John Calvin Quotes
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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.
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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.
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There is no place for faith if we expect God to fulfill immediately what he promises.
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The whole gospel is contained in Christ.
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Whoever is not satisfied with Christ alone, strives after something beyond absolute perfection.
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Let us consider this settled, that no one has made progress in the school of Christ who does not joyfully await the day of death and final resurrection.
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We shall never be clothed with the righteousness of Christ except we first know assuredly that we have no righteousness of our own.
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...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.
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We shall never be fit for the service of God, if we look not beyond this fleeting life.
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Faith and patience are exceptional virtues in those that suffer. Patience is the fruit and evidence of faith.
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A man that extols himself is a fool and an idiot.
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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.
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The world was no doubt made, that it might be a theatre of the divine glory.
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Prayers will never reach God unless they are founded on free mercy.
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As far as sacred Scripture is concerned, however much froward men try to gnaw at it, nevertheless it clearly is crammed with thoughts that could not be humanly conceived. Let each of the prophets be looked into: none will be found who does not far exceed human measure. Consequently, those for whom prophetic doctrine is tasteless ought to be thought of as lacking taste buds.
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The surest source of destruction to men is to obey themselves.
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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.
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Seeing God hath thus set us at liberty, what rashness it is for worms of the earth to make new laws; as though God had not been wise enough.
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Unless we endeavor to do good to our neighbor, through our cruelty we transgress this law.
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In a way, the futile excuses many people use to cover their superstitions are demolished. They think it is enough to have some sort of religious fervor, however ridiculous, not realizing that true religion must be according to God's will as the perfect measure; that He can never deny Himself and is no mere spirit form to be changed around according to individual preference.
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Whomever the Lord has adopted and deemed worthy of His fellowship ought to prepare themselves for a hard, toilsome, and unquiet life, crammed with very many and various kinds of evil.
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No one will calmly and quietly submit to bear the cross except those who have learned to seek their happiness beyond this world.
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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.
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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.