Day 12 — Institutes I.4.§4 [직강]

This is the closing argument of Chapter 4 — Calvin rests his case. Yesterday he convicted the superstitious worshipper who reshapes God to taste. Today he names a second fault, and it is psychological: the wicked do not merely worship wrongly, they hate the God they cannot escape. Watch the emotional anatomy. They are dragged into God's presence; they feel not the voluntary fear flowing from reverence but a forced and servile fear — and the cruelty of it is that they dread what they cannot escape, and hate what they dread. Statius gets quoted as Exhibit A ("Fear first brought gods into the world") — but Calvin flips the cynic's slogan: it is true of impiety alone, not of true religion. Then the famous closing image: the sense of Deity is like a plant which can never be completely eradicated — even the reprobate, jesting about God when at ease, will dictate ejaculatory prayers the moment despair hits. The suppressed conviction returns. Chapter 4 ends with the seed proven: it cannot be uprooted.

Grammatically, today is degree-and-condition day — the archaic engines Calvin uses to measure guilt and to imagine the worst case. Three to track: the inverted should-conditional, the double-negative degree clause, and the nominative absolute.

Today's 3 Big Points — mark them now:

1. Inverted conditional with should: "should + S + V" = "if S should V": "but should despair, from any cause, overtake them, it will stimulate them to seek him" = if despair should overtake them. The if is deleted; should jumps to the front.
2. "not so + (p.p./adj) … as not to + V" = "so little … that they still V": "they are not so restrained by their semblance of fear as not to luxuriate" = they are restrained so weakly that they still revel. A double negative that resolves to a positive.
3. Nominative absolute: "NOUN + being/V-ing …" (a free-floating clause): "they are actually warring against God, justice being one of his essential attributes" = since justice is one of his essential attributes. No conjunction, no finite verb — a participial clause hung off the main one.

Three engines. Lock them in. Now read.

To this fault they add a second—viz. that when they do think of God it is against their will; never approaching him without being dragged into his presence, and when there, instead of the voluntary fear flowing from reverence of the divine majesty, feeling only that forced and servile fear which divine Judgment extorts—Judgment which, from the impossibility of escape, they are compelled to dread, but which, while they dread, they at the same time also hate. To impiety, and to it alone, the saying of Statius properly applies: “Fear first brought gods into the world,” (Theb. lib. 1). Those whose inclinations are at variance with the justice of God, knowing that his tribunal has been erected for the punishment of transgression, earnestly wish that that tribunal were overthrown. Under the influence of this feeling they are actually warring against God, justice being one of his essential attributes. Perceiving that they are always within reach of his power, that resistance and evasion are alike impossible, they fear and tremble. Accordingly, to avoid the appearance of condemning a majesty by which all are overawed, they have recourse to some species of religious observance, never ceasing meanwhile to defile themselves with every kind of vice, and add crime to crime, until they have broken the holy law of the Lord in every one of its requirements, and set his whole righteousness at nought; at all events, they are not so restrained by their semblance of fear as not to luxuriate and take pleasure in iniquity, choosing rather to indulge their carnal propensities than to curb them with the bridle of the Holy Spirit. But since this shadow of religion (it scarcely even deserves to be called a shadow) is false and vain, it is easy to infer how much this confused knowledge of God differs from that piety which is instilled into the breasts of believers, and from which alone true religion springs. And yet hypocrites would fain, by means of tortuous windings, make a show of being near to God at the very time they are fleeing from him. For while the whole life ought to be one perpetual course of obedience, they rebel without fear in almost all their actions, and seek to appease him with a few paltry sacrifices; while they ought to serve him with integrity of heart and holiness of life, they endeavour to procure his favour by means of frivolous devices and punctilios of no value. Nay, they take greater license in their grovelling indulgences, because they imagine that they can fulfil their duty to him by preposterous expiations; in short, while their confidence ought to have been fixed upon him, they put him aside, and rest in themselves or the creatures. At length they bewilder themselves in such a maze of error, that the darkness of ignorance obscures, and ultimately extinguishes, those sparks which were designed to show them the glory of God. Still, however, the conviction that there is some Deity continues to exist, like a plant which can never be completely eradicated, though so corrupt, that it is only capable of producing the worst of fruit. Nay, we have still stronger evidence of the proposition for which I now contend—viz. that a sense of Deity is naturally engraven on the human heart, in the fact, that the very reprobate are forced to acknowledge it. When at their ease, they can jest about God, and talk pertly and loquaciously in disparagement of his power; but should despair, from any cause, overtake them, it will stimulate them to seek him, and dictate ejaculatory prayers, proving that they were not entirely ignorant of God, but had perversely suppressed feelings which ought to have been earlier manifested.

Fourteen sentences. Charge → diagnosis of forced fear → behaviour → verdict → the indestructible seed:

[2nd FAULT]   they think of God only against their will — dragged in      (S1)
[WITNESS]     Statius: "Fear first brought gods" — true of impiety ALONE   (S2)
[MOTIVE]      they wish God's judgment-seat overthrown                      (S3)
[VERDICT]     so they war against God — justice = his essential attribute  (S4)
[REACTION]    within his reach, no escape — they fear and tremble          (S5)
[COVER]       they fake religious observance, yet revel in sin anyway      (S6)
[CONTRAST]    this shadow ≠ the piety instilled in believers              (S7)
[HYPOCRISY]   they feign nearness while fleeing from him                   (S8–S10)
[DECAY]       error mazes them; ignorance extinguishes the sparks          (S11)
[BUT-SEED]    yet the conviction survives — a plant never uprooted         (S12)
[PROOF]       stronger evidence: even the reprobate must acknowledge it    (S13)
[CASE-CLOSE]  jest when at ease, but pray in despair — suppressed, not gone (S14)

Examiner's Eye: the trap field is the survival of the seed. Calvin's whole point (S12–S14) is that the sensus divinitatis is suppressed, not erased — like a plant which can never be completely eradicated. An option that says "Calvin concludes that persistent sin finally destroys all knowledge of God in the reprobate" reads S11 in isolation and ignores the Still, however of S12 that overturns it. Second snare: S6's not so … as not to — it does not mean their fake fear restrains them; it means their fake fear restrains them so little that they still wallow in sin. Third: Fear first brought gods into the world (S2) is not Calvin's own theory of religion's origin (that was the politicians'-invention thesis he demolished in §2) — he grants it for impiety alone.

Star scale: ★★★ exam-critical, conquer it. ★★ know the structure. ★ one point and move.

Formula 1 — inverted conditional with should: should + S + V = if S should V:

Apodosis , should + S + (base V) ...   ⟺   ... if S should V ...
"... but should despair ... overtake them, it will stimulate them ..."
= ... but if despair should overtake them, it will stimulate them ...

⚠️ When if is dropped from a should-conditional, should fronts to the head of the clause. Don't read fronted should as a question. This is the open/contingent conditional (future possibility), distinct from the contrary-to-fact had + S + p.p. of Day 11. Restore the if to test meaning. Drill: Should the atheist's confidence ever fail him, he will cry to the God he denied.

Formula 2 — double-negative degree clause: not so + X + as not to + Y = X so little that Y still happens:

S + be + not so + (adj/p.p.) + as not to + V
"they are not so restrained ... as not to luxuriate ... in iniquity"
= they are restrained so little that they STILL revel in iniquity

⚠️ Two negatives (not so … as not to) net to a positive: the action Y does happen. Do NOT read it as "so restrained that they do not revel" — that is the opposite. Paraphrase test: not X enough to stop Y → Y still occurs. Drill: He is not so chastened by guilt as not to sin again the next morning.

Formula 3 — nominative absolute: NOUN + being/V-ing … (reason, no conjunction, no finite verb):

[Main clause] , [NOUN + (being/having/V-ing) + ...]
"they are actually warring against God, justice being one of his essential attributes"
= ... since justice is one of his essential attributes

⚠️ The absolute has its own subject (different from the main clause's) and a participle, not a finite verb — so it is not a dangling modifier. Restore it with since / because / when / and + a finite verb to read the logic. Drill: To strike at his mercy is to strike at God himself, mercy being inseparable from his nature.

The argument of §4: the second fault — they hate the God they cannot escape. Chapter 4's section-heading flags this section's job: "The wicked never willingly come into the presence of God. Hence their hypocrisy." §1–§3 dealt with suppression and invention; §4 turns to the affections. The corrupted knowledge of God produces not love but servile fear — a fear that Judgment extorts, which they are compelled to dread yet also hate. This is Calvin's anatomy of the unregenerate conscience: it cannot deny God (the seed), cannot escape God (his power and justice), and therefore wars against him (S4). The hypocrisy of S6–S10 — token sacrifices, frivolous punctilios — is the behavioural symptom: religion as damage-control toward a feared majesty, not worship of a loved Father.

Two fears: filial vs. servile. S1's contrast — voluntary fear flowing from reverence versus forced and servile fear which divine Judgment extorts — is the same distinction Calvin built in I.2.§2 (Day 5): the believer's filial fear (timor filialis) that would revere God etiamsi nullus esset infernus ("even if there were no hell"), against the slave's servile fear (timor servilis) that dreads only punishment. §4 is the dark photograph of Day 5's positive: where piety fears God because it loves him, impiety fears God because it cannot get away from him. (Guardrail: Calvin is describing the natural conscience under wrath, not prescribing fear as the engine of Christian obedience — that comes under faith and adoption, far downstream.)

Statius and the cynic's theory of religion, disarmed. S2 quotes Statius's Thebaid — Primus in orbe deos fecit timor, "Fear first made gods in the world" — the line later beloved of Enlightenment critics (and Hume's psychological account of religion's origin). Calvin's move is surgical: he does not deny the line, he restricts it. It applies to impiety, and to it alone. He already refuted the general "religion is invented" thesis in §2 (Day 7, the politicians'-fraud argument). So §4 is consistent: fear may indeed manufacture the gods of false religion, but true piety springs from a God-given seed, not from terror. Don't let the quotation read as a concession that religion as such is fear's offspring.

The seed cannot be eradicated — Calvin's closing botany. The chapter ends (S11–S14) on the image that secures the whole sensus divinitatis argument: ignorance may obscure and extinguish the sparks (S11), yet the conviction that there is some Deity continues to exist, like a plant which can never be completely eradicated (S12). The proof Calvin reaches for is the deathbed/foxhole phenomenon (S14): the scoffer who jests about God in comfort but dictates ejaculatory prayers in despair. This is the empirical capstone of Book 1's opening anthropology — and it feeds straight into Chapter 5, where Calvin turns from the seed within to the evidence without: the knowledge of God conspicuous in the creation and continual government of the world. (Later reception: Plantinga's sensus divinitatis in Reformed epistemology leans on exactly this indestructibility claim; but that is downstream — here Calvin argues it from conscience and crisis, not epistemology.)

1. Romans 1:18–20 — under the whole section. The wrath revealed against those who hold the truth in unrighteousness is the canvas: the wicked know God (the seed, S12–S13) yet suppress him (S14 had perversely suppressed feelings). Calvin's "suppression, not absence" reading of natural knowledge is pure Romans 1.
2. James 2:19 — behind S1, S5. "The devils also believe, and tremble." The fear and tremble of S5 and the dread … yet hate of S1 are demonic, not saving, fear — assent plus terror without love. Calvin's servile fear is James's shuddering of the demons.
3. Isaiah 29:13 / Matthew 15:8–9 — behind S6, S9–S10. "This people draw near me with their mouth … but have removed their heart far from me." The hypocrites who make a show of being near to God at the very time they are fleeing from him (S8) and offer paltry sacrifices and punctilios (S9) enact Isaiah's lip-service religion — worship in form, flight in heart.
4. Philippians 2:12 — echoed (and inverted) in S5. "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling." Calvin borrows the phrase fear and tremble but for the opposite subject: in Paul it is reverent obedience; in the reprobate it is the cornered terror of those who know resistance and evasion are alike impossible. How Calvin uses Scripture today: he lets biblical psychology (devils tremble; hearts far off; suppressed knowledge) define the interior state, then reads the visible hypocrisy as its symptom — diagnosis from the inside out.

문제 ① 어법 — 밑줄 친 부분 중 틀린 것은?

(A) Should despair overtake the scoffer, he will pray; (B) for he is not so hardened by his jests (C) as not to dread the God whose power he mocks — (D) justice being overthrown, he cannot make peace with him.

✨ 답안 보기 (클릭)정답: (D). justice being overthrown contradicts the doctrine and the absolute's logic — the point (S4) is that justice cannot be overthrown because it is essential to God; the nominative absolute should read justice being one of his essential attributes (or justice being inseparable from him). (A) is Formula 1 (should + S + V = if S should V, correct). (B)–(C) is Formula 2 (not so X as not to Y = X so little that Y still happens — correct: he still dreads). 출제 의도: 세 공식을 한 문장에 깔고, 내용(신학)으로 함정을 만든 어법 문제 — being overthrown은 문법형태는 절대구문이나 명제가 §4와 정반대.

문제 ② 내용일치 — §4와 일치하는 것은?

(A) Calvin endorses Statius's maxim "Fear first brought gods into the world" as a true account of how religion in general arose. (B) Calvin teaches that persistent sin and ignorance finally and completely destroy every trace of the knowledge of God in the reprobate. (C) According to Calvin, the wicked keep up some show of religious observance yet are restrained so little by it that they still revel in sin, preferring their appetites to the Spirit's bridle. (D) Calvin says the reprobate, even in despair, remain wholly unable to call upon God.

✨ 답안 보기 (클릭)정답: (C) — S6 그대로: not so restrained by their semblance of fear as not to luxuriate … in iniquity, choosing rather to indulge their carnal propensities than to curb them. (A)는 S2 함정 — Statius의 말은 impiety, and to it alone에만 적용되지 종교 일반의 기원이 아님(§2에서 이미 논박). (B)는 S11만 보고 S12의 Still, however … a plant which can never be completely eradicated를 무시한 함정 — 씨앗은 억압될 뿐 소멸되지 않음. (D)는 S14 정면 뒤집기 — 절망이 닥치면 dictate ejaculatory prayers, 곧 부르짖음. 출제 의도: 이중부정 정도절(C 정답), Statius 적용 범위 한정, 씨앗의 불멸성, foxhole 기도.

문제 ③ 영작 — Formula 1 적용.

"그가 아무리 하나님을 조롱할지라도, 절망이 그를 덮치면, 그는 그분을 찾을 것이다" — if 없는 should 도치 조건문으로 옮겨라 (뒷부분만).

✨ 답안 보기 (클릭)모범답안: …, should despair overtake him, he will seek God. (= if despair should overtake him, he will seek God.) 출제 의도: should-조건문에서 if 생략 시 should가 절 머리로 도치(should + S + 동사원형), 주절은 will + V. if despair should overtake him으로 풀어 써도 정답이나, 도치형으로 옮길 때 주절까지 도치하면 감점. (Day 11의 had + S + p.p.는 가정법 과거완료(반사실), 오늘의 should는 미래 가능 조건 — 혼동 주의.)

One-line summary: The second fault of corrupted knowledge is affective — the wicked think of God only when dragged, feeling servile fear that they dread yet hate, so they war against his justice, fake a religion that restrains them too little to stop their sinning, and feign nearness while fleeing; yet the seed survives — a plant which can never be completely eradicated — proven by the scoffer who jests in ease but dictates ejaculatory prayers in despair; and you now own the day's three engines — the inverted should-conditional, the double-negative not so … as not to, and the nominative absolute.

Homework (10 min):

1. Structure restoration: Rewrite S14's should despair, from any cause, overtake them, it will stimulate them to seek him in base if-order, and mark which clause carries the inversion when if is dropped. Then contrast it in one line with Day 11's had they not … fashioned him (which mood? which time-reference?).
2. Composition: Using Formula 3 (nominative absolute), write one sentence: "그분의 거룩하심을 거스르는 것은 곧 하나님을 거스르는 것이다 — 거룩하심은 그분의 본질적 속성이므로." (Hint: …, holiness being one of his essential attributes.)
3. Preview: Chapter 4 is finished. Tomorrow opens Book 1, Chapter 5, §1 — Calvin turns from the seed within to the witness without: "THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD CONSPICUOUS IN THE CREATION, AND CONTINUAL GOVERNMENT OF THE WORLD." First move: God has manifested himself in the whole workmanship of the universe. The proof shifts from conscience to cosmos.

Where we stopped: Book 1, Ch. 4, §4 끝 — Chapter 4 완료. 다음은 Book 1, Ch. 5, §1 (Day 13).