Ebook Commentaries on the Epistles of Paul

All the writings of Calvin are marked by extraordinary vigour, learning, and judgment. Few of them are so well known as The Institutes of the Christian Religion, a systematic treatise, which, though written at the early age of twenty four, was universally acknowledged to be a production of the highest ability. Concise and luminous, powerful in argument, scriptural, devout and practical, it has not been superseded by any later work. But his expository writings possess equal, if not stronger, claims on the attention of divines. They contributed powerfully to diffuse the pure gospel of Christ, commanded the applause of all the Reformed Churches, and received even from enemies no mean commendation. More than a century after his valuable life had closed, they occupied a place in every theological library. The learned Matthew Poole, in the preface to his Synopsis, apologizes for the small number of his quotations from them, on the express ground, that the commentaries themselves, he had every reason to believe, were in the hands of all his readers.

This reputation, after having suffered a partial eclipse, will soon, in all probability, regain its former brightness. The first tendency to this improvement was discovered in a neighbouring country, where the distinguishing doctrines of Christianity had long been supplanted by a creed little removed from infidelity.