though the French edition of the
_Institutes_ fills more than eight hundred large octavo pages.
However, all things are relative, and compared to many other
theologians Calvin is really concise and readable.

There is not one original thought in any of Calvin's works. I do not
mean "original" in any narrow sense, for to the searcher for sources it
seems that {164} there is literally nothing new under the sun. But
there is nothing in Calvin for which ample authority cannot be found in
his predecessors. Recognizing the Bible as his only standard, he
interpreted it according to the new Protestant doctors. First and
foremost he was dependent on Luther, and to an extent that cannot be
exaggerated. Especially from the _Catechisms_, _The Bondage of the
Will_, and _The Babylonian Captivity of the Church_, Calvin drew all
his principal doctrines even to details. He also borrowed something
from Bucer, Erasmus and Schwenckfeld, as well as from three writers who
were in a certain sense his models. Melanchthon's _Commonplaces of
Theology_, Zwingli's _True and False Religion_, and Farel's _Brief
Instruction in Christian Faith_ had all done tentatively what he now
did finally.

[Sidenote: Theocentric character]

The center of Calvin's philosophy was God as the Almighty Will. His
will was the source of all things, of all deeds, of all standards of
right and wrong and of all happiness. The sole purpose of the
universe, and the sole intent of its Creator, was the glorification of
the Deity. Man's chief end was "to glorify God and enjoy him forever."
God accomplished this self-exaltation in all things, but chiefly
through men, his noblest work, and he did it in various ways, by the
salvation of some and the damnation of others. And his act was purely
arbitrary; he foreknew and predestined the fate of every man from the
beginning; he damned and saved irrespective of foreseen merit. "God's
eternal decree" Calvin himself called "frightful." [1] The outward
sign of election to grace he thought was moral behavior, and in this
respect he demanded the uttermost from himself and from his followers.
The elect, he thought, were certain of salvation. The highest virtue
was faith, a matter more {165} of the heart than of the reason. The
divinity of Christ, he said, was apprehended by Christian experience,
not by speculation. Reason was fallacious; left to itself the human
spirit "could do nothing but lose itself in infinite error,