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To be pure in heart is to take no delight in cunning, but converse sincerely with men, and express nothing, by word or look, which is not felt in the heart.
John Calvin -
Man with all his shrewdness is as stupid about understanding by himself the mysteries of God, as an ass is incapable of understanding musical harmony.
John Calvin
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Because I know that I am not my own master, I offer my heart as a true sacrifice to the Lord.
John Calvin -
To know God as the sovereign disposer of all good, inviting us to present our requests, and yet not to approach or ask of him, were so far from availing us, that it were just as if one told of a treasure were to allow it to remain buried in the ground.
John Calvin -
If we are given gold, would we not test it to determine it's value? If we doubted its genuineness - we would test it by fire...and so God with us.
John Calvin -
Whoever is not satisfied with Christ alone, strives after something beyond absolute perfection.
John Calvin -
Let this point therefore stand: that those whom the Holy Spirit has inwardly taught truly rest upon Scripture, and that Scripture itself is self-authenticated. . . . Therefore, illumined by his power, we believe neither by our own nor by any one else's judgment that Scripture is from God; but above human judgment we affirm with utter certainty (just as if we were gazing upon the majesty of God himself) that it has flowed to us from the very mouth of God by the ministry of men.
John Calvin -
I have not so great a struggle with my vices, great and numerous as they are, as I have with my impatience. My efforts are not absolutely useless; yet I have never been able to conquer this ferocious wild beast.
John Calvin
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Life is not found in commandments or declarations of penalties, but in the promise of mercy and only in a gratuitous promise.
John Calvin -
Now the great thing is this: we are consecrated and dedicated to God in order that we may thereafter think, speak, meditate, and do, nothing except to his glory. For a sacred thing may not be applied to profane uses without marked injury to him.
John Calvin -
Unless we fix certain hours in the day for prayer, it easily slips from our memory.
John Calvin -
It is not lawful for you to make a compromise with God: to try to fulfill part of your duties and to omit others at your own pleasure.
John Calvin -
Humility is the beginning of true intelligence.
John Calvin -
We unjustly defraud God of his right, unless each of us lives and dies in dependence on His sovereign pleasure.
John Calvin
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A man that extols himself is a fool and an idiot.
John Calvin -
I have never seen either a drop of piety or a grain of truth or ingenuousness - nay, I have never found common sense in any Jew.
John Calvin -
There is no knowing that does not begin with knowing God.
John Calvin -
All our words ought to be filled with true sweetness and grace; and this will be so if we mingle the useful with the sweet.
John Calvin -
Men will never worship God with a sincere heart, or be roused to fear and obey Him with sufficient zeal, until they properly understand how much they are indebted to His mercy.
John Calvin -
Things that are seen are temporal; things that are unseen are eternal.
John Calvin
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The Human heart is an idol factory.
John Calvin -
For it was not after we were reconciled to him by the blood of his Son that he began to love us, but he loved us before the foundation of the world, that with his only begotten Son we too might be sons of God before we were anything at all.
John Calvin -
No one will calmly and quietly submit to bear the cross except those who have learned to seek their happiness beyond this world.
John Calvin -
The whole life of Christians ought to be an exercise of piety, since they are called to sanctification. It is the office of the law to remind them of their duty and thereby to excite them to the pursuit of holiness and integrity. But when their consciences are solicitous how God may be propitiated, what answer they shall make, and on what they shall rest their confidence, if called to his tribunal, there must then be no consideration of the requisitions of the law, but Christ alone must be proposed for righteousness, who exceeds all the perfection of the law.
John Calvin