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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 -
Prayers will never reach God unless they are founded on free mercy.
John Calvin
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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 -
In our good works nothing is our own.
John Calvin -
If God does nothing random, there must always be something to learn.
John Calvin -
For, since the fall of Adam had brought disgrace upon all his posterity, God restores those, whom He separates as His own, so that their condition may be better than that of all other nations. At the same time it must be remarked, that this grace of renewal is effaced in many who have afterwards profaned it
John Calvin -
Whether each of the faithful has a particular angel assigned him for his defence, I cannot venture certainly to affirm... not one angel only has the care of every one of us, but that they all with one consent watch for our salvation.
John Calvin -
A soul, therefore, when deprived of the Word of God, is given up unarmed to the devil for destruction.
John Calvin
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Doctrine is not an affair of the tongue but of the life.
John Calvin -
The door is closed to prayer unless it is opened with the key of trust.
John Calvin -
Whatever a man has in superabundance is owed, of natural right, to the poor for their sustenance. So Ambrosius says, and it is also to be found in the Decretum Gratiani: The bread which you withhold belongs to the hungry: the clothing you shut away, to the naked: and the money you bury in the earth is the redemption and freedom of the penniless.
John Calvin -
Faith has to do with things that are not seen and hope with things that are not at hand.
John Calvin -
The flesh is willing to flatter itself, and many who now give themselves every indulgence, promise to themselves an easy entrance into life. THus men practice mutual deception on each other and fall asleep in wicked indifference.
John Calvin -
Involvement in public life provides the opportunity to shape our manners in accordance with civil justice.
John Calvin
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Faith is not a distant view, but a warm embrace of Christ.
John Calvin -
When our faith is tested by suffering "as gold is tried in a furnace" and we depend with confidence on God and rely entirely on his help, we will be granted the most excellent gift of patience and through faith we may victoriously persevere to the end.
John Calvin -
We shall never be fit for the service of God, if we look not beyond this fleeting life.
John Calvin -
The whole gospel is contained in Christ.
John Calvin -
While all men seek after happiness, scarcely one in a hundred looks for it from God.
John Calvin -
...nothing good can proceed from our will until it be formed again, and that after it is formed again in so far as it is good, it is of God, and not of us.
John Calvin
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The most accomplished in the Scripture are fools, unless they acknowledge that they have need of God for their schoolmaster all the days of their life.
John Calvin -
We shall never be clothed with the righteousness of Christ except we first know assuredly that we have no righteousness of our own.
John Calvin -
It is entirely the work of grace and a benefit conferred by it that our heart is changed from a stony one to one of flesh, that our will is made new, and that we, created anew in heart and mind, at length will what we ought to will.
John Calvin -
Faith and hope...are the wings by which our souls, rising above the world, are lifted up to God.
John Calvin