Today’s Readings Podcast Description

How may the Church employ external order without again binding the conscience or inventing new worship? In these closing sections Calvin draws the final distinction. Constitutions that serve decency and peace are lawful when they rest on the general rules of Scripture and remain subject to change for the edification of the Church. Bending the knee in prayer is both human and divine: human in its particular form, divine because it expresses the reverence God requires. Such observances are not perpetual obligations but temporary helps for human infirmity, to be kept with a free conscience and ready charity. They must remain few, useful, and free of superstition. The moment they are treated as necessary to salvation or as improvements upon the worship God has appointed, they cease to be law ...