Quotes from John Calvin

For I fear not to declare, that what I have here given may be regarded as a summary of the very doctrine which, they vociferate, ought to be punished with confiscation, exile, imprisonment, and flames, as well as exterminated by land and sea.

For we never have naked and empty symbols, except when our ingratitude and wickedness hinder the working of divine beneficence.

To hallow the name of God is simply to honor him as is his due, so that men shall not think or speak of him without the highest homage. The

He gave   the tree of life its name, not because it could confer on man that life   with which he had been previously endued, but in order that it might be   a symbol and memorial of the

See how our works lie under the curse of the law if they are tested by the standard of the law.

Let us know,   therefore, that when we have departed from Christ, nothing remains for   us but death.

those who strive to delay or hinder the restoration of the church will accomplish nothing. God is its vindicator, and he will judge all peoples.

We do not become righteous by doing righteous deeds but, having been made righteous, we do righteous deeds.

But if God has set his seat in the sanctuary of the heavens in order to rule the universe, it follows that he by no means ignores earthly affairs, but controls them with the highest reason and wisdom.

But it is evident that the servants of Christ are treated with less humanity than adulterers, robbers, and other malefactors of their kind. This

Let, therefore, pious readers learn to hate and detest those profane   sophists, who thus deliberately corrupt and adulterate the Scriptures,   in order that they may give some color to their delusions.

Again, if we have any anxiety about our own salvation, we ought to make no peace nor truce with him who is continually laying schemes for its destruction. But such is the character given to Satan in the third chapter of Genesis, where he is seen seducing man from his allegiance to God, that he may both deprive God of his due honour, and plunge man headlong in destruction.

all the wisdom we possess, that is to say, true and sound wisdom, consists of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves.

And this is   the origin of freewill, that Adam wished to be independent, [124] and   dared to try what he was able to do.

The Jews were continually warned not to look for the reason for their adoption elsewhere than in God's free favor. He had seen fit to choose them; this alone was the source of their security.

If at any time, then we are troubled at the small number of those who believe, let us, on the other hand, call to mind, that none comprehend the mysteries of God save those to whom it is given.

The fanaticism which discards the Scripture, under the pretense of resorting to immediate revelations is subversive of every principle of Christianity. For when they boast extravagantly of the Spirit, the tendency is always to bury the Word of God so they may make room for their own falsehoods.

Faith not only should be fixed upon the essence of Christ (as they say), but should also attend to his mission and power. It

God (says he), who created all things very good, foreknew that evil would arise out of that good; and He also knew that His glorious and omnipotent goodness would be the more highly exalted by His producing good out of evil, than by His not permitting evil to be at all. He ordained the life of angels and of men, that He might first of all make it manifest by that life what free will could do, and then afterwards show what the blessing of His grace and the judgment of His justice could do.

Hence it happens that today so many dogs assail this doctrine with their venomous bitings, or at least with barking: for they wish nothing to be lawful for God beyond what their own reason prescribes for themselves. Also they rail at us with as much wantonness as they can; because we, not content with the precepts of the law, which comprise God's will, say also that the universe is ruled by his secret plans.

Therefore, it is blasphemous to give the title Son to anyone but Christ.

But, as a heathen tells us, [54] there is no nation so barbarous, no race so brutish, as not to be imbued with the conviction that there is a God. Even

Those whom the Lord favours not with the direction of his Spirit, he, by a righteous judgement, consigns to the agency of Satan.

We see how mankind,   without well thinking what they are doing, pursue, with impetuous and   ardent affections, the transitory things of this world; but, in thus   catching at the empty shadow of a happy life, they lose true happiness   itself. In