Summary of Book 1 - Chapters 14 to 18

In the final chapters of Book 1, Calvin covers a wide range of topics.

He talks about the True God who created the world. He reaffirms that Scripture should be used to test all conjecture. He talks about angels, devils, and Satan. He discusses guardian angels, but is not certain if each person has one. He clarifies that Satan and his devilish helpers are always constrained by God's will. So any evil in the world will always be turned to good through God's intervention. God is not the ultimate origin of evil; free will is. However, God allows evil and always, eventually, produces a greater good from it.

He talks about the state of man at his creation. We were created in the divine image. So, we cannot attain to a clear and solid knowledge of God, without a mutual acquaintance with ourselves. We are spirits who dwell in houses of clay. The spirit was constructed in the divine image.

Those who profess themselves to be disciples of Christ, and yet seek for free will in man, now lost and overwhelmed in spiritual ruin, in striking out a middle path between the opinions of the philosophers and the doctrine of heaven, are evidently deceived, so that they touch neither heaven nor earth.

The world was made by God and he continually takes care of his works. He is a living God who is intimately involved with his creation. Nothing can happen but what is subject to his knowledge, and decreed by his will. As discussed above, he well knows how to use evil instruments for the accomplishment of good purposes.  In Isaiah, God says: "I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things."

God uses the agency of the impious, and inclines their minds to execute his judgments, yet without the least stain of his perfect purity. Men can effect nothing but by the secret will of God. God fulfills his righteous will by the wicked wills of wicked men.