Institutes of Christian religion - Calvin - VII - Chapter 12, 13 of Book 1

Required reading
Institutes of Christian religion by John Calvin (Available from Amazon or free here) -   Read Chapter 12 and Chapter 13 of Book 1, but Chapter 13 only up to paragraph 14.

My summary
In Chapter Twelve, Calvin briefly discusses worship of God, apart from idols: 'Let it suffice to remember, that whatever offices of piety are bestowed anywhere else than on God alone, are of the nature of sacrilege. First, superstition attached divine honours to the sun and stars, or to idols: afterwards ambition followed—ambition which, decking man in the spoils of God, dared to profane all that was sacred. And though the principle of worshipping a supreme Deity continued to be held, still the practice was to sacrifice promiscuously to genii and minor gods, or departed heroes: so prone is the descent to this vice of communicating to a crowd that which God strictly claims as his own peculiar right!'

Then today we begin Chapter Thirteen.  Firstly Calvin defends the trinitarian understanding of God, particularly the use of the term 'person': 'By person, then, I mean a subsistence in the Divine essence,—a subsistence which, while related to the other two, is distinguished from them by incommunicable properties. By subsistence we wish something else to be understood than essence.'

Then we read Calvin's defence of the divinity of the Son, particularly as seen by:
(i) the son's eternal nature;
(ii) the Old Testament testimony;
(iii) the New Testament testimony;
(iv) the works of Christ;
(v) the miracles of Christ;
(vi) the salvation found in Christ;
(vii) the prayers offered to Christ.

What grabbed me
I liked Calvin's comment about our attempts to understand God: 'But although God, in order to keep us within the bounds of soberness, treats sparingly of his essence, still, by the two attributes which I have mentioned, he at once suppresses all gross imaginations, and checks the audacity of the human mind. His immensity surely ought to deter us from measuring him by our sense, while his spiritual nature forbids us to indulge in carnal or earthly speculation concerning him. With the same view he frequently represents heaven as his dwelling-place. It is true, indeed, that as he is incomprehensible, he fills the earth also, but knowing that our minds are heavy and grovel on the earth, he raises us above the worlds that he may shake off our sluggishness and inactivity.'

It is only sinful pride that makes us think that the infinite God cannot be true because he cannot be understood by us finite creatures.

Next week's reading
Conclude Chapter 13.

Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.