We should consider that the brightness of the Divine countenance, which even an apostle declares to be inaccessible, (1Ti 6: 16) is a kind of labyrinth — a labyrinth to us inextricable, if the Word...

Men in prayer give greater license to their unlawful desires than if they were telling jocular tales among their equals.

It would be the height of absurdity to label ignorance tempered by humility “faith”!(Institutio III.2.3)

When the same qualities which we admire in ourselves are seen in others, even though they be superior, maliciously lower and carp at them.

We are enjoined whenever we behold the gifts of God in others so to reverence and respect the gifts as also to honor those in whom they reside.

Man’s nature, so to speak, is a perpetual factory of idols.

There is no knowing that does not begin with knowing God.

The Must be worthless by our estimation or keep us enslaved by an intemperate love of it.

The gospel is not a doctrine of the tongue, but of life. It cannot be grasped by reason and memory only, but it is fully understood when it possesses the whole soul and penetrates to...

[They] pervert the course of nature [by saying] the sun does not move and that it is the earth that revolves and that it turns.[John Calvin illustrating his opposition to heliocentrism in a sermon due...

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.

The difference between us and the papists is that they do not think that the church can be ‘the pillar of the truth’ unless she presides over the word of God. We, on the other...

The worship of God is…the only thing which renders men superior to brutes, and makes them aspire to immortality.

men are undoubtedly more in danger from prosperity than from adversity. for when matters go smoothly, they flatter themselves, and are intoxicated by their success

God preordained, for his own glory and the display of His attributes of mercy and justice, a part of the human race, without any merit of their own, to eternal salvation, and another part, in...

I was always exceedingly delighted with that saying of Chrysostom, “The foundation of our philosophy is humility”; and yet more pleased with that of Augustine: “As the orator, when asked, What is the first precept...

Prayers will never reach God unless they are founded on free mercy.

The torture of a bad conscience is the hell of a living soul.

The Lord commands us to do good unto all men without exception, though the majority are very undeserving when judged according to their own merits… [The Scripture] teaches us that we must not think of...

There is no inconsistency when God raises up those who have fallen prostrate.

Without the fear of God, men do not even observe justice and charity among themselves.

We are not to reflect on the wickedness of men but to look to the image of God in them, an image which, covering and obliterating their faults, an image which, by its beauty and...

For the Word of God is not received by faith if it flits about in the top of the brain, but when it takes root in the depth of the heart . . . the...

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...

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.

In forming an estimate of sins, we are often imposed upon by imagining that the more hidden the less heinous they are.

We are not to look to what men in themselves deserve but to attend to the image of God which exists in all and to which we owe all honor and love.

There is not one blade of grass, there is no color in this world that is not intended to make us rejoice.

The whole world is a theatre for the display of the divine goodness, wisdom, justice, and power, but the Church is the orchestra, as it were—the most conspicuous part of it; and the nearer the...

He who has learned to look to God in everything he does is at the same time diverted from all vain thoughts.

No one can travel so far that he does not make some progess each day. So let us never give up. Then we shall move forward daily in the Lord’s way. And let us never...

May we be prepared, whatever happens, rather to undergo a hundred deaths than to turn aside from the profession of true piety, in which we know our safety to be laid up. And may we...

In a way, the futile excuses many people use to cover their superstitions are demolished. They think it is enough to have some sort of religious fervor, however ridiculous, not realizing that true religion must...

Is it faith to understand nothing, and merely submit your convictions implicitly to the Church?

For if we see that the sun, in sending forth its rays upon the earth, to generate, cherish, and invigorate its offspring, in a manner transfuses its substance into it, why should the radiance of...

He who neglects to pray alone and in private, however assiduously he frequents public meetings, there gives his prayers to the wind.

Were the judgments of mankind correct, custom would be regulated by the good. But it is often far otherwise in point of fact; for, whatever the many are seen to do, forthwith obtains the force...

Our true wisdom is to embrace with meek docility, and without reservation, whatever the holy scriptures have delivered.

Because I am baptized in the name of God the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” – John Calvin (from his catechism)

Prayer unaccompanied by perseverance leads to no result.

The knowledge of ourselves, therefore, is not only an incitement to seek after God, but likewise a considerable assistance towards finding him.

It is a promise which eminently deserves our observation that all who are united to Christ and acknowledge Him to be Christ and Mediator will remain to the end safe from all danger, for what...

It is not necessary that faith and repentance should always precede baptism. They are only required from those whose age makes them capable of both. It will be sufficient, then, if, after infants have grown...

He regards it as the highest insult for the wicked to boast of His covenant while profaning His sacred Name by their whole lives.

We should ask God to increase our hope when it is small, awaken it when it is dormant, confirm it when it is wavering, strengthen it when it is weak, and raise it up when...

The cross of Christ only triumphs in the breast of believers over the devil and the flesh, sin and sinners, when their eyes are directed to the power of His Resurrection.