Schaff - History of the Christian Church Vol. 8 - Media Sabda Org

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very thing which ought to be accounted their highest praise. But if
the gospel be made a pretext for tumults, which has not yet
happened in your kingdom; if any persons make the liberty of divine
grace an excuse for the licentiousness of their vices, of whom I
have known many; there are laws and legal penalties, by which they
may be punished according to their deserts: only let not the gospel
of God be reproached for the crimes of wicked men. You have
now, Sire, the virulent iniquity of our calumniators laid before you
in a sufficient number of instances, that you may not receive their
accusations with too credulous an ear.
“I fear I have gone too much into the detail, as this preface already
approaches the size of a full apology; whereas, I intended it not to
contain our defence, but only to prepare your mind to attend to the
pleading of our cause; for though you are now averse and alienated
from us, and even inflamed against us, we despair not of regaining
your favor, if you will only once read with calmness and composure
this our confession, which we intend as our defence before your
Majesty. But, on the contrary, if your ears are so preoccupied with
the whispers of the malevolent, as to leave no opportunity for the
accused to speak for themselves, and if those outrageous furies,
with your connivance, continue to persecute with imprisonments,
scourges, tortures, confiscations, and flames, we shall indeed, like
sheep destined to the slaughter, be reduced to the greatest
extremities. Yet shall we in patience possess our souls, and wait for
the mighty hand of the Lord, which undoubtedly will in time
appear, and show itself armed for the deliverance of the poor from
their affliction, and for the punishment of their despisers, who now
exult in such perfect security.
“May the Lord, the King of kings, establish your throne in
righteousness, and your kingdom with equity.”
The first edition of the Institutes was a brief manual containing, in six
chapters, an exposition
1) of the Decalogue;
2) of the Apostles’ Creed;
3) of the Lord’s Prayer;