The day following, the council of Geneva published some decrees, which were read aloud in the streets. They were meant to satisfy both parties, and to some extent they did so; but the Catholics, though they considered that on the whole they had gained a victory, were ill at ease amongst the Huguenots. The priests wore arms, saying they were afraid of an attack. The Huguenots continued their meetings, and again broke bread in the garden.
At last two Catholic magistrates, Du Crest and Roy, determined to make a last effort to put down the gospellers. They set off secretly for Berne to entreat the council of Berne to do nothing more to help forward the gospel in Geneva. When they arrived at Berne, what was their consternation to see, standing in the street, their old enemies, Baudichon and Salomon. They could scarcely believe their eyes. Du Crest was furious. “What are you doing here?” he asked, rudely and angrily. “We are told you are come to speak against us,” said Baudichon. “We are here to defend ourselves.”
The next day Du Crest and Roy went to the council. Scarcely had they taken their seats, when the two Huguenots walked in, and coolly sat down by them, and, before Du Crest could say a word, Baudichon rose up and addressed the council. He told the Bernese how there were hundreds in Geneva who were hungering and thirsting for the gospel—how the magistrates hindered and opposed it, and would willingly get rid of all who listened to it, as well as of those who preached it. He told the tale of the plot for murdering all the gospellers. He especially accused Du Crest of having taken part with the priests, and, lastly, he entreated the Bernese not only to defend the cause of the gospel, but to see that he and Salomon were allowed to go home and live in peace.
The council asked Du Crest what answer he had to make to the accusations of the Huguenot. Du Crest and Roy both replied they had nothing to say. Terrified and angry, they returned to Geneva.
The Huguenots returned there also. This was in the month of April.
You may wish to know where William Farel was all this time. We hear of him during the spring of 1533 at Morat, not far from Berne. There, and in the country round, he was hard at work, teaching and preaching. “If my father were alive,” he said, “I know not how I should find time to write him a letter.” He could, however, write letters, when it was needful to do so, to make known the truth the Lord had taught him. We find a letter written by him during that month of March to his friend Berthold Haller. It was again on the question of the law. Is the Christian under the law, or not? A part of this letter may be useful:-
“I should have made good my promise before now, my thrice dearest Berthold, if leisure had been given me—I will not say to clear up some points, but to express simply and plainly whatever occupies my thoughts as to those matters which we lately talked over. Put a good construction on whatever is sent in haste. You will admonish me in a candid and brotherly spirit wherever I swerve from the straight line of Scripture.
“First, I believe that the law and the prophets are divine oracles, the Word of the Lord, which holy men, acted on by the divine Spirit, have uttered, and that they are all so fixed and firm, that Heaven and earth, and whatever exists, will dissolve and perish rather than that one atom of all that is in the sacred Word fall away, or fail of its fulfillment.
“God, when He has spoken, changes not His purpose, and knows no change. However, we confess that the whole array of ceremonies, justifications of the flesh, oblations and sacrifices, have vanished; that the priesthood has been transferred; and that we are not now subject to the law graven on stone, since formerly we Gentiles were never subject to one of those laws, for the circumcised alone were debtors to do the law.
“When the carnal man hears these things, he thinks them contradictory to one another, while in reality they marvelously agree together. Thus, no one says that the blade perishes which becomes the ear, nor the flower to which the fruit succeeds. In the same way, the circumcision of the heart takes the place of the circumcision of the flesh. Christ, the Prophet and Priest, takes the place of Moses, the prophet, and Aaron, the priest. The sacrifice of Christ, cleansing the heart and purging the conscience, takes the place of the sacrifices of beasts slaughtered for sins of negligence or ignorance; and the church, holy, perfect, and complete in Christ and His members, takes the place of the tabernacle, the ark, and the rest of that which Moses made.”
He adds that now eternal death takes the place of death by stoning, such as the law commanded for those who refused to obey, but that, at the same time, “pestilent persons who refuse to hear Christ should be punished even here by the sword.” We know that, even before the law, God commanded, with regard to murderers, “Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed.” And He has said of magistrates, that they “bear not the sword in vain.” Yet it would seem that there was a further thought in the mind of Farel, not very clearly expressed, that it was the duty of the church thus to punish, or, in any case, to take a share in punishing, not murderers only, but others who, as he says, “refuse to hear Christ.” From this mistaken thought trouble and sorrow were to spring in days to come. We must not wonder to find that all the dark mists of error were not entirely passed away from his soul. At the same time we see the light gleaming through the confusion, and in the words that follow, we find the dawning at least, of the perfect day, the unclouded light, into which, by the Spirit, we are brought.
“It is concerning the Ten Commandments,” he says, “that there is the dispute: for some hold that they are abrogated, and some, on the contrary, that they are all the more confirmed—although, when the Sabbath is treated of, they are compelled to acknowledge that they are not bound to observe it.”
Farel does not mean here that we are under no obligation to observe the Lord’s Day. But the Lord’s Day and the Sabbath are two different things. If I observe the first day of the week, in remembrance of the resurrection of Christ, I cannot truthfully say that I am thereby keeping the commandment which orders the observance of the seventh day of the week, in remembrance of the rest of God from the works which He had made.
He goes on to describe how the law was given to Moses, with “noise and flame, smoke and lightning. Moses comes down, and speaks, with a veil on his face, and brings the Ten Commandments on tables into the ark. Now, see how different is everything in Christ and in His own—how a spiritual law is given to us—for we have not received the spirit of bondage to fear, but the adoption of sons, whereby we call on the Father, and have access to Him, through Christ, who is not veiled as Moses was, but with unveiled face reveals the treasures of God’s goodness, mercy and grace, and the exceeding great love of the Father, which casts out fear.
“For we are no longer called servants, but sons, brothers, and friends. The law is written on our hearts—not on tables of stone in the ark of the covenant, but on our minds and consciences, which God possesses and inhabits. The terrible sight of the mount does not now terrify us, lest we should seek after, invent, and serve other gods, but we hear of the love which the Father has bestowed upon us—the Father who pitied us, and gave His only Son—the Son so dear to Him. We hear how He entreats us lovingly to come to Him—how the Son so loved us, that He died in order that we might live.
“And, hearing this, who will not say, ‘Lord, we know no other Father or God beside Thee, nor do we seek or wish to have another, for when we were enemies Thou didst reconcile us to Thee by the death of Thy Son. How shall the reconciled implore any other help than Thine! Who having tasted of the good word of Christ will not say forthwith, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life!’ When once we know Christ, He so delights our hearts, that all things are counted as dross compared with Him; for Him a man will cheerfully cast all things else away—renounce and forsake all besides.
“Oh! that the Lord would more fully impart a sense of these things, that we might not only profess them with our lips, but feel them in our heart. It is the love of Christ that constrains us to the true worship of God. Burning with this love, and loving the Father, we worship in spirit and in truth. Those who love Him thus, do not take His holy name in vain—resting from their labors, they praise the Lord in the assembly—they cannot but love their neighbor, after the example of Christ. They love those who wrong them, who return evil for good—and much more those who have deserved well of them, their parents, and their rulers. In short, the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost brings forth in us the fruits of righteousness to the praise of God.”
Thus writing, speaking, teaching, and preaching of that love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, did William Farel continue his blessed work, and meanwhile many were the prayers for Geneva which he offered up to God. Let us now return to the city where the great battle between light and darkness was still raging, and was still to rage for many a day to come.