Thread by @_matthewpearson

okay, let’s see what Calvin has to say:

“The Lord Himself providentially opposes, conquers, and restrains the ferocity of our flesh by the medicine of the cross. He does this in ways that uniquely serve each believer's well-being. For we're not all equally or severely oppressed

https://twitter.com/drantbradley/status/1481623114945605632

by the same diseases. Nor do we all require the same exact cure. And so we see that each believer is subjected to a different kind of cross. Our heavenly doctor, having purposed to restore all of us to health, treats some more leniently. Meanwhile, He applies stronger remedies

to others. But none of us is left untouched by or remains immune to His medicine—He knows we are all diseased.”
-John Calvin, the lawyer

Surely Calvin is the exception to the Reformed rule, right? Lets see what my favorite Italian Reformer has to say:

“God measured out his medicine for us from the death and resurrection of Christ so that we might be liberated and death might die. Like a wise doctor, he prepares

a draught of medicine for the sick person, which may relieve him and get rid of the fever or sickness. We drink a healthy dose of this healthful medicine when mentioning the Lord's death and resurrection, in our reading or preaching when we embrace them with a lively faith and

when we proclaim our faith by the sealing of baptism and the reception of the eucharist. In these holy actions both the death and the resurrection of Christ are celebrated. In treating this passage Paul

adds that death is absorbed by victory, that is, the victory of Christ.”
-Peter Martyr Vermigli, the non-Physician