John Calvin Quotes
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Because the will renewed is the Lord's work, it is wrongly attributed to man that he obeys prevenient grace with his will as attendant.
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All men were created to busy themselves with the labor for the common good.
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For as the aged, or those whose sight is defective, when any book, however fair, is set before them, though they perceive that there is something written, are scarcely able to make out two consecutive words, but, when aided by glasses, begin to read distinctly, so Scripture, gathering together the impressions of Deity, which, till then, lay confused in our minds, dissipates the darkness, and shows us the true God clearly.
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The Fanaticism which discards the Scripture, under the pretense of resorting to immediate revelations is subversive of every principle of Christianity. For when they boast extravagantly of the Spirit, the tendency is always to bury the Word of God so they may make room for their own falsehoods.
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A dog barks and stands at bay if he sees any one assault his master. I should be indeed remiss, if, seeing the truth of God thus attacked, I should remain dumb, without giving one note of warning.
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Whoever shall now contend that it is unjust to put heretics and blasphemers to death will knowingly and willingly incur their very guilt.
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When pain and suffering strike, our faith is well founded if it is standing on the promises of God. For all of God's promises have strong confirmation in Christ.
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The majesty of God in itself goes beyond the capacity of human understanding and cannot be comprehended by it. We must adore its loftiness rather than investigate it, so that we do not remain overwhelmed by so great a splendor.
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For it is better, with closed eyes, to follow God as our guide, than, by relying on our own prudence, to wander through those circuitous paths which it devises for us.
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I gave up all for Christ, and what have I found? Everything in Christ.
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There is nothing in afflictions which ought to disturb our joy.
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Man is never sufficiently touched and affected by the awareness of his lowly state until he has compared himself with God's majesty.
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True wisdom consists in two things: Knowledge of God and Knowledge of Self.
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When a certain shameless fellow mockingly asked a pious old man what God had done before the creation of the world the latter aptly countered that he had been building hell for the curious.
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There is not one blade of grass, there is no color in this world that is not intended to make us rejoice.
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For Scripture is the school of the Holy Spirit, in which, as nothing is omitted that is both necessary and useful to know, so nothing is taught but what is expedient to know. Therefore we must guard against depriving believers of anything disclosed about predestination in Scripture, lest we seem either wickedly to defraud them of the blessing of their God or to accuse and scoff at the Holy Spirit for having published what it is in any way profitable to suppress.
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By predestination we mean the eternal decree of God, by which He determined with Himself whatever He wished to happen with regard to every man.
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For what is idolatry if not this: to worship the gifts in place of the Giver himself?
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The more we are oppressed by the cross, the fuller will be our spiritual joy.
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In forming an estimate of sins, we are often imposed upon by imagining that the more hidden the less heinous they are.
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The invention of the arts, and other things which serve the common use and convenience of life, is a gift of God by no means to be despised, and a faculty worthy of commendation.
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Unless God's Word illumine the way, the whole life of men is wrapped in darkness and mist, so that they cannot but miserably stray.
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Without the Gospel everything is useless and vain.
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The human heart is a factory of idols...Everyon e of us is, from his mother's womb, expert in inventing idols.