Archive for September 19th, 2008
[C.f. Calvin on General Love.]
Calvin:
all men under divine wrath:
sermons
1) For the Apostle testifies the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ to us and leads us to God to be reconciled to him, whereas we are naturally children of wrath. Calvin, Sermons on Ephesians, 1:1-3, p., 14.
2) For, by nature, we can do nothing else but provoke God’s wrath; wickedness will always reign in us; and we are held down under the bonds and tyranny of Satan. Calvin, Sermons on Ephesians, 1:1-3, p., 33.
3) It is true that our father Adam was created after the image of God [Gen 1:26] and that he was excellent in his first estate, but after the coming in of sin we all became utterly helpless, so that even Adam did not have any strength in himself, and his free will that was given him served him to no other purpose but to make him the more inexcusable. For he fell wilfully and through his own malice. But by this we see that sort of constancy he had in him, for having been created with utmost care he fell, and ruined himself, and ourselves with him. Now, then we are all born children of wrath and cursed of God. Calvin, Sermons on Ephesians, 1:4-6, p., 41.
4) Who are you O wretched creature? For you see you are separated from your God even from your birth. Look, you are his enemy and inheritor of his wrath, and furthermore, there is nothing in yourself which does not tend to evil and perverseness. Calvin, Sermons on Ephesians, 1:7-10, p., 63.
all men hated by God:
sermons
1) And why is Jesus Christ called God’s well-beloved, as he is termed in the seventeenth chapter of Matthew [v.5] and in other places, and also is shown to be so in the prophet Isaiah? [Isa 43:4]. It is thereby shown us that God justly hates us and abhors us so long as we remain in our own natural state… For (as I have said already) we are hated… Calvin’s Sermons on Ephesians, 1:4-6, p., 45.