Quotes from John Calvin

When God opens his mouth to us, he should not find our hearts closed and shut firmly against him.

Thus Paul denies that the causes of our election can be sought anywhere except in the hidden good pleasure of God.

And we must so discuss them as to bear in mind that this is the main hinge on which religion turns, so that we devote the greater attention and care to it. For unless you first of all grasp what your relationship to God is, and the nature of his judgment concerning you, you have neither a foundation on which to establish your salvation nor one on which to build piety toward God. But the need to know this will better appear from the knowledge itself.

And here again we ought to observe that we are called to a knowledge of God: not that knowledge which, content with empty speculation, merely flits in the brain, but that which will be sound and fruitful if we duly perceive it, and if it takes root in the heart. For the Lord manifests himself by his powers, the force of which we feel within ourselves and the benefits of which we enjoy.

For if anyone is to possess righteousness by faith, it must necessarily be given by God and proffered to us by his Word.

For it is a moroseness too imperious, to wish that what we ourselves follow as right, and consonant with our duty, should be prescribed as a law to others.

Hence there is nothing that Satan so much endeavors to accomplish as to bring on mists with the view of obscuring Christ, because he knows, that by this means the way is opened up for every kind of falsehood.

Every person, therefore, on coming to the knowledge of himself, is not only urged to seek God, but is also led as by the hand to find him.

Since the Lord has provided us with such protection, let us not be terrified at the multitude of our enemies as if they could prevail not withstanding of his aid, but let us adopt the sentiment of Elisha, that more are for us than against us.

Consequently, we know the most perfect way of seeking God, and the most suitable order, is not for us to attempt with bold curiosity to penetrate to the investigation of his essence, which we ought more to adore than meticulously to search out, but for us to contemplate him in his works whereby he renders himself near and familiar to us, and in some manner communicates himself.

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. By this knowledge, I say, not by the submission of our understanding, we obtain an entrance into the kingdom of heaven.

A real king is the one who recognizes that, in governing his kingdom, he is a true minister of God. Conversely whoever does not reign with a view to serving God's glory acts not as a ruler but as a robber.