“The characteristic of a true sovereign is, to acknowledge that, in the administration of his kingdom, he is a minister of God. He, who does not make his reign subservient to the divine glory, acts the part not of a king but a robber. He, moreover, deceives himself, who anticipates long prosperity to any kingdom which is not ruled by the scepter of God, that is, by his divine word. For the heavenly oracle is infallible which has declared, that “where there is no vision the people perish.” (Prov. xxix. 18)

Let not a contemptuous idea dissuade you from the investigation of this cause. We, indeed, are perfectly conscious how poor and abject we are: in the presence of God we are miserable sinners, and in the sight of men most despised - we are (if you will) the mere dregs and off-scourings of the world, or worse, if worse can be named: so that before God there remains nothing of which we can glory save only his mercy, by which, without any merit of our own, we are admitted to the hope of eternal salvation: and before men not even this much remains, since we can glory only in our infirmity, a thing which, in the estimation of men, it is the greatest ignominy even tacitly to confess. But our doctrine must stand sublime above all the glory of the world and invincible by all its power, because it is not ours, but that of the living God and his anointed, whom the Father has appointed King, that he may rule from the sea to sea, and from the rivers even to the ends of the earth; and so rule as to smite the whole world and its strength of iron and brass, its splendor of gold and silver, with the mere rod of His mouth, and break them into pieces like a potter’s vessel; accordingly to the magnificent predictions of the prophets respecting his Kingdom (Daniel ii:34 ; Isaiah xi: 4 ; Psalm ii: 9).”

— John Calvin, Prefatory address to the King of France, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Vol. 1, pg. 5, ( Eerdmans 1953, translated by Henry Beveridge)