Institutes of the Christian Religion

by John Calvin

In discharging the office of our protectors, they war against the devil and all our enemies, and execute vengeance upon those who afflict us.

he undoubtedly intimates that certain angels are appointed as a kind of presidents over kingdoms and provinces.[3]

Again, when Christ says that the angels of children always behold the face of his Father, he insinuates that there are certain angels to whom their safety has been entrusted.

This, indeed, I hold for certain, that each of us is cared for, not by one angel merely, but that all with on...

If any one does not think it enough to know that all the orders of the heavenly host are perpetually watching for his safety, I do not see what he could gain by knowing that he has one angel as a special guardian.

As to their rank, I admit that Michael is described by David as a mighty Prince, and by Jude as an Archangel[4].

that angels are ministering spirits (Heb 1: 14) whose service God employs for the protection of his people, and by whose means he distributes his favours among men, and also executes other works.

How preposterous, therefore, is it to allow ourselves to be led away from God by angels who have been appointed for the very purpose of assuring us of his more immediate presence to help us?

For, if the glory of God is dear to us, as it ought to be, we ought to struggle with all our might against him who aims at the extinction of that glory.

It is evident, therefore, that Satan is under the power of God,

Satan resists God, and does works at variance with His works, we at the same time maintain that this contrariety and opposition depend on the permission of God.

God, therefore, does not allow Satan to have dominion over the souls of believers, but only gives over to his sway the impious and unbelieving, whom he deigns not to number among his flock.

How ungrateful, then, were it to doubt whether we are cared for by this most excellent Parent, who we see cared for us even before we were born! How

The immortality of the soul proved from, I. The testimony of conscience. II. The knowledge of God. III. The noble faculties with which it is endued. IV. Its activity and wondrous fancies in sleep. V. Innumerable passages of Scripture.

We have now to speak of the creation of man, not only because of all the works of God it is the noblest, and most admirable specimen of his justice, wisdom, and goodness, but, as we observed at the outset, we cannot clearly and properly know God unless the knowledge of ourselves be added.

are so immersed in darkness as to imagine that they will not survive the grave; still the light is not so completely quenched in darkness that all sense of immortality is lost.

after it has embraced all ages, with intellect and memory digests each in its proper order, and reads the future in the past, clearly demonstrates that there lurks in man a something separated from the body.

For though the divine glory is displayed in man's outward appearance, it cannot be doubted that the proper seat of the image is in the soul.

And though the primary seat of the divine image was in the mind and the heart, or in the soul and its powers, there was no part even of the body in which some rays of glory did not shine.

The likeness must be within, in himself. It must be something which is not external to him but is properly the internal good of the soul.

Of this, the first principle and source is a consciousness that they were born to cultivate righteousness, - a consciousness akin to religion.

to intellect[9], fancy, and reason, the three cognitive faculties of the soul, correspond three appetite faculties viz.,

The division of the faculties of the soul into intellect and will, more agreeable to Christian doctrine.

that the soul consists of two parts, the intellect and the will, (2.2.2, 12) -

In this upright state, man possessed freedom of will, by which, if he chose, he was able to obtain eternal life.

Adam, therefore, might have stood if he chose, since it was only by his own will that he fell;

But those who, while they profess to be the disciples of Christ, still seek for free-will in man, notwithstanding of his being lost and drowned in spiritual destruction, labour under manifold delusion, making a heterogeneous mixture of inspired doctrine and philosophical opinions, and so erring as to both.

But as we know that it was chiefly for the sake of mankind that the world was made, we must look to this as the end which God has in view in the government of

Again while man naturally possesses the power of continuing his species, God describes it as a mark of his special favour, that while some continue childless, others are blessed with offspring:

Nothing in nature is more ordinary than that we should be nourished with bread.

because it is not mere fulness that nourishes him but the secret blessing of God.

let us be assured that all creatures above and below are ready at his service, that he may employ them in whatever way he pleases.

For if all success is blessing from God, and calamity and adversity are his curse, there is no place left in human affairs for fortune and chance.

that the counsel of God was in accordance with the highest reason,

that his purpose was either to train his people to patience, correct their depraved affections, tame their wantonness, inure them to self-denial, and arouse them from torpor; or, on the other hand, to cast down the proud, defeat the craftiness of the ungodly, and frustrate all their schemes.

but that universal overruling Providence from which nothing flows that is not right, though the reasons thereof may be concealed[2].

But it is said he works by their means.

In the same way, while the matter and guilt of wickedness belongs to the wicked man, why should it be thought that God contracts any impurity in using it at pleasure as his instrument?

The fact that a special providence watches over the safety of believers, is attested by a vast number of the clearest promises.[4]

"Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee."

God having chosen the Church for his abode, there cannot be a doubt, that in governing it, he gives singular manifestations of his paternal care.

Thus the counsel of Ahithophel, which would have been fatal to David, was defeated before its time,

Thus, for the good and safety of his people, he overrules all the creatures, even the devil himself who, we see, durst not attempt any thing against Job without his permission and command.

but perceiving that he acts not without an impulse from the Lord, he rather calms them. "So let him curse," says he, "because the Lord has said unto him, Curse David."

If there is no more effectual remedy for anger and impatience, he assuredly

has not made little progress who has learned so to meditate on Divine Providence,

but because he wills nothing that is not just and befitting.

that all prosperity has its source in the blessing of God,

that all adversity is his curse.

"And if ye will not be reformed by these things, but will walk contrary unto me; then will I a...