'The Necessity of Reforming the Church'

I’ve spent my day with John Calvin’s treatise of this name, which would make good reading for Anglicans today and especially for (would-be) ministers. Its available in the Library of Christian Classics series in Calvin’s Theological Treatises. Here’s the subtitle:

A Humble Exhortation to the most invincible Emperor Charles V, and the most illustrious Prince and other Orders, now holding a Diet of the Empire at Spires that they seriously undertake the task of restoring the Church presented in the name of all those who wish Christ to reign by Dr John Calvin (p184)

You have got to love his analysis. So clear. Good distinctions. Learned. And passionate. Get’s practical and talks about what really matters. Pastoral. Concerned for God’s glory and his people’s good. Yet so pungent. The rhetoric is turned up and its strong meat. You wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of Calvin’s polemic. A serrated edge, indeed. And he tells off Luther for putting it all to rudely and harshly!

They don’t make ‘em like they used to!