Calvin’s Institutes – Introduction

The famous Protestant Reformer John Calvin was a mere twenty seven years old when he began the massive task of writing what we now know as the Institutes of the Christian Religion. He felt a deep urge to present and unfold his insights, to defend the Protestant cause to those outside, and to arrange and organise his thoughts, to systematise what he knew. The undertaking took several revisions and he spent in total eighteen of his fifty years in writing.

In light of the five hundred year anniversary of Luther’s nailing his 95 theses to a church in Wittenburg, I will run a series on Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion. Throughout the year I will quoting and commenting on various small sections in this large book.

In this post I will give a brief listing of the contents of his Institutes.

Contents

BOOK I – Knowledge of God

  1. Connection between the Knowledge of God and the Knowledge of Ourselves. Nature of the connection
  2. What it is to Know God. Tendency of this Knowledge
  3. The Human Mind naturally imbued with the Knowledge of God
  4. This Knowledge stifled or corrupted, ignorantly or maliciously
  5. The Knowledge of God displayed in the fabric and constant Government of the Universe
  6. The need of Scripture as a Guide and Teacher in coming to God as a Creator
  7. The Testimony of the Spirit necessary to give full authority to Scripture. The impiety of pretending that the Credibility of Scripture depends on the judgment of the Church
  8. The Credibility of Scripture sufficiently proved, in so far as Natural Reason admits
  9. All the principles of piety subverted by fanatics, who substitute revelations for Scripture
  10. In Scripture, the true God opposed, exclusively, to all the gods of the Heathen
  11. Impiety of attributing a visible form to God. The setting up of Idols a revolt against the True God
  12. God distinguished from Idols, that He may be the exclusive object of Worship
  13. The Unity of the Divine Essence in Three Persons taught, in Scripture, from the foundation of the World
  14. In the Creation of the World, and all things in it, the True God distinguished by certain marks from fictitious gods
  15. State in which man was created. The Faculties of the Soul—The Image of God—Free Will—Original Righteousness
  16. The World, created by God, still cherished and protected by Him. Each and all of its parts governed by His Providence
  17. Use to be made of this Doctrine
  18. The instrumentality of the wicked employed by God, while He continues free from every taint

BOOK II – Knowledge of Man

  1. Through the Fall and revolt of Adam the whole Human Race made accursed and degenerate. of Original Sin
  2. Man now deprived of Freedom of Will, and miserably enslaved
  3. Every thing proceeding from the corrupt Nature of Man damnable
  4. How God works in the hearts of men
  5. The Arguments usually alleged in support of Free Will refuted
  6. Redemption for lost man to be sought in Christ
  7. The Law given, not to retain a people for itself, but to keep alive the Hope of Salvation in Christ until his Advent
  8. Exposition of the Moral Law
  9. Christ, though known to the Jews under the Law, yet only manifested under the Gospel
  10. The resemblance between the Old Testament and the New
  11. The difference between the two Testaments
  12. Christ, to perform the Office of Mediator, behoved to become man
  13. Christ clothed with the true substance of Human Nature
  14. How two natures constitute the Person of the Mediator
  15. Three things chiefly to be regarded in Christ; viz., his Offices of Prophet, King, and Priest
  16. How Christ performed the Office of Redeemer in procuring our salvation. The Death, Resurrection, and Ascension of Christ
  17. Christ rightly and properly said to have merited Grace and Salvation for us

BOOK III – Knowledge of Salvation

  1. The Benefits of Christ made available to us by the Secret Operation of the Spirit
  2. Of Faith. The Definition of it. Its peculiar properties
  3. Regeneration by Faith. Of Repentance
  4. Penitence, as explained in the sophistical jargon of the Schoolmen, widely different from the purity required by the Gospel. Of Confession and Satisfactions
  5. Of the modes of Supplementing Satisfactions, viz., Indulgences and Purgatory
  6. The Life of a Christian Man. Scriptural Arguments exhorting to it
  7. A Summary of the Christian Life. Of Self-Denial
  8. Of Bearing the Cross—one branch of Self-Denial
  9. Of Meditating on the Future Life
  10. How to use the Present Life, and the comforts of it
  11. Of Justification by Faith. Both the name and the reality defined
  12. Necessity of contemplating the Judgment-seat of God, in order to be seriously convinced of the Doctrine of Gratuitous Justification
  13. Two things to be observed in Gratuitous Justification
  14. The beginning of Justification. In what sense progressive
  15. The boasted merit of Works subversive both of the Glory of God, in bestowing Righteousness, and of the certainty of Salvation
  16. Refutation of the Calumnies by which it is attempted to throw odium on this doctrine
  17. The Promises of the Law and the Gospel reconciled
  18. The Righteousness of Works improperly inferred from Rewards
  19. Of Christian Liberty
  20. Of Prayer—a perpetual exercise of Faith. The daily benefits derived from it
  21. Of the Eternal Election, by which God has predestinated some to Salvation and others to Destruction
  22. This Doctrine confirmed by Proofs from Scripture
  23. Refutation of the Calumnies by which this Doctrine is always unjustly assailed
  24. Election confirmed by the Calling of God. The Reprobate bring upon themselves the righteous destruction to which they are doomed
  25. Of the Last Resurrection

BOOK IV – Knowledge of the Church

  1. Of the True Church. Duty of cultivating Unity with her, as the mother of all the godly
  2. Comparison between the False Church and the True
  3. Of the Teachers and Ministers of the Church. Their Election and Office
  4. Of the State of the Primitive Church, and the Mode of Government in use before the Papacy
  5. The Ancient Form of Government utterly corrupted by the tyranny of the Papacy
  6. Of the Primacy of the Romish See
  7. Of the Beginning and Rise of the Romish Papacy, till it attained a height by which the Liberty of the Church was destroyed, and all true Rule overthrown
  8. Of the Power of the Church in Articles of Faith. The unbridled license of the Papal Church in destroying Purity of Doctrine
  9. Of Councils and their Authority
  10. Of the Power of making Laws. The cruelty of the Pope and his adherents, in this respect, in tyrannically oppressing and destroying Souls
  11. Of the Jurisdiction of the Church and the Abuses of it, as exemplified in the Papacy
  12. Of the Discipline of the Church, and its principal use in Censures and Excommunication
  13. Of Vows. The miserable entanglements caused by Vowing rashly
  14. Of the Sacraments
  15. Of Baptism
  16. Pædobaptism. Its accordance with the Institution of Christ, and the nature of the sign
  17. Of the Lord’s Supper, and the benefits conferred by it
  18. Of the Popish Mass. How it not only profanes, but annihilates the Lord’s Supper
  19. Of the Five Sacraments, falsely so called. Their spuriousness proved, and their true character explained
  20. Of Civil Government

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