Calvin on Theology and Taverns

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John Calvin, sermon delivered on June 19, 1555 on Deuteronomy 5:11, in John Calvin’s Sermons on the Ten Commandments (Edited and translated by Benjamin W. Farley; Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2007), 95.

“Today…do men not give themselves a license when they speak about the name of God in their imagination? And when they enter into dispute with the holy Scripture in the shadow of a mug of wine; in taverns, and by tables, do they humble themselves and acknowledge their ignorance and weakness and ask from God [the gift] of his holy Spirit in order that his secrets might be shared with us as it ought to be? No! Rather their discussions there are a mockery and expose that there is not only a dearth of religion in the world today but scarcely any [feeling of] need for it as well.”

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