The Institution of Christian Religion

And therefore not without a cause doth Paul so extol this mystery hidden frontages and generations,¹ and which he also saith to be marvellous to the very Angles.

And therefore not without a cause dothe Paule so extoll this misterie hidden fron•ages and generations,¹ and whiche hee also saythe to bee maruellous to the very Angles.

1. 1Col. i•xv•

In these four or five points, I think, I have well and faithfully §13set forth the whole difference of the old and new testament, ⟨image 160⟩to much as sufficeth to the simple order of teaching. But because many report this variety in governing the Church, this divers manner in teaching, so great alteration of usages and ceremonies, to be a great absurdity: they are also to be answered before that we pass forth to other things. And that may be done shortly, because the objections are not so strong that they need a curious confutation. It hangeth not together (say they) that God which doth alway steadfastly agree with him self, should suffer so great an alteration, as afterward to disallow the same thing, which he had before both commanded and commended. I answer, that God ought not therefore to be counted mutable, for that he applied diverse forms to diverse ages, as he knew to be expedient for every one. If the husbandman appoint to his household one sort of business in winter, and an other in summer, shall we therefore accuse him of inconstancy, or think that he swerveth from the right rule of husbandry which agreeth with the continual order of nature? Likewise if a father of a household do instruct, rule & order his children of one sort in childhood, of an other in youth, & of an other in mans state, we can not therefore say that he is fickle and forsaketh his own purpose. Why therefore do we charge God with reproach of inconstancy, for that he hath severed the diversity of times with fit & agreeable marks? The last similitude ought fully to satisfy us. Paul maketh the Jews like unto children, and Christians to young men. What disorder is therein this government of God, that he held them in their childish lessons, which according to the capacity of their age were fit for them, & instructed us with stronger and as it were more manly discipline. Therefore herein appeareth the constancy of God, that he taught one self same doctrine in all ages, and continueth in requiring the same worship of his name, which he commanded from the beginning. But whereas he changed the outward form and manner thereof, in that he showed not him self subject to change: butte so far he tempered him self to the capacity of man, which is diverse and changeable.