Nicaea Library › Library

Institutes of the Christian Religion

John Calvin · translated by Henry Beveridge · 1845

Calvin's complete systematic theology, in all four books, in the Beveridge translation.

Edition: CCEL · www.ccel.org

Free to read, with no account needed. Public domain or openly licensed, with every source named.

Read it free online Download for Windows (free)

From the opening: Introduction

By The Rev. John Murray, M.A., Th.M.

The publication in English of another edition of the opus magnum of Christian theology is an event fraught with much encouragement. Notwithstanding the decadence so patent in our present-day world and particularly in the realm of Christian thought and life, the publishers have confidence that there is sufficient interest to warrant such an undertaking. If this faith is justified we have reason for thanksgiving to God. For what would be a better harbinger of another Reformation than widespread recourse to the earnest and sober study of the Word of God which would be evinced by the readiness carefully to peruse The Institutes of the Christian Religion.

Dr. B. B. Warfield in his admirable article, "On the Literary History of the Institutes," has condensed for us the appraisal accorded Calvin's work by the critics who have been most competent to judge. Among these tributes none expresses more adequately, and none with comparable terseness, the appraisal which is Calvin's due than that of the learned Joseph Scaliger, "Solus inter theologos Calvinus."

It would be a presumptuous undertaking to try to set forth all the reasons why Calvin holds that position of eminence in the history of Christian theology. By the grace and in the overruling providence of God there was the convergence of multiple factors, and all of these it would be impossible to trace in their various interrelations and interactions. One of these, however, calls for special mention. Calvin was an exegete and biblical theologian of the first rank. No other one factor comparably served to equip Calvin for the successful prosecution of his greatest work which in 1559 received its definitive edition.

The attitude to Scripture entertained by Calvin and the principles which guided him in its exposition are nowhere stated with more simplicity and fervor than in the Epistle Dedicatory to his first commentary, the commentary on the epistle to the Romans. "Such veneration," he says, "we ought indeed to entertain for the Word of God, that we ought not to pervert it in the least degree by varying expositions; for its majesty is diminished, I know not how much, especially when not expounded with great discretion and with great sobriety. And if it be deemed a great wickedness to contaminate any thing that is dedicated to God, he surely cannot be endured, who, with impure, or…

Keep reading in the library →

Contents (157 sections)

  1. About this edition
  2. The Christian Religion
  3. Introduction
  4. The Printers to the Readers
  5. T[homas] N[orton], the Translator to the Reader
  6. Of Passages from the Holy Scriptures, and from the Apocrypha, Which Are Quoted, or…
  7. The Authors Quoted in the Institutes
  8. John Calvin Prays Peace and Salvation in Christ
  9. John Calvin Prays Peace and Salvation in Christ (continued)
  10. The Epistle to the Reader
  11. Subject of the Present Work
  12. Epistle to the Reader
  13. Method and Arrangement, or Subject of the Whole Work
  14. Of the Knowledge of God the Creator
  15. Of the Knowledge of God the Redeemer, in Christ, as First Manifested to the Fathers Under…
  16. The Benefits It Confers, and the Effects Resulting from It
  17. Of the External Means or Helps by Which God Allures Us into Fellowship with Christ, and…
  18. Of the Knowledge of God the Creator
  19. The Knowledge of God and of Ourselves Mutually Connected. — Nature of the Connection
  20. What It Is to Know God, — Tendency of This Knowledge
  21. Chapter 3
  22. Chapter 4
  23. Chapter 5
  24. Chapter 6
  25. Chapter 7
  26. Chapter 8
  27. Chapter 9
  28. Chapter 10
  29. Chapter 11
  30. Chapter 12
  31. Chapter 13
  32. Chapter 13 (continued)
  33. Chapter 13 (continued)
  34. Chapter 14
  35. Chapter 14 (continued)
  36. Chapter 15
  37. Chapter 16
  38. Chapter 17
  39. Chapter 17 (continued)
  40. The Instrumentality of the Wicked Employed by God, While He Continues Free from Every…
  41. Of the Knowledge of God the Redeemer, in Christ, as First Manifested to the Fathers…
  42. Through the Fall and Revolt of Adam, the Whole Human Race Made Accursed and Degenerate.…
  43. Chapter 2
  44. Chapter 2 (continued)
  45. Chapter 3
  46. Chapter 3 (continued)
  47. Chapter 4
  48. Chapter 5
  49. Chapter 5 (continued)
  50. Chapter 6
  51. Chapter 7
  52. Chapter 7 (continued)
  53. Exposition of the Moral Law
  54. I Am the Lord Thy God, Which Brought Thee Out of the Land of Egypt, Out of the House of…
  55. Thou Shalt Have No Other Gods Before Me
  56. Thou Shalt Not Take the Name of the Lord Thy God in Vain
  57. Honour Thy Father and Thy Mother: That Thy Days May Be Long upon the Land Which the Lord…
  58. Thou Shalt Not Kill
  59. Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery
  60. Thou Shalt Not Steal
  61. Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness against Thy Neighbour
  62. Chapter 9
  63. Chapter 10
  64. Chapter 10 (continued)
  65. Chapter 11
  66. Chapter 12
  67. Chapter 13
  68. Chapter 14
  69. Chapter 15
  70. Chapter 16
  71. Chapter 16 (continued)
  72. Chapter 17
  73. The Mode of Obtaining the Grace of Christ. the Benefits It Confers, and the Effects…
  74. The Benefits of Christ Made Available to Us by the Secret Operation of the Spirit
  75. Chapter 2
  76. Chapter 2 (continued)
  77. Chapter 2 (continued)
  78. Chapter 3
  79. Chapter 3 (continued)
  80. Chapter 4
  81. Chapter 4 (continued)
  82. Chapter 4 (continued)
  83. Chapter 5
  84. Chapter 6
  85. Chapter 7
  86. Chapter 8
  87. Chapter 9
  88. Chapter 10
  89. Chapter 11
  90. Chapter 11 (continued)
  91. Chapter 12
  92. Chapter 13
  93. Chapter 14
  94. Chapter 14 (continued)
  95. Chapter 15
  96. Chapter 16
  97. Chapter 17
  98. Chapter 17 (continued)
  99. The Righteousness of Works Improperly Inferred from Rewards
  100. Chapter 19
  101. Chapter 20
  102. Chapter 20 (continued)
  103. Chapter 20 (continued)
  104. Chapter 20 (continued)
  105. Our Father Which Art in Heaven
  106. Our Father Which Art in Heaven (continued)
  107. Chapter 21
  108. Chapter 22
  109. Chapter 23
  110. Chapter 23 (continued)
  111. Election Confirmed by the Calling of God. the Reprobate Bring upon Themselves the…
  112. Election Confirmed by the Calling of God. the Reprobate Bring upon Themselves the… (continued)
  113. Chapter 25
  114. Chapter 25 (continued)
  115. Of the Holy Catholic Church
  116. Of the True Church. Duty of Cultivating Unity with Her, as the Mother of All the Godly
  117. Of the True Church. Duty of Cultivating Unity with Her, as the Mother of All the Godly (continued)
  118. Chapter 2
  119. Chapter 3
  120. Chapter 4
  121. Chapter 5
  122. Chapter 5 (continued)
  123. Of the Primacy of the Romish See
  124. Chapter 7
  125. Chapter 7 (continued)
  126. Chapter 8
  127. Chapter 9
  128. Chapter 10
  129. Chapter 10 (continued)
  130. Chapter 11
  131. Chapter 11 (continued)
  132. Of the Discipline of the Church, and Its Principal Use in Censures and Excommunication
  133. Of the Discipline of the Church, and Its Principal Use in Censures and Excommunication (continued)
  134. Chapter 13
  135. Chapter 13 (continued)
  136. Chapter 14
  137. Chapter 14 (continued)
  138. Chapter 15
  139. Chapter 15 (continued)
  140. Pædobaptism. Its Accordance with the Institution of Christ, and the Nature of the Sign
  141. Pædobaptism. Its Accordance with the Institution of Christ, and the Nature of the Sign (continued)
  142. Chapter 17
  143. Chapter 17 (continued)
  144. Chapter 17 (continued)
  145. Chapter 17 (continued)
  146. Chapter
  147. Chapter (continued)
  148. Of the Five Sacraments, Falsely So Called. Their Spuriousness Proved, and Their True…
  149. Of Extreme Unction, So Called
  150. Of Ecclesiastical Orders
  151. Chapter 20
  152. Chapter 20 (continued)
  153. Book 1
  154. Book 2
  155. Book 3
  156. Book 4
  157. Book 4 (continued)

How to cite it

Chicago
John Calvin. Institutes of the Christian Religion. Translated by Henry Beveridge. CCEL, 1845. https://www.ccel.org/ccel/calvin/institutes
MLA
John Calvin. Institutes of the Christian Religion. Translated by Henry Beveridge, CCEL, 1845. https://www.ccel.org/ccel/calvin/institutes
APA
John Calvin (1845). Institutes of the Christian Religion (Henry Beveridge, Trans.). CCEL. https://www.ccel.org/ccel/calvin/institutes

More from Reformation