“Credibility of doctrine is not established until we are persuaded beyond doubt that God is its Author” (Translated by Ford Lewis Battles, John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 78).

“If we desire to provide in the best way for our consciences — that they may not be perpetually beset by the instability of doubt or vacillation, and that they may not also boggle at the smallest quibbles — we ought to seek our conviction in a higher place than human reasons, judgments, or conjectures, that is, in the secret testimony of the Spirit” (Translated by Ford Lewis Battles, John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 78).

“When that which is set forth is acknowledged to be the Word of God, there is no one so deplorably insolent — unless devoid also both of common sense and of humanity itself — as to dare impugn and credibility of him who speaks. Now daily oracles are not sent from heaven, for it pleased the Lord to hallow his truth to everlasting remembrance in the Scriptures alone (cf. John 5:39). Hence 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. . . . But a most pernicious error widely prevails that Scripture has only so much weight as is conceded to it by the consent of the church. As if the eternal and inviolable truth of God depended upon the decision of men!” (Translated by Ford Lewis Battles, John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 75).

“For errors can never be uprooted from human hearts until true knowledge is planted therein” (Translated by Ford Lewis Battles, John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 73).

“Therefore, since either the custom of the city or the agreement of tradition is too weak and frail a bond of piety to follow in worshiping God, it remains for God himself to give witness of himself from heaven” (Translated by Ford Lewis Battles, John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 68).

“But although the Lord represents both himself and his everlasting Kingdom in the mirror of his works with very great clarity, such is our stupidity that we grow increasingly dull toward so manifest testimonies, and they flow away without profiting us. For with regard to the most beautiful structure and order of the universe, how many of us are there who, when we lift up our eyes to heaven or cast them about through the various regions of earth, recall our minds to a remembrance of the Creator, and do not rather, disregarding their Author, sit idly in contemplation of his works?” (Translated by Ford Lewis Battles, John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 63).

“We must therefore admit in God’s individual works — but especially in them as a whole — that God’s powers are actually represented as in a painting. Thereby the whole of mankind is invited and attracted to recognition of him, and from this to true and complete happiness” (Translated by Ford Lewis Battles, John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 63).

“For the Lord manifests himself by his powers, the force of which we feel within ourselves and the benefits of which we enjoy. We must therefore be much more profoundly affected by this knowledge than if we were to imagine a God of whom no perception came through to 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. . . . Knowledge of this sort, then, ought not only to arouse us to the worship of God but also to awaken and encourage us to the hope of the future life” (Translated by Ford Lewis Battles, John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 62).

“Let us therefore remember, whenever each of us contemplates his own nature, that there is one God who so governs all natures that he would have us look unto him, direct our faith to him, and worship and call upon him. For nothing is more preposterous than to enjoy the very remarkable gifts that attest, the divine nature within us, yet to overlook the Author who gives them to us at our asking” (Translated by Ford Lewis Battles, John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 58-59).

“Here, however, the foul ungratefulness of men is disclosed. They have within themselves a workshop graced with God’s unnumbered works and, at the same time, a storehouse overflowing with inestimable riches. They ought, then, to break forth into praises of him but are actually puffed up and swollen with all the more pride” (Translated by Ford Lewis Battles, John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 55).