[ksen]

It being thus manifest that God, foreseeing the inefficiency of his image imprinted on the fair form of the universe, has given the assistance of his Word to all whom he has ever been pleased to instruct effectually, we, too, must pursue this straight path, if we aspire in earnest to a genuine contemplation of God; - we must go, I say, to the Word, where the character of God, drawn from his works is described accurately and to the life; these works being estimated, not by our depraved judgement, but by the standard of eternal truth.

If God intended to show Himself to all Mankind through His Creation, why would He not also intend to have His Word be effectual to all Mankind when the revelation of Himself in the Creation was found to be insufficient?

[Calvinist_Dark_Lord]

If God intended to show Himself to all Mankind through His Creation, why would He not also intend to have His Word be effectual to all Mankind when the revelation of Himself in the Creation was found to be insufficient?

It seems to me that one is assuming that God intended to make His word be affectual to all Mankind. i do not believe that Calvin has yet gotten in to aspects of the Divine Will. At this point, he has only maintained that God has given a (partial) revelation of Himself in the creation, and for a fuller revelation, one must attend to His special revelation, namely the Scriptures.

Calvin is not making assumptions in order to build a theology, he is taking slower steps, and attempting to avoid as many a-priori assumptions as possible. We could for example, question why God would give "general revelation" at all when He knew from all eternity that it would not be sufficient, or even why He did not make it sufficient, thereby eliminating the need for "special revelation".