Day 59 — Book 1, Chapter 11, §4

Yesterday, in §3, the defence spoke and Calvin dismantled its exhibits one by one. Today he stops answering and starts demolishing. §4 is the argument from the materials: pick the idol up. What is it? Silver. Gold. Wood. That is the whole refutation, and the Psalmist made it three thousand years ago — “Their idols are silver and gold, the works of men’s hands.”

Watch the courtroom choreography, because it is the same three-witness pattern he has run twice already. In §2 he called Seneca. In §3, Juvenal. Today, witness number three from the pagan bench: Horace, whose fig-wood god tells you to your face, the carpenter almost made me a stool. And then — this is the move to circle — Calvin dismisses his own witness. The Epicurean was joking; jokes don't reform anybody. So he swaps the satirist for the prophet: don't let Horace make you smirk, let Isaiah cut you to the heart (S9). Laughter is cheap. Wounds convert.

Two sentences in this section carry doctrine you will meet for the rest of the Institutes:

First, S11 — idolatry is “palpably repugnant to the order of nature” and yet “natural to man.” Hold that paradox with both hands. It is the seed of the most famous line in this chapter, coming in §8: the human mind as a perpetual factory of idols. Monstrous, and native. Both.

Second, S13 — “all modes of worship devised by man are detestable.” Underline devised by man. That is a fixed principle, Calvin's own words, and it is the germ of what Reformed theology will later call the regulative principle of worship. The argument has just widened from statues to everything self-invented in worship.

And the ending: the first explicit strike at the Greek Church. "We carve nothing — we only paint." Calvin's verdict: a frivolous precaution. The commandment forbids likeness — sculptured or otherwise (S16). No loophole.

Today's 3 Big Points

1. The buried third-person imperative: (As-clause), (without V-ing), let + O + V(bare), nay, V2 (S9). The longest sentence of the day hides its main clause in the middle: let the rebuke of the prophet **sting**, nay, **cut** us to the heart. Everything before let is scaffolding. And nay is not "no" — it cancels and upgrades: sting → cut. Find the imperative or the sentence collapses on you.
2. not only … but … with the shared verb deleted (S10, S19). S19: not only forbids any image of himself to be erected by a statuary, but [forbids it] to be formed by any artist whatever. After but, Beveridge silently deletes the verb. Restore the ellipsis before you translate, or you will hunt for a verb that isn't there.
3. The participle family (S2, S10, S13). Attached participle: taking it for granted that… (S2, subject = he). Nominative absolute: **nothing** being more incongruous than to… (S10 — its subject is nothing, not the idolaters). Fronted participle: Being works of men, **they**… (S13). Three cousins, three different subjects. Sort them or mistranslate them.

Bonus traps I will test: but in S5 = only ("but the creature of a day" — no contrast anywhere). device (S2, S8) = scheme, invention — no gadgets in 1559. statuary (S19) = the sculptor, a person, not a collection of statues. energy (S14) = active working (Greek energeia), not physics.

4. To the same effect are the words of the Psalmist (Psalms 115:4, 135:15), “Their idols are silver and gold, the works of men’s hands.” From the materials of which they are made, he infers that they are not gods, taking it for granted that every human device concerning God is a dull fiction. He mentions silver and gold rather than clay or stone, that neither splendour nor cost may procure reverence to idols. He then draws a general conclusion, that nothing is more unlikely than that gods should be formed of any kind of inanimate matter. Man is forced to confess that he is but the creature of a day (see Book 3 c. 9 s. 2), and yet would have the metal which he has deified to be regarded as God. Whence had idols their origin, but from the will of man? There was ground, therefore, for the sarcasm of the heathen poet (Hor. Sat. I. 8), “I was once the trunk of a fig-tree, a useless log, when the tradesman, uncertain whether he should make me a stool, &c., chose rather that I should be a god.” In other words, an earth-born creature, who breathes out his life almost every moment, is able by his own device to confer the name and honour of deity on a lifeless trunk. But as that Epicurean poet, in indulging his wit, had no regard for religion, without attending to his jeers or those of his fellows, let the rebuke of the prophet sting, nay, cut us to the heart, when he speaks of the extreme infatuation of those who take a piece of wood to kindle a fire to warm themselves, bake bread, roast or boil flesh, and out of the residue make a god, before which they prostrate themselves as suppliants (Isaiah 44:16). Hence, the same prophet, in another place, not only charges idolaters as guilty in the eye of the law, but upbraids them for not learning from the foundations of the earth, nothing being more incongruous than to reduce the immense and incomprehensible Deity to the stature of a few feet. And yet experience shows that this monstrous proceeding, though palpably repugnant to the order of nature, is natural to man. It is, moreover, to be observed, that by the mode of expression which is employed, every form of superstition is denounced. Being works of men, they have no authority from God (Isa. 2:8, 31:7; Hos. 14:3; Mic. 5:13); and, therefore, it must be regarded as a fixed principle, that all modes of worship devised by man are detestable. The infatuation is placed in a still stronger light by the Psalmist (Psalm 115:8), when he shows how aid is implored from dead and senseless objects, by beings who have been endued with intelligence for the very purpose of enabling them to know that the whole universe is governed by Divine energy alone. But as the corruption of nature hurries away all mankind collectively and individually into this madness, the Spirit at length thunders forth a dreadful imprecation, “They that make them are like unto them, so is every one that trusteth in them.” And it is to be observed, that the thing forbidden is likeness, whether sculptured or otherwise. This disposes of the frivolous precaution taken by the Greek Church. They think they do admirably, because they have no sculptured shape of Deity, while none go greater lengths in the licentious use of pictures. The Lord, however, not only forbids any image of himself to be erected by a statuary, but to be formed by any artist whatever, because every such image is sinful and insulting to his majesty.

Sentence count: 19 (S1–S19). One paragraph.

Source housekeeping (page furniture removed, text otherwise character-exact): the scan is interrupted once — marginal page number 94, page marker 98, and the running header CHAPTER 11. - IMPIETY OF ATTRIBUTING A VISIBLE FORM TO GOD.—THE SETTING… all fall inside S10, between but up- and braids. Two line-break hyphenations were repaired there and nearby: up-braids → upbraids and incon-gruous → incongruous (both S10), plus detest-able → detestable (S13). Footnote marker 27 after trusteth in them.” (S15) was stripped. Curly quotes and apostrophes (men’s) are the source's own.

[TEXT]       S1   Ps 115:4 / 135:15 — "silver and gold, the works of men's hands"
[ARGUMENT    S2   from the MATERIALS → not gods; every human device re God = "dull fiction"
 FROM        S3   why silver & gold, not clay? → neither SPLENDOUR nor COST buys reverence
 MATTER]     S4   general conclusion: no god was ever made of inanimate matter
[THE IRONY]  S5   man = creature of A DAY … yet wants his deified metal treated as God
             S6   idols' origin? — the WILL OF MAN (rhetorical Q = verdict)
[HOSTILE     S7   HORACE (Sat. 1.8): fig-trunk god — "stool… or god?" the tradesman chose god
 WITNESS]    S8   = a dying creature CONFERS deity on a dead log
[ESCALATION] S9   but the joker is dismissed → let ISAIAH's rebuke sting, nay, CUT us
                  (Isa 44:16: half the wood cooks dinner, the residue becomes a god)
             S10  Isaiah again: not only GUILTY, but SHAMED — infinite Deity shrunk to a few feet
             S11  paradox: monstrous, repugnant to nature — AND natural to man
[PRINCIPLE]  S12  the wording condemns EVERY form of superstition
             S13  works of men = no authority from God → ALL man-devised worship detestable
             S14  Ps 115:8 setup: intelligent beings begging from senseless objects
             S15  the imprecation: "They that make them are LIKE UNTO THEM"
[SCOPE →     S16  the forbidden thing = LIKENESS, sculptured OR otherwise
 GREEKS]     S17  ⇒ the Greek Church's precaution collapses
             S18  no statues, true — but unmatched licence in PICTURES
             S19  the Lord forbids images by ANY artist — every such image insults his majesty

Examiner's Eye — three traps I would build from this section

Trap 1 — the direction flip on S11. A test-writer will offer: "Calvin holds that idolatry, being contrary to nature, is rare and foreign to man." False, and it reverses the section's hinge. S11 says both things at once: the proceeding is "palpably repugnant to the order of nature" AND "natural to man." Repugnant to the created order; natural to corrupted man (S15: "the corruption of nature hurries away all mankind"). Miss the double sense of "nature" and you flunk the item.

Trap 2 — the Greek Church flatter. "Calvin commends the Eastern Church for its restraint in avoiding sculptured images." False. S17 calls the no-statues rule a "frivolous precaution"; S18's "they think they do admirably" is pure irony, immediately gutted by "while none go greater lengths in the licentious use of pictures." The concession is the set-up for the knife.

Trap 3 — Horace's status. "Calvin cites Horace as a reliable religious authority." False. S9 dismisses him in the same breath: the "Epicurean poet, in indulging his wit, had no regard for religion" — his jeers are to be passed over, and the prophet's rebuke put in their place. Same grudging-witness logic as Seneca (§2) and Juvenal (§3): pagans are quoted to shame, never to teach.

Formula 1 — the buried third-person imperative (S9)

[As-clause: REASON] , (without V-ing: DISMISSAL) ,
      let + O + V(bare) [ , nay, V2(bare) ] , [when-clause: OCCASION]

⚠ The MAIN CLAUSE is "let …" — everything fronted is scaffolding. Find "let" first.
⚠ "nay" is not negation: it cancels-and-upgrades (sting → cut). Both bare
   infinitives are governed by the same "let".
⚠ The understood subject of "without attending" is "we/us" — the ones commanded.

Transformation drill. Theme: the law and the conscience. → But as the world flatters us without ceasing, without listening to its soothing voices, let the law of God pierce, nay, break open our complacency, when it speaks of the judgment to come.

Formula 2 — not only … but … with shared-material ellipsis (S10, S19)

S + not only + V1 + O + C1 , but + [V1 + O understood] + C2

⚠ After "but", restore whatever "not only" and "but" share (verb, object, or both).
   S19: forbids any image … to be erected …, but [forbids it] to be formed …
⚠ The two complements must be PARALLEL (to be erected ∥ to be formed).
   An exam underline that breaks the parallel (e.g. *to be forming*) is the wrong one.

Transformation drill. Theme: the word of God. → God not only commands his word to be heard in the assembly, but to be obeyed in the heart. (= but commands it to be obeyed)

Formula 3 — the participle family: attached vs. absolute (S2, S10, S13)

ATTACHED:  (V-ing … ,) S + V        → understood subject = S
           S2  "taking it for granted that …"  (= he, the Psalmist)
           S13 "Being works of men, they …"    (= they, the idols)
NOM. ABSOLUTE:  N + V-ing … , (main clause)  → participle has its OWN subject
           S10 "nothing being more incongruous than to V"  (subject = nothing)

⚠ Ask ONE question: does the -ing form share the main clause's subject?
   Yes → attached. No (it brought its own) → absolute, usually causal ("since…").

Transformation drill. Theme: faith and the promise. → The promise being sure, faith rests without fear. (absolute — subject = the promise) vs. Resting on the promise, faith fears nothing. (attached — subject = faith)

Where we are in the chapter's plan. Beveridge's own analysis: sections 1–2 refute those who give God a visible form; 3–4 answer the objection from God's symbolic manifestations; 5–7 will demolish Gregory's "books of the unlearned." So §4 completes the second movement: §3 disarmed the biblical exhibits, §4 buries the corpse with the Psalmist, Isaiah — and one grinning Roman.

Horace, Satires 1.8 — the talking idol. The poem opens with a wooden statue of Priapus narrating his own origin: olim truncus eram ficulnus, inutile lignum — "once I was a fig-tree trunk, a useless log" — until the faber, undecided between a bench and a god, "preferred that I be a god" (maluit esse deum). Calvin's third pagan witness in three sections (Seneca in §2, Juvenal in §3, Horace here), and the pattern is identical each time: quote the pagan to shame Christians, then disqualify him as a teacher — S9 does it in a single clause ("had no regard for religion"). An "Epicurean poet": Horace called himself, half-joking, a pig from Epicurus' herd (Epist. 1.4.16); for Calvin the label means religiously unserious — the gods exist but don't care, so nothing is at stake for him. That is precisely why his laughter cannot heal.

The Greek Church and the icon question. S16–S19 are Calvin's first direct engagement in this chapter with the Eastern (Byzantine/"Greek") position. After the great Iconoclastic controversies, the Second Council of Nicaea (787) — which Beveridge's chapter summary says Calvin will refute at the chapter's end — legitimised the veneration of icons (flat images: paint, mosaic), while Eastern practice continued to shun free-standing statues of the divine. That is the "precaution": no sculpture, pictures without number. Calvin's answer is S16's exegetical ruling: the commandment's own word is likeness (Exod 20:4 bans both pesel, the carved thing, and temunah, the likeness of anything), so the medium distinction is frivolous — the category, not the chisel, is what's forbidden. The related Roman distinction (latria vs. dulia) is queued for §11; don't import it here.

The regulative seed. S13's fixed principle — "all modes of worship devised by man are detestable" — is among the most consequential sentences in Book 1 for later Reformed practice. From it grows the regulative principle of worship: God alone institutes acceptable worship; human invention in worship is not neutral but corrupt (cf. later Westminster Larger Catechism Q109, which reads like a gloss on this section). Note how Calvin gets there: not from temperament but from S12's exegesis — Scripture's mode of expression ("works of men's hands," "devised by man") locates the poison in the origin of the practice.

The anthropology hinge. S11 (monstrous… yet natural) and S15 (the corruption of nature hurries away all mankind) resolve into the Augustinian distinction between nature-as-created and nature-as-corrupted, and they are the immediate ancestors of §8's famous formulation that man's mind is a perpetual factory of idols (perpetua idolorum fabrica). Hold the thread: Ch. 3–5 showed the sensus divinitatis surviving the fall; Ch. 11 shows what fallen man does with it — he manufactures.

Guardrail — do not over-read. Calvin is not condemning art. In §12 (three days from now) he will call sculpture and painting gifts of God and allow their lawful use — the ban covers (a) any representation of God, and (b) images made for worship. Nor does S13 outlaw everything not found verbatim in Scripture (Calvin distinguishes worship from order and decorum — that discussion belongs to Book 4). Quote him for what he says: images of God, and man-devised worship — those, and precisely those, are detestable.

1. Psalm 115:4–8 / 135:15–18 — S1, S14, S15 (the section's spine). Hebrew ʿăṣabbêhem ("their idols," from a root tied to shaping/fashioning — and, grimly, to pain): the very noun says "manufactured." Calvin walks the psalm in order: v.4 the materials (S1), vv.5–7 the dead senses implied in S14's "dead and senseless objects," v.8 the curse (S15): kəmōhem yihyû ʿōśêhem — "like them shall their makers become." Note the Hebrew imperfect: not only "are like" but "shall become like" — conformity as sentence being executed. Calvin's use: one psalm supplies text (S1), argument (S2–S4), spotlight (S14), and verdict (S15) — he is preaching through Psalm 115, not proof-texting it.
2. Isaiah 44:9–20, esp. v.16 — S9. The carpenter's ledger: half the wood for fire, bread, and roast — "and the residue thereof he maketh a god." Isaiah's satire out-Horaces Horace, but with tears in it (v.20: "he feedeth on ashes: a deceived heart hath turned him aside"). Calvin's use: the prophet replaces the satirist — same material, opposite aim: wound unto repentance, not laughter.
3. Isaiah 40:21–26 — S10. "Have ye not known? have ye not heard? … have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth?" — the exact phrase behind S10's "not learning from the foundations of the earth," followed by God enthroned above the circle of the earth and the challenge "To whom then will ye liken me?" (v.25; cf. 46:5–7). Calvin's use: creation itself is a standing curriculum; the idolater is a truant, hence upbraided, not merely charged.
4. Isa. 2:8; 31:7; Hos. 14:3; Mic. 5:13 — S13 (cited in the text). Four prophets, one refrain: "the work of their hands" / "neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, Ye are our gods" (Hos 14:3). Calvin's use: stacked citations prove the mode of expression argument of S12 — Scripture's own idiom fixes the accusation on human manufacture.
5. Exodus 20:4 (with Deut 4:15–18) — S16, S19. The commandment bans the pesel (graven/carved thing) and the temunah (likeness, form) — "or any likeness of any thing." S16's ruling ("the thing forbidden is likeness, whether sculptured or otherwise") is straight exegesis of the double object; S19 restates it with the Lord as speaking subject. Calvin's use: the Greek Church's statue/picture line is refuted from the commandment's own vocabulary.
6. Psalm 90:5–6 / Job 14:1–2 — S5 (echo). "But the creature of a day" — the mayfly-anthropology of the Psalms and Job (grass in the morning, cut down by evening), which Calvin will expand in Book 3 ch. 9 (his own cross-reference). Calvin's use: mortality is the premise that makes deifying metal not just sinful but ridiculous.

① Grammar — find the wrong underline

The Lord, however, not only forbids any image of himself ①to be erected by a statuary, but ②to be forming by any artist whatever, because every such image ③is sinful and ④insulting to his majesty.

Answer: ② — the ellipsis after but must stay parallel with the material after not only: to be erected … to be formed (passive infinitive ∥ passive infinitive). To be forming is active-progressive and breaks the frame. (① correct passive infinitive after forbids … to be; ③ singular verb with every such image; ④ insulting as predicate adjective coordinated with sinful.)

Exam-setter's rationale: Formula 2 says the material after but mirrors the material after not only. The moment you restored the ellipsis — but [forbids it] to be formed — the corruption in ② was audible. Students who never restored it will stare at ② and feel nothing.

② Comprehension — which statement matches the passage?

(a) Calvin holds that idolatry, being repugnant to the order of nature, is therefore foreign to human inclination. (b) The Psalmist names silver and gold so that the idols' splendour and cost may not win them reverence. (c) Calvin commends the Greek Church for its restraint, since it admits no images of Deity into its worship. (d) Calvin endorses Horace as a trustworthy guide in religion because his satire exposed the origin of idols.

Answer: (b) — a near-paraphrase of S3 (that neither splendour nor cost may procure reverence to idols).

Exam-setter's rationale: (a) is the direction flip on S11 — repugnant to nature AND natural to man; the option deletes the paradox's second half. (c) is the Greek-Church flatter — S17 calls the precaution frivolous and S18's praise is irony; also false factually: they admit pictures without limit. (d) is the witness-status trap — S9 explicitly dismisses the Epicurean's jeers ("had no regard for religion"); ground for the sarcasm (S7) ≠ endorsement of the satirist. Each wrong option is one of Period 2's three traps, verbatim territory.

③ Composition — apply Formula 1

Translate into Calvin-style English, using the buried third-person imperative with nay-escalation:

"그러나 세상의 아첨은 종교를 안중에 두지 않으므로, 그 달콤한 말에 귀 기울이지 말고, 선지자의 경고가 우리 양심을 찌르게 — 아니, 꿰뚫게 하라."

Model answer: But as the flattery of the world has no regard for religion, without attending to its honeyed words, let the warning of the prophet pierce, nay, transfix our conscience.

Exam-setter's rationale: Checklist — fronted as-clause of reason ✓; without V-ing dismissal ✓; let + O + bare infinitive ✓; nay + upgraded second bare infinitive governed by the same let ✓. The commonest student error: writing let the warning pierces (inflected verb after let) or reading nay as introducing a new clause with its own subject.

One-line summary: Pick the idol up and you have refuted it — silver, gold, and wood confess their maker (S1–S8); the prophet's rebuke must cut where the satirist only tickles (S9–S10); idolatry is monstrous and natural to corrupted man (S11, S15), so every man-devised mode of worship is detestable (S13) — and since the ban falls on likeness itself, the Greek Church's no-statues loophole is no loophole at all (S16–S19). Grammar to keep: ① the buried imperative let + O + V, nay, V2 with its fronted scaffolding; ② not only … but … — restore the ellipsis, keep the parallel; ③ the participle family — attached (S2, S13) vs. nominative absolute (S10).

Homework (10 min):

1. Structure restoration: Take S9 and rewrite it as four plain sentences (reason / dismissal / command / occasion). Then compress your four sentences back into ONE sentence using Formula 1 — without looking at the original. Compare.
2. Composition: Using Formula 2 (ellipsis form), write one sentence on this theme: God requires the heart, not only the hands. (Target shape: "God not only requires the worship of the hands to be pure, but [requires] the devotion of the heart [to be] sincere" — or better.)
3. Preview: Tomorrow, §5 opens with the most famous slogan in the whole image debate — Gregory the Great's "images are the books of the unlearned." First words: "I am not ignorant, indeed, of the assertion, which is now more than threadbare…" Watch Calvin send Gregory back to school — the Spirit's school.

Where we stopped: Book 1, Ch. 11, §4 끝. 다음은 Book 1, Ch. 11, §5 (Day 60) — "images are the books of the unlearned": Gregory's slogan vs. the Spirit's school.