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For Scripture Is The School Of The Holy Spirit, In Which, As Nothing Is Omitted That Is Both Necessary And Useful To Know, So Nothing Is Taught But What Is Expedient To Know. Therefore We Must Guard Against Depriving Believers Of Anything Disclosed About Predestination In Scripture, Lest We Seem Either Wickedly To Defraud Them Of The Blessing Of Their God Or To Accuse And Scoff At The Holy Spirit For Having Published What It Is In Any Way Profitable To Suppress.

-John Calvin

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For Scripture Is The

John Calvin

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For Scripture Is The School Of The Holy Spirit, In Which, As Nothing Is Omitted That Is Both Necessary And Useful To Know, So Nothing Is Taught But What Is Expedient To Know. Therefore We Must Guard Against Depriving Believers Of Anything Disclosed About Predestination In Scripture, Lest We Seem Either Wickedly To Defraud Them Of The Blessing Of Their God Or To Accuse And Scoff At The Holy Spirit For Having Published What It Is In Any Way Profitable To Suppress.

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If We Believe Heaven To Be Our Country, It Is Better For Us To Transmit Our Wealth Thither, Than To Retain It Here, Where We May Lose It By A Sudden Removal.

No One Has Rightly Denied Himself Unless He Has Wholly Resigned Himself To The Lord And Is Willing To Leave Every Detail To His Good Pleasure. If We Put Ourselves In Such A Frame Of Mind, Then, Whatever May Happen To Us, We Shall Never Feel Miserable Or Accuse God Falsely Because Of Our Lot.

We Say, Then, That Scripture Clearly Proves This Much, That God By His Eternal And Immutable Counsel Determined Once For All Those Whom It Was His Pleasure One Day To Admit To Salvation, And Those Whom, On The Other Hand, It Was His Pleasure To Doom To Destruction. We Maintain That This Counsel, As Regards The Elect, Is Founded On His Free Mercy, Without Any Respect To Human Worth, While Those Whom He Dooms To Destruction Are Excluded From Access To Life By A Just And Blameless, But At The Same Time Incomprehensible Judgment

Faith And Patience Are Exceptional Virtues In Those That Suffer. Patience Is The Fruit And Evidence Of Faith.

Accursed Is That Peace Of Which Revolt From God Is The Bond, And Blessed Are Those Contentions By Which It Is Necessary To Maintain The Kingdom Of Christ.

For The Fetus, Though Enclosed In The Womb Of Its Mother, Is Already A Human Being, And It Is A Monstrous Crime To Rob It Of The Life Which It Has Not Yet Begun To Enjoy. If It Seems More Horrible To Kill A Man In His Own House Than In A Field, Because A Man's House Is His Place Of Most Secure Refuge, It Ought Surely To Be Deemed More Atrocious To Destroy A Fetus In The Womb Before It Has Come To Light.

No One Can Travel So Far That He Does Not Make Some Progess Each Day. So Let Us Never Give Up. Then We Shall Move Forward Daily In The Lord's Way. And Let Us Never Despair Because Of Our Limited Success. Even Though It Is So Much Less Than We Would Like, Our Labour Is Not Wasted When Today Is Better Than Yesterday!

Mingled Vanity And Pride Appear In This, That When Miserable Men Do Seek After God, Instead Of Ascending Higher Than Themselves As They Ought To Do, They Measure Him By Their Own Carnal Stupidity, And Neglecting Solid Inquiry, Fly Off To Indulge Their Curiosity In Vain Speculation.

But We Have Nothing Of The Spirit Except Through Regeneration. Everything, Therefore, Which We Have From Nature Is Flesh.

...nothing Good Can Proceed From Our Will Until It Be Formed Again, And That After It Is Formed Again In So Far As It Is Good, It Is Of God, And Not Of Us.

Unless Men Establish Their Complete Happiness In God, They Will Never Give Themselves Truly And Sincerely To Him.

We Are Nowhere Forbidden To Laugh.

Christian Inspirational

Joy And Thanksgiving Expressed In Prayer And Praise According To The Word Of God Are The Heart Of The Church's Worship.

The Answer Of Our Prayers Is Secured By The Fact That In Rejecting Them God Would In A Certain Sense Deny His Own Nature.

When God Designs To Forgive Us He Changes Our Hearts And Turns Us To Obedience By His Spirit.

Prosperity Inebriates Men, So That They Take Delights In Their Own Merits.

The Church Is The Gathering Of God's Children, Where They Can Be Helped And Fed Like Babies And Then Guided By Her Motherly Care, Grow Up To Manhood In Maturity Of Faith.

While Sin Is Overflowing, [grace] Pours Itself Forth So Exuberantly, That It Not Only Overcomes The Flood Of Sin, But Wholly Absorbs It.

A Man That Extols Himself Is A Fool And An Idiot

There Is No Worse Screen To Block Out The Spirit Than Confidence In Our Own Intelligence.

Christian Inspirational

Man's Nature, So To Speak, Is A Perpetual Factory Of Idols.

For It Was Not After We Were Reconciled To Him By The Blood Of His Son That He Began To Love Us, But He Loved Us Before The Foundation Of The World, That With His Only Begotten Son We Too Might Be Sons Of God Before We Were Anything At All.

Though Satan Instils His Poison, And Fans The Flames Of Our Corrupt Desires Within Us,we Are Yet Not Carried By Any External Force To The Commission Of Sin, But Our Own Flesh Entices Us, And We Willingly Yield To Its Allurements.

For Earthly Princes Lay Aside Their Power When They Rise Up Against God, And Are Unworthy To Be Reckoned Among The Number Of Mankind. We Ought, Rather, Utterly To Defy Them.

Faith Is A Knowledge Of The Benevolence Of God Toward Us, And A Certain Persuasion Of His Veracity.

We Unjustly Defraud God Of His Right, Unless Each Of Us Lives And Dies In Dependence On His Sovereign Pleasure.

All Truth Is God's Truth.

How Do We Know That God Has Elected Us Before The Creation Of The World? By Believing In Jesus Christ.

The Most Accomplished In The Scripture Are Fools, Unless They Acknowledge That They Have Need Of God For Their Schoolmaster All The Days Of Their Life.

We Shall Never Be Fit For The Service Of God, If We Look Not Beyond This Fleeting Life.

On The One Hand, Undeserved Success Gives No Satisfaction... But, On The Other Hand, Well-deserved Failure Gives No Satisfaction Either.

God Works In His Elect In Two Ways: Inwardly, By His Spirit; Outwardly, By His Word.

If A Preacher Is Not First Preaching To Himself, Better That He Falls On The Steps Of The Pulpit And Breaks His Neck Than Preaches That Sermon.

The Subject Then Of These Chapters May Be Stated Thus, - Man's Only Righteousness Is Through The Mercy Of God In Christ, Which Being Offered By The Gospel Is Apprehended By Faith.

The Human Heart Is A Factory Of Idols...everyon E Of Us Is, From His Mother's Womb, Expert In Inventing Idols.

Because I Know That I Am Not My Own Master, I Offer My Heart As A True Sacrifice To The Lord.

Surely In Judas' Betrayal It Will Be No More Right, Because God Both Willed That His Son Be Delivered Up, And Delivered Him Up To Death, To Ascribe The Guilt Of The Crime To God Than To Transfer The Credit For Redemption To Judas.

Doctrine Is Not An Affair Of The Tongue But Of The Life.

All The More Vile Is The Stupidity Of Those Persons Who Open Heaven To All The Impious And Unbelieving Without The Grace Of Him Whom Scripture Commonly Teaches To Be The Only Door Whereby We Enter Into Salvation.

God Promised By The Mouth Of Isaiah That Queens Should Be The Nursing Mothers Of The Church.

God Orders What We Cannot Do, That We May Know What We Ought To Ask Him.

The Only Skills I Have The Patience To Learn Are Those That Have No Real Application In Life.

As Far As Sacred Scripture Is Concerned, However Much Froward Men Try To Gnaw At It, Nevertheless It Clearly Is Crammed With Thoughts That Could Not Be Humanly Conceived. Let Each Of The Prophets Be Looked Into: None Will Be Found Who Does Not Far Exceed Human Measure. Consequently, Those For Whom Prophetic Doctrine Is Tasteless Ought To Be Thought Of As Lacking Taste Buds.

But A Most Pernicious Error Widely Prevails That Scripture Has Only So Much Weight As Is Conceded To It By The Consent Of The Church. As If The Eternal And Inviolable Truth Of God Depended Upon The Decision Of Men!

I Have Not So Great A Struggle With My Vices, Great And Numerous As They Are, As I Have With My Impatience. My Efforts Are Not Absolutely Useless; Yet I Have Never Been Able To Conquer This Ferocious Wild Beast.

I Have Never Seen Either A Drop Of Piety Or A Grain Of Truth Or Ingenuousness - Nay, I Have Never Found Common Sense In Any Jew.

Lawful Worship Consists In Obedience Alone.

It Is Therefore Faith Alone Which Justifies, And Yet The Faith Which Justifies Is Not Alone.

The Whole Life Of Christians Ought To Be An Exercise Of Piety, Since They Are Called To Sanctification. It Is The Office Of The Law To Remind Them Of Their Duty And Thereby To Excite Them To The Pursuit Of Holiness And Integrity. But When Their Consciences Are Solicitous How God May Be Propitiated, What Answer They Shall Make, And On What They Shall Rest Their Confidence, If Called To His Tribunal, There Must Then Be No Consideration Of The Requisitions Of The Law, But Christ Alone Must Be Proposed For Righteousness, Who Exceeds All The Perfection Of The Law.

Unless We Ardently And Prayerfully Devote Ourselves To Christ's Righteousness We Do Not Only Faithlessly Revolt From Our Creator, But We Also Abjure Him As Our Savior.

Everyone Flatters Himself And Carries A Kingdom In His Breast.

Where Riches Hold The Dominion Of The Heart, God Has Lost His Authority.

The Principle Exercise Which The Children Of God Have Is To Pray. For In This Way They Give True Proof Of Their Faith.

Repentance Is The True Turning Of Our Life To God, A Turning That Arises From A Pure And Earnest Fear Of Him; And It Consists In The Mortification Of The Flesh And The Renewing Of The Spirit.

The Highest Honor In The Church Is Not Government But Service.

The True Wisdom Of Man Consists In The Knowledge Of God The Creator And Redeemer.

Knowledge Of God

A Perfect Faith Is Nowhere To Be Found, So It Follows That All Of Us Are Partly Unbelievers.

The Holy Spirit Is The Bond By Which Christ Efficaciously Unites Us To Himself.

In A Way, The Futile Excuses Many People Use To Cover Their Superstitions Are Demolished. They Think It Is Enough To Have Some Sort Of Religious Fervor, However Ridiculous, Not Realizing That True Religion Must Be According To God's Will As The Perfect Measure; That He Can Never Deny Himself And Is No Mere Spirit Form To Be Changed Around According To Individual Preference.

Whether Each Of The Faithful Has A Particular Angel Assigned Him For His Defence, I Cannot Venture Certainly To Affirm... Not One Angel Only Has The Care Of Every One Of Us, But That They All With One Consent Watch For Our Salvation.

The Only Right Stewardship Is That Which Is Tested By The Rule Of Love.

All The Arts Come From God And Are To Be Respected As Divine Inventions

The Whole Gospel Is Contained In Christ.

If It Seems More Horrible To Kill A Man In His Own House, Then In A Field,...it Ought Surely To Be Deemed More Atrocious To Destroy A Fetus In The Womb Before It Has Come To Light.

After 50 Years, Is It Not Clear That God Has Raised Up New Illnesses Connected With Fornication? From Where Do These Things Come If Not From The Hand Of God? [in Response To These Diseases] The World Was Astounded, And People Were Terrified For A Time, But They Have Not, To This Day, Observed The Hand Of God.

Humility Is The Beginning Of True Intelligence.

But As A Heathen Tells Us, There Is No Nation So Barbarous, No Race So Brutish As Not To Be Imbued With The Conviction That There Is A God.

The Poor Yield To The Rich, The Common People To The Upper Ten, The Servants To Their Masters, The Ignorant To The Scholars; But There Is Nobody Who Does Not Imagine That He Is Really Better Than Others.

For, To My Mind, This Is A Certain Principle, That Nothing Is Here Treated Of But The Visible Form Of The World. He Who Would Learn Astronomy, And Other Recondite Arts, Let Him Go Elsewhere. (on Commenting The Text Of Genesis 1:6)

To 'justify' Means Nothing Else Than To Acquit Of Guilt Him (her) Who Was Accused As If His Own Innocence Were Confirmed.

Things That Are Seen Are Temporal; Things That Are Unseen Are Eternal.

All Things Being At God's Disposal, And The Decision Of Salvation Or Death Belonging To Him, He Orders All Things By His Counsel And Decree In Such A Manner, That Some Men Are Born Devoted From The Womb To Certain Death, That His Name May Be Glorified In Their Destruction.

Whensoever God's Truth Is Defaced Or When Any Man Turns Away From The Pure Simplicity Of The Gospel, We Must Not In Any Wise Spare Him, But Although The Whole World Should Set Itself Against Us, Yet Must We Maintain The Case With Invincible Constancy, Without Bending For Any Creature.

It Is No Small Honour That God For Our Sake Has So Magnificently Adorned The World, In Order That We May Not Only Be Spectators Of This Beauteous Theatre, But Also Enjoy The Multiplied Abundance And Variety Of Good Things Which Are Presented To Us In It.

Were The Judgments Of Mankind Correct, Custom Would Be Regulated By The Good. But It Is Often Far Otherwise In Point Of Fact; For, Whatever The Many Are Seen To Do, Forthwith Obtains The Force Of Custom. But Human Affairs Have Scarcely Ever Been So Happily Constituted As That The Better Course Pleased The Greater Number. Hence The Private Vices Of The Multitude Have Generally Resulted In Public Error, Or Rather That Common Consent In Vice Which These Worthy Men Would Have To Be Law.

Scripture Will Ultimately Suffice For A Saving Knowledge Of God Only When Its Certainty Is Founded Upon The Inward Persuasion Of The Holy Spirit. Indeed, These Human Testimonies Which Exist To Confirm It Will Not Be Vain If, As Secondary Aids To Our Feebleness, They Follow That Chief And Highest Testimony. But Those Who Wish To Prove To Unbelievers That Scripture Is The Word Of God Are Acting Foolishly, For Only By Faith Can This Be Known.

Free Will Is An Empty Term.

The Sufferings Of Christ Are The Means Of Forgiveness Of Sin And Eternal Glory

No Man Is Excluded From Calling Upon God, The Gate Of Salvation Is Set Open Unto All Men: Neither Is There Any Other Thing Which Keepeth Us Back From Entering In, Save Only Our Own Unbelief.

Holiness Is Not A Merit By Which We Can Attain Communion With God, But A Gift Of Christ, Which Enables Us To Cling To Him, And To Follow Him.

But The Present Life Should Never Be Hated, Except Insofar As It Subjects Us To Sin, Although Even That Hatred Should Not Properly Be Applied To Life Itself.

Since No Daily Responses Are Given From Heaven, And The Scriptures Are The Only Record In Which God Has Been Pleased To Consign His Truth To Perpetual Remembrance, The Full Authority Which They Ought To Possess With The Faithful Is Not Recognized Unless They Are Believed To Have Come From Heaven As Directly As If God Had Been Heard Giving Utterance To Them.

But Those Who Wish To Prove To Unbelievers That Scripture Is The Word Of God Are Acting Foolishly, For Only By Faith Can This Be Known.

We Should Never Insult Others On Account Of Their Faults, For It Is Our Duty To Show Charity And Respect To Everyone.

It Is Permissible To Use Wine Not Only For Necessity, But Also To Make Us Merry...... [it Must Be Moderate] Lest Men Forget Themselves, Drown Their Senses,.....in Making Merry [those Who Enjoy Wine] Feel A Livelier Gratitude To God.

There Is No Golden Mean Between These Two Extremes; Either This Early Life Must Become Low In Our Estimation, Or It Will Have Our Inordinate Love.

Creatures Are So Governed By The Secret Counsel Of God, That Nothing Happens But What He Has Knowingly And Willingly Decreed.

This Is Plainly To Ascribe Divinity To 'free Will.'

For So Great Is The Difference Between Just And Unjust, That It Is Visible Even In The Lifeless Image Of It. For What Order Will Be Left In The World, If These Opposites Be Confounded Together? Such A Distinction As This, Therefore, Between Virtuous And Vicious Actions, Has Not Only Been Engraven By The Lord In The Heart Of Every Man, But Has Also Been Frequently Confirmed By His Providential Dispensations.

You Cannot Imagine A More Certain Rule Or A More Powerful Suggestion Than This, That All The Blessings We Enjoy Are Divine Deposits Which We Have Received On This Condition That We Distribute Them To Others.

Original Sin, Therefore, Appears To Be A Hereditary, Depravity And Corruption Of Our Nature, Diffused Through All The Parts Of The Soul, Rendering Us Obnoxious To The Divine Wrath And Producing In Us Those Works Which The Scripture Calls 'works Of.

The Pastor Ought To Have Two Voices: One, For Gathering The Sheep; And Another, For Warding Off And Driving Away Wolves And Thieves. The Scripture Supplies Him With The Means Of Doing Both.

The Surest Source Of Destruction To Men Is To Obey Themselves.

The Glory Of God Shines, Indeed, In All Creatures On High And Below, But Never More Brightly Than In The Cross.

This Is What Entertainment Is All About- Idiots, Explosives And Falling Anvils.

Angels Are The Dispensers And Administrators Of The Divine Beneficence Toward Us.

The Name Of Christ Excludes All Merit Of Our Own.

Whomever The Lord Has Adopted And Deemed Worthy Of His Fellowship Ought To Prepare Themselves For A Hard, Toilsome, And Unquiet Life, Crammed With Very Many And Various Kinds Of Evil.

Our Physical Illnesses Serve Us For Medicines To Purge Us From Worldly Affections And Retrench What Is Superfluous In Us, And Since They Are To Us The Messengers Of Death, We Ought To Learn To Have One Foot Raised To Take Our Departure When It Shall Please God.

In Knowing God, Each Of Us Also Knows Himself.

Without Christ, Sciences In Every Department Are Vain....the Man Who Knows Not God Is Vain, Though He Should Be Conversant With Every Branch Of Learning. Nay More, We May Affirm This Too With Truth, That These Choice Gifts Of God -- Expertness Of Mind, Acuteness Of Judgment, Liberal Sciences, And Acquaintance With Languages, Are In A Manner Profaned In Every Instance In Which They Fall To The Lot Of Wicked Men.

To Know God As The Sovereign Disposer Of All Good, Inviting Us To Present Our Requests, And Yet Not To Approach Or Ask Of Him, Were So Far From Availing Us, That It Were Just As If One Told Of A Treasure Were To Allow It To Remain Buried In The Ground.

The One Condition For Spiritual Progress Is That We Remain Sincere And Humble.

Man's Mind Is Like A Store Of Idolatry And Superstition; So Much So That If A Man Believes His Own Mind It Is Certain That He Will Forsake God And Forge Some Idol In His Own Brain.

There Is No Erratic Power Or Action Or Motion In Creatures But They Are Governed By God's Secret Plan In Such A Way That Nothing Happens Except What Is Knowingly And Willingly Decreed By Him.

To Be Pure In Heart Is To Take No Delight In Cunning, But Converse Sincerely With Men, And Express Nothing, By Word Or Look, Which Is Not Felt In The Heart.

Indeed, A Christian Ought To Be Disposed And Prepared To Keep In Mind That He Has To Reckon With God Every Moment Of His Life.

But, As Sculpture And Painting Are Gifts Of God, What I Insist On Is, That Both Shall Be Used Purely And Lawfully, That Gifts Which The Lord Has Bestowed Upon Us, For His Glory And Our Good, Shall Not Be Preposterously Abused, Nay, Shall Not Be Perverted To Our Destruction.

Faith And Hope...are The Wings By Which Our Souls, Rising Above The World, Are Lifted Up To God.

The Door Is Closed To Prayer Unless It Is Opened With The Key Of Trust.

In Our Good Works Nothing Is Our Own.

For Scripture Is The School Of The Holy Spirit, In Which, As Nothing Is Omitted That Is Both Necessary And Useful To Know, So Nothing Is Taught But What Is Expedient To Know. Therefore We Must Guard Against Depriving Believers Of Anything Disclosed About Predestination In Scripture, Lest We Seem Either Wickedly To Defraud Them Of The Blessing Of Their God Or To Accuse And Scoff At The Holy Spirit For Having Published What It Is In Any Way Profitable To Suppress.

Now Among The Other Things Proper To Recreate Man And Give Him Pleasure, Music Is Either The First Or One Of The Principal;and We Must Think That It Is A Gift Of God Deputed For That Purpose'.

Without The Gospel Everything Is Useless And Vain.

We May Rest Assured That God Would Never Have Suffered Any Infants To Be Slain Except Those Who Were Already Damned And Predestined For Eternal Death.

Seeing That A Pilot Steers The Ship In Which We Sail, Who Will Never Allow Us To Perish Even In The Midst Of Shipwrecks, There Is No Reason Why Our Minds Should Be Overwhelmed With Fear And Overcome With Weariness.

Whoever The Lord Has Adopted Ought To Prepare Themselves For Hard, Toilsome And Unquiet Living.

It Is Certain That Not One Drop Of Rain Falls Without God's Sure Command.

When God Wants To Judge A Nation, He Gives Them Wicked Rulers.

In Vain People Busy Themselves With Finding Any Good Of Man's Own In His Will. For Any Mixture Of The Power Of Freewill That Men Strive To Mingle With God's Grace Is Nothing But A Corruption Of Grace. It Is Just As If One Were To Dilute Wine With Muddy, Bitter Water.

Yet Consider Now, Whether Women Are Not Quite Past Sense And Reason, When They Want To Rule Over Men.

When We Come To A Comparison Of Heaven And Earth, Then We May Indeed Not Only Forget All About The Present Life, But Even Despise And Scorn It.

Hence That Dread And Amazement With Which As Scripture Uniformly Relates Holy Men Were Struck And Overwhelmed Whenever They Beheld The Presence Of God. Men Are Never Duly Touched And Impressed With A Conviction Of Their Insignificance Until They Have.

Then Let Every One Of Us, Being Warned By This Sentence Of The Angel, Acknowledge That He As Yet Cleaves To First Principles, Or, At Least, Does Not Comprehend All Those Things Which Are Necessary To Be Known; And That Therefore Progress Is To Be Made To The Very End Of Life: For This Is Our Wisdom, To Be Learners To The End.

Peace Is Not To Be Purchased By The Sacrifice Of Truth.

The Unborn Baby, Though Enclosed In The Womb Of Its Mother, Is Already A Human Being, And Should Not Be Robbed Of The Life Which It Has Not Yet Begun To Enjoy.

No Man Can Survey Himself Without Forthwith Turning His Thoughts Towards The God In Whom He Lives And Moves; Because It Is Perfectly Obvious, That The Endowments Which We Possess Cannot Possibly Be From Ourselves; Nay, That Our Very Being Is Nothing Else Than Subsistence In God Alone.

The Very Word Baptizé, However, Signifies To Immerse; And It Is Certain That Immersion Was The Practice Of The Ancient Church.

Even If This Earth Is Only A Vestibule, We Ought Undoubtedly To Make Such A Use Of Its Blessing That We Are Assisted Rather Than Delayed In Our Journey.

Without The Fear Of God, Men Do Not Even Observe Justice And Charity Among Themselves.

Many People Have Accused Me Of Such Ferocious Cruelty That (they Allege) I Would Like To Kill Again The Man I Have Destroyed. Not Only Am I Indifferent To Their Comments, But I Rejoice In The Fact That They Spit In My Face.

Christ Is The Most Perfect Image Of God, Into Which We Are So Renewed As To Bear The Image Of God, In Knowledge, Purity, Righteousness, And True Holiness.

Whoever Is Not Satisfied With Christ Alone, Strives After Something Beyond Absolute Perfection.

It Is Faith Alone That Justifies, But Faith That Justifies Can Never Be Alone.

We Are Promised Abundance Of All Good Things--yet We Are Rich Only In Hunger And Thirst. What Would Become Of Us If We Did Not Take Our Stand On Hope, And If Our Heart Did Not Hasten Beyond This World!

For There Is No One So Great Or Mighty That He Can Avoid The Misery That Will Rise Up Against Him When He Resists And Strives Against God.

All Men Were Created To Busy Themselves With The Labor For The Common Good.

God Tolerates Even Our Stammering, And Pardons Our Ignorance Whenever Something Inadvertently Escapes Us - As, Indeed, Without This Mercy There Would Be No Freedom To Pray.

The World Was No Doubt Made, That It Might Be A Theatre Of The Divine Glory.

We Explain Justification Simply As The Acceptance With Which God Receives Us Into His Favor As Righteous Men. And We Say That It Consists In The Remission Of Sins And The Imputation Of Christ’s Righteousness.

Rejoicing Refers To Moderation Of Spirit When The Mind Keeps Itself In Calmness Under Adversity And Does Not Give Indulgence To Grief. Constant Praying Is The Way Of 'rejoicing Perpetually', For By This Means We Ask From God Alleviation In Connection With All Our Distresses.

It Is Entirely The Work Of Grace And A Benefit Conferred By It That Our Heart Is Changed From A Stony One To One Of Flesh, That Our Will Is Made New, And That We, Created Anew In Heart And Mind, At Length Will What We Ought To Will.

If God Contains The Fullness Of All Good Things In Himself Like An Inexhaustible Fountain, Nothing Beyond Him Is To Be Sought By Those Who Strike After The Highest Good And All The Elements Of Happiness.

Faith Is Like An Empty, Open Hand Stretched Out Towards God, With Nothing To Offer And Everything To Recieve

The Marks Of Jesus Are Imprisonment, Chains, Scourgings, Blows And Stoning In Bearing Testimony To The Gospel. Galatians 6:17 - 17 Finally, Let No One Cause Me Trouble, For I Bear On My Body The Marks Of Jesus.

Whatever A Person May Be Like, We Must Still Love Them Because We Love God.

You Must Submit To Supreme Suffering In Order To Discover The Completion Of Joy.

Man With All His Shrewdness Is As Stupid About Understanding By Himself The Mysteries Of God, As An Ass Is Incapable Of Understanding Musical Harmony.

Christians Rejoice Even While They Truly Sorrow - Because Their Rejoicing Is In The Hope Of Heaven... While Joy Overcomes Sorrow, It Does Not Put An End To It.

Men Are Idol Factories.

My Heart I Give You, Lord, Eagerly And Entirely.

To Search For Wisdom Apart From Christ Means Not Simply Foolhardiness But Utter Insanity.

The Human Heart Has So Many Crannies Where Vanity Hides, So Many Holes Where Falsehood Works, Is So Decked Out With Deceiving Hypocrisy, That It Often Dupes Itself.

There Is No Place For Faith If We Expect God To Fulfill Immediately What He Promises.

In Truth We Know By Experience That Song Has Great Force And Vigour To Move And Inflame The Hearts Of Men To Invoke And Praise God With A More Vehement And Ardent Zeal.

The Whole Comes To This, That Christ, When He Produces Faith In Us By The Agency Of His Spirit, At The Same Time Ingrafts Us Into His Body, That We May Become Partakers Of All Spiritual Blessings.

Faith Is Not A Distant View, But A Warm Embrace Of Christ.

Faith Is The Evidence Of Divine Adoption.

Warned By Such Evidences Of Their Spiritual Illness, Believers Profit By Their Humiliations. Robbed Of Their Foolish Confidence In The Flesh, They Take Refuge In The Grace Of God. And When They Have Done So, They Experience The Nearness Of The Divine Protection Which Is To Them A Strong Fortress (ps 30:6-7).

For Astronomy Is Not Only Pleasant, But Also Very Useful To Be Known: It Cannot Be Denied That This Art Unfolds The Admirable Wisdom Of God.

Man Is Never Sufficiently Touched And Affected By The Awareness Of His Lowly State Until He Has Compared Himself With God's Majesty.

Nevertheless, Our Constant Efforts To Lower Our Estimate Of The Present World Should Not Lead Us To Hate Life Or To Be Ungrateful Toward God. For This Life, Though It Is Full Of Countless Miseries, Deserves To Be Reckoned Among The Divine Blessings Which Should Not Be Despised. Therefore, If We Discover Nothing Of God's Goodness In It, We Are Already Guilty Of No Small Ingratitude Toward Him.

Who Will Venture To Place The Authority Of Copernicus Above That Of The Holy Spirit?

The Lord Has Given Us A Table At Which To Feast, Not An Altar On Which A Victim Is To Be Offered; He Has Not Consecrated Priests To Make Sacrifice, But Servants To Distribute The Sacred Feast.

However Many Blessings We Expect From God, His Infinite Liberality Will Always Exceed All Our Wishes And Our Thoughts.

Nearly All The Wisdom We Possess, That Is To Say, True And Sound Wisdom, Consists Of Two Parts: The Knowledge Of God And Of Ourselves.

Knowledge Of God

First Of All, Scripture Draws Our Attention To This, That If We Want Ease And Tranquility In Our Lives, We Should Resign Ourselves And All That We Have To The Will Of God, And At The Same Time We Should Surrender Our Affections To Him As Our Conqueror And Overlord.

The Sum Is, That The Worship Of God Must Be Spiritual, In Order That It May Correspond With His Nature. For Although Moses Only Speaks Of Idolatry, Yet There Is No Doubt But That By Synecdoche, As In All The Rest Of The Law, He Condemns All Fictitious Services Which Men In Their Ingenuity Have Invented.

The Bible Is The Sceptre By Which The Heavenly King Rules His Church.

True Wisdom Consists In Two Things: Knowledge Of God And Knowledge Of Self.

Knowledge Of God

No Man Can Come To God But By An Extraordinary Revelation Of The Spirit.

It Is Not Lawful For You To Make A Compromise With God: To Try To Fulfill Part Of Your Duties And To Omit Others At Your Own Pleasure.

For We Are Not All Equally Afflicted With The Same Disease Or All In Need Of The Same Severe Cure. This Is The Reason Why We See Different Persons Disciplined With Different Crosses. The Heavenly Physician Takes Care Of The Well-being Of All His Patients; He Gives Some A Milder Medicine And Purifies Others By More Shocking Treatments, But He Omits No One; For The Whole World, Without Exception, Is Ill (deut 32:15).

Prayers Will Never Reach God Unless They Are Founded On Free Mercy.

In Forming An Estimate Of Sins, We Are Often Imposed Upon By Imagining That The More Hidden The Less Heinous They Are.

Scripture Is Like A Pair Of Spectacles Which Dispels The Darkness And Gives Us A Clear View Of God.

The Grace Of God Has No Charms For Men Till The Holy Spirit Gives Them A Taste For It.

If We Are Given Gold, Would We Not Test It To Determine It's Value? If We Doubted Its Genuineness - We Would Test It By Fire...and So God With Us.

The Gospel Acts Without Threats... It Teaches Us About The Supreme Goodwill Of God Towards Us.

We Must Resist Wandering Thoughts In Prayer. Raising Our Hands Reminds Us That We Need To Raise Up Our Minds To God, Setting Aside All Irrelevant Thoughts.

The Blood Of Christ Is Necessary To Purge The Faults Clinging To Our Best Works.

Against The Persecution Of A Tyrant The Godly Have No Remedy But Prayer.

We Are Not To Look To What Men In Themselves Deserve But To Attend To The Image Of God Which Exists In All And To Which We Owe All Honor And Love.

God Preordained, For His Own Glory And The Display Of His Attributes Of Mercy And Justice, A Part Of The Human Race, Without Any Merit Of Their Own, To Eternal Salvation, And Another Part, In Just Punishment Of Their Sin, To Eternal Damnation.

Human Will Does Not By Liberty Obtain Grace, But By Grace Obtains Liberty.

Hatred Grows Into Insolence When We Desire To Excel The Rest Of Mankind And Imagine We Do Not Belong To The Common Lot; We Even Severely And Haughtily Despise Others As Our Inferiors.

It Is Evident That Man Never Attains To A True Self-knowledge Until He Has Previously Contemplated The Face Of God, And Come Down After Such Contemplation To Look Into Himself.

Without Knowledge Of Self There Is No Knowledge Of God Our Wisdom, In So Far As It Ought To Be Deemed True And Solid Wisdom, Consists Almost Entirely Of Two Parts: The Knowledge Of God And Of Ourselves. But As These Are Connected Together By Many Ties, It Is Not Easy To Determine Which Of The Two Precedes And Gives Birth To The Other.

Scripture Points Out This Difference Between Believers And Unbelievers; The Latter, As Old Slaves Of Their Incurable Perversity, Cannot Endure The Rod; But The Former, Like Children Of Noble Birth, Profit By Repentance And Correction.

Our Prayer Must Not Be Self-centered. It Must Arise Not Only Because We Feel Our Own Need As A Burden We Must Lay Upon God, But Also Because We Are So Bound Up In Love For Our Fellow Men That We Feel Their Need As Acutely As Our Own. To Make Intercession For Men Is The Most Powerful And Practical Way In Which We Can Express Our Love For Them.

Pagan Philosophers Set Up Reason As The Sole Guide Of Life, Of Wisdom And Conduct; But Christian Philosophy Demands Of Us That We Surrender Our Reason To The Holy Spirit; And This Means That We No Longer Live For Ourselves, But That Christ Lives And Reigns Within Us (rom 12:1; Eph 4:23; Gal 2:20).

Joy Is A Quiet Gladness Of Heart As One Contemplates The Goodness Of God's Saving Grace In Christ Jesus.

I Don't Need To Compromise My Principles, Because They Don't Have The Slightest Bearing On What Happens To Me Anyway.

Tears That Are Shed In Time Of Affliction Are Rarely Tears Of Penitence, But More Likely They Are Shed Out Of Self Pity And Pain Or Sorrow.

A Soul, Therefore, When Deprived Of The Word Of God, Is Given Up Unarmed To The Devil For Destruction

It Cannot Be Denied That God In Choosing And Destining Mary To Be The Mother Of His Son, Granted Her The Highest Honor.

God Does Not Bestow His Spirit On His People In Order To Set Aside The Use Of His Word, But Rather To Render It Fruitful.

Augustine Does Not Disagree With This When He Teaches That It Is A Faculty Of The Reason And The Will To Choose Good With The Assistance Of Grace; Evil, When Grace Is Absent.

The Human Heart Is An Idol Factory.

Let This Be Our Rule For Goodwill And Helpfulness, That Whenever We Are Able To Assist Others We Should Behave As Stewards Who Must Someday Give An Account Of Ourselves.

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