Quote 1478
When the Spirit describes men under the term "darkness," he declares them void of all power of spiritual intelligence.
Institutes, Book 2, Chapter 2
John Calvin
Institutes, Book 2, Chapter 2
867
Other Quotes from the Author & Topic
The majesty of God is too high to be scaled up to by mortals, who creep like worms on the earth.
Ambiguity is the fortress of heretics.
Wherever the knowledge of it is taken away, the glory of Christ is extinguished, religion abolished, the Church destroyed, and the hope of salvation utterly overthrown. John Calvin: Selections from His Writings (95)
faith is tossed about by various doubts, so that the minds of the godly are rarely at peace - at least they do not always enjoy a peaceful state. But whatever siege engines may shake them, they either rise up out of the very gulf of temptations, or stand fast upon their watch.
It is therefore faith alone which justifies, and yet the faith which justifies is not alone: just as the heat alone of the sun which warms the earth, and yet in the sun it is not alone, because it is constantly conjoined with light.
There is but one family which ought to be reckoned, both in heaven and on earth, both among angels and among men—if we belong to the Body of Christ. For outside of Him there is nothing but dispersion
By the "wisdom of God," he designates this magnificent theater of heaven and earth replenished with numberless wonders, the wise contemplation of which should have enabled us to know God. But this we do with little profit; and therefore he invites us to faith in Christ--faith which, by a semblance of foolishness, disgusts the unbeliever.Institutes, Book 2, Chapter 6
The first part of a good work is the will, the second is vigorous effort in the doing of it. God is the author of both. It is, therefore, robbery from God to arrogate anything to ourselves, either in the will or the act.Institutes, Book 2, Chapter 3
If we can no more bear fruit of ourselves than a vine can bud when rooted up and deprived of moisture, there is no longer any room to ask what the aptitude of our nature is for good.Institutes, Book 2, Chapter 3
even infants bringing their condemnation with them from their mother's womb, suffer not for another's, but for their own defect. For although they have not yet produced the fruits of their own unrighteousness, they have the seem implanted in them. No, their whole nature is, as it were, a seed-bed of sin, and therefore cannot but be odious and abominable to God.Institutes, Book 2 Chapter 1
how richly does he supply us with the means of contemplating his mercy when, as frequently happens, he continues to visit miserable sinners with unwearied kindness, until he subdues their depravity, and woos them back with more than a parent's fondnessInstitutes, Book 1 Chapter 6
(such is our innate pride) we always seem to ourselves just, and upright, and wise, and holy, until we are convinced, by clear evidence, of our injustice, vileness, folly, and impurity. Convinced, however, we are not, if we look to ourselves only, and not to the Lord also- he being the only standard by the application of which this conviction can be produced.Institutes, Book 1 Chapter 1
men are never duly touched and impressed with a conviction of their insignificance, until they have contrasted themselves with the majesty of God.Institutes, Book 1 Chapter 1
God preordained, for his own glory and the display of His attributes of mercy and justice, a part of the human race, without any merit of their own, to eternal salvation, and another part, in just punishment of their sin, to eternal damnation. Institutes Lib. III. c. 21,5(Opera, Vol. II. pp. 682, GS3)
There is no worse screen to block out the Spirit than confidence in our own intelligence. Commentary on Luke 24:45
You must submit to supreme suffering in order to discover the completion of joy.
The God who declares that we are to be fruitful and multiply regards it as a great evil when human beings destroy their offspring.
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.
How do we know that God has elected us before the creation of the world? By believing in Jesus Christ.
Now we shall possess a right definition of faith if we call it a firm and certain knowledge of God's benevolence toward us, founded upon the truth of the freely given promise in Christ, both revealed to our minds and sealed upon our hearts through the Holy Spirit.
It is a sign of a perverse and treacherous disposition to wound the good name of another, when he has no opportunity of defending himself.
when he says, Judge not. It is not necessary that believers should become blind, and perceive nothing, but only that they should refrain from an undue eagerness to judge: for otherwise the proper bounds of rigor will be exceeded by every man who desires to pass sentence on his brethren.
Commentary on Matthew
there exists in the human mind and indeed by natural instinct, some sense of Deity, we hold to be beyond dispute, since God himself, to prevent any man from pretending ignorance, has endued all men with some idea of his GodheadInstitutes, 1.3.1
There is not one blade of grass, there is no color in this world that is not intended to make us rejoice.
If man is a totally depraved being, can he possibly take the first step in the matter of his return to God?
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