The commentaries of M. John Calvin upon the Acts of the Apostles, faithfully translated…The commentaries of M. Iohn Caluin vpon the Actes of the Apostles, faithfully translated…

Which came down from Judea. This cloak and colour was very forcible to deceive even good men then. Jerusalem was honoured not without cause among all Churches: because they reverenced it even as their mother. For the Gospel was deducted as it were by pipes and conduits ⟨p. 350⟩from that fountain. These seducers come thence: they pretend the Apostles: they boast that they bring nothing but that which they learned of them. They blind & blear the eyes of the unskilful with this smoke: & those who are light and wicked do greedily snatch at the colour which is offered them. The perturbation of the church, doth like a tempest shake those who were otherwise good & moderate, so that they are enforced to stumble. Therefore we must note this subtlety of satan, that he abuseth the names of holy men, that he may deceive the simple, who being won with the reverence of the men, dare not inquire after the thing it self. Luke doth not express in deed with what affection these knaves were moved: yet it is likely that perverse zeal was the cause which moved them to set themselves against Paul & Barnabas. For there be certain churlish natures which nothing can please but that which is their own. They had seen that circumcision and other rites of the law were observed at Jerusalem: wheresoever they become,¹ they can abide nothing which is not agreeable thereto: as if the example of one church did bind all the rest of the churches with a certain Law. And though such be carried with a preposterous zeal to procure tumults: yet are they pricked inwardly with their ambition, & with a certain kind of stubbornness. Nevertheless satan hath that he would: for the minds of the godly have such a mist cast before them, that they can scarce know black from white. Therefore we must beware first of this plague that some prescribe not a law to othersome after their manner: that the example of one church be not a prejudice of a common rule. Also we must use another caution, that the persons of men do not hinder or darken the examination of the matter or cause. For if Satan transfigure himself into an Angel of light, & if by sacrilegious boldness he usurp the holy name of God: what marvel is it, if he do like wickedly deceive men under the names of holy men? The end shall at length declare that the Apostles meant nothing less, than to lay the yoke of the Law upon the neck of the Gentiles:

Which came downe from Iudea. This cloake and colour was very forceable to deceiue euen good men then. Ierusalem was honored not without cause among all Churches: because they reuerenced it euen as their mother. For the Gospel was deducted as it were by pypes and conduits