Warfield’s essay summarizing Calvin’s “Doctrine of the Knowledge of God” is important in two respects. One, in this small portion of the essay, Warfield gives us a complete and thorough summary of Calvin’s doctrine of natural revelation. Although some feel this is more Warfield’s understanding than Calvin’s, I think it rather obvious from Warfield’s careful citations of Calvin, the supposed wedge between the two is more imagined than real. Second, when Warfield develops his notion of general revelation as the necessary backdrop and context for special revelation (in his essay, “The Biblical Idea of Revelation,” reprinted in his famous Inspiration and Authority of the Bible), he draws heavily upon Calvin’s view.

This essay was originally published in The Princeton Theological Review, vii. April, 1909, 219-325. It has been reprinted in Calvin and Augustine (P & R 1956), 29-130; and Warfield, Calvin and Calvinism, vol 5., in the Works of Benjamin B. Warfield (Oxford Edition, 1931), 29-130. The essay can also be found here in its entirety: Calvin's Doctrine of the Knowledge of God

We are to contemplate God in his works . . .

The vigor and enthusiasm with which Calvin prosecutes his exposition of the patefaction [manifestation]of God in nature and history is worth emphasizing further. [Calvin] even turns aside (Institutes I.5.9) to express his special confidence in it, in contrast to a priori reasoning, as the "right way and the best method of seeking God." A speculative inquiry into the essence of God, he suggests, merely fatigues the mind and flutters in the brain. If we would know God vitally, in our hearts, let us rather contemplate Him in His works. These, we shall find, as the Psalmist points out, declare His greatness and conduce to His praise. Once more, we may observe here the concreteness of Calvin's mind and method, and are reminded of the practical end he keeps continually in view. So far is he from losing himself in merely speculative elaborations or prosecuting his inquiries under the spur of "presumptuous curiosity," that the practical religious motive is always present, dominating his thought.

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