Quotes from John Calvin

error never can be eradicated from the heart of man until the true knowledge of God has been implanted in it. Section

the elegant structure of the world serving us as a kind of mirror, in which we may behold God, though otherwise invisible.

For while the unbelievers flourish, they do not know what is waiting for them on the next day; therefore, they must always live in turmoil because of perplexity and fear; neither

We are all so blinded and upset by self-love that everyone imagines he has a just right to exalt himself and to undervalue all others in comparison to self.

God sometimes bestows his bounty more   profusely, and, at other times, more sparingly, upon his children,   according as he sees it to be most for their good;

That there exists in the human mind and indeed by natural instinct, some sense of Deity [sensus divinitatis], we hold to be beyond dispute, since God himself, to prevent any man from pretending ignorance, has endued all men with some idea of his Godhead…. …this is not a doctrine which is first learned at school, but one as to which every man is, from the womb, his own master; one which nature herself allows no individual to forget.

set before them the coming of Christ, who was both the foundation of the covenant and the bond of mutual communion between God and the people. Therefore

The human heart has so many recesses for vanity, so many lurking places for falsehood, is so shrouded by fraud and hypocrisy, that it often deceives itself.

Thus even the most wicked are an example to us that throughout the world the knowledge of God has some power in the hearts of all people.

So long as we are adopted by God in Christ, we are destined for slaughter. If

When that which professes to be the Word of God is acknowledged to be so, no person, unless devoid of common sense and the feelings of a man, will have the desperate hardihood to refuse credit to the speaker.

The intention of Scripture is to exercise our faith, that we may know we are protected by God's hand, and that we may not be subject to harm from Satan and wicked men. . .

Holiness is not a merit by which we can attain communion with God, but a gift of Christ, which enables us to cling to him, and to follow him.

That the covetous wants that which he has, as   well as that which he has not; because he is master of nothing, and is   the slave of his own wealth.

that there is nothing put forth in Scripture which it is not profitable to know.

luxury   generally prevails in prosperity, and wastes the blessings of God

Having once adopted us and enlightened our minds by his Word, he keeps the torch of the Word blazing before our eyes, that we may in faith keep our minds upon the judgment and punishment of evil which the impious confidently ignore.

For unquestionably nothing is more opposed to the law of God than sects, for in it is communicated the truth of God, which is the bond of unity.

God very commonly takes on the character of a husband to us. Indeed, the union by which he binds us to himself when he receives us into the bosom of the church is like sacred wedlock.

he refers rather to their adoption because God's grace is the more striking when he out of all mankind chooses some few to be his own people.

Although brethren die for brethren, yet no martyr's blood is shed for the remission of sins: this Christ did for us, and in this conferred upon us not what we should imitate, but what should make us grateful," (August. Tract. in Joann. 84).

For how can some idea of God come into your mind without your immediately thinking (since you are His creation) that by the right of creation you are subject to His rule? That your life ought to be devoted to His service? That all that you plan or say or do should be related to Him? If this is so, it clearly follows that your life is wickedly corrupt unless it is ruled in obedience to His holy will.

But if Abram bore his continual wanderings patiently, our   fastidiousness is utterly inexcusable, when we murmur against God, if   he does not grant us a quiet nest.

We acknowledge, indeed, that Christ in human nature is called a Son, not like believers by gratuitous adoption merely, but the true, natural, and, therefore, only Son, this being the mark which distinguishes him from all others. Those of us who are regenerated to a new life God honours with the name of sons; the name of true and only-begotten Son he bestows on Christ alone. But how is he an only Son in so great a multitude of brethren, except that he possesses by nature what we acquire by gift?