01c. 1536 ADAnd indeed we must seek the true rule of prayer in the word of God, that we may not rashly break through to Him, but may approach him in the manner in which he has revealed himself to us. This appears more clearly from the adjoining context, where Jacob, recalling the command and promise of God to memory, is supported as by two pillars. Certainly the legitimate method of praying is, that the faithful should answer to God who calls them; and thus there is such a mutual agreement between his word and their vows, that no sweeter and more harmonious symphony can be imagined. “O Lord,” he says, “I return at thy command: thou also didst promise protection to me returning; it is therefore right that thou shouldest become the guide of my journey.” This is a holy boldness, when, having discharged our duty according to God’s calling, we familiarly ask of him whatsoever he has promised; since he, by binding himself gratuitously to us, becomes in a sense voluntarily our debtor. But whoever, relying on no command or promise of God, offers his prayers, does nothing but cast vain and empty words into the air.John Calvin / quote ↗
02c. 1536 ADMay we be prepared, whatever happens, rather to undergo a hundred deaths than to turn aside from the profession of true piety, in which we know our safety to be laid up. And may we so glorify thy name as to be partakers of that glory which has been acquired for us through the blood of thine only-begotten Son. Amen.John Calvin / quote ↗
03c. 1536 ADHe who neglects to pray alone and in private, however assiduously he frequents public meetings, there gives his prayers to the wind.John Calvin / quote ↗
05c. 1536 ADHe regards it as the highest insult for the wicked to boast of His covenant while profaning His sacred Name by their whole lives.John Calvin / quote ↗
06c. 1536 ADMen in prayer give greater license to their unlawful desires than if they were telling jocular tales among their equals.John Calvin / quote ↗
07c. 1536 ADWe shall never arrive at true meekness by any other way than by humiliating ourselves and by honoring others from the depth of our hearts.John Calvin / quote ↗
08c. 1536 ADFor if we see that the sun, in sending forth its rays upon the earth, to generate, cherish, and invigorate its offspring, in a manner transfuses its substance into it, why should the radiance of the Spirit be less in conveying to us the communion of his flesh and blood? Wherefore the Scripture, when it speaks of our participation with Christ, refers its whole efficacy to the Spirit. Instead of many, one passage will suffice. Paul, in the Epistle to the Romans (Rom. 8:9-11), shows that the only way in which Christ dwells in us is by his Spirit. By this, however, he does not take away that communion of flesh and blood of which we now speak, but shows that it is owing to the Spirit alone that we possess Christ wholly, and have him abiding in us.John Calvin / quote ↗
09c. 1536 ADGod 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.John Calvin / quote ↗
10c. 1536 ADFor the Word of God is not received by faith if it flits about in the top of the brain, but when it takes root in the depth of the heart . . . the heart's distrust is greater than the mind's blindness. It is harder for the heart to be furnished with assurance [of God's love] than for the mind to be endowed with thought.John Calvin / quote ↗
12c. 1536 ADThe 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.John Calvin / quote ↗
13c. 1536 ADThe difference between us and the papists is that they do not think that the church can be 'the pillar of the truth' unless she presides over the word of God. We, on the other hand, assert that it is because she reverently subjects herself to the word of God that the truth is preserved by her and passed on to others by her hands.John Calvin / quote ↗
14c. 1536 AD[They] pervert the course of nature [by saying] the sun does not move and that it is the earth that revolves and that it turns.[John Calvin illustrating his opposition to heliocentrism in a sermon due to the Bible's support of geocentrism]John Calvin / quote ↗
15c. 1536 ADHe who has learned to look to God in everything he does is at the same time diverted from all vain thoughts.John Calvin / quote ↗
16c. 1536 ADThere is no inconsistency when God raises up those who have fallen prostrate.John Calvin / quote ↗
17c. 1536 ADFor very few persons are concerned about the way that leads to heaven, but all are anxious to know, before the time, what passes there.John Calvin / quote ↗
18c. 1536 ADWe are enjoined whenever we behold the gifts of God in others so to reverence and respect the gifts as also to honor those in whom they reside.John Calvin / quote ↗
19c. 1536 ADIt is a promise which eminently deserves our observation that all who are united to Christ and acknowledge Him to be Christ and Mediator will remain to the end safe from all danger, for what is said of the body of the Church belongs to each of its members since they are one in Christ.John Calvin / quote ↗
20c. 1536 ADThe worship of God is…the only thing which renders men superior to brutes, and makes them aspire to immortality.John Calvin / quote ↗
21c. 1536 ADHow do you know yourself to be a son of God in fact as well as in name?”Answer: “Because I am baptized in the name of God the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” - John Calvin (from his catechism)John Calvin / quote ↗
22c. 1536 ADIs it faith to understand nothing, and merely submit your convictions implicitly to the Church?John Calvin / quote ↗
23c. 1536 ADBut the Lord often leaves his servants, not only to be annoyed by the violence of the wicked, but to be lacerated and destroyed; allows the good to languish in obscurity and squalid poverty, while the ungodly shine forth, as it were, among the stars; and even by withdrawing the light of his countenance does not leave them lasting joy. Wherefore, David by no means disguises the fact, that if believers fix their eyes on the present condition of the world, they will be grievously tempted to believe that with God integrity has neither favour nor reward; so much does impiety prosper and flourish, while the godly are oppressed with ignominy, poverty, contempt, and every kind of cross. The Psalmist says, "But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped. For I was envious of the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked." At length, after a statement of the case, he concludes, "When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me: until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end," (Ps. 73:2, 3, 16, 17).John Calvin / quote ↗
