Day 22 — Institutes I.5.§10 [직강]

Yesterday (§9) Calvin told you what kind of knowledge the creation-proofs are meant to produce — heart-knowledge, not brain-flutter. Today he tells you what that knowledge is for, and he drops a bombshell: the knowledge of God drawn from creation and providence ought to do two things — stimulate us to worship God AND arouse and elevate us to the hope of future life. Read that again. Eschatology from natural theology. Before a single page of Scripture has been opened in the argument, Calvin says the world itself, rightly read, points beyond itself — to another state, a future life, a final Judgment. This is the first appearance of the future life in the Institutes, and it walks in through the door of providence.

And watch how he gets there, because this is the genius move of the day: he takes the two facts that seem to destroy faith in providence — (1) God's mercy and severity in this life are visibly incomplete, and (2) the righteous suffer while the wicked flourish with impunity — and he runs the inference the other way. Incompleteness is not failure; it is a prelude (S2). Injustice unpunished now is not the absence of a Judge; it is the proof of a court date (S3). Then Augustine (S5) locks the logic with the most elegant balance-argument in the patristic corpus: if all sin were punished now, you'd think nothing was left for Judgment; if no sin were punished now, you'd think there was no providence. Some now, the rest later — that is exactly what a Judge-who-will-judge looks like in the meantime. This is the theodicy of §§7–8 (Ps 73, the Judgment in reserve of Day 19) graduating into doctrine.

Today's 3 Big Points — mark them now:

1. The inverted subjunctive conditional — "Were + subject + …" with no if. "Were all sin now visited with open punishment, it might be thought …; were no sin now openly punished, it might be supposed …" (S5). Were all sin visited = If all sin were visited. Drop the if, invert the subject and were. Beveridge loves this; examiners love it more.
2. "not only … but also" with ellipsis of the shared verb. "we ought not only to be stimulated to worship God, but also [to be] aroused and elevated to the hope of future life" (S1). The second half silently re-uses to be. Restore what is shared, and the two halves snap into parallel.
3. The fronted negative comparative + inversion (a fortiori). "we may the more surely conclude, that far less will the unrighteous ultimately escape the scourges of his anger" (S4). Far less is fronted → the auxiliary will jumps in front of the subject. "If God whips even his own children, much less will his enemies walk away."

Three engines. Lock them in. Now read.

By the knowledge thus acquired, we ought not only to be stimulated to worship God, but also aroused and elevated to the hope of future life. For, observing that the manifestations which the Lord gives both of his mercy and severity are only begun and incomplete, we ought to infer that these are doubtless only a prelude to higher manifestations, of which the full display is reserved for another state. Conversely, when we see the righteous brought into affliction by the ungodly, assailed with injuries, overwhelmed with calumnies, and lacerated by insult and contumely, while, on the contrary, the wicked flourish, prosper, acquire ease and honour, and all these with impunity, we ought forthwith to infer, that there will be a future life in which iniquity shall receive its punishment, and righteousness its reward. Moreover, when we observe that the Lord often lays his chastening rod on the righteous, we may the more surely conclude, that far less will the unrighteous ultimately escape the scourges of his anger. There is a well-known passage in Augustine (De Civitat. Dei, lib. 1 c. 8), “Were all sin now visited with open punishment, it might be thought that nothing was reserved for the final Judgment; and, on the other hand, were no sin now openly punished, it might be supposed there was no divine providence.” It must be acknowledged, therefore, that in each of the works of God, and more especially in the whole of them taken together, the divine perfections are delineated as in a picture, and the whole human race thereby invited and allured to acquire the knowledge of God, and, in consequence of this knowledge, true and complete felicity. Moreover, while his perfections are thus most vividly displayed, the only means of ascertaining their practical operation and tendency is to descend into ourselves, and consider how it is that the Lord there manifests his wisdom, power, and energy,—how he there displays his justice, goodness, and mercy. For although David (Psalm 92:6) justly complains of the extreme infatuation of the ungodly in not pondering the deep counsels of God, as exhibited in the government of the human race, what he elsewhere says (Psalm 40) is most true, that the wonders of the divine wisdom in this respect are more in number than the hairs of our head. But I leave this topic at present, as it will be more fully considered afterwards in its own place (Book I. c. 16, see. 6-9).

Nine sentences. Thesis: creation-knowledge has two uses — worship now, hope of future life (S1) → three inferences to that future life: incomplete manifestations = prelude to a fuller display (S2); the righteous crushed / the wicked flourishing with impunity = there must be a future life of punishment and reward (S3); God chastens even the righteous → a fortiori the unrighteous will not escape (S4) → Augustine's balance-argument seals it: some sin punished now (providence is real), not all now (Judgment is reserved) (S5) → grand conclusion: in each work, and above all in all the works together, the perfections are painted as in a picture, and the whole human race is invited and allured to knowledge and, through knowledge, felicity (S6) → method coda: to feel their practical force, descend into ourselves (S7) — the ungodly won't ponder it (Ps 92), but the wonders outnumber the hairs of our head (Ps 40) (S8) → topic deferred to Book I ch. 16 (S9).

[THESIS]      Knowledge acquired from the works ought:                  (S1)
              NOT ONLY → stimulate to WORSHIP
              BUT ALSO → arouse & elevate to HOPE OF FUTURE LIFE
[INFER 1]     mercy & severity here = only begun, incomplete            (S2)
              → prelude to higher manifestations; full display
                reserved for ANOTHER STATE
[INFER 2]     righteous afflicted / wicked flourish WITH IMPUNITY       (S3)
              → THERE WILL BE a future life: iniquity punished,
                righteousness rewarded
[INFER 3]     chastening rod on the RIGHTEOUS →                         (S4)
              a fortiori: FAR LESS will the unrighteous escape
[WITNESS]     Augustine (De Civ. Dei 1.8): all punished now →           (S5)
              "no final Judgment"; none punished now →
              "no providence" — so SOME now, REST reserved
[CONCLUSION]  each work + all taken together = perfections              (S6)
              delineated AS IN A PICTURE → whole human race
              invited & allured → knowledge → FELICITY
[METHOD]      to feel their practical operation:                        (S7)
              DESCEND INTO OURSELVES (wisdom-power-energy /
              justice-goodness-mercy)
[WITNESS 2]   ungodly don't ponder (Ps 92:6) BUT wonders >              (S8)
              hairs of our head (Ps 40)
[SIGNPOST]    topic deferred → Book I, ch. 16, sec. 6-9                 (S9)

Examiner's Eye: the trap field is S3 + S5. In S3, the suffering of the righteous and the impunity of the wicked are not presented as an objection that shakes providence — Calvin makes them a premise from which we ought forthwith to infer a future life. An option that says "Calvin concedes that the prosperity of the wicked casts doubt on God's government" has reversed the whole argument. In S5, Augustine's point is a balance: an option that reports him as saying "no sin is punished in this life" (or "all sin is punished in this life") has grabbed exactly one of the two hypothetical horns he is ruling out — both Were-clauses are counterfactuals, not descriptions. Third trap, S4: the chastening rod on the righteous does not mean God treats righteous and wicked alike — it grounds an a fortiori: if even the children are disciplined, far less will the rebels escape.

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

Formula 1 — the inverted subjunctive conditional (no "if"):

WERE + [subject] + [complement / past participle] , [subject] + MIGHT/WOULD + [verb]
"WERE all sin now visited with open punishment, it MIGHT be thought …"
"WERE no sin now openly punished, it MIGHT be supposed …"
→ = "IF [subject] WERE …" — delete the "if", invert WERE and the subject

⚠️ Only were / had / should can invert this way (✗ Was all sin visited — the subjunctive were is required even with a singular subject). The main clause keeps a conditional modal (might / would / could). Same family as Day 7's Had princes been able … Drill: Were* the judgments of God completed in this life, no place would remain* for the final assize.

Formula 2 — "not only … but also" with ellipsis of the shared verb:

[subject] + OUGHT + NOT ONLY + TO BE + p.p.-1 , BUT ALSO + (TO BE) + p.p.-2
"we ought NOT ONLY to be stimulated to worship God,
 BUT ALSO (to be) aroused and elevated to the hope of future life"
→ the second half silently re-uses the shared "to be" — restore it to see the parallel

⚠️ The two halves must be parallel (passive infinitive ∥ passive infinitive). In an error-spotting item, a second half that switches form (✗ but also arousing) breaks the correlative. Related ellipsis in S3/S6: righteousness ‹shall receive› its reward; the whole human race ‹is› invited. Drill: The works of God ought not only to be admired by us, but also ‹to be› pondered in the heart.

Formula 3 — fronted negative comparative + inversion (the a fortiori engine):

[premise: even the STRONGER case holds] → FAR LESS + WILL + [subject] + [verb]
"the Lord lays his rod on the righteous → FAR LESS WILL the unrighteous escape …"
→ fronting "far less" (negative force) drags the auxiliary before the subject

⚠️ Same inversion law as in no part can (Day 9), so far is it from (Day 9): a negative or restrictive adverbial fronted = auxiliary before subject (✗ far less the unrighteous will escape). The instrumental the in "the more surely" = "by so much the more." Drill: If even the angels cover their faces, far less can mortal man gaze upon the divine majesty.

Where §10 sits — the second "use," and a door onto eternity. Beveridge's chapter-summary tags §10: "The tendency of the knowledge of God to inspire the righteous with the hope of future life, and remind the wicked of the punishments reserved for them." §9 gave the first use of creation-knowledge (worship from the heart); §10 gives the second: hope. This is worth pausing over, because it is easy to caricature Calvin's natural theology as purely negative — good only for stripping excuses (the inexcusability of Rom 1:20, hammered since §1). §10 shows the positive face: the works of God are a standing invitation (invited and allured, S6) whose intended terminus is true and complete felicity. Creation is not merely a courtroom exhibit; it is a courtship.

Eschatology from providence — the shape of the argument. Notice what Calvin does not do. He does not argue for the future life from the soul's immortality here (he did the soul-argument in §5 and keeps it separate); he argues from the moral incompleteness of history. Three data: (1) God's displays of mercy and severity are begun and incomplete (S2); (2) the righteous suffer and the wicked prosper with impunity (S3); (3) even the righteous feel the rod (S4). From these, three inferences, all converging: there must be another state where the display is completed, the accounts balanced, the discipline vindicated. The engine is the same one that drove Day 19's S4–S6: God's justice is essential to him (Day 12), so observed injustice cannot be the last word — it can only be a postponement. Where Kant would later make the moral argument turn on practical reason's demands, Calvin makes it turn on the character of the Judge already displayed in providence.

Augustine, De Civitate Dei 1.8 — the balance-argument in its home. The quotation is no ornament. Augustine wrote the City of God after the sack of Rome (410), answering the bitterest form of the S3 problem: why did the calamity fall on Christians and pagans alike? His book 1, chapter 8 answer: God's temporal judgments are deliberately mixed — some sin punished now, lest providence be doubted; not all punished now, lest the final Judgment seem needless. Calvin lifts the argument at its hinge and sets it exactly where his own two inferences (S2, S3) meet: the pattern of partial judgment is not noise in the data — it is the data, and it has the precise shape a reserved assize would produce. Note also the family resemblance to Day 19's his leaving many sins unpunished (there must be a Judgment in reserve) — Calvin planted the seed in §7 and harvests it here with patristic authority.

"Delineated as in a picture" — the gallery and the mirror. S6 gives the section's master image: the perfections drawn as in a picture in each work and above all in the whole taken together. This is the theatrum gloriae Dei (Day 20) restated as portraiture, and it feeds two Calvin signatures at once: (1) accommodation — God paints in lines our eyes can follow, showing perfections, never essence (§9's rule: adore, don't dissect); (2) the microcosm-return of S7 — descend into ourselves — because the nearest canvas in the gallery is you (§3, Day 15). The only way to learn the practical operation of the perfections (what wisdom, power, justice, goodness, mercy do) is to catch them working in your own existence.

Reception note — and a guardrail. Do not over-read §10 into a natural soteriology. The hope of future life that creation stirs is real, and the invitation to felicity is sincere — but Calvin has already told you the outcome of the exhibition apart from grace: scarcely one in a hundred a genuine spectator (Day 20), and tomorrow (§11) the axe falls: bright as is the manifestation … such is our stupidity … we derive no benefit from it. The gallery condemns precisely because the invitation was genuine and universal (the whole human race, S6). The Reformed tradition read §§10–15 accordingly: natural revelation gives a real duty and a real offer to know God, and fallen humanity's universal failure before it is what makes the spectacles of Scripture (I.6) mercy rather than mere addition. Keep both edges: §10 is warm — invited and allured … felicity — and it is the warmth that will make §11's indictment stick.

1. Psalm 92:6 (quoted in S8). A brutish man knoweth not; neither doth a fool understand this. The Psalm's context (92:5–7) is exactly Calvin's: O LORD, how great are thy works! and thy thoughts are very deep — and it is precisely when the wicked spring as the grass that the fool fails to see they are doomed for ever. Calvin borrows both the deep counsels (v. 5) and the infatuation of the brutish (v. 6): the flourishing of the wicked (S3) is legible providence — to everyone but the fool.

2. Psalm 40:5 (behind S8). Many, O LORD my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: … they are more than can be numbered. Calvin's more in number than the hairs of our head fuses this with the hairs-image of Ps 40:12 (mine iniquities … are more than the hairs of mine head) — a preacher's splice: the uncountability formula applied to the wonders.

3. Hebrews 12:5–11 / Proverbs 3:11–12 (behind S4's chastening rod). Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth — the rod on the righteous is fatherly discipline, not judicial wrath. Calvin's a fortiori rests on the distinction: if sons are disciplined, rebels will not be acquitted.

4. 1 Peter 4:17–18 / Proverbs 11:31 (the a fortiori's biblical form, S4). Judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not …? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? — the exact far less will logic, apostle's edition.

5. Psalm 73 (standing behind S3). The classic tableau of the prosperous wicked (they are not in trouble as other men, v. 5) and the afflicted righteous (all the day long have I been plagued, v. 14), resolved only in their end (v. 17). Day 19 met it as a pastoral problem; here it becomes a premise for the future life.

6. Ecclesiastes 8:11 / Romans 2:5 (behind S2/S5's "reserved"). Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily … / treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath — delay of judgment is storage, not cancellation; Augustine's second horn is the same truth run as a counterfactual.

문제 ① 어법 — 밑줄 친 부분 중 틀린 것은?

(A) Were all sin now visited with open punishment, it might be thought that nothing was reserved for the final Judgment; but since the Lord often lays his chastening rod on the righteous, we may (B) the more surely conclude that (C) far less (D) the unrighteous will ultimately escape the scourges of his anger.

✨ 답안 보기 (클릭)정답: (D) — the unrighteous will → will the unrighteous. 부정의 힘을 가진 비교 부사구 far less가 문두(that절 안 앞자리)로 나오면 조동사-주어 도치가 일어난다(Formula 3): far less will the unrighteous … escape. 확인: (A) Were all sin … visited = If all sin were …의 도치 조건문으로 올바름(Formula 1). (B) the more surely의 the는 도구적 용법("그만큼 더")으로 올바름. (C) far less 자체는 전치된 비교 부사구로 올바름 — 문제는 그 뒤의 어순이다. 출제 의도: 전치된 부정·제한 부사구 뒤의 도치 법칙(in no part can, Day 9와 동일 계열)을 that절 내부에서도 적용할 수 있는지.

문제 ② 내용일치 — §10과 일치하는 것은?

(A) Calvin concedes that the unpunished prosperity of the wicked casts serious doubt on the reality of divine providence. (B) Augustine teaches that since no sin is ever punished in the present life, all punishment must be reserved for the final Judgment. (C) Calvin argues that the incompleteness of God's present displays of mercy and severity, and the impunity of the flourishing wicked, are grounds for inferring a future life in which iniquity will be punished and righteousness rewarded. (D) Calvin holds that because God lays his chastening rod on the righteous, the righteous and the unrighteous face an identical prospect of judgment.

✨ 답안 보기 (클릭)정답: (C) — S2(only begun and incomplete → prelude … reserved for another state) + S3(with impunity → we ought forthwith to infer, that there will be a future life …)의 정확한 요약. (A)는 S3의 방향 정반대 뒤집기 — 칼빈은 악인의 형통을 섭리에 대한 의심 근거가 아니라 내세 추론의 전제로 쓴다(Examiner's Eye 참조). (B)는 S5의 반사실 가정(두 번째 were-절)을 사실 진술로 오독 — 어거스틴의 요점은 "일부는 지금, 나머지는 유보"의 균형이다. (D)는 S4 왜곡 — 징계의 매(chastening rod)는 아버지의 훈육이고, 불의한 자들이 맞을 것은 the scourges of his anger다: a fortiori는 두 운명의 차이를 전제한다. 출제 의도: S3의 신정론 역전(스캔들→증거)과 S5의 반사실 구문 이해를 동시 검증.

문제 ③ 영작 — Formula 1 + Formula 2 적용.

"모든 불의가 지금 공개적으로 처벌된다면, 최후 심판은 불필요해 보일 것이다. 그러므로 우리는 하나님의 사역으로 말미암아 지금 그분을 예배하도록 자극받을 뿐 아니라, 장차 올 심판과 생명의 소망으로 들어올려져야 한다." — Were-도치 조건문과 not only … but also (공유 동사 생략)를 쓰라.

✨ 답안 보기 (클릭)모범답안: Were* all iniquity now openly punished, the final Judgment would seem needless. We ought, therefore, not only to be stimulated by the works of God to worship him now, but also ‹to be› elevated to the hope of the judgment and life to come. 출제 의도: (1) Were all iniquity now openly punished = if 삭제 + were-주어 도치, 주절엔 조건법 조동사(would seem) — Formula 1. (2) not only to be stimulated … but also ‹to be› elevated = 수동 부정사 두 축의 평행 + 공유된 to be*의 생략 — Formula 2. 두 공식 모두 S1·S5 원문의 골격을 그대로 재활용할 수 있는지 확인.

One-line summary: §10 gives the second use of creation-knowledge — we ought not only to be stimulated to worship God, but also aroused and elevated to the hope of future life (S1) — and argues it three ways: God's displays of mercy and severity are only begun and incomplete, hence a prelude whose full display is reserved for another state (S2); the righteous suffer while the wicked flourish with impunity, hence there will be a future life of punishment and reward (S3); the chastening rod falls even on the righteous, hence far less will the unrighteous ultimately escape the scourges of his anger (S4) — all sealed by Augustine's balance (Were all sin now visited … were no sin now openly punished …, S5): partial judgment now is the fingerprint of a Judgment reserved. Conclusion: in each work and in the whole taken together the perfections are delineated as in a picture, and the whole race invited and allured through knowledge to true and complete felicity (S6) — felt by descending into ourselves (S7), uncountable as the hairs of our head despite the fools who will not ponder (S8), with providence deferred to I.16 (S9). You now own the day's three engines: the inverted "Were …" conditional, "not only … but also" with ellipsis of the shared verb, and the fronted "far less will" inversion.

Homework (10 min):

1. Structure restoration: Take S5 and rewrite both halves of Augustine's sentence as plain if-conditionals (If all sin were now visited … / if no sin were now openly punished …). Then state in one line why the mixture (some punished now, some not) is exactly what providence-plus-final-Judgment predicts.
2. Composition: Using Formula 3, complete the a fortiori: "하나님이 자기 자녀들에게도 징계의 매를 아끼지 않으신다면, 회개하지 않는 자들은 그분의 진노의 채찍을 더더욱 피하지 못할 것이다." (Hint: If God spares not the rod even to his own children, far less will the impenitent escape the scourges of his wrath.)
3. Preview: Tomorrow is Book 1, Chapter 5, §11 — the great turn from the brightness of the display to the dullness of the viewer: "Bright, however, as is the manifestation which God gives both of himself and his immortal kingdom in the mirror of his works, so great is our stupidity … that we derive no benefit from them." Watch the concessive inversion "Bright … as is the manifestation" — and brace yourself: the indictment of §§11–15 begins.

Where we stopped: Book 1, Ch. 5, §10 끝. 다음은 Book 1, Ch. 5, §11 (Day 23).