Institutes 2.10.18 — THE RESEMBLANCE BETWEEN THE OLD TESTAMENT AND THE NEW.

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**THE RESEMBLANCE BETWEEN THE OLD TESTAMENT AND THE NEW.**

Hence the consideration which believers employed as a solace for their sufferings, and a remedy for their patience: “His anger endureth but a moment: in his favour is life,” ( Psalm 30:5 ). How did their afflictions, which continued almost throughout the whole course of life, terminate in a moment? Where did they see the long duration of the divine benignity, of which they had only the slightest taste? Had they clung to earth, they could have found nothing of the kind; but looking to heaven, they saw that the period during which the Lord afflicted his saints was but a moment, and that the mercies with which he gathers them are everlasting: on the other hand, they foresaw that for the wicked, who only dreamed of happiness for a day, there was reserved an eternal and never-ending destruction. Hence those expressions: “The memory of the just is blessed, but the name of the wicked shall rot,” ( Prov. 10:7 ). “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints,” ( Psalm 116:15 ). Again in Samuel: “The Lord will keep the feet of his saints, and the wicked shall be silent in darkness,” ( 1 Sam. 2:9 ); showing they knew well, that however much the righteous might be tossed about, their latter end was life and peace; that how pleasant soever the delights of the wicked, they gradually lead down to the chambers of death. They accordingly designated the death of such persons as the death “of the uncircumcised,” that is, persons cut off from the hope of resurrection ( Ezek. 28:10 ; 31:18). Hence David could not imagine a greater curse than this: “Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous,” ( Psalm 69:28 ).

Source

• source-manifest/institutes — Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, tr. Beveridge 1845 (PD)
• evidence_grade: D_doctrinal_textbook