Calvin on Man’s Natural State*

Excerpts from Calvin's Institutes, Book II, Chapter 1, Beveridge Translation (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1957). The reader who makes it through this unusual choice for our "meditation" this month will be richly rewarded. As long as "meditation" doesn't imply "light," in your mind, you will see why we made this choice. The reader will recognize Calvin's influence on the Reformed confessions, not only in content and argument (if the sin of Adam was passed on only by imitation, is the...