Institutes of the Christian Religion (2 Volume Set)

by John Calvin

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exposes our faith to the scoffs of...

That the authority of Scripture is sealed on the hearts of believers by the testimony of the Holy Spirit.

A most pernicious error has very generally prevailed—viz. that Scripture is of importance only in so far as conceded to it by the suffrage of the Church;

as if the eternal and inviolable truth of God could depend on the will of men.

But what is to become of miserable consciences in quest of some solid assurance of eternal life, if all the promises with regard to it have no better support than man’s Judgment?

#ScripturalAuthority #GodBreathed #Theology

If the doctrine of the apostles and prophets is the foundation of the Church, the former must have had its certainty before the latter began to exist.

I am aware it is usual to quote a sentence of Augustine in which he says that he would not believe the gospel, were he not moved by the authority of the Church (Aug. Cont. Epist. Fundament. c. 5). But it is easy to discover from the context, how inaccurate and unfair it is to give it such a meaning. He was reasoning against the Manichees, who insisted on being implicitly believed, alleging that they had the truth, though they did not show they had.

but only to intimate (what we too admit to be true) that those who are not yet enlightened by the Spirit of God, become teachable by reverence for the Church, and thus submit to learn the faith of Christ from the gospel.

The same Spirit, therefore, who spoke by the mouth of the prophets, must penetrate our hearts, in order to convince us that they faithfully delivered the message with which they were divinely entrusted.

forgetting that the Spirit is called an earnest and seal to confirm the faith of the godly, for this very reason, that, until he enlightens their minds, they are tossed to and fro in a sea of doubts.

In the generality, I include even those specially chosen, until they are ingrafted into the body of the Church.

on the other hand, call to mind, that none comprehend the mysteries of God save those to whom it is given.

As Antiochus ordered all the books of Scripture to be burnt, it is asked, where did the copies we now have come from?

And whom did God employ to preserve the doctrine of salvation contained in the Law and the Prophets, that Christ might manifest it in its own time? The Jews, the bitterest enemies of Christ; and hence Augustine justly calls them the librarians of the Christian Church, because they supplied us with books of which they themselves had not the use.

Justly, therefore, does Augustine remind us, that every man who would have any understanding in such high matters must previously possess piety and mental peace.

The letter therefore is dead, and the law of the Lord kills its readers when it is dissevered from the grace of Christ, and only sounds in the ear without touching the heart.

God did not produce his word before men for the sake of sudden display, intending to abolish it the moment the Spirit should arrive; but he employed the same Spirit, by whose agency he had administered the word, to complete his work by the efficacious confirmation of the word. In this way Christ explained to the two disciples (Luke 24:27), not that they were to reject the Scriptures and trust to their own wisdom, but that they were to understand the Scriptures.

Assuredly, the attributes which it is most necessary for us to know are these three: Loving-kindness, on which alone our entire safety depends:

The prophet declares, that when you understand these, you are amply furnished with the means of glorying in God.

This exclusive definition, which we uniformly meet with in Scripture, annihilates every deity which men frame for themselves of their own accord—God

Besides, when Paul refuted the error of giving a bodily shape to God, he was addressing not Jews, but Athenians.

3. It is true that the Lord occasionally manifested his presence by certain signs, so that he was said to be seen face to face; but all the signs he ever employed were in apt accordance with the scheme of doctrine, and, at the same

Indeed, brothels exhibit their inmates more chastely and modestly dressed than churches do images intended to represent virgins.

#JohnCalvin was strong as goats breath!!

From this one doctrine the people would learn more than from a thousand crosses of wood and stone.

After such a figment is formed, adoration forthwith ensues: for when once men imagined that they beheld God in images, they also worshipped him as being there.

Why do they fatigue themselves with votive pilgrimages to images while they have many similar ones at home?8

am not, however, so superstitious as to think that all visible representations of every kind are unlawful.

We think it unlawful to give a visible shape to God, because God himself has forbidden it, and because it cannot be done without, in some degree, tarnishing his glory.

“As we have heard, so also have we seen;” therefore, God is known not merely by the hearing of the word, but also by the seeing of images. Bishop Theodore was equally acute: “God,” says he, “is to be admired in his saints;” and it is elsewhere said, “To the saints who are on earth;” therefore this must refer to images.

In short, their absurdities are so extreme that it is painful even to quote them.

John the Eastern legate, carried still farther by his zeal, declares it would be better to allow a city to be filled with brothels than be denied the worship of images.

The Council unreservedly relies as much on images as on the living God.9

We said at the commencement of our work (chap. 2), that the knowledge of God consists not in frigid speculation, but carries worship along with it;

The Greek word means “right worship;” for the Greeks, though groping in darkness, were always aware that a certain rule was to be observed, in order that God might not be worshipped absurdly.

For who is so devoid of intellect as not to understand that God, in so speaking, lisps with us as nurses are wont to do with little children?

For to hold with some interpreters that the term is equivalent to essence (as if Christ represented the substance of the Father like the impression of a seal upon wax), were not only harsh but absurd.

There can be no doubt, therefore, that he who a little before was called Emmanuel, is here called the Mighty God.

“This is the name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS,”

No servant would rob God of his honour, by allowing sacrifice to be offered to himself.

to him.

Accordingly, Manoah and his wife infer from the sign, that they had seen not ...

We may add, that the angel’s own reply removes all doubt, “Why do ye ask my name, which is wonderful?”

And the confession of the holy Patriarch sufficiently declares that he was not a created angel, but one in whom the fulness of the Godhead dwelt,

Hence also Paul’s statement, that Christ led the people in the wilderness

Still clearer and stronger is the passage of Malachi, in which a promise is made that the messenger who was then expected would come to his own temple (Mal. 3:1).

Thomas, by addressing him as his Lord and God, certainly professes that he was the only God whom he had ever adored (John 20:28).

The divinity of Christ, if judged by the works which are ascribed to him in Scripture, becomes still more evident.

What, then, will be our stupidity if we do not perceive from the same passage that his divinity is plainly instructed?

But Christ also had this power, and therefore we infer that Christ is God.