John Calvin (1509 - 1564) is unquestionably one of the most maligned and misunderstood characters in the annals of Christianity. This will only enhance his reward from Jesus Christ in the day of judgment, for few men in the history of Christianity gave so much wholesome and genuine fruit to the church militant. Theodore Beza, the architect of the Greek Text which underlies the King James Bible, and Calvin's indomitable partner, perhaps summed up John Calvin's legacy best when he made this observation concerning his beloved fellow-laborer, "There will be found no heresy, ancient or revived, or newly founded in our time, which John Calvin did not destroy down to its foundations."

And one of Calvin's modern biographers, the Frenchman, Cottret, said of him, "Unlike some modern televangelists, he eludes the camera; he was discreet, secret, shy. In short, he was the absolute opposite of a movie star, a true man in every sense of the word, as well as one of the greatest writers of the French language."

In spite of the hordes of false accusations and false witnesses borne by carnal minds and unregenerate, ignorant men against John Calvin - accusations and false witnesses that they will answer severely for in the day of judgment, for few sins are greater than that of bearing false witness, especially against those men whom God HIMSELF validated and bore unmistakable witness to - yea, so in spite of all the innuendos and lies about this man, no pastor or preacher was ever any busier or more effective and edifying in tending his flock than John Calvin, as even a cursory glance at the historical register shows. Couple this with the fact that he was physically afflicted with various ailments for most of his life, some of which were harshly debilitating, so debilitating that they would have stopped other men in their tracks, it becomes quickly apparent that the scope and effect of Calvin's ministry was nothing short of miraculous, for by one account, Calvin preached almost three hundred sermons per year, delivered some two hundred lectures during the same period, kept up his private visitations to parishioners, and attended various and sundry conferences. And all this fails to take into account his literary output, which was compendious.

Which is why Beza, at the end of his biography of John Calvin, concludes, "Little ground is there for wondering that one who was both a most powerful defender of sound doctrine, and an example of purity of life, should have been bitterly assailed. The thing to be wondered at rather is, that a single man, as if he had been a kind of Christian Hercules, should have been able to subdue so many monsters, and this by that mightiest of all clubs, the Word of God... Having been a spectator of his conduct for sixteen years, I have given a faithful account both of his life and of his death, and I can now declare, that in him all men may see a most beautiful example of the Christian character, an example which is as easy to slander as it is difficult to imitate."

Of course, the term Calvinism has been grossly misunderstood and misapplied by ignorant persons as well. This term, and its application to doctrine, does not imply or in any way import - in opposition to the wicked assertions of unregenerate men who's secret pride blinds them to fundamental gospel truths - that Calvin invented the doctrine. On the contrary. The term Calvinism is merely the universal label that has become popular in describing and referring to the comprehensive doctrine of Jesus Christ and his apostles as clearly revealed in the New Testament. For example, the McClintock & Strong Cyclopedia states, "Calvin’s views on Grace and Predestination were so strongly pronounced that his name is now used to designate an entire system."

In other words, the term Calvinism is principally a comprehensive label that is used to describe God's sovereignty in election, predestination, vocation, justification, and glorification as delineated by the Holy Ghost in Romans 8. It's that simple. And in that vein, Augustine was a Calvinist more than a century before Calvin himself was ever born. So was Zwingli, as Benjamin B. Warfield observed --

"Historically the Reformed theology finds its origin in the reforming movement begun in Switzerland under the leadership of Zwingli (1516). Its fundamental principles are already present in Zwingli's teaching, though it was not until Calvin's profound and penetrating genius was called to their exposition that they took their ultimate form or received systematic development."

Then again, virtually every effective Reformer in history, such as Luther, Tyndale, Knox, Zwingli, Bucer, Beza, et. al., as well as the whole horde of Puritans - Bunyan, Owen, Cartwright, Goodwin, Sibbes, Manton, Watson, et. al., as well as the overwhelming majority of the Nonconformists - Flavel, Baxter, Henry, et. al., as well as the vast majority of the King James Translators (not to mention King James himself) - Reynolds, Smith, Abbot, Chaderton, Holland, Ward, Saravia, and most of the others, as well as the great men of the middle terms of the 18th and 19th centuries through whom God poured forth the Holy Ghost in a measure UNEQUALED in the HISTORY of the world, quite possibly even surpassing Pentecost both in scope and intensity - Whitefield, Edwards, Boston, Harris, Rowland, and many, many others, all the way up to Spurgeon, Pink, Chambers, Hodge, Gill, Dabney, and scores more - were ALL strongly CALVINISTIC in doctrine, especially in the areas of the bondage of the will, effectual calling, and so on.

In short, the Reformation, and by extension, Protestantism, was built on the foundation of the great biblical doctrines which we today call Calvinism. Such declarations by Luther that, "Since the fall of man, free-will is but an idle word," did more to stir up opposition to Luther and the Reformation than his 95 Theses ever did. Simply put, the germ of Calvinism was at the very HEART of the Reformation. And apart from this doctrine - not apart from the LABEL, but apart from the DOCTRINE which the LABEL of Calvinism signifies - yea, apart from this, we would still be in the dark ages.

As Charles Spurgeon piercingly noted, "I love to proclaim these strong old doctrines, which are called by nickname Calvinism, but which are surely and verily the revealed truth of God as it is in Christ Jesus."

Let this suffice for an introduction to John Calvin, for certainly he doesn't need one. Those who hate him and the doctrines he expounded can never know - and WILL never know - the EXPERIENCE of the New Birth, not until they humble themselves and start taking Jesus Christ at his word, for if they do that - if they start taking Jesus Christ at his word - they will discover that John Calvin also took Jesus Christ at his word some five hundred years ago and then simply repeated that doctrine with stunning accuracy and clarity.

"I exhort all, who reverence the Word of the Lord, to read it, and diligently imprint it on their memory." Institutes, To The Reader

"For what accords better and more aptly with faith than to acknowledge ourselves divested of all virtue that we may be clothed by God, devoid of all goodness that we may be filled by Him, the slaves of sin that he may give us freedom, blind that he may enlighten, lame that he may cure, and feeble that he may sustain us; to strip ourselves of all ground of glorying that he alone may shine forth glorious, and we be glorified in Him?" Institutes, Prefatory Address

"But the mark of sound doctrine given by our Saviour himself is its tendency to promote the glory not of men, but of God, (John 7: 18; 8: 50.) Our Saviour having declared this to be the test of doctrine, we are in error if we regard as miraculous, works which are used for any other purpose than to magnify the name of God. And it becomes us to remember that Satan has his miracles, which, although they are tricks rather than true wonders, are still such as to delude the ignorant and unwary." Institutes, Prefatory Address

"That there exists in the human minds and indeed by natural instinct, some sense of Deity, we hold to be beyond dispute, since God himself, to prevent any man from pretending ignorance, has endued all men with some idea of his Godhead, the memory of which he constantly renews and occasionally enlarges, that all to a man being aware that there is a God, and that he is their Maker, may be condemned by their own conscience when they neither worship him nor consecrate their lives to his service." Institutes, I.iii

"As a just punishment of the wicked, after they have closed their own eyes, God makes their hearts dull and heavy, and hence, seeing, they see not." Institutes, I.iv

"No one, indeed, will voluntarily and willingly devote himself to the service of God unless he has previously tasted his paternal love, and been thereby allured to love and reverence Him." Institutes, I.v

"If it be asked what cause induced God to create all things at first, and now inclines him to preserve them, we shall find that there could be no other cause than his own goodness." Institutes, I.v

"Therefore, while it becomes man seriously to employ his eyes in considering the works of God, since a place has been assigned him in this most glorious theatre that he may be a spectator of them, his special duty is to give ear to the Word, that he may the better profit." Institutes, I.vi

"It being thus manifest that God, foreseeing the inefficiency of his image imprinted on the fair form of the universe, has given the assistance of his Word to all whom he has ever been pleased to instruct effectually, we, too, must pursue this straight path, if we aspire in earnest to a genuine contemplation of God; - we must go, I say, to the Word, where the character of God, drawn from his works is described accurately and to the life; these works being estimated, not by our depraved judgment, but by the standard of eternal truth." Institutes, I.vi

"The testimony of the Spirit is superior to reason. For as God alone can properly bear witness to his own words, so these words will not obtain full credit in the hearts of men, until they are sealed by the inward testimony of the Spirit. The same Spirit, therefore, who spoke by the mouth of the prophets, must penetrate our hearts, in order to convince us that they faithfully delivered the message with which they were divinely entrusted." Institutes I.vii

"Let us now understand that the only true faith is that which the Spirit of God seals on our hearts." Institutes I.vii

"Then only, therefore, does Scripture suffice to give a saving knowledge of God when its certainty is founded on the inward persuasion of the Holy Spirit... But it is foolish to attempt to prove to infidels that the Scripture is the Word of God. This it cannot be known to be, except by faith." Institutes I.viii

"Hence the office of the Spirit promised to us, is not to form new and unheard-of revelations, or to coin a new form of doctrine, by which we may be led away from the received doctrine of the gospel, but to seal on our minds the very doctrine which the gospel recommends." Institutes I.IX

"It ought to be enough for us when once we hear his voice; but lest Satan should insinuate himself under his name, he wishes us to recognise him by the image which he has stamped on the Scriptures. The author of the Scriptures cannot vary, and change his likeness. Such as he there appeared at first, such he will perpetually remain. There is nothing contumelious to him in this, unless we are to think it would be honourable for him to degenerate, and revolt against himself." Institutes I.IX

"Nay, in the very same passage, the apostle calls his own preaching the ministration of the Spirit, (2 Cor. 3: 8,) intimating that the Holy Spirit so cleaves to his own truth, as he has expressed it in Scripture, that he then only exerts and puts forth his strength when the Word is received with due honour and respect." Institutes I.IX

"For the Lord has so knit together the certainty of his Word and his Spirit, that our minds are duly imbued with reverence for the Word when the Spirit shining upon it enables us there to behold the face of God; and, on the other hand, we embrace the Spirit with no danger of delusion when we recognise him in his image, that is, in his Word. Thus, indeed, it is. God did not produce his Word before men for the sake of sudden display, intending to abolish it the moment the Spirit should arrive; but he employed the same Spirit, by whose agency he had administered the Word, to complete his work by the efficacious confirmation of the Word." Institutes I.IX

"The Word is the instrument by which the illumination of the Spirit is dispensed." Institutes I.IX

"We have elsewhere observed, that however subtle the evasions devised by philosophers, they cannot do away with the charge of rebellion, in that all of them have corrupted the truth of God. For this reason, Habakkuk, (2: 20,) after condemning all idols, orders men to seek God in his temple, that the faithful may acknowledge none but Him, who has manifested himself in his word." Institutes I.X

"God himself is the sole and proper witness of himself." Institutes I.XI

"We think it unlawful to give a visible shape to God, because God himself has forbidden it, and because it cannot be done without, in some degree, tarnishing his glory... The only things, therefore, which ought to be painted or sculptured, are things which can be presented to the eye; the majesty of God, which is far beyond the reach of any eye, must not be dishonored by unbecoming representations." Institutes I.XI

"For it is plain that the worship which Papists pay to saints differs in no respect from the worship of God: for this worship is paid without distinction; only when they are pressed they have recourse to the evasion, that what belongs to God is kept unimpaired, because they leave him latria [worship]." Institutes I.XII

"Let it suffice to remember, that whatever offices of piety are bestowed anywhere else than on God alone, are of the nature of sacrilege." Institutes I.XII

"We, therefore, again conclude, that the Word was eternally begotten by God, and dwelt with him from everlasting. In this way, his true essence, his eternity, and divinity, are established." Institutes I.XIII

"Why should Paul have feared to place Christ on the judgement-seat of God, (2 Cor. 5: 10,) after he had so openly proclaimed his divinity, when he said that he was God over all, blessed for ever? And to show how consistent he is in this respect, he elsewhere says that "God was manifest in the flesh," (1 Tim. 3: 16.) If he is God blessed for ever, he therefore it is to whom alone, as Paul affirms in another place, all glory and honour is due. Paul does not disguise this, but openly exclaims, that "being in the form of God, (he) thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation," (Phil. 2: 6.)" Institutes I.XIII

"When we hear from the same lips that God was manifest in the flesh, that God purchased the Church with his own blood, why do we dream of any second God, to whom he makes not the least allusion? And there is no room to doubt that all the godly entertained the same view. Thomas, by addressing him as his Lord and God, certainly professes that he was the only God whom he had ever adored, (John 20: 28.)" Institutes I.XIII

"When, in accordance with this declaration, the Jews thought that injustice was done to God when Christ forgave sins, he not only asserted, in distinct terms, that this power belonged to him, but also proved it by a miracle, (Matth. 9: 6.) We thus see that he possessed in himself not the ministry of forgiving sins, but the inherent power which the Lord declares he will not give to another. What! Is it not the province of God alone to penetrate and interrogate the secret thoughts of the heart? But Christ also had this power, and therefore we infer that Christ is God." Institutes I.XIII

"Again, if out of God there is no salvation, no righteousness, no life, Christ, having all these in himself, is certainly God. Let no one object that life or salvation is transfused into him by God. For it is said not that he received, but that he himself is salvation." Institutes I.XIII

"But the name of Christ is invoked for salvation, and therefore it follows that he is Jehovah." Institutes I.XIII

"To this we may add, that the salutations prefixed to the Epistles of Paul pray for the same blessings from the Son as from the Father. By this we are taught, not only that the blessings which our heavenly Father bestows come to us through his intercession, but that by a partnership in power, the Son himself is their author." Institutes I.XIII

"it was not the Father that descended to the earth, but he who came forth from the Father; nor was it the Father that died and rose again, but he whom the Father had sent. This distinction did not take its beginning at the incarnation: for it is clear that the only begotten Son previously existed in the bosom of the Father, (John 1: 18.)" Institutes I.XIII

"When we profess to believe in one God, by the name God is understood the one simple essence, comprehending three persons or hypostases; and, accordingly, whenever the name of God is used indefinitely, the Son and Spirit, not less than the Father, is meant." Institutes I.XIII

"Thus we regard it a detestable sacrilege  for the Son to be called another God than the Father, for the simple name of God admits no relation, nor can God be said to be this or that with respect to himself." Institutes I.XIII

"Let us use great caution that neither our thoughts nor our speech go beyond the limits to which the Word of God itself extends." Institutes I.XIII

"And let us not take it into our heads either to seek out God anywhere else than in his Sacred Word, or to think anything about him that is not prompted by his Word, or to speak anything that is not taken from that Word." Institutes I.XIII

"For although the majesty of King and Judge extends to the whole person of the Mediator, yet had he not been God manifested in the flesh, he could not have been exalted to such a height without coming into collision with God." Institutes I.XIII

"For though we admit that, in respect of order and gradation, the beginning of divinity is in the Father, we hold it a detestable fiction to maintain that essence is proper to the Father alone, as if he were the deifier of the Son. On this view either the essence is manifold, or Christ is God only in name and imagination." Institutes I.XIII

"The Scriptures teach that there is essentially but one God, and, therefore, that the essence both of the Son and Spirit is unbegotten; but inasmuch as the Father is first in order, and of himself begat his own Wisdom, he, as we lately observed, is justly regarded as the principle and fountain of all the Godhead. Thus God, taken indefinitely, is unbegotten." Institutes I.XIII

"For as an eye, either dimmed by age or weakened by any other cause, sees nothing distinctly without the aid of glasses, so (such is our imbecility) if Scripture does not direct us in our inquiries after God, we immediately turn vain in our imaginations." Institutes I.XIV

"The duty of a Theologian, however, is not to tickle the ear, but confirm the conscience, by teaching what is true, certain, and useful." Institutes I.XIV

"And the Lord, that he might claim the entire glory of these things as his own, was pleased that light should exist, and that the earth should be replenished with all kinds of herbs and fruits before he made the sun. No pious man, therefore, will make the sun either the necessary or principal cause of those things which existed before the creation of the sun, but only the instrument which God employs, because he so pleases; though he can lay it aside, and act equally well by himself." Institutes I.XVI

"God is deemed omnipotent, not because he can act though he may cease or be idle, or because by a general instinct he continues the order of nature previously appointed; but because, governing heaven and earth by his providence, he so overrules all things that nothing happens without his counsel." Institutes I.XVI

"Those moreover who confine the providence of God within narrow limits, as if he allowed all things to be borne along freely according to a perpetual law of nature, do not more defraud God of his glory than themselves of a most useful doctrine; for nothing were more wretched than man if he were exposed to all possible movements of the sky, the air, the earth, and the water." Institutes I.XVI

"Let him, therefore, who would beware of such unbelief, always bear in mind, that there is no random power, or agency, or motion in the creatures, who are so governed by the secret counsel of God, that nothing happens but what he has knowingly and willingly decreed." Institutes I.XVI

"It was a true saying of Basil the Great, that Fortune and Chance are heathen terms; the meaning of which ought not to occupy pious minds." Institutes I.XVI

"Nay, the chief aim of the historical books of Scripture is to show that the ways of his saints are so carefully guarded by the Lord, as to prevent them even from dashing their foot against a stone." Institutes I.XVII

"What more can we wish, if not even a hair of our head can fall, save in accordance with his will? I speak not merely of the human race in general. God having chosen the Church for his abode, there cannot be a doubt, that in governing it, he gives singular manifestations of his paternal care." Institutes I.XVII

"But when they call to mind that the devil, and the whole train of the ungodly, are, in all directions, held in by the hand of God as with a bridle, so that they can neither conceive any mischief, nor plan what they have conceived, nor how much soever they may have planned, move a single finger to perpetrate, unless in so far as he permits, nay, unless in so far as he commands; that they are not only bound by his fetters, but are even forced to do him service -- when the godly think of all these things they have ample sources of consolation. For, as it belongs to the Lord to arm the fury of such foes and turn and destine it at pleasure, so it is his also to determine the measure and the end, so as to prevent them from breaking loose and wantoning as they list." Institutes I.XVII

"In one word, not to dwell longer on this, give heed, and you will at once perceive that ignorance of Providence is the greatest of all miseries, and the knowledge of it the highest happiness." Institutes I.XVII

"It is perfectly clear that it is the merest trifling to substitute a bare permission for the providence of God, as if he sat in a watch-tower waiting for fortuitous events, his judgements meanwhile depending on the will of man." Institutes I.XVIII

"The sum of the whole is this, - since the will of God is said to be the cause of all things, all the counsels and actions of men must be held to be governed by his providence; so that he not only exerts his power in the elect, who are guided by the Holy Spirit, but also forces the reprobate to do him service." Institutes I.XVIII

"Nay, when we cannot comprehend how God can will that to be done which he forbids us to do, let us call to mind our imbecility, and remember that the light in which he dwells is not without cause termed inaccessible, (1 Tim. 6: 16,) because shrouded in darkness." Institutes I.XVIII

"Thus we must hold, that while by means of the wicked God performs what he had secretly decreed, they are not excusable as if they were obeying his precept, which of set purpose they violate according to their lust." Institutes I.XVIII

"Our true wisdom is to embrace with meek docility, and without reservation, whatever the Holy Scriptures, have delivered." Institutes I.XVIII

"Owing to the innate self-love by which all are blinded, we most willingly persuade ourselves that we do not possess a single quality which is deserving of hatred; and hence, independent of any countenance from without, general credit is given to the very foolish idea, that man is perfectly sufficient of himself for all the purposes of a good and happy life. If any are disposed to think more modestly, and concede somewhat to God, that they may not seem to arrogate every thing as their own, still, in making the division, they apportion matters so, that the chief ground of confidence and boasting always remains with themselves." Institutes II.I

"Assuredly, when the Word of God is despised, all reverence for Him is gone." Institutes II.I

"Adam by seeking more than was granted him shamefully spurned God's great bounty, which had been lavished upon him. To have been made in the likeness of God seemed a small matter to a son of earth unless he also attained equality with God - a monstrous wickedness." Institutes II.I Institutes II.I

"Adam would never have dared oppose God's authority unless he had disbelieved God's Word." Institutes II.I

"Man, therefore, when carried away by the blasphemies of Satan, did his very utmost to annihilate the whole glory of God." Institutes II.I

"All of us, therefore, descending from an impure seed, come into the world tainted with the contagion of sin. Nay, before we behold the light of the sun we are in God's sight defiled and polluted. "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one," says the Book of Job, (Job 14: 4.)" Institutes II.I

"To what quibble will the Pelagians here recur? That the sin of Adam was propagated by imitation! Is the righteousness of Christ then available to us only in so far as it is an example held forth for our imitation? Can any man tolerate such blasphemy? But if, out of all controversy, the righteousness of Christ, and thereby life, is ours by communication, it follows that both of these were lost in Adam that they might be recovered in Christ, whereas sin and death were brought in by Adam, that they might be abolished in Christ." Institutes II.I

"Guilt is from nature, whereas sanctification is from supernatural grace." Institutes II.I

"Original sin, then, may be defined a hereditary corruption and depravity of our nature, extending to all the parts of the soul, which first makes us obnoxious to the wrath of God, and then produces in us works which in Scripture are termed works of the flesh." Institutes II.I

"That part in which the dignity and excellence of the soul are most conspicuous, has not only been wounded, but so corrupted, that mere cure is not sufficient. There must be a new nature." Institutes II.I

"He who is most deeply abased and alarmed, by the consciousness of his disgrace, nakedness, want, and misery, has made the greatest progress in the knowledge of himself... whenever our minds are seized with a longing to possess a somewhat of our own, which may reside in us rather than in God, we may rest assured that the thought is suggested by no other counsellor than he who enticed our first parents to aspire to be like gods, knowing good and evil." Institutes II.II

"As the gratuitous gifts bestowed on man were withdrawn, so the natural gifts which remained were corrupted after the fall." Institutes II.II

"But we have nothing of the Spirit except through regeneration. Everything, therefore, which we have from nature is flesh." Institutes II.III

"How can it be said that the weakness of the human will is aided so as to enable it to aspire effectually to the choice of good, when the fact is, that it must be wholly transformed and renewed?" Institutes II.III

"Because the will renewed is the Lord's work, it is wrongly attributed to man that he obeys prevenient grace with his will as attendant." Institutes II.III

"It is certainly easy to prove that the commencement of good is only with God, and that none but the elect have a will inclined to good. But the cause of election must be sought out of man; and hence it follows that a right will is derived not from man himself, but from the same good pleasure by which we were chosen before the creation of the world." Institutes II.III

"God could not more clearly claim to himself, and deny to us, everything good and right in our will, than by declaring, that in our conversion there is the creation of a new spirit and a new heart. It always follows, both that nothing good can proceed from our will until it be formed again, and that after it is formed again in so far as it is good, it is of God, and not of us." Institutes II.III

"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 II.III

"Therefore the Lord in this way both begins and completes the good work in us. It is the Lord's doing that the will conceives the love of what is right, is zealously inclined toward it, is aroused and moved to pursue it. Then it is the Lord's doing that the choice, zeal, and effort do not falter, but proceed even to accomplishment; lastly, that man goes forward in these things with constancy, and perserveres to the very end." Institutes II.III

"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." Institutes II.III

"For it is most certain, that where the grace of God reigns, there is also the readiness to obey. And whence this readiness, but just that the Spirit of God being everywhere consistent with himself, after first begetting a principle of obedience, cherishes and strengthens it for perseverance?" Institutes II.III

"The human will does not obtain grace by freedom, but obtains freedom by grace." Institutes II.III

"The will can neither be converted to God nor abide in God except through grace, and whatever it can do it is able to do only through grace." Institutes II.III

"When God's light is taken away, nothing remains but blindness and darkness: when God's Spirit is taken away, our hearts become hard as stones: when God's guidance is withdrawn, we immediately turn from the right path: and hence God is properly said to incline, harden, and blind those whom he deprives of the faculty of seeing, obeying, and rightly executing." Institutes II.IV

"And the interference of Divine Providence goes to the extent not only of making events turn out as was foreseen to be expedient, but of giving the wills of men the same direction... Who gave the Israelites such favour in the eyes of the Egyptians, that they lent them all their most valuable commodities? (Exod. 11: 3.) They never would have been so inclined of their own accord. Their inclinations, therefore, were more overruled by God than regulated by themselves." Institutes II.IV

"Whenever God is pleased to make way for his providence, he even in external matters so turns and bends the wills of men, that whatever the freedom of their choice may be, it is still subject to the disposal of God." Institutes II.IV

"It is owing not to creation, but the corruption of nature, that man has become the slave of sin, and can will nothing but evil." Institutes II.V

"And yet, as the beneficence and liberality of God are manifold and inexhaustible, the grace which he bestows upon us, inasmuch as he makes it our own, he recompenses as if the virtuous acts were our own." Institutes II.V

"God does not measure the precepts of his law by human strength, but, after ordering what is right, freely bestows on his elect the power of fulfilling it." Institutes II.V

"What purpose, then, is served by exhortations? It is this: As the wicked, with obstinate heart, despise them, they will be a testimony against them when they stand at the judgment-seat of God; nay, they even now strike and lash their consciences." Institutes II.V

"Let this, then, be held true: all the righteousness of the saints rests upon God's grace." Institutes II.V

"God works in his elect in two ways: inwardly, by his Spirit; outwardly, by his Word." Institutes II.V

"The Word, when addressed to the reprobate, though not effectual for their amendment, has another use. It urges their consciences now, and will render them more inexcusable on the day of judgment." Institutes II.V

"Is it meant that the Law was to be limited to our strength, lest it should be given in vain? Is it not rather meant that it was placed far above us, in order to convince us of our utter feebleness?" Institutes II.V

"Allegories ought to be carried no further than Scripture expressly sanctions: so far are they from forming a sufficient basis to found doctrines upon." Institutes II.V

"The whole human race having been undone in the person of Adam, the excellence and dignity of our origin, as already described, is so far from availing us, that it rather turns to our greater disgrace, until God, who does not acknowledge man when defiled and corrupted by sin as his own work, appears as a Redeemer in the person of his only begotten Son." Institutes II.VI

"When Christ is called the image of the invisible God, (Col. 1: 15,) the expression is not used without cause, but is designed to remind us that we can have no knowledge of our salvation, until we behold God in Christ." Institutes II.VI

"There is no saving knowledge of God without Christ, and consequently, from the beginning of the world Christ was held forth to all the elect as the object of their faith and confidence." Institutes II.VI

"Assuredly, if our whole will were formed and disposed to obedience, the mere knowledge of the law would be sufficient for salvation; but since our carnal and corrupt nature is at enmity with the Divine law, and is in no degree amended by its discipline, the consequence is, that the law which, if it had been properly attended to, would have given life, becomes the occasion of sin and death." Institutes II.VII

"Our inability to do righteousness is our own fault. If lust, in which sin has its dominion, so enthrals us, that we are not free to obey our Father, there is no ground for pleading necessity as a defence, since this evil necessity is within, and must be imputed to ourselves." Institutes II.VIII

"By comparing the righteousness of the law with our life, we learn how far we are from conforming to God's will, and... in considering our powers, we learn that they are not only too weak to fulfill the law, but utterly nonexistent." Institutes II.VIII

"Thus it finally comes to pass that man, thoroughly frightened by the awareness of eternal death, which he sees as justly threatening him because of his own unrighteousness, betakes himself to God's mercy alone, as the only haven of safety. Thus realizing that he does not possess the ability to pay to the law what he owes, and despairing in himself, he is moved to seek and await help from another quarter." Institutes II.VIII

"We cannot call God to be the witness of our words without asking him to be the avenger of our perjury if we deceive." Institutes II.VIII

"The name of God is everywhere profaned by introducing it indiscriminately in frivolous discourse; and the evil is disregarded, because it has been long and audaciously persisted in with impunity. The commandment of the Lord, however, stands; the penalty also stands, and will one day receive effect. Special vengeance will be executed on those who have taken the name of God in vain." Institutes II.VIII

"Wherefore, if we would hold the true course in love, our first step must be to turn our eyes not to man, the sight of whom might oftener produce hatred than love, but to God, who requires that the love which we bear to him be diffused among all mankind, so that our fundamental principle must ever be, Let a man be what he may, he is still to be loved, because God is loved." Institutes II.VIII

"Wherefore, nothing could be more pestilential than the ignorance or wickedness of the Schoolmen in converting the precepts respecting revenge and the love of enemies (precepts which had formerly been delivered to all the Jews, and were then delivered universally to all Christians) into counsels which it was free to obey or disobey, confining the necessary observance of them to the monks, who were made more righteous than ordinary Christians, by the simple circumstance of voluntarily binding themselves to obey counsels... Let them either erase these passages from the Law, or let them acknowledge the Lord as a Lawgiver, not falsely feign him to be merely a counsellor." Institutes II.VIII

"That Christians are under the law of grace, means not that they are to wander unrestrained without law, but that they are engrafted into Christ, by whose grace they are freed from the curse of the Law, and by whose Spirit they have the Law written in their hearts." Institutes II.VIII

"The proper course had been to consider not simply what is commanded, but who it is that commands, because every least transgression of his Law derogates from his authority. Do they count it a small matter to insult the majesty of God in any one respect?" Institutes II.VIII

"We enjoy Christ only as we embrace Christ clad in his own promises." Institutes II.IX

"But the Gospel has not succeeded the whole Law in such a sense as to introduce a different method of salvation. It rather confirms the Law, and proves that every thing which it promised is fulfilled. What was shadow, it has made substance." Institutes II.IX

"Even if man had remained free from all stain, his condition would have been too lowly for him to reach God without a Mediator." Institutes II.XII

"Moreover, it was especially necessary for this cause also that he who was to be our Redeemer should be truly God and man. It was his to swallow up death: who but Life could do so? It was his to conquer sin: who could do so save Righteousness itself? It was his to put to flight the powers of the air and the world: who could do so but the mighty power superior to both? But who possesses life and righteousness, and the dominion and government of heaven, but God alone? Therefore, God, in his infinite mercy, having determined to redeem us, became himself our Redeemer in the person of his only begotten Son." Institutes II.XII

"In short, since neither as God alone could Christ feel death, nor as man alone could he overcome it, he coupled human nature with divine that to atone for sin he might submit the weakness of the one to death; and that, wrestling with death by the power of the other nature, he might win victory for us. Those who despoil Christ of either his divinity or his humanity diminish his majesty and glory, and obscure his goodness." Institutes II.XII

"Another absurdity which they obtrude upon us, namely, that if the Word of God became incarnate, it must have been enclosed in the narrow tenement of an earthly body; this is sheer petulance. For although the boundless essence of the Word was united with human nature into one person, we have no idea of any enclosing. The Son of God descended miraculously from heaven, yet without abandoning heaven; was pleased to be conceived miraculously in the Virgin's womb, to live on the earth, and hang upon the cross, and yet always filled the world as from the beginning." Institutes II.XIII

"Let us always bear in mind, that wherever Scripture adverts to the purity of Christ, it refers to his true human nature, since it were superfluous to say that God is pure." Institutes II.XIII

"He who was the Son of God became the Son of man, not by confusion of substance, but by unity of person. For we maintain, that the divinity was so conjoined and united with the humanity, that the entire properties of each nature remain entire, and yet the two natures constitute only one Christ." Institutes II.XIV

"When Christ, still living on the earth, said, No man has ascended up to heaven but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man, which is in heaven, (John 3: 13,) certainly regarded as man in the flesh which he had put on, he was not then in heaven, but inasmuch as he was both God and man, he, on account of the union of a twofold nature, attributed to the one what properly belonged to the other." Institutes II.XIV

"Christ, therefore, as God and man, possessing natures which are united, but not confused, we conclude that he is our Lord and the true Son of God, even according to his humanity, though not by means of his humanity. For we must put far from us the heresy of Nestorius, who, presuming to dissect rather than distinguish between the two natures, devised a double Christ." Institutes II.XIV

"Although Christ was God before he became man, he did not therefore begin to be a new God." Institutes II.XIV

"We must, however, constantly hold, that God never was a Father to angels and men save in respect of his only-begotten Son: that men, especially, who by their iniquity were rendered hateful to God, are sons by gratuitous adoption, because he is a Son by nature." Institutes II.XIV

"Since angels as well as men were at first created on the condition that God should be the common Father of both; and since it is true, as Paul says, that Christ always was the head, the first-born of every creature - that in all things he might have the pre- eminence, I think I may legitimately infer, that he existed as the Son of God before the creation of the world." Institutes II.XIV

"Most detestable is the fiction of those who, not content with the priesthood of Christ, have dared to take it upon themselves to sacrifice him anew, a thing daily attempted in the Papacy, where the mass is represented as an immolation of Christ." Institutes II.XV

"Accordingly in the death and burial of Christ a twofold blessing is set before us, namely, deliverance from death, to which we were enslaved, and the mortification of our flesh." Institutes II.XVI

"Nothing had been done if Christ had only endured corporeal death. In order to interpose between us and God's anger, and satisfy his righteous judgement, it was necessary that he should feel the weight of divine vengeance. Whence also it was necessary that he should engage, as it were, at close quarters with the powers of hell and the horrors of eternal death." Institutes II.XVI

"Thus by engaging with the power of the devil, the fear of death, and the pains of hell, Christ gained the victory, and achieved a triumph, so that we now fear not in death those things which our Prince has destroyed." Institutes II.XVI

"And certainly had not Christ's soul shared in the punishment, he would have been a Redeemer of bodies only. The object of his struggle was to raise up those who were lying prostrate; and so far is this from detracting from his heavenly glory, that his goodness, which can never be sufficiently extolled, becomes more conspicuous in this, that he declined not to bear our infirmities." Institutes II.XVI

"For Christ will descend from heaven in visible form, in like manner as he was seen to ascend, and appear to all, with the ineffable majesty of his kingdom, the splendour of immortality, the boundless power of divinity, and an attending company of angels. Hence we are told to wait for the Redeemer against that day on which he will separate the sheep from the goats and the elect from the reprobate, and when not one individual either of the living or the dead shall escape his judgment. From the extremities of the universe shall be heard the sound of the trumpet summoning all to his tribunal; both those whom that day shall find alive, and those whom death shall previously have removed from the society of the living." Institutes II.XVI

"When we see that the whole sum of our salvation, and every single part of it, are comprehended in Christ, we must beware of deriving even the minutes portion of it from any other quarter." Institutes II.XVI

"God is the fountainhead of all righteousness." Institutes II.XVII

"If the effect of Christ's shed blood is, that our sins are not imputed to us, it follows, that by that price the justice of God was satisfied." Institutes II.XVII

"And surely it is most worthy of remark, that Christ, in devoting himself entirely to our salvation, in a manner forgot himself." Institutes II.XVII

"For as there are said to be three witnesses in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Spirit, so there are also three on the earth, namely, water, blood, and Spirit. It is not without cause that the testimony of the Spirit is twice mentioned, a testimony which is engraven on our hearts by way of seal, and thus seals the cleansing and sacrifice of Christ." Institutes III.I

"The Holy Spirit is the bond by which Christ effectually binds us to himself." Institutes III.I

"Faith is the principal work of the Holy Spirit." Institutes III.I

"Therefore, as we have said that salvation is perfected in the person of Christ, so, in order to make us partakers of it, he baptizes us with the Holy Spirit and with fire, enlightening us into the faith of his Gospel, and so regenerating us to be new creatures. Thus cleansed from all pollution, he dedicates us as holy temples to the Lord." Institutes III.I

"God would remain far off, concealed from us, were we not irradiated by the brightness of Christ." Institutes III.II

"Faith consists not in ignorance, but in knowledge - knowledge not of God merely, but of the divine will." Institutes III.II

"Faith consists in the knowledge of God and Christ, not in reverence for the Church." Institutes III.II

"First, we must remember, that there is an inseparable relation between faith and the Word, and that these can no more be disconnected from each other than rays of light from the sun." Institutes III.II

"Whether God uses the agency of man, or works immediately by his own power, it is always by his Word that he manifests himself to those whom he designs to draw to himself." Institutes III.II

"Faith is the knowledge of the divine will in regard to us, as ascertained from his Word." Institutes III.II

"Hence, in order that the Word of God may gain full credit, the mind must be enlightened, and the heart confirmed, from some other quarter. We shall now have a full definition of faith, if we say that it is a firm and sure knowledge of the divine favor toward us, founded on the truth of a free promise in Christ, and revealed to our minds, and sealed on our hearts, by the Holy Spirit." Institutes III.II

"Faith consists in the knowledge of Christ and Christ cannot be known without the sanctification of his Spirit." Institutes III.II

"In the elect alone God implants the living root of faith, so that they persevere even to the end." Institutes III.II

"Hence again we infer, as has already been explained, that faith has no less need of the Word than the fruit of a tree has of a living root; because, as David testifies, none can hope in God but those who know his name, (Ps. 9: 10.) This knowledge, however, is not left to every man's imagination, but depends on the testimony which God himself gives to his goodness." Institutes III.II

"A simple external manifestation of the Word ought to be amply sufficient to produce faith, did not our blindness and perverseness prevent. But such is the proneness of our mind to vanity, that it can never adhere to the truth of God, and such its dullness, that it is always blind even in his light. Hence without the illumination of the Spirit the Word has no effect; and hence also it is obvious that faith is something higher than human understanding." Institutes III.II

"The Word is, in regard to those to whom it is preached, like the sun which shines upon all, but is of no use to the blind. In this matter we are all naturally blind; and hence the Word cannot penetrate our mind unless the Spirit, that internal teacher, by his enlightening power make an entrance for it." Institutes III.II

"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." Institutes III.II

"Those who think that repentance precedes faith instead of flowing from, or being produced by it, as the fruit by the tree, have never understood its nature, and are moved to adopt that view on very insufficient grounds." Institutes III.III

"Wherefore, it seems to me, that repentance may be not inappropriately defined thus: A real conversion of our life unto God, proceeding from sincere and serious fear of God; and consisting in the mortification of our flesh and the old man, and the quickening of the Spirit." Institutes III.III

"Repentance consists of two parts, namely, the mortification of the flesh, and the quickening of the Spirit." Institutes III.III

"In one word, then, by repentance I understand regeneration, the only aim of which is to form in us anew the image of God, which was sullied, and all but effaced by the transgression of Adam." Institutes III.III

"We hold that all human desires are evil, and we charge them with sin not in as far as they are natural, but because they are inordinate, and inordinate because nothing pure and upright can proceed from a corrupt and polluted nature." Institutes III.III

"Christ came to call sinners, but to call them to repentance." Institutes III.III

"No man ever hated sin without being previously enamored of righteousness." Institutes III.III

"Those whom God is pleased to rescue from death, he quickens by the Spirit of regeneration." Institutes III.III

"For when these papists enjoin that every person of both sexes (utriusque sexus) must once a year confess his sins to his own priest, men of wit humorously object that the precept binds hermaphrodites only, and has no application to any one who is either a male or a female." Institutes III.IV

"Let all the hired ravers of the Pope babble as they may, we hold that Christ is not the author of this law, which compels men to enumerate their sins; nay, that twelve hundred years elapsed after the resurrection of Christ before any such law was made, and that, consequently, this tyranny was not introduced until piety and doctrine were extinct, and pretended pastors had usurped to themselves unbridled license." Institutes III.IV

"It is necessary to keep two things in view: that the honor of Christ be preserved entire and unimpaired, and that the conscience, assured of the pardon of sin, may have peace with God." Institutes III.IV

"We are bound, therefore, to raise our voice to its highest pitch, and cry aloud that purgatory is a deadly device of Satan; that it makes void the cross of Christ; that it offers intolerable insult to the divine mercy; that it undermines and overthrows our faith." Institutes III.V

"Since it is perfectly clear, from what was lately said, that the blood of Christ is the only satisfaction, expiation, and cleansing for the sins of believers, what remains but to hold that purgatory is mere blasphemy, horrid blasphemy against Christ?" Institutes III.V

"Ever since God exhibited himself to us as a Father, we must be convicted of extreme ingratitude if we do not in turn exhibit ourselves as his sons. Ever since Christ purified us by the laver of his blood, and communicated this purification by baptism, it would ill become us to be defiled with new pollution. Ever since he ingrafted us into his body, we, who are his members, should anxiously beware of contracting any stain or taint. Ever since he who is our head ascended to heaven, it is befitting in us to withdraw our affections from the earth, and with our whole soul aspire to heaven. Ever since the Holy Spirit dedicated us as temples to the Lord, we should make it our endeavour to show forth the glory of God, and guard against being profaned by the defilement of sin. Ever since our soul and body were destined to heavenly incorruptibility and an unfading crown, we should earnestly strive to keep them pure and uncorrupted against the day of the Lord. These, I say, are the surest foundations of a well-regulated life, and you will search in vain for any thing resembling them among philosophers, who, in their commendation of virtue, never rise higher than the natural dignity of man." Institutes III.VI

"?he course which Christian men must follow is this: first, they must not long for, or hope for, or think of any kind of prosperity apart from the blessing of God; on it they must cast themselves, and there safely and confidently recline." Institutes III.VII

"Away with the thought that God would abet with his blessing what he curses with his Word." Institutes III.VII

"Philosophers think not that they have reasoned skilfully enough about inferior causes, unless they separate God very far from his works. It is a diabolical science, however, which fixes our contemplations on the works of nature, and turns them away from God. If any one who wished to know a man should take no notice of his face, but should fix his eyes only on the points of his nails, his folly might justly be derided. But far greater is the folly of those philosophers, who, out of mediate and proximate causes, weave themselves vails, lest they should be compelled to acknowledge the hand of God, which manifestly displays itself in his works." Commentary On The Psalms, Psalm XXIX

"Let preaching then have its free course, that it may lead men to faith, and dispose them to persevere with uninterrupted progress. Nor, at the same time, let there be any obstacle to the knowledge of predestination, so that those who obey may not plume themselves on anything of their own, but glory only in the Lord. It is not without cause our Savior says, Who has ears to hear, let him hear, (Matth. 13: 9.) Therefore, while we exhort and preach, those who have ears willingly obey: in those again, who have no ears is fulfilled what is written: Hear ye indeed, but understand not, (Isaiah 6: 9.)" Institutes III.XXIII

"Two errors are here to be avoided. Some make man a fellow-worker with God in such a sense, that man's suffrage ratifies election, so that, according to them, the will of man is superior to the counsel of God. As if Scripture taught that only the power of being able to believe is given us, and not rather faith itself." Institutes III.XXIV

"The expression of our Savior, Many are called, but few are chosen, is also very improperly interpreted. There will be no ambiguity in it, if we attend to what our former remarks ought to have made clear, viz., that there are two species of calling: for there is an universal call, by which God, through the external preaching of the word, invites all men alike, even those for whom he designs the call to be a savor of death, and the ground of a severer condemnation. Besides this there is a special call which, for the most part, God bestows on believers only, when by the internal illumination of the Spirit he causes the word preached to take deep root in their hearts. Sometimes, however, he communicates it also to those whom he enlightens only for a time, and whom afterwards, in just punishment for their ingratitude, he abandons and smites with greater blindness." Institutes III.XXIV

"The nature of the apostolic function is clear from the command, Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature. No fixed limits are given them, but the whole world is assigned to be reduced under the obedience of Christ, that by spreading the Gospel as widely as they could, they might every where erect his kingdom." Institutes IV.III

"Here especially is there occasion for the vigilance of pastors and presbyters, whose duty is not only to preach to the people, but to exhort and admonish from house to house, whenever their hearers have not profited sufficiently by general teaching." Institutes IV.XII

"So let us hold to this rule, that all human inventions which are set up to corrupt the simple purity of the word of God, and to undo the worship which he demands and approves, are true sacrileges, in which the Christian man cannot participate without blaspheming God, and trampling his honour underfoot." The First Sermon, On Psalm 16:4

"I acknowledge, indeed, that the Lord, the better to recommend the glory of his name to men, has tempered zeal for the promotion and extension of it, by uniting it indissolubly with our salvation. But since he has taught that this zeal ought to exceed all thought and care for our own good and advantage, and since natural equity also teaches that God does not receive what is his own, unless he is preferred to all things, it certainly is the part of a Christian man to ascend higher than merely to seek and secure the salvation of his own soul." Reply To Cardinal Sadolet

"For when they [the Pope and the Anabaptists] boast extravagantly of the Spirit, the tendency certainly is to sink and bury the Word of God, that they may make room for their own falsehoods." Reply To Cardinal Sadolet

"Learn, then, by your own experience, that it is no less unreasonable to boast of the Spirit without the Word, than it would be absurd to bring forward the Word itself without the Spirit." Reply To Cardinal Sadolet

"Wherever the knowledge of it [the doctrine of justification by faith] is taken away, the glory of Christ is extinguished, religion abolished, the Church destroyed, and the hope of salvation utterly overthrown." Reply To Cardinal Sadolet

"First, we bid a man begin by examining himself, and this not in a superficial and perfunctory manner, but to sift his conscience before the tribunal of God, and when sufficiently convinced of his iniquity, to reflect on the strictness of the sentence pronounced upon all sinners. Thus confounded and amazed at his misery, he is prostrated and humbled before God; and, casting away all self-confidence, groans as if given up to final perdition. Then we show that the only haven of safety is in the mercy of God, as manifested in Christ, in whom every part of our salvation is complete. As all mankind are, in the sight of God, lost sinners, we hold that Christ is their only righteousness, since, by his obedience, he has wiped off our transgressions; by his sacrifice, appeased the divine anger; by his blood, washed away our stains; by his cross, borne our curse; and by his death, made satisfaction for us. We maintain that in this way man is reconciled in Christ to God the Father, by no merit of his own, by no value of works, but by gratuitous mercy." Reply To Cardinal Sadolet

"For Scripture everywhere cries aloud, that all are lost; and every man’s own conscience bitterly accuses him. The same Scripture teaches, that no hope is left but in the mere goodness of God, by which sin is pardoned, and righteousness imputed to us." Reply To Cardinal Sadolet

"We deny that good works have any share in justification, but we claim full authority for them in the lives of the righteous. For, if he who has obtained justification possesses Christ, and, at the same time, Christ never is where his Spirit is not, it is obvious that gratuitous righteousness is necessarily connected with regeneration... On the contrary, where zeal for integrity and holiness is not in vigor, there neither is the Spirit of Christ nor Christ himself; and wherever Christ is not, there is no righteousness, nay, there is no faith; for faith cannot apprehend Christ for righteousness without the Spirit of sanctification." Reply To Cardinal Sadolet

"Since, therefore, according to us, Christ regenerates to a blessed life those whom he justifies, and after rescuing them from the dominion of sin, hands them over to the dominion of righteousness, transforms them into the image of God, and so trains them by his Spirit into obedience to his will, there is no ground to complain that, by our doctrine, lust is left with loosened reins." Reply To Cardinal Sadolet

"This, meanwhile, we constantly maintain, that man is not only justified freely once for all, without any merit of works, but that on this gratuitous justification the salvation of man perpetually depends. Nor is it possible that any work of man can be accepted by God unless it be gratuitously approved." Reply To Cardinal Sadolet

"That presence of Christ, by which we are ingrafted in him, we by no means exclude from the Supper, nor shroud in darkness, though we hold that there must be no local limitation, that the glorious body of Christ must not be degraded to earthly elements; that there must be no fiction of transubstantiating the bread into Christ, and afterwards worshipping it as Christ." Reply To Cardinal Sadolet

"In condemning your gross dogma of transubstantiation, and declaring that stupid adoration which detains the minds of men among the elements, and permits them not to rise to Christ, to be perverse and impious, we have not acted without the concurrence of the ancient Church, under whose shadow you endeavor in vain to hide the very vile superstitions to which you are here addicted." Reply To Cardinal Sadolet

"In auricular confession we have disapproved of that law of Innocent, which enjoins every man once a year to pass all his sins in review before his priest." Reply To Cardinal Sadolet

"As to purgatory, we know that ancient churches made some mention of the dead in their prayers, but it was done seldom and soberly, and consisted only of a few words. It was, in short, a mention in which it was obvious that nothing more was meant than to attest in passing the affection which was felt toward the dead. As yet, the architects were unborn, by whom your purgatory was built; and who afterwards enlarged it to such a width, and raised it to such a height, that it now forms the chief prop of your kingdom." Reply To Cardinal Sadolet

"We are indignant, that in the room of the sacred Supper has been substituted a sacrifice, by which the death of Christ is emptied of its virtues. We exclaim against the execrable traffic in masses, and we complain, that the Supper of the Lord, as to one of its halves, has been stolen from the Christian people." Reply To Cardinal Sadolet

"Ours be the humility, which, beginning with the lowest, and paying respect to each in his degree, yields the highest honor and respect to the Church, in subordination, however, to Christ the Church’s head; ours the obedience, which, while it disposes us to listen to our elders and superiors, tests all obedience by the word of God; in fine, ours the Church, whose supreme-care it is humbly and religiously to venerate the word of God, and submit to its authority." Reply To Cardinal Sadolet

"We, indeed, Sadolet, deny not that those over which you preside are Churches of Christ but we maintain that the Roman Pontiff, with his whole herd of pseudo-bishops, who have seized upon the pastor’s office, are ravening wolves, whose only study has hitherto been to scatter and trample upon the kingdom of Christ, filling it with ruin and devastation." Reply To Cardinal Sadolet