John Calvin on the duty of kingdoms to submit to Christ
Writing to Sigismund Augustus (the King of Poland) in 1549, John Calvin instructed him to submit to the Lordship of Christ and to his law-word, rather than to the imaginations of men:
This may possibly be also a new encouragement to your Majesty, who is already engaged in the work of restoring the kingdom of Christ, and to many who live under your government to further the same work. Your kingdom is extensive and renowned, and abounds in many excellencies; Christ as its chief ruler and governor, so that it may be defended by his safeguarded and protection; for to submit your sceptre to him, is not inconsistent with that elevation in which you are placed; but it would be far more glorious than all the triumphs of the world. For since among men gratitude is deemed the proper virtue of a great and exalted mind, what in kings can be more unbecoming than to be ungrateful to the Son, by whom they have been raised to the highest degree of honour? It is, therefore, not only an honourable, but more than a royal service, which raises us to the rank of angels, when the throne of Christ is erected among us, so that his celestial voice becomes the only rule for living and dying both to the highest and to the lowest. For though at this day to obey the authority of Christ is the common profession, made almost by all, yet there are very few who render this obedience of which they boast.
Now this obedience cannot be rendered, except the whole of religion be formed according to the infallible rule of his holy truth. But on this point strange conflicts arise, while men, not only inflated with pride, but also bewitched by monstrous madness, pay less regard to his unchangeable oracles of our heavenly Master than to their own vain fictions [...]
John Calvin, Commentaries on the epistle of Paul the apostle to the Hebrews, trans. John Owen (1549; n.p. 1853) in Calvin’s Commentaries (22 vols, Grand Rapids, 1993), xxii, pp xx-xxi.
