Monday with Jean

I know, I know... it is usually Sundays with Jean. But yesterday I had already posted about "O Sacred head Now Wounded", and it wasn't until late last night that something spectacular happened. Dave and I completed the first volume of the Battles/McNeill version of the Institutes. Yes, Gentle Reader: that means Dave and I have read all 849 pages aloud to one another over the last year and a little. I call that a stupendous feat! It is actually made easier by a great translation, and by a readable Calvin who exhibits a very pastoral heart. So now it is on to the second volume (pages 850 - 1521)!

But before we leave volume one, I had to leave you with at least one last quote from these pages, and again, it is actually Calvin quoting Augustine. I spoke to one of Ben's grad school buddies once who is writing his dissertation on Augustine's Latin writings, and he said he believed all of Calvin's most quotable quotes were actually from Augustine. He just may be correct. Here is a gem:

"The Lord," [Augustine] says, "is faithful, who made Himself our detor--not by accepting anything from us, but by promising us all things."
~Jean Calvin, The Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book III, Chapter 18, Part 7