Institutes of the Christian Religion - Calvin, John; Beveridge, Henry (Peabody, Mass. : Hendrickson Publishers, 2007)
Prefatory Address by John Calvin to Francis I, King of France (1636) -- Epistle to the Reader (Calvin, 1539) -- Subject of the Present Work (Calvin, 1545) -- Epistle to the Reader (Calvin, 1559) -- Method and Arrangement, or Subject of the Whole Work -- Book First -- Argument -- Knowledge of God and of Ourselves Mutually Connected. Nature of the Connection -- What It Is to Know God -- Tendency of This Knowledge -- Knowledge of God Naturally Implanted in the Human Mind -- Knowledge of God Stifled or Corrupted, Ignorantly or Maliciously -- Knowledge of God Conspicuous in the Creation, and Continual Government of the World -- Need of Scripture, as a Guide and Teacher, in Coming to God as a Creator -- 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 -- Credibility of Scripture Sufficiently Proved, Insofar as Natural Reason Admits -- All the Principles of Piety Subverted by Fanatics, Who Substitute Revelations for Scripture -- In Scripture, the True God Opposed, Exclusively, to All the Gods of the Heathen -- Impiety of Attributing a Visible Form to God. The Setting Up of Idols a Defection from the True God -- God Distinguished from Idols, That He May Be the Exclusive Object of Worship -- Unity of the Divine Essence in Three Persons Taught, in Scripture, from the Foundation of the World -- In the Creation of the World, and All Things in It, the True God Distinguished by Certain Marks from Fictitious Gods -- State in Which Man Was Created. The Faculties of the Soul -- the Image of God -- Free Will -- Original Righteousness -- World, Created by God, Still Cherished and Protected by Him. Each and All of Its Parts Governed by His Providence -- Use to Be Made of the Doctrine of Providence -- Instrumentality of the Wicked Employed by God, While He Continues Free from Every Taint -- Through the Fall and Revolt of Adam, the Whole Human Race Made Accursed and Degenerate. Of Original Sin -- Man Now Deprived of Freedom of Will, and Miserably Enslaved -- Everything Proceeding from the Corrupt Nature of Man Damnable -- How God Works in the Hearts of Men -- Arguments Usually Alleged in Support of Free Will Refuted -- Redemption for Man Lost to Be Sought in Christ -- Law Given, Not to Retain a People for Itself, but to Keep Alive the Hope of Salvation in Christ Until His Advent -- Exposition of the Moral Law -- Christ, Though Known to the Jews under the Law, Yet Only Manifested under the Gospel -- Resemblance Between the Old Testament and the New -- Difference Between the Two Testaments -- Christ, to Perform the Office of Mediator, Behooved to Become Man -- Christ Clothed with the True Substance of Human Nature -- How Two Natures Constitute the Person of the Mediator -- Three Things Briefly to Be Regarded in Christ -- i.e., His Offices of Prophet, King, and Priest -- How Christ Performed the Office of Redeemer in Procuring Our Salvation. The Death, Resurrection, and Ascension of Christ -- Christ Rightly and Properly Said to Have Merited Grace and Salvation for Us -- Benefits of Christ Made Available to Us by the Secret Operation of the Spirit -- Of Faith. The Definition of It. Its Peculiar Properties -- Regeneration by Faith Of Repentance -- Penitence, as Explained in the Sophistical Jargon of the Schoolmen, Widely Different from the Purity Required by the Gospel. Of Confession and Satisfaction -- Of the Modes of Supplementing Satisfaction, i.e., Indulgences and Purgatory -- Life of a Christian Man. Scriptural Arguments Exhorting to It -- Summary of the Christian Life. Of Self-Denial -- Of Bearing the Cross -- One Branch of Self-Denial -- Of Meditating on the Future Life -- How to Use the Present Life, and the Comforts of It -- Of Justification by Faith. Both the Name and the Reality Defined -- Necessity of Contemplating the Judgment Seat of God, in Order to Be Seriously Convinced of the Doctrine of Gratuitous Justification -- Two Things to Be Observed in Gratuitous Justification -- Beginning of Justification. In What Sense Progressive -- Boasted Merit of Works Subversive Both of the Glory of God, in Bestowing Righteousness, and of the Certainty of Salvation -- Refutation of the Calumnies by Which It Is Attempted to Throw Odium on This Doctrine -- Promises of the Law and the Gospel Reconciled -- Righteousness of Works Improperly Inferred from Rewards -- Of Christian Liberty -- Of Prayer -- A Perpetual Exercise of Faith. The Daily Benefits Derived from It -- Of the Eternal Election, by Which God Has Predestinated Some to Salvation, and Others to Destruction -- This Doctrine Confirmed by Proofs from Scripture -- Refutation of the Calumnies by Which This Doctrine Is Always Unjustly Assailed -- Election Confirmed by the Calling of God. The Reprobate Bring Upon Themselves the Righteous Destruction to Which They Are Doomed -- Of the Last Resurrection -- Of the True Church. Duty of Cultivating Unity with Her, as the Mother of All the Godly -- Comparison between the False Church and the True -- Of the Teachers and Ministers of the Church. Their Election and Office -- Of the State of the Primitive Church and the Mode of Government in Use before the Papacy -- Ancient Form of Government Utterly Corrupted by the Tyranny of the Papacy -- Of the Primacy of the Romish See -- 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 -- Of the Power of the Church in Articles of Faith. The Unbridled License of the Papal Church in Destroying Purity of Doctrine -- Of Councils and Their Authority -- Of the Power of Making Laws. The Cruelty of the Pope and His Adherents, in This Respect, in Tyrannically Oppressing and Destroying Souls -- Of the Jurisdiction of the Church, and the Abuses of It, as Exemplified in the Papacy -- Of the Discipline of the Church, and Its Principal Use in Censures and Excommunication -- Of Vows. The Miserable Entanglements Caused by Vowing Rashly -- Of the Sacraments -- Of Baptism -- Paedobaptism, Its Accordance with the Institution of Christ, and the Nature of the Sign -- Of the Lord s Supper, and the Benefits Conferred by It -- Of the Popish Mass. How It Not Only Profanes, but Annihilates the Lord s Supper -- Of the Five Sacraments, Falsely So Called. Their Spuriousness Proved, and Their True Character Explained -- Of Civil Government -- One Hundred Aphorisms : Containing within a Narrow Compass, the Substance and Order of the Four Books of the Institutes of the Christian Religion.
Translation of : Institution de la Religion Chrétienne.
Keywords: Early works.Early works to 1800.