Calvin was struck with that exclusive self-love which exists in man. He believed, as was said by Pascal, a man whose intellect in many respects resembled his own, that ‘since sin occurred man has lost the first of his loves, the love for God; and the love for himself being left alone in this great soul, capable of an infinite love, this self-love has extended itself and overflowed into the void left by the love for God; and thus he has loved himself alone and all things for himself, that is to say, infinitely.’ Calvin energetically demands of man love to God. ‘If a man,’ says he, ‘is so sensitive that he is moved to avenge himself the moment he is wounded, and yet does not trouble himself at all when God is insulted and his law thrown to the ground, does it not show clearly that he is altogether fleshly, yea, more, that he is brutal (_tenant de la brute_)? It is a common characteristic of men, that if any wrong is done to them, they will be disturbed about it to the end. Let the honor of a man be touched, he flies immediately into a rage, and cares for nothing but to proceed against the offender. Let a man be robbed, his anger will be unappeasable. He is concerned about his purse, his meadows, his possessions, his houses, whichever it may be, and he will feel that he is wronged. But the man who has well regulated affections will not have so much concern for his own honor or for his own property as for the justice of God when this is violated. We ought to be affected by offences committed against God rather than by what merely concerns ourselves. There are very few who care at all about those offences. And if there be some who will say, “It grieves me that people thus sin against God,” and who nevertheless allow themselves to do as much evil or more than others, they show plainly that they are mere hypocrites. They persecute men rather than hate vice, and they prove that what they say is only feigning.’[175]
Calvin in treating of other subjects appears full of grace and simplicity. Surrounded as he was by violent enemies, he felt a lively sympathy with David when in his Psalms he gives utterance to that cry of anguish,—‘O Lord, how are mine enemies multiplied!’ Calvin likewise knew what it was to be hated by furious enemies.