John Calvin
When a certain shameless fellow mockingly asked a pious old man what God had done before the creation of the world the latter aptly countered that he had been building hell for the curious.Collection: Men
Against the persecution of a tyrant the godly have no remedy but prayer.Collection: Prayer
A perfect faith is nowhere to be found, so it follows that all of us are partly unbelievers.Collection: Perfect
There can be no courage in men unless God supports them by his Word.Collection: Men
Pagan philosophers set up reason as the sole guide of life, of wisdom and conduct; but Christian philosophy demands of us that we surrender our reason to the Holy Spirit; and this means that we no longer live for ourselves, but that Christ lives and reigns within us (Rom 12:1; Eph 4:23; Gal 2:20).Collection: Christian
The true wisdom of man consists in the knowledge of God the creator and Redeemer.Collection: Men
There is nothing in afflictions which ought to disturb our joy.Collection: Joy
So great and boundless is God's wisdom that he knows right well how to use evil instruments to do good.Collection: Evil
God would remain absolutely hidden if we were not illuminated by the brightness of Christ.Collection: Brightness
Whomever the Lord has adopted and deemed worthy of His fellowship ought to prepare themselves for a hard, toilsome, and unquiet life, crammed with very many and various kinds of evil.Collection: Evil
Wherefore all theology, when separated from Christ, is not only vain and confused, but is also mad, deceitful, and spurious; for, though the philosophers sometimes utter excellent sayings, yet they have nothing but what is short-lived, and even mixed up with wicked and erroneous sentiments.Collection: Confused
The Scriptures obtain full authority among believers only when men regard them as having sprung from heaven, as if there the living words of God were heard.Collection: Men
Let this be our rule for goodwill and helpfulness, that whenever we are able to assist others we should behave as stewards who must someday give an account of ourselves.Collection: Giving
Without knowledge of self there is no knowledge of God.Collection: Self
The highest honor in the church is not government but service.Collection: Christian
Faith is not a distant view, but a warm embrace of Christ.Collection: Views
The poor yield to the rich, the common people to the upper ten, the servants to their masters, the ignorant to the scholars; but there is nobody who does not imagine that he is really better than others.Collection: Yield
The vices of which we are full we carefully hide from others, and we flatter ourselves with the notion that they are small and trivial; we sometimes even embrace them as virtues.Collection: Vices
But a faithful believer will in all circumstances mediate on the mercy and fatherly goodness of God.Collection: Faithful
The effect of our knowledge rather ought to be, first, to teach us reverence and fear; and, secondly, to induce us, under its guidance and teaching, to ask every good thing from [God], and, when it is received, ascribe it to him. For how can the idea of God enter your mind without instantly giving rise to the thought, that since you are his workmanship, you are bound, by the very law of creation, to submit to his authority?-\-\that your life is due to him?-\-\that whatever you do ought to have reference to him.Collection: Teaching
Christ is the most perfect image of God, into which we are so renewed as to bear the image of God, in knowledge, purity, righteousness, and true holiness.Collection: Wisdom
There is no inconsistency in saying that God rewards good works, provided we understand that nevertheless men obtain eternal life gratuitously.Collection: Men
Whensoever God's truth is defaced or when any man turns away from the pure simplicity of the Gospel, we must not in any wise spare him, but although the whole world should set itself against us, yet must we maintain the case with invincible constancy, without bending for any creature.Collection: Wise
We unjustly defraud God of his right, unless each of us lives and dies in dependence on His sovereign pleasure.Collection: Sovereign
Satan, who is a wonderful contriver of delusions, is constantly laying snares to entrap ignorant and heedless people.Collection: People
God promised by the mouth of Isaiah that queens should be the nursing mothers of the church.Collection: Mother
The sum is, that the worship of God must be spiritual, in order that it may correspond with His nature. For although Moses only speaks of idolatry, yet there is no doubt but that by synecdoche, as in all the rest of the law, he condemns all fictitious services which men in their ingenuity have invented.Collection: Spiritual
True it is, that he who has taken off his affection from the goods of this world has already sold all, and has made himself poor, so far as depends upon himself; but the fruit and the proof of this spiritual poverty are, patiently to endure the loss of worldly goods, and without any regret, when it pleases our heavenly Father that we should be despoiled of them.Collection: Spiritual
Wherever we find the Word of God surely preached and heard, and the sacraments administered according to the institution of Christ, there, it is not to be doubted, is a church of God.Collection: Church
It is no small honour that God for our sake has so magnificently adorned the world, in order that we may not only be spectators of this beauteous theatre, but also enjoy the multiplied abundance and variety of good things which are presented to us in it.Collection: Order
No Task will be so sordid and base, provided you obey your calling in it, that it will not shine and be reckoned very precious in God's sight.Collection: Sight
In the maxims of the law, God is seen as the rewarder of perfect righteousness and the avenger of sin. But in Christ, His face shines out, full of grace and gentleness to poor, unworthy sinners.Collection: Law
While sin is overflowing, [grace] pours itself forth so exuberantly, that it not only overcomes the flood of sin, but wholly absorbs it.Collection: Grace
If true religion is to beam upon us, our principle must be, that it is necessary to begin with heavenly teaching, and that it is impossible for any man to obtain even the minutest portion of right and sound doctrine without being a disciple of Scripture.Collection: Teaching
Nevertheless, our constant efforts to lower our estimate of the present world should not lead us to hate life or to be ungrateful toward God. For this life, though it is full of countless miseries, deserves to be reckoned among the divine blessings which should not be despised. Therefore, if we discover nothing of God's goodness in it, we are already guilty of no small ingratitude toward him.Collection: Hate
No one will calmly and quietly submit to bear the cross except those who have learned to seek their happiness beyond this world.Collection: Joy
Those who set up a fictitious worship, merely worship and adore their own delirious fancies; indeed, they would never dare so to trifle with God, had they not previously fashioned him after their own childish conceits.Collection: Fancy
Angels are the dispensers and administrators of the divine beneficence toward us.Collection: Angel
Faith consists not in ignorance, but in knowledge - knowledge not of God merely...but when we recognize God as a propitious Father through the reconciliation made by Christ, and Christ as given to us for righteousness, sanctification, and life.Collection: Father
They babble and talk absurdly who, in the place of God's providence, substitute bare permission - as if God sat in a watchtower awaiting chance events , and his judgments thus depended upon human will.Collection: Events
Can true repentance exist without faith? By no means. But although they cannot be separated, they ought to be distinguished.Collection: Mean
Let us fall before the majesty of our great God, acknowledging our faults, and praying that he will make us ever more conscious of them.Collection: Fall
The whole comes to this, that Christ, when he produces faith in us by the agency of his Spirit, at the same time ingrafts us into his body, that we may become partakers of all spiritual blessings.Collection: Spiritual
It is certain that man never achieves a clear knowledge of himself unless he has first looked upon God's face, and then descends from contemplating him to scrutinize himself.Collection: Men
Men are indeed to be taught that the favour of God is offered, without exception, to all who ask it; but since those only begin to ask whom heaven by grace inspires, even this minute portion of praise must not be withheld from Him. It is the privilege of the elect to be regenerated by the Spirit of God, and then placed under His guidance and government.Collection: Men
Because I know that I am not my own master, I offer my heart as a true sacrifice to the Lord.Collection: Heart
It is evident that man never attains to a true self-knowledge until he has previously contemplated the face of God, and come down after such contemplation to look into himself.Collection: Men
Those little children have not yet any understanding to desire His blessing; but when they are presented to Him, He gently and kindly receives them, and dedicates them to the Father by a solemn act of blessing.Collection: Christian
Prayers will never reach God unless they are founded on free mercy.Collection: Prayer