Quotes from John Calvin

Anyone who cannot bear to lay hold of God as he comes down to him will still less soar up to him beyond the clouds.

Let, therefore, everyone who has shared in all the benefits which Christ has conferred upon us know that his whole life ought to conform to the death of Christ.

8. I have told you that it is I. Here we see how the Son of God not   only submits to death of his own accord, that by his obedience he may   blot out our transgressions, but also how he discharges the office of a   good Shepherd in protecting his flock.

Adam did not take away the will, but made it a slave where it was free. It is not only prone to sin, but is made subject to sin.

All have been blind to the light, deaf to admonitions, and hardened against the commandments.

Can we   conceive that man was so placed in the earth as to be ignorant of his   own origin, and of the origin of those things which he enjoyed?

indeed, vanity joined with pride can be detected in the fact e(b)that, in seeking God, miserable men do not rise above themselves as they should, but measure him by the yardstick of their own carnal stupidity, and neglect sound investigation; thus out of curiosity they fly off into empty speculations. They do not therefore apprehend God as he offers himself, bbut imagine him as they have fashioned him in their own presumption.

What is said of the law applies to the whole of Scripture: when it is not directed toward Christ as its one aim, it is tortured badly and twisted.

Christ is indeed presented to all, but God opens the eyes of the elect alone, and enables them by faith to seek after him. The

For the truth of God is sufficiently solid and certain in itself, and can receive no better confirmation from any other quarter than from itself; but our faith being slender and weak, unless it be supported on every side, and sustained by every assistance, immediately shakes, fluctuates, totters, and falls.

The proper use, then, of all the good gifts we have received is the free and generous sharing of those gifts with others. No

Indeed, Scripture exhibits fully as clear evidence of its own truth5 as white and black things do of their color, or sweet and bitter things do of their taste.

The disposition of the heart is man's, but the preparation of the tongue is the Lord's." [Prov. 16:1, 9, conflated.] It is an absurd folly that miserable men take it upon themselves to act without God, when they cannot even speak except as he wills!

There is nothing absurd in the doctrine, that though man is justified by faith, he is himself not only not righteous, but the righteousness attributed to his works is beyond their own deserts.

The law itself does not produce sin; it finds sin in us. It offers life to us; but we, being evil, derive nothing but death from it. Hence

For although we hold that the Word of God alone lies beyond the sphere of our judgement, and that fathers and Councils are of authority only in so far as they accord with the rule of the Word, we still give to the Councils and fathers such rank and honor as it is meet for them to hold, under Christ.

If the testimony by which the Jews were assured of the salvation of their posterity is taken away from us, the coming of Christ would have the effect of making God's grace more obscure and less well attested to us than it was to the Jews before us.

When he would have Jonah cast into the sea, God sent a wind by stirring up a whirlwind [Jonah 1:4]. Those who do not think that God controls the government of the universe will say that this was outside the common course. Yet from it I infer that no wind ever arises or increases except by God's express command. Otherwise

when the law is separated from Christ, nothing is left but empty forms. This

This then is the highest adornment of the Kingdom of Christ, that he rules over his church by his Spirit. He

whenever God revealed himself to be seen by the fathers, he never appeared as he is in himself but as he could be understood by human minds. Since

And when Paul discusses the restoration of the image, it is clear that we should infer from his words that man is made to conform to God, not by an inflowing of substance, but by the grace and power of the Spirit. For he says that by "beholding Christ's glory, we are being transformed into his very image… as through the Spirit of the Lord" [II Cor. 3:18], who surely works in us without rendering us consubstantial with God.

It is hypocrisy alone   that leads men to be careless about themselves, [240] and haughtily to   despise others.

First of all, then, in striving for either convenience or tranquility in this present life, Scripture calls us to resign our wills and everything that is our to the Lord, and to turn the affections of our hearts over to Him to be tamed and bridled.