Quote 489
There is no worse screen to block out the Spirit than confidence in our own intelligence. 
John Calvin
Commentary on Luke 24:457.4K
Other Quotes from the Author & Topic
The majesty of God is too high to be scaled up to by mortals, who creep like worms on the earth.
Wherever the knowledge of it is taken away, the glory of Christ is extinguished, religion abolished, the Church destroyed, and the hope of salvation utterly overthrown. John Calvin: Selections from His Writings (95)
Ambiguity is the fortress of heretics.
how richly does he supply us with the means of contemplating his mercy when, as frequently happens, he continues to visit miserable sinners with unwearied kindness, until he subdues their depravity, and woos them back with more than a parent's fondnessInstitutes, Book 1 Chapter 6
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 just punishment of their sin, to eternal damnation. Institutes Lib. III. c. 21,5(Opera, Vol. II. pp. 682, GS3)
The distinction is, that to the Father is attributed the beginning of action, the fountain and source of all things; to the Son, wisdom, counsel, and arrangement in action, while the energy and efficacy of action is assigned to the Spirit.Institutes, Book 1 Chapter 13
How do we know that God has elected us before the creation of the world? By believing in Jesus Christ.
4 Types of Pride: first is when someone attributes to himself the good which he has; the second, when he believes that the good is given by God, and yet for his own merits; the third, when he boasts that he has what he does not have; the fourth, when he has contempt for all others and wishes to seem unique.Moralia, bk 2, c6, n13
A dog barks when his master is attacked. I would be a coward if I saw that God's truth is attacked and yet would remain silent.
Christ in fact had not the least intent of making any change or innovation in the precepts of the law. God there appointed once for all a rite of life which he will never repent of... so let us have no more of that error, that here a defect of the law is corrected by Christ; Christ is not to be made into a new law-giver, adding anything to the everlasting righteousness of his Father, but is to be given the attention of a faithful interpreter, teaching us the nature of the law, its object and its scope.
The God who declares that we are to be fruitful and multiply regards it as a great evil when human beings destroy their offspring.
faith is tossed about by various doubts, so that the minds of the godly are rarely at peace - at least they do not always enjoy a peaceful state. But whatever siege engines may shake them, they either rise up out of the very gulf of temptations, or stand fast upon their watch.
It is therefore faith alone which justifies, and yet the faith which justifies is not alone: just as the heat alone of the sun which warms the earth, and yet in the sun it is not alone, because it is constantly conjoined with light.
It is a sign of a perverse and treacherous disposition to wound the good name of another, when he has no opportunity of defending himself.
God will have nothing to do with proud persons, he will never dwell with them, he will never keep house with them.
He that dwells in the highest heavens, will never dwell in a haughty heart.
There is but one family which ought to be reckoned, both in heaven and on earth, both among angels and among men—if we belong to the Body of Christ. For outside of Him there is nothing but dispersion
By the "wisdom of God," he designates this magnificent theater of heaven and earth replenished with numberless wonders, the wise contemplation of which should have enabled us to know God. But this we do with little profit; and therefore he invites us to faith in Christ--faith which, by a semblance of foolishness, disgusts the unbeliever.Institutes, Book 2, Chapter 6
The first part of a good work is the will, the second is vigorous effort in the doing of it. God is the author of both. It is, therefore, robbery from God to arrogate anything to ourselves, either in the will or the act.Institutes, Book 2, Chapter 3
If we can no more bear fruit of ourselves than a vine can bud when rooted up and deprived of moisture, there is no longer any room to ask what the aptitude of our nature is for good.Institutes, Book 2, Chapter 3
even infants bringing their condemnation with them from their mother's womb, suffer not for another's, but for their own defect. For although they have not yet produced the fruits of their own unrighteousness, they have the seem implanted in them. No, their whole nature is, as it were, a seed-bed of sin, and therefore cannot but be odious and abominable to God.Institutes, Book 2 Chapter 1
(such is our innate pride) we always seem to ourselves just, and upright, and wise, and holy, until we are convinced, by clear evidence, of our injustice, vileness, folly, and impurity. Convinced, however, we are not, if we look to ourselves only, and not to the Lord also- he being the only standard by the application of which this conviction can be produced.Institutes, Book 1 Chapter 1
men are never duly touched and impressed with a conviction of their insignificance, until they have contrasted themselves with the majesty of God.Institutes, Book 1 Chapter 1
You must submit to supreme suffering in order to discover the completion of joy.
The sin of pride is so ingrained in us that even when other sins decrease, pride grows.Divine Judgment and Mercy in the Second Plague 154
As for doctrine, we must not make out that there has been any abrogation of the Law in Christ's coming, for as the rule of holy and devout life is eternal, it must be unchangeable, and likewise God's justice is one and constant, as He composed it therein. As regards ceremonies, if we allow that they may be reckoned somewhat incidental, it is only their practice that was abrogated: their significance was actually given more confirmation. So Christ's coming did not take anything away, even from the ceremonies, but rather the truth behind the shadows was revealed, and served to strengthen them;
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