Calvin's Institutes Quotes

“The Lord held to this orderly plan in administering the covenant of his mercy: as the day of full revelation approached with the passing of time, the more he increased each day the brightness of its manifestation. Accordingly, at the beginning when the first promise of salvation was given to Adam it glowed like a feeble spark. Then, as it was added to, the light grew in fullness, breaking forth increasingly and shedding its radiance more widely. At last—when all the clouds were dispersed—Christ, the Sun of Righteousness, fully illumined the whole earth.”
― John Calvin, Calvin's Institutes: Abridged Edition

“For the truth of God is sufficiently solid and certain in itself, and can receive no better confirmation from any other quarter than from itself; but our faith being slender and weak, unless it be supported on every side, and sustained by every assistance, immediately shakes, fluctuates, totters, and falls.”
― John Calvin, A Compend of the Institutes of the Christian Religion

“For 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, A Compend of the Institutes of the Christian Religion

“The worship of God is…the only thing which renders men superior to brutes, and makes them aspire to immortality.”
― John Calvin, A Compend of the Institutes of the Christian Religion

“The nature of pure and genuine religion…consists in faith, united with a serious fear of God, comprehending a voluntary reverence, and producing legitimate worship agreeable to the injunctions of the law.”
― John Calvin, A Compend of the Institutes of the Christian Religion

“The knowledge of ourselves, therefore, is not only an incitement to seek after God, but likewise a considerable assistance towards finding him.”
― John Calvin, A Compend of the Institutes of the Christian Religion