Or maybe Calvin would have been a patriot...

Calvin's Institutes (1559)
Book 4 of 4 - External Means by which God Invites Us into the Society of Christ and Holds Us Therein

Chapter 20 - Civil Government

30-32 - lesser magistrates ought to check tyranny; obey God first

30. In Scripture, God often avenged tyranny using other nations, or judges. The former had evil intentions of conquest, while judges were self-consciously carrying out God's command. Both got the job done.

31. So "let the princes hear and be afraid." But "let us not at once think that it is entrusted to us, to whom no command has been given except to obey and suffer. I am speaking all the while of private individuals." Lawful, subordinate governments may withstand evil kings. "If they wink at kings who violently fall upon and assault the lowly common folk, I declare that their dissimulation involves nefarious perfidy."

32. "Obedience [to evil kings] is never to lead us away from obedience to [God]" See Dan 6:22-23, where "the king had exceeded his limits, and had not only been a wrongdoer against men, but... against God." Israel wrongly willingly followed evil laws - Hos 5:11. Courtiers cloak their evil in the bad laws of the king. Sin's old excuse is, "but it's legal." The king's wrath can be great, in lawfully resisting him - Prov 16:14 - but "we must obey God rather than men" - Acts 5:29. We must "suffer anything rather than turn aside from piety."

Calvin ends the Institutes with "GOD BE PRAISED."

What about Obama? Or, Calvin would have been a Tory...

Calvin's Institutes (1559)
Book 4 of 4 - External Means by which God Invites Us into the Society of Christ and Holds Us Therein

Chapter 20 - Civil Government

22-29 - Obedience with reverence due even unjust rulers

22. From magistrates, to laws, now to the citizen's duty. First, we must honor the office. Some think it just a "necessary evil," but 1 Pet 2:17; Prov 24:21; Rom 13:5 say otherwise.

23. We must also obey them. Rom 13:1-2; Titus 3:1; 1 Pet 2:13-14. Included in this is abstaining from harassing public officials. Let them do their jobs. "Let [citizens] not raise a tumult."

24. So far, we've been assuming the ruler is a "father of his country," as Homer put it of Odysseus. But some "drain the common people of their money, and afterward lavish it on insane largesse... plundering houses, raping virgins and matrons, and slaughtering the innocent."

25. We are subject to "all who, by whatever means, have got control of affairs." "They who rule unjustly and incompetently have been raised up by Him to punish the wickedness of the people.... a wicked king is the Lord's wrath upon the earth." See Job 34:30; Hos 13:11; Isa 3:4; 10:5; Deut 28:29. "Let us... pause here to prove this, which does not so easily settle in men's minds." [No kidding].

26. God "removes kings and sets them up" - see Dan 2:21, 37; 4:17, 14. When Samuel warns the people about asking for a king, he basically says, "The willfulness of kings will run to excess, but it will not be your part to restrain it" - see 1 Sam 8:11-17.

27. Jer 27 is especially pertinent. See verses 5-8, 17. "We see how much obedience the Lord willed to be paid to that abominable and cruel tyrant for no other reason than that he possessed the kingship.... those seditious thoughts [should] never enter our minds that a king should be treated according to his merits...."

28. This is not "peculiar to the Israelites." See Prov 28:2; Job 12:18. Jer 29:7 also commands Israel "to pray for the prosperity of their conqueror." David dares not touch Saul's head, as Saul was God's anointed - 1 Sam 24:6, 11; 26:9-11.

29. Rulers do owe subjects just rule, "but if you conclude form this that service ought to be rendered only to just governors, you are reasoning foolishly." What if children decided their parents were too harsh, and thus didn't obey? We ought "not to inquire about another's duties, but every man should keep in mind that one duty which is his own." In the face of wicked rulers, "it is not for us to remedy such evils." God will avenge. See Ps 82.

Christians in Court?

Calvin's Institutes (1559)
Book 4 of 4 - External Means by which God Invites Us into the Society of Christ and Holds Us Therein

Chapter 20 - Civil Government

14-21 - Public law and judicial procedures

17. Some say the magistrate is unnecessary for Christians since we may not go to court - 1 Cor 6. But God gave him to us - Rom 13:4; 1 Tim 2:2 - and he "may without impiety be called upon and also appealed to." But others have a "rage for litigation." "If one is permitted to go to law with a brother, one is not therewith allowed to hate him, or be seized with a mad desire to harm him, or hound him relentlessly."

18. Coming to court is okay if the intent is right: "to defend what is his by right... without bitterness," anger, vengeance, etc. This is virtually never the case, you say? That doesn't negate the fact that the magistrate is there to help in such disputes, and "we must more diligently guard against its becoming polluted by our fault."

19. To "strictly condemn all legal contentions" is to accuse Paul of fault in Acts 24:12; 16:37; 22:1, 25; 25:10-11. Vengeance is not allowed - Lev 19:18; Matt 5:39; Deut 32:35; Rom 12:17, 19. Going to court isn't getting revenge for ourselves, but getting the justice of God. "The magistrate's revenge is not man's but God's, which He extends and exercises... through the ministry of man for our good."

20. This doesn't conflict with Matt 5:39-40. We should rather endure double injury than strike back in retaliation. "We are not leading them away from this forbearance." But we can work to keep what is ours when others try to take it away unlawfully, remaining friendly and of goodwill to our adversaries. One bears with his adversaries with patience "to increase the number of good men - not to add himself to the number of the bad by a malice like theirs."

21. In 1 Cor 6:5-8, Paul condemns a selfish and litigious spirit, not all court disputes. "When any man sees that without loss of love he can defend his own property, the loss of which would be a heavy expense to him, he does not offend... if he has recourse to law.... love will give every man the best counsel."

Of the laws of Moses and nations

Calvin's Institutes (1559)
Book 4 of 4 - External Means by which God Invites Us into the Society of Christ and Holds Us Therein

Chapter 20 - Civil Government

14-21 - Public law and judicial procedures

14. After the magistrate, now the law. Cicero said, "The law is a silent magistrate; the magistrate, a living law." Some say the laws have to follow "the political system of Moses, and... the common laws of nations" to be "duly framed," but this is absurd. The judicial laws are distinct from the moral law. It is true ceremonial and judicial laws touch on morals, but this doesn't require adherence to Mosaic judicial laws to be moral.

15. The moral law is summarized by loving God and neighbor. The ceremonial law was Jewish training in worship, "foreshadowing in figures" the coming fullness - Gal 4:3-4. The judicial law gave "formulas of equity and justice." Just as piety could continue with the abrogation of the ceremonial law, so justice and love to neighbor can continue without the exact form of the judicial law in Scripture. So laws today may "vary in form but [must] have the same purpose." Each nation is thus free to form its own laws.

16. All laws should work toward the same goal of equity. But there will be a diversity of punishments for various crimes, depending on the circumstances and dispositions of various countries. "How malicious and hateful toward public welfare would a man be who is offended by such diversity, which is perfectly adapted to maintain the observance of God's law?"

Calvin on Politics

Calvin's Institutes (1559)
Book 4 of 4 - External Means by which God Invites Us into the Society of Christ and Holds Us Therein

Chapter 20 - Civil Government

8-13 - Forms and duties of gov't; war and taxation

8. It's hard to say what form of government is superior - monarchy, oligarchy, democracy - since they are all easily corrupted to tyranny or anarchy. But "aristocracy... far excels all others," since a king cannot control himself as easily without others checking his will. God ordained in Israel "an aristocracy bordering on democracy" in Ex 18:13-26; Deut 1:9-17. In the best government "freedom is regulated with becoming moderation," and the rulers are careful to not diminish those freedoms. But it is generally more harmful "to desire a change of government," when "it is our duty to show ourselves compliant and obedient to whomever he sets over the places where we live."

9. "The office of the magistrates... extends to both Tables of the Law" - 1st 4 commandments as well as the last 6. If laws "neglect God's right and provide only for men" they are "preposterous." Faithful kings restored the worship of God, but "because there was not king in Israel, each man did as he pleased" in anarchy - see Judges 21:25. Magistrates should do justice - Jer 22:3; Ps 82:3-4; Deut 1:16-17; 17:16-19; 16:19; Ps 101:4-7. They should "provide for the common safety and peace of all." They are given the power of reward and punishment by the sword to ensure this - Rom 13:3.

10. But if God forbids Christians to kill, how can pious believers order the death of men as judges? Because they act as God's agents, not on their own authority. "Nothing is done here from men's rashness." If magistrates want God's approval, they need to follow His law in carrying out theirs. See Rom 13:4; 2 Tim 2:15; Ex 2:12; Acts 7:24; Ex 32:27-28; 1 Kings 2:5-6, 8-9; Ps 101:8; 45:7; 44:8. These bloody deeds were required and they would have been unfaithful to leave them undone. Prov 16:12; 20:8; 20:26; 25:4-5; 17:15, 11; 24:24. We can't "favor undue cruelty" or require that clemency dilute justice in every case, though clemency is "the chief gift of princes." A Roman writer said, "It is indeed bad to live under a prince with whom nothing is permitted; but much worse under one by whom everything is allowed."

11. "Kings and people must sometimes take up arms to execute such public vengeance." A country must be protected from invaders, robbers, etc.

12. Some object that the NT gives no warrant for war. But John didn't tell the soldiers to quit the army, just to not exploit that position - Luke 3:14. "Everything else ought to be tried before recourse is had to arms." The right to wage war also applies to stationing troops and weapons, and making treaties.

13. "Tributes and taxes are the lawful revenues of princes." Using them "for the magnificence of their household" is allowed, to show forth the authority and dignity of their office. Scripture supports this in David and Solomon's palace, Ezek 48:21; Joseph and Daniel were "lavish at public expense" without fault. But the treasuries are not the private property of the magistrate. He must use them well, without waste. It is "tyrannical extortion" to impose taxes "upon the common folk without cause." Citizens must be careful not to "rashly and shamelessly decry any expenses of princes..."

Take heed what you do, magistrate

Calvin's Institutes (1559)
Book 4 of 4 - External Means by which God Invites Us into the Society of Christ and Holds Us Therein

Chapter 20 - Civil Government

3-7 - Need and call for civil government

3. It is as necessary as "bread, water, sun, and air." Gov't must prevent public sacrilege and ensure "that a public manifestation of religion may exist among Christians." We will treat 3 parts of gov't separately: the magistrate, the laws, and the people.

4. The magistrate rules in God's place, as inferred from Ex 22:8; Ps 82:1, 6; John 10:35; Deut 1:16-17; 2 Chron 19:6; Prov 8:14-16; Rom 12:8; 1 Cor 12:28. Rom 13:1-2 is even more clear. And several OT saints were civil magistrates: David, Josiah, Hezekiah, Joseph, Daniel, Moses, Joshua. This office is "holy and lawful before God."

5. Some radicals say they don't need civil gov't, "but they claim a perfection of which not even a hundredth part is seen in them." See Ps 2:12; Isa 49:23; Ps 21; 22; 45; 72; 89; 110; 132; 1 Tim 2:2, "in which the right of rulers is asserted."

6. Magistrates must be faithful, since they act in God's place. See 2 Chron 19:6-7; Isa 3:14-15.

7. Radicals claim Luke 22:25-26 rejects earthly authority over others, but Scripture elsewhere honors it - Rom 13:1; Prov 8:15; 24:21; 1 Pet 2:17 - even the power of one, a monarch, which is "least pleasant" to us.

Why a government at all?

Calvin's Institutes (1559)
Book 4 of 4 - External Means by which God Invites Us into the Society of Christ and Holds Us Therein

Chapter 20 - Civil Government

1-2 - How civil and spiritual government are related

1. We are under a two-fold gov't. One spiritual, the other regarding "civil justice and outward morality." We have to avoid the error of "overturn[ing] this divinely established order," and the error of flattering princes and letting them go "against the rule of God Himself." We may not mingle the spiritual and civil elements of government, though. "It is a Jewish vanity to seek and enclose Christ's Kingdom within the elements of this world." He makes clear in 1 Cor 7:21 that "spiritual freedom can perfectly well exist along with civil bondage" [sorry Patrick Henry!]

2. Civil gov't is distinct from spiritual, but "they are not at variance." The magistrate must protect the worship of God, defend sound doctrine and the sound church, "to adjust our life to the society of men, to form our social behavior to civil righteousness, to reconcile us with one another, and to promote general peace and tranquility." Some say the church should be sanctified enough to handle all problems, but mankind is too depraved and needs the power of the sword to punish and deter our evil.