded, and the devil himself in
the persons of men adulterates the whole worship of God,
perverts, demolishes, and even reduces to nothing the
whole of religion! and he also fills with lies the
Church, which ought to be the sanctuary of truth!
These things might have been more fully handled; but
it is enough briefly to show how foolishly the Papal
clergy boast that they possess the honour of the
priesthood, when yet it is evident that there is no
right, no authority, when faith is not kept with God and
with his Church. Let us now proceeds
10. Have we not all one father? hath not one God created
us? why do we deal treacherously every man against his
brother, by profaning the covenant of our fathers?
10. Annon Pater unus omnibus nobis? annon Deus unus
creavit nos? cur fraudabimus quisque fratrem suum: (alii,
cur transgredietur quisque in fratrem suum; alii passive
accipiunt, cur decipitur quisque a fratre suo) ad
polluendum foedus patrum nostrorum.
The Prophet accuses the Jews here of another crime -
that they were perfidious towards God and their own
brethren, and departed from that pre-eminence into which
God had raised them, when they were chosen in preference
to other nations to be a holy and peculiar people. This
ingratitude the Prophet now condemns by saying, that they
all had one father, and that they had been all created by
one God.
The word Father may be applied to God as well as to
Abraham, and some interpreters will have it repeated,
which is no uncommon thing in Hebrew: they say then that
all had God as their Father, because he created them all;
so that the latter clause is taken as an explanation. But
it is better, as I think, to apply the word to Abraham,
and the passage requires this; for it follows at the end
of the verse, that the covenant which the Lord had made
with their fathers had been violated; and this will
appear still more certain, when we bear in mind the
design of the Prophet.' Presently a reproof follows,
because they had taken many wives; but the Prophet seems
not as yet to mention this vice, but speaks generally,
that they did not preserve that purity to which they had
been called, for they indiscriminately married heathen
wives. As then they mingled without distinction with
unbelievers and the despisers of God, the Prophet
complains that they were unmindful of that dignity to
which they had been elevated, when God deigned to adopt
them as his holy people. For thus it happened, that the
pre-eminence which Moses celebrates in Deut. 4:8,
disappeared, "What nation is so renowned, to whom God
draws nigh, as thou seest that he is nigh to thee?" When
therefore the Jews rendered themselves vile, the Prophet
condemns them for ingratitude. He, at the same time,
shows that they were become inhuman towards their
brethren, with whom they had been united by a most sacred
bond. It then seems probable to me, that God and Abraham
are mentioned here, because God had chosen the race of
Abraham and adopted them as his people, and also, because
he had deposited his covenant with Abraham and the
fathers: thus Abraham became, as it were, the mediator of
the covenant which God made with his whole race. By thus
understanding the subject of the Prophet, it is easier
for us to see why he mentions Abraham as well as God.
Is there not one father, he says, to us all? that
is, "Did not God select us from the rest of the world,
when he promised to our father Abraham to be a God to him
and to his seed? Since then God's favour has flowed to us
from that fountain, what sottishness it is to break that
sacred bond by which God has joined us to himself in the
person of Abraham?" For when the Jews did not consider
that they derived their origin from the holy patriarch,
the consequence was, that the covenant of God with them
became void and of no effect. This then is the reason why
he says, that one God was to them all a Father. And as
other nations might have claimed the same privilege, he
adds, Has not one God created us? He shows that the Jews
had descended in no common or ordinary way from their
holy father Abraham, but that God was the maker of his
race, that he created them. Did not he also create the
rest of the world? Not in the same manner; for this
creation ought to be confined especially to the Church.
God has created the whole human race; but he created also
the race of Abraham: and hence the Church is often called
in Isaiah the work and the formation of God, (Is. 66:21,)
and Paul also adopts the same mode of speaking, (Eph.
2:10.) Our Prophet then does not mean that the Jews had
been created by God when born into this world, but that
they had become his holy and peculiar people. As then God
had thus created the Jews, and had given to them one
fatller, that being mindful of their origin they might
remain united in true religion, the Prophet here
reprobates their sottishness in casting away from
themselves this invaluable favour of God.
Every one dealt falsely with his brother; and thus
they violated the covenant of the fathers. As to the verb
, nubegad, it has been variously explained by
grammarians; but as to what is meant it is agreed, that
the Jews are here condemned, because they were not only
perfidious to God, but also fraudulent as to their
neiohbours: and thus they doubled their perfidy, the
proof which was manifest, because they did not act with
sincerity towards their brethren. Why then, he says, do
we deal falsely with man, that is, every one with his own
brother, so that we pollute the covenant of our fathers?
Here the covenant of the fathers is to be taken for that
separation or laying apart which we have mentioned, by
which God had adopted Abraham and his posterity, that
they might be separated from all the nations of the
world. Hence under this covenant of the fathers is God
himself included; and as this has not been perceived, it
is no wonder that this passage has been so frigidly
explained, and that Malachi has been as it were wholly
buried in darkness; though interpreters have tried to
bring light, yet the effect has been to pervert the real
meaning of the Prophet. But it appears now plain, I
think, that the Jews are here said to be guilty of a
twofold perfidy - because they rejected the honour
offered to them by God's gratuitous election, and also
because they acted fraudulently towards their own
brethren. It hence followed that the covenant of the
fathers, that is, what God had deposited with the
patriarchs, that it might come from hand to hand to their
posterity, had been violated and made void by their
wickedness.
We must yet notice what I have already referred to -
that the priests are so reproved that the whole people
are also included; and this we shall again presently see,
and I add also, that the Prophet connects God with
Abraham, in order to show that we shall fail to seek God
effectually, if we seek him apart from his covenant, and
also that our minds ought not to be fixed on men. There
are indeed two vices against which we ought carefully to
guard. Some, passing by all means, seek to fly upward to
God; and so they entertain many vain thoughts and devise
for themselves many labyrinths, from which they never
emerge. We see how many fanatics there are at this day,
who proudly speak against God's word, and yet touch
neither heaven nor earth; and why? because they would be
superior to angels, and do not acknowledge that they need
any helps by which they might by degrees, according to
their weakness, ascend up to God himself. Now this is to
seek God without the covenant or without the word. This
is the reason why the Prophet here unites father Abraham
to God himself; it was done that the Jews might know that
they were confined by certain limits, in order that they
might in humility make progress in God's school, and be
carried by degrees into heaven: for God, as it has been
said, had deposited his covenant with Abraham. But yet as
they might have depended on a mortal man, the Prophet
adds a corrective - that they had been created by God;
for they were not to separate their father Abraham from
the very author of the covenant.
This passage then is worthy of special notice; for
men from the beginning and in all ages have been inclined
to the two vices which I have mentioned; and at this day
we see that some indulge their dreams and despise the
outward preaching of the word; for many fanatics say,
that there is no need of rudiments or of the first
elements, since God has promised that the sons of the
Church would be spiritual. Hence Satan by such delusions
strives to draw us away from pure simplicity of doctrine.
It is therefore necessary to set up this shield - that
God is not exhibited to us without Abraham, that is,
without a Prophet and an interpreter. The Papists are
also sunk in the same mud; for they have always the
fathers in their mouths, but make no account of God. This
is also very preposterous. Let us then remember that God
is not to be separated from his word, and that the
authority of men is of no account, when they depart from
it. And the Prophet confirms the same thing at the end of
the verse, when he speaks of the covenant of the fathers;
for he does not here simply commend the covenant of the
fathers, as the Turks might do, or as it is done by
Papists and Jews; but he means the covenant which God had
given, and which the holy patriarchs faithfully handed
down to their posterity, according to what Paul says in
the twenty-second chapter of the Acts, when speaking of
his father's religion; he did not speak of it as heathens
might do of their religion, but he took it as granted
that the law promulgated by Moses was not his invention,
but had God as its author. It now follows -
11. Judah hath dealt treacherously, and an abomination is
committed in Israel and in Jerusalem: for Judah hath
profaned the holiness of the Lord which he loved, and
hath married the daughter of a strange god.
11. Perfide egit Iehudah, et abominatio facta est in
Israele et Ierusalem; quia polluit Iehudah sanctuarium
Iehovae quod dilexit (vel, sanctitatem; dicemus de hac
voce) et matrimonium contraxerunt cum filia dei alieni.
The Prophet now explains how the Jews departed from
the covenant of their fathers, and he exaggerates their
sin and says, that abomination was done in Israel; as
though he had said, that this perfidy was abominable.
Some render the verb , begad, transgressed, and so it is
often taken in Hebrew: but as in the last verse the
Prophet had said, , nubegad, "Why do we deal perfidiously
every one with his brother?" I doubt not but that it is
repeated here in the same sense. But as I have already
stated, he shows the crime to be detestable, and says
that it existed in Judah and in Jerusalem. God had
indeed, as it is well known, preferred that tribe to
others; and it was not a common favour that the Jews
almost alone returned to their own country, while others
nearly all remained in their dispersions. He adds
Jerusalem, not for honour's sake, but for greater
reproach, as though he had said, that not only some of
the race of Abraham were subject to this condemnation,
but that even the Jews were so, who had been allowed to
return to their own country, and that even the holy city
rendered itself subject to this reproof, in which the
temple was, the sanctuary of God, which was then alone
the true one in the whole world. By these circumstances
then does the Prophet enhance their crime. But he
immediately comes to particulars: Polluted, he says, has
Judah the holiness of Jehovah, which he loved;' that is,
because they individually indulged their lusts, and
procured for themselves wives from heathen nations.
Some take , kodash, for the sanctuary or the temple;
others for the keeping of the law; but I prefer to apply
it to the covenant itself; and we might suitably take it
in a collective sense, except the simpler meaning be more
approved - that Judah polluted his separation. As to the
Prophet's object and the subject itself, he charges them
here, I have no doubt, with profanation, because the Jews
rendered themselves vile, though God had consecrated them
to himself. They had then polluted holiness, even when
they had been separated from the world; for they had
disregarded so great an honour, by which they might have
been pre-eminent, had they continued in their integrity.
It may be also taken collectively, they have polluted
holiness, that is, they have polluted that nation which
has been separated from other nations: but as this
exposition may seem hard and somewhat strained, I am
inclined to think that what is here meant is that
separation by which the Jews were known from other
nations. But yet what I have stated may serve to remove
whatever obscurity there may be. And that this holiness
ought to be referred to that gratuitous election by which
God had adopted the Jews as his peculiar people, is
evident from what the Prophet says, that they married
foreign wives.
We then see the purpose of this passage, which is to
show, - that the Jews were ungrateful to God, because
they mingled with heathen nations, and knowingly and
wilfully cast aside that glory by which God had adorned
them by choosing them, as Moses says, to be to him a
royal priesthood. (Exod. 19:6.) Holiness, we know, was
much recommended to the Jews, in order that they might
not abandon themselves to any of the pollutions of the
heathens. Hence God had forbidden them under the law to
take foreign wives, except they were first purified, as
we find in Deut. 21:11,12; if any one wished to marry a
captive, she was to have her head shaven and her nails
pared; by which it was intimated, that such women were
impure, and that their husbands would be contaminated,
except they were first purified. And.yet it was not
wholly a blameless thing, when one observed the law as to
a captive: but it was a lust abominable to God, when they
were not content with their own nation, and burnt in love
with strange women. As however the Jews, like all mortals
without exception, were inclined to corruptions, God
purposed to keep them together as one people, lest the
wife by her flatteries should draw the husband away from
the pure and legitimate worship of God. And Moses tells
us, that there was a crafty counsel given by Balsam when
he saw that the people could not be conquered in open
war; he at length invented this artifice, that the
heathens should offer to them their wives and their
daughters. It hence happened that the people provoked
God's wrath, as we find it recorded in Nurn. 25:.4.
As then the Jews after their return had again lapsed
into this corruption, it is not without reason that the
Prophet so severely reproves them, and that he says, that
by marrying strange women they had polluted holiness, or
that separation, which was their great honour, as God had
adopted them alone as his people; and he calls it a
holiness which God loved. Thus their crime was doubled,
because God had not only bound them to himself, but he
had also embraced them gratuitously. For if the cause of
the separation be enquired, whether they excelled other
nations, or whether they had any worthiness or merit? the
answer is, No; but God loved them freely. For by the word
love, the Prophet means the mere kindness and bounty of
God, with which he favoured Abraham and his race, without
regard to any worthiness or excellency. He therefore
condemns them for this ingratitude, because they had not
only departed from the covenant which the Lord had made
with their fathers, but had also neglected and despised
that gratuitous love, which ought to have softened even
their iron hearts. For if God had found anything in them
as a reason why he preferred them to other nations, they
might have been more excusable, at least they might have
extenuated their fault; but since God had adopted them as
his peculiar people, though they were unworthy and wholly
undeserving, they must surely have been extremely
brutish, to have thus despised the gratuitous favor of
God. Their baseness then is increased, as I have said, by
this circumstance, - that so great a kindness of God did
not turn their hearts to obedience.
At the end of the verse the Prophet makes known, as
I have already stated, their profanation; they had
married the daughters of another god. By way of reproach
he calls them the daughters of a strange god. He might
have simply said foreign daughters; but he intended here
to imply a comparison between the God of Israel and
idols: as though he had said, "Whence have these wives
come to you? from idols. Ye ought then to have hated them
as monsters: had you any religion in your heart, what but
detestable to you must have been everything which may
have come from idols? but your hearts have become
attached to the daughters of false gods."
And we find that this vice had been condemned by
Moses, and branded with reproach, before the giving of
the Law, when he said, that the human race had been
corrupted, because the sons of God married the daughters
of men, (Gen. 6:2,) even because the posterity of Seth,
who were born of the holy family, degraded themselves and
polluted that small portion, which was holy and
consecrated to God, by mixing with the world; for the
whole world had at that time departed from God, except
the descendants of Seth. The Lord then had before the Law
marked this lust with perpetual disgrace; but when the
Law itself which ought to have been like a rampart, again
condemned it, was it not a perverseness wholly
inexcusable, when the wantonness of the people broke
through all restraints? He then adds
12. The Lord will cut off the man that doeth this, the
master and the scholar, out of the tabernacles of Jacob,
and him that offereth an offering unto the Lord of hosts.
12. Excidet Iehova virum qui fecerit hoc, excitantem et
respondentem, ex tabernaculis Iacob, et qui adducit
oblationem Iehovae exercituum.
The Prophet here teaches us, that neither the
priests nor the people would go unpunished, because they
had mingled with the pollutions of the heathens, and
profaned and violated the covenant of God. God then says,
Cut off (the word means to scrape off or to blot out)
shall God the man who has done this, the mover, or
prompter, as well as the respondent. Jerome renders the
last words, the master and the disciple; and interpreters
vary. Some indeed explain the terms allegorically, and
apply them to the dead; but by the mover, I have no
doubt, he understands every one who was in power, and
could command others, and by the respondent the man who
was subject to the authority of his master. The masters
then prompted or roused, for it belonged to them to
command; and the servants responded, for it was their
duty to receive orders and to obey them. It is the same
as though the Prophet had said, that God would punish
this perfidy, without passing by any, so that he would
spare neither the common people nor the chief men: and he
also adds the priests, intimating, that the priests
themselves would not be excepted.
In short, he denounces punishment on the Jews
universally, and shows that however prevalent had this
impiety become everywhere, and that though every one
thought that whatever was commonly practiced was lawful,
yet God would become an avenger, and would include in the
same punishment both the masters and the servants, and
would not exempt the priests, who considered themselves
safe by peculiar privilege. The rest to-morrow.
PRAYER.
Grant, Almighty God, that as we are so inclined to all
kinds of wickedness, we may learn to confine ourselves
within the limits of thy word, and thus restrain all the
desires of our flesh; and that whatever Satan may
contrive to draw us here and there, may we continually
proceed in obedience to thy word, and being mindful of
that eternal election, by which thou hast been pleased
gratuitously to adopt us, and also of that calling by
which thy eternal election has been confirmed, and by
which thou hast received us in thine only-begotten Son,
may we go on in our course to the end, and so cleave, by
persevering faith, to Christ thy Son, that we may at
length be gathered into the enjoyment of that eternal
kingdom which he has purchased for us by his blood. -
Amen.
Calvin's Commentary on Malachi
(continued in file 8...)
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