John Calvin Quotes
-
When we hear any mention of our mystical union with Christ, we should remember that holiness is the channel to do it.
-
We are not to look to what men in themselves deserve but to attend to the image of God which exists in all and to which we owe all honor and love.
-
Faith does not proceed from ourselves, but is the fruit of spiritual regeneration.
-
When God designs to forgive us he changes our hearts and turns us to obedience by His Spirit.
-
How do we know that God has elected us before the creation of the world? By believing in Jesus Christ.
-
If we are proud of our talents we betray our lack of gratitude to God.
-
He makes this favor common to all, because it is propounded to all, and not because it is in reality extended to all; for though Christ suffered for the sins of the whole world, and is offered through God’s benignity indiscriminately to all, yet all do not receive him.
-
Now among the other things proper to recreate man and give him pleasure, music is either the first or one of the principal;and we must think that it is a gift of God deputed for that purpose'.
-
God works in his elect in two ways: inwardly, by his Spirit; outwardly, by his Word.
-
The name of Christ excludes all merit of our own.
-
We are nowhere forbidden to laugh, or be satisfied with food...or to be delighted with music or to drink wine.
-
Repentance is the true turning of our life to God, a turning that arises from a pure and earnest fear of Him; and it consists in the mortification of the flesh and the renewing of the Spirit.
-
But a most pernicious error widely prevails that Scripture has only so much weight as is conceded to it by the consent of the church. As if the eternal and inviolable truth of God depended upon the decision of men!
-
Where is our acknowledgement of God if our thoughts are fixed on the glamour of our garments?
-
So great and boundless is God's wisdom that he knows right well how to use evil instruments to do good.
-
Surely in Judas' betrayal it will be no more right, because God both willed that his Son be delivered up, and delivered him up to death, to ascribe the guilt of the crime to God than to transfer the credit for redemption to Judas.
-
After 50 years, is it not clear that God has raised up new illnesses connected with fornication? From where do these things come if not from the hand of God? In response to these diseases. The world was astounded, and people were terrified for a time, but they have not, to this day, observed the hand of God.
-
...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.
-
The image of God always abides in the soul, whether this image be obsolete and clouded over as to amount to almost nothing; or whether it be obscured or disfigured, as is the case with sinners; or whether it be clear and beautiful as is the case with the just.
-
Whensoever God's truth is defaced or when any man turns away from the pure simplicity of the Gospel, we must not in any wise spare him, but although the whole world should set itself against us, yet must we maintain the case with invincible constancy, without bending for any creature.
-
Those little children have not yet any understanding to desire His blessing; but when they are presented to Him, He gently and kindly receives them, and dedicates them to the Father by a solemn act of blessing.
-
Holiness is not a merit by which we can attain communion with God, but a gift of Christ, which enables us to cling to him, and to follow him.
-
Angels are the dispensers and administrators of the divine beneficence toward us.
-
Scripture will ultimately suffice for a saving knowledge of God only when its certainty is founded upon the inward persuasion of the Holy Spirit. Indeed, these human testimonies which exist to confirm it will not be vain if, as secondary aids to our feebleness, they follow that chief and highest testimony. But those who wish to prove to unbelievers that Scripture is the Word of God are acting foolishly, for only by faith can this be known.