Calvin employed a cluster of metaphors to describe the “spectacle” of God’s glory that he found so apparent in nature. He spoke of the world as a “mirror” or “living likeness” of God.13 It is a “painting” representing in stunning strokes the divine splendor, a “spacious and splendid house,” a “book written in large enough letters,” even a “compass” orienting people in their passage through life. “The contemplation of heaven and earth,” he wrote, “is the very school of God’s children.”14 Each of these images underscored the two principal roles played by the world as God’s “glorious theater.”
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