Child:That we place all our trust in God.
Minister:How is this done?
C:When we know him to be mighty and perfectly good.
M:Is this enough?
C:Far from it.
M:Why?
C:Because we are unworthy that he should exercise his power to help us, or for our salvation show us how good he is.
M:What then is needed further?
C:Just that each of us should affirm with his mind, that he is loved by him, and that he is willing to be his Father and the Author of his salvation.
M:Where will this be apparent to us?
C:In his Word, where he reveals his mercy to us in Christ, and testifies of his love toward us.
M:Then the foundation and beginning of faith in God is to know him in Christ? (John 17:3)
C:Quite so.
-- taken from John Calvin's Catechism of the Church of Geneva (1545) translated and printed in J. K. S. Reid's Calvin: Theological Treatises from The Library of Christian Classics