your connivance, continue to persecute with imprisonments, scourges, tortures, confiscations, and flames, we shall indeed, like sheep destined to the slaughter, be reduced to the greatest extremities. Yet shall we in patience possess our souls, and wait for the mighty hand of the Lord, which undoubtedly will in time appear, and show itself armed for the deliverance of the poor from their affliction, and for the punishment of their despisers, who now exult in such perfect security. May the Lord, the King of kings, establish your throne with righteousness, and your kingdom with equity. Basil, 1st August, 1536.
[Footnote A: John Calvin was born at Noyon, Picardy, France, in 1509, and died at Geneva in 1564. He joined the Reformation about 1528, and, having been banished from Paris, took refuge in Switzerland. The "Institutes," published at Basle in 1536, contain a comprehensive statement of the beliefs of that school of Protestant theology which bears Calvin's name; and in this "Dedication" we have Calvin's own summing up of the essentials of his creed.]
[Footnote 1: Prov. xxix. 18.]
[Footnote 2: Daniel ii. 34. Isaiah xi. 4. Psalm ii. 9.]
[Footnote 3 Rom. xii. 6.]
[Footnote 4: Jer. ii. 13.]
[Footnote 5: Rom. viii. 32.]
[Footnote 6: I Tim. iv. 10.]
[Footnote 7: John xvii, 3.]
[Footnote 8: Rom, iv. 25. I Cor. xv. 3, 17.]
[Footnote 9: Isaiah i. 3.]
[Footnote 10: Mark xvi. 20.]
[Footnote 11: Acts xiv. 3.]
[Footnote 12: Heb. ii. 3–4.]
[Footnote 13: John vii. 18, viii. 50.]
[Footnote 14: In Joan, tract. 13.]
[Footnote 15: Matt. xxiv. 24.]
[Footnote 16: 2 Thess. ii. 9.]
[Footnote 17: 2 Cor. xi. 14.]
[Footnote 18: Hierom. in praef. Jerem.]
[Footnote 19: 2 Thess. ii. 10, 11.]
[Footnote 20: i Cor. iii. 21, 23]
[Footnote 21: Prov xxii. 28.]
[Footnote 22: Psalm xlv. 10.]
[Footnote 23: Acat. in lib. II, cap. 16. Trip. Hist. Amb. lib. 2, de
Off. c. 28.]
[Footnote 24: Spiridion. Trip. Hist. lib. 1, c. 10.]
[Footnote 25: Trip. Hist. lib. 8, c. 1. August. de Opere Mon. c. 17.]
[Footnote 26: Epiph. Epist. ab Hier. vers. Con. Eliber. c. 36.]
[Footnote 27: Amb de Abra. lib 1, c. 7.]
[Footnote 28: Gelas. Pap in Conc. Rom.]
[Footnote 29: Chrys. in 1 Cap. Ephes. Calix. Papa de Cons. dist. 2.]
[Footnote 30: Gelas. can. Comperimus de Cons. dist. 2. Cypr. Epist. 2, lib. 1, de Laps.]
[Footnote 31: August. lib. 2, de Pec. Mer. cap. ult.]
[Footnote 32: Apollon de quo Eccl. Hist. lib. 5, cap. 11, 12.]
[Footnote 33: Paphnut. Trip. Hist. lib. 2, c. 14. Cypr. Epist. 2, lib. 2.]
[Footnote 34: Aug. cap. 2, contr. Cresc. Grammatic.]
[Footnote 35: Isaiah viii. 12, 13.]
[Footnote 36: Epist. 3, lib. 2, et in Epist. ad. Julian, de Haeret. baptiz.]
[Footnote 37: Matt, xxvlii. 20.]
[Footnote 38: i Kings xix. 14, 18.]
[Footnote 39: Contr. Auxent.]
[Footnote 40: 2 Tim. ii. 19.]
[Footnote 41: Exod. xxxii. 4.]
[Footnote 42: i Kings xxii. 6, 11–23.]
[Footnote 43: Jer. xviii. 18.]
[Footnote 44: Jer. iv. 9.]
[Footnote 45: Matt. xxvi. 3, 4.]
[Footnote 46: 1 Kings xviii. 17.]
[Footnote 47: Luke xxiii. 2, 5.]
[Footnote 48: Acts xvii. 6, xxiv. 5.]
[Footnote 49: 2 Pet. iii. 16.]
[Footnote 50: Rom. v. 20, vi. 1, 14, 15.]
[Footnote 51: Phil. i. 15, 16.]
[Footnote 52: Phil. ii. 21.]
[Footnote 53: 2 Pet. ii. 22.]
[Footnote 54: 1 Pet. ii. 8.]
[Footnote 55: Luke ii. 34.]
[Footnote 56: 2 Cor. ii. 15, 16.]
[Footnote 57: Rom. i. 16.]
[Footnote 58: 1 Cor. xiv. 33.]
[Footnote 59: 1 John iii. 8. Gal. ii. 17.]
GENERAL SYLLABUS
The design of the Author in these Christian Institutes is twofold, relating, First to the knowledge of God, as the way to attain a blessed immortality; and, in connection with and subservience to this, Secondly, to the knowledge of ourselves.
In the prosecution of this design, he strictly follows the method of the Apostles' Creed, as being most familiar to all Christians. For as the Creed consists of four parts, the first relating to God the Father, the second to the Son, the third to the Holy Spirit, the fourth to the Church; so the Author distributes the whole of this work into Four Books, corresponding respectively to the four parts of the Creed; as will clearly appear from the following detail:—
I. The first article of the Creed relates to God the Father, and to the creation, conservation, and government of all things, which are included in his omnipotence.
So the first book is on the knowledge of God, considered as the Creator, Preserver, and Governor of the universe at large, and every thing contained in it. It shows both the nature and tendency of the true knowledge of the Creator—that this is not learned in the schools, but that every man from his birth is self-taught it—Yet that the depravity of men is so great as to corrupt and extinguish this knowledge, partly by ignorance, partly by wickedness; so that it neither leads him to glorify God as he ought, nor conducts him to the attainment of happiness—And though this internal knowledge is assisted by all the
