Calvin
General Editors
John Baillie (18861960) served as President of the World Council
of Churches, a member of the British Council of Churches, Moderator
of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, and Dean of the
Faculty of Divinity at the University of Edinburgh. John T. McNeill
(18851975) was Professor of the History of European Christianity at
the University of Chicago and then Auburn Professor of Church
History at Union Theological Seminary in New York. Henry P. Van
Dusen (18971975) was an early and inuential member of the World
Council of Churches and served at Union Theological Seminary in New
York as Roosevelt Professor of Systematic Theology and later as
President.
the library of christian classics
CalvinInstitutes of the Christian Religionvolume two
Edited by
John T. McNeillTranslated and indexed by
Ford Lewis Battles
1960 The Westminster Press Reissued 2006 by Westminster John
Knox Press, Louisville, Kentucky. All rights reserved. No part of
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the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. ISBN-13:
978-0-664-22028-0 ISBN-10: 0-664-22028-2
CALVIN: INSTITUTES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGIONBOOKS III.XX TO
IV.XX
850
INSTITUTES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION
BOOK III
C H A P T E R XXPRAYER, WHICH IS THE CHIEF EXERCISE OF FAITH,
AND BY WHICH W E DAILY RECEIVE GOD'S BENEFITS1
{The nature and value of prayer, 1-3) 1. Faith and prayer a From
those matters so far discussed, we clearly see how destitute and
devoid of all good things man is, and how he lacks all aids to
salvation. Therefore, if he seeks resources to succor him in his
need, he must go outside himself and get them elsewhere. It was
afterward explained to us that the Lord willingly and freely
reveals himself in his Christ. For in Christ he offers all
happiness in place of our misery, all wealth in place of our
neediness; in him he opens to us the heavenly treasures that our
whole faith may contemplate his beloved Son, our whole expectation
depend upon him, and our whole hope cleave to and rest in him.
This, indeed, is that secret and hidden philosophy2 which cannot be
wrested from syllogisms. But they whose eyes God has opened surely
learn it by heart, that in his light they may see light [Ps. 36:9].
But after we have been instructed by faith to recognize that
whatever we need and whatever we lack is in God, and in our Lord
Jesus Christ, in whom the Father willed all the fullness of his
bounty to abide [cf. Col. 1:19; John 1:16] so that we may all draw
from it as from an overflowing spring, it remains for us to seek in
him, and in prayers to ask of him, what we have learned to be in
him. Otherwise, to know God as the master and bestower of all good
things, who invites us to request them of him, and still not go to
him and not ask of himthis would be of as little profit as for a
man to neglect a treasure, buried and hidden in the earth, after it
had been pointed out to him. Accordingly, the apostle, in order to
show that true faith cannot be indifferent about calling upon God,
has laid down this order: just as faith is born from the gospel, so
through it our hearts are trained toThis thoughtful and ample
chapter, with its tone of devout warmth, takes its place in the
forefront of historically celebrated discussions of prayer, such as
Tertullian's De oratione (CCL Tertullian I. 257-274; tr. ANCLXI.
178-204); Origen, nepieixvs (MPG 11. 415-562; tr. LCC II. 238-287;
ACWXIX. 3-140); Gregory of Nyssa, On the Lord's Prayer (MPG 44.
1119-1194); and the short treatises of Augustine (MPL 47.
1113-1127) and of Hugh of St. Victor (MPL 176. 977-988). R. S.
Wallace devotes a revealing chapter to Calvin's teaching on prayer,
with citations from many of his works, in his Calvin's Doctrine of
the Christian Life, pp. 271-295. 2 Cf. the note on Christian
philosophy, p. 6, note 8; III. vii. 1, note 1, and the references
to philosophers as a class in I. v. 12; I. xv. 6; III. vii. 2; III.
vi. 1, 3; III. viii. 9.1
CH. XX
THE WAY WE RECEIVE THE GRACE OF CHRIST
851
call upon God's name [Rom. 10:14-17]. And this is precisely what
he had said a little before: the Spirit of adoption, who seals the
witness of the gospel in our hearts [Rom. 8:16], raises up our
spirits to dare show forth to God their desires, to stir up
unspeakable groanings [Rom. 8:26], and confidently cry, "Abba!
Fatherl" [Rom. 8:15]. "Now we must more fully discuss this last
point, since it was previously only mentioned in passing and, as it
were, cursorily touched upon.3 2. The necessity of prayer b It is,
therefore, by the benefit of prayer that we reach those riches
which are laid up for us with the Heavenly Father. For there is a
communion of men with God by which, having entered the heavenly
sanctuary, they appeal to him in person concerning his promises in
order to experience, where necessity so demands, that what they
believed was not vain, although he had promised it in word alone.
Therefore we see that to us nothing is promised to be expected from
the Lord, which we are not also bidden t
