John Calvin.
Institutes of the Christian Religion.
Book Third.
The mode of obtaining the grace of Christ. The benefits it confers,
and the effects resulting from it.
Contents
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 satisfaction.
5. Of the modes of supplementing satisfaction, 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.5
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.
Subject.
The two former Books treated of God the Creator and Redeemer.
This Book, which contains a full exposition of the Third Part of the
Apostles' Creed, treats of the mode of procuring the grace of
Christ, the benefits which we derive and the effects which follow
from it, or of the operations of the Holy Spirit in regard to our
salvation.
The subject is comprehended under seven principal heads, which
almost all point to the same end, namely, the doctrine of faith.
I. As it is by the secret and special operation of the Holy
Spirit that we enjoy Christ and all his benefits, the
First Chapter treats of this operation, which is the
foundation of faith, new life, and all holy exercises.
II. Faith being, as it were, the hand by which we embrace
Christ the Redeemer, offered to us by the Holy Spirit,
Faith is fully considered in the Second Chapter.
III. In further explanation of Saving Faith, and the benefits
derived from it, it is mentioned that true repentance always
flows from true faith. The doctrine of Repentance is
considered generally in the Third Chapter, Popish Repentance
in the Fourth Chapter, Indulgences and Purgatory in the
Fifth Chapter. Chapters Sixth to Tenth are devoted to a
special consideration of the different parts of true
Repentance, viz., mortification of the flesh, and
quickening of the Spirit.
IV. More clearly to show the utility of this Faith, and the
effects resulting from it, the doctrine of Justification
by Faith is explained in the Eleventh Chapter, and certain
questions connected with it explained from the Twelfth to
the Eighteenth Chapter. Christian liberty a kind of
accessory to Justification, is considered in the
Nineteenth Chapter.
V. The Twentieth Chapter is devoted to Prayer, the principal
exercise of faith, and, as it were, the medium or
instrument through which we daily procure blessings from
God.
VI. As all do not indiscriminately embrace the fellowship of
Christ offered in the Gospel, but those only whom the Lord
favors with the effectual and special grace of his Spirit,
lest any should impugn this arrangement, Chapters twenty-
first to twenty-fourth are occupied with a necessary and
apposite discussion of the subject of Election.
. VII. Lastly, As the hard warfare which the Christian is obliged
constantly to wage may have the effect of disheartening him,
it is shown how it may be alleviated by meditating on the
final resurrection. Hence the subject of the Resurrection
is considered in the twenty-fifth Chapter.
Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Vol. 3, Part 1
(continued in part 2...)
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