John Calvin Quotes
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Let it stand, therefore, as an indubitable truth, which no engines can shake, that the mind of man is so entirely alienated from the righteousness of God that he cannot conceive, desire, or design any thing but what is wicked, distorted, foul, impure, and iniquitous; that his heart is so thoroughly envenomed by sin that it can breathe out nothing but corruption and rottenness; that if some men occasionally make a show of goodness, their mind is ever interwoven with hypocrisy and deceit, their soul inwardly bound with the fetters of wickedness.
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No man can survey himself without forthwith turning his thoughts towards the God in whom he lives and moves; because it is perfectly obvious, that the endowments which we possess cannot possibly be from ourselves; nay, that our very being is nothing else than subsistence in God alone.
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Mingled vanity and pride appear in this, that when miserable men do seek after God, instead of ascending higher than themselves as they ought to do, they measure him by their own carnal stupidity, and neglecting solid inquiry, fly off to indulge their curiosity in vain speculation.
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To bear with patience wrongs done to oneself is a mark of perfection, but to bear with patience wrongs done to someone else is a mark of imperfection and even of actual sin.
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While all men seek after happiness, scarcely one in a hundred looks for it from God.
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Justification by faith is the hinge on which all true religion turns.
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If God were not to test us, there would be no patience.
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If everything proceeded according to their wishes, they would not understand what it means to follow God.
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The excellence of the Church does not consist in multitude but in purity.
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Moreover, a true Christian will not ascribe any prosperity to his own diligence, industry, or good fortune, but he will acknowledge that God is the author of it.
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For our hearts are enfeebled by prosperity, so that we cannot make the effort to pray.
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To will is human, to will the bad is of fallen nature, but to will the good is of Grace.
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For what accords better and more aptly with faith than to acknowledge ourselves divested of all virtue that we may be clothed by God, devoid of all goodness that we may be filled by him, the slaves of sin that he may give us freedom, blind that he may enlighten, lame that he may cure, and feeble that he may sustain us; to strip ourselves of all ground of glorying that he alone may shine forth glorious, and we be glorified in him?
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It would be the height of absurdity to label ignorance tempered by humility "faith"! (Institutio III.2.3)
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I don't need to compromise my principles, because they don't have the slightest bearing on what happens to me anyway.
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Original sin, therefore, appears to be a hereditary, depravity and corruption of our nature, diffused through all the parts of the soul, rendering us obnoxious to the divine wrath and producing in us those works which the scripture calls 'works of.
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No one in this earthly prison of the body has sufficient strength of his own to press forward with a due degree of watchfulness, and the great majority of Christians are kept down with such great weakness that they stagger and halt and even creep on the ground, and so make very slight advances.
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The only skills I have the patience to learn are those that have no real application in life.
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We have been adopted as sons by the Lord with this one condition; that our life expresses Christ, the bond of our adoption. Accordingly, unless we give and devote ourselves to righteousness, we not only revolt from our Creator with wicked perfidy, but we also abjure our Savior Himself.
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When the Bible speaks, God speaks.
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In the maxims of the law, God is seen as the rewarder of perfect righteousness and the avenger of sin. But in Christ, His face shines out, full of grace and gentleness to poor, unworthy sinners.
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He who has learned to look to God in everything he does is at the same time diverted from all vain thoughts.
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To search for wisdom apart from Christ means not simply foolhardiness but utter insanity.
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Joy and thanksgiving expressed in prayer and praise according to the Word of God are the heart of the Church's worship.