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Men Will Never Worship God With A Sincere Heart, Or Be Roused To Fear And Obey Him With Sufficient Zeal, Until They Properly Understand How Much They Are Indebted To His Mercy.

-John Calvin

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Men Will Never Worship

John Calvin

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Men Will Never Worship God With A Sincere Heart, Or Be Roused To Fear And Obey Him With Sufficient Zeal, Until They Properly Understand How Much They Are Indebted To His Mercy.

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There Is Nothing In Afflictions Which Ought To Disturb Our Joy.

If There Had Been Any Unbelief In Mary, That Could Not Prevent God From Accomplishing His Work In Any Other Way Which He Might Choose. But She Is Called Blessed, Because She Received By Faith The Blessing Offered To Her, And Opened Up The Way To God For Its Accomplishment.

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.

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

All Our Words Ought To Be Filled With True Sweetness And Grace; And This Will Be So If We Mingle The Useful With The Sweet.

When The Bible Speaks, God Speaks.

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.

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!

The Gospel Is Not A Doctrine Of The Tongue, But Of Life. It Cannot Be Grasped By Reason And Memory Only, But It Is Fully Understood When It Possesses The Whole Soul And Penetrates To The Inner Recesses Of The Heart.

They Babble And Talk Absurdly Who, In The Place Of God's Providence, Substitute Bare Permission - As If God Sat In A Watchtower Awaiting Chance Events , And His Judgments Thus Depended Upon Human Will.

Justification By Faith Is The Hinge On Which All True Religion Turns.

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.

Everyone Flatters Himself And Carries A Kingdom In His Breast.

Faith Is The Evidence Of Divine Adoption.

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.

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.

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

For, Since The Fall Of Adam Had Brought Disgrace Upon All His Posterity, God Restores Those, Whom He Separates As His Own, So That Their Condition May Be Better Than That Of All Other Nations. At The Same Time It Must Be Remarked, That This Grace Of Renewal Is Effaced In Many Who Have Afterwards Profaned It

Free Will Is An Empty Term.

Let This Point Therefore Stand: That Those Whom The Holy Spirit Has Inwardly Taught Truly Rest Upon Scripture, And That Scripture Itself Is Self-authenticated. . . . Therefore, Illumined By His Power, We Believe Neither By Our Own Nor By Any One Else's Judgment That Scripture Is From God; But Above Human Judgment We Affirm With Utter Certainty (just As If We Were Gazing Upon The Majesty Of God Himself) That It Has Flowed To Us From The Very Mouth Of God By The Ministry Of Men.

There Is No Work, However Vile Or Sordid, That Does Not Glisten Before God.

If True Religion Is To Beam Upon Us, Our Principle Must Be, That It Is Necessary To Begin With Heavenly Teaching, And That It Is Impossible For Any Man To Obtain Even The Minutest Portion Of Right And Sound Doctrine Without Being A Disciple Of Scripture.

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

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

For Though We Very Truly Hear That The Kingdom Of God Will Be Filled With Splendor, Joy, Happiness And Glory, Yet When These Things Are Spoken Of, They Remain Utterly Remote From Our Perception, And As It Were, Wrapped In Obscurities, Until That Day.

It Behooves Us To Accomplish What God Requires Of Us, Even When We Are In The Greatest Despair Respecting The Results.

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

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.

Elisabeth, Again, While She Praises Her, Is So Far From Hiding The Divine Glory, That She Ascribes Everything To God. And Yet, Though She Acknowledges The Superiority Of Mary To Herself And To Others, She Does Not Envy Her The Higher Distinction, But Modestly Declares That She Had Obtained More Than She Deserved.

In Our Good Works Nothing Is Our Own.

This Is The Highest Honour Of The Church, That, Until He Is United To Us, The Son Of God Reckons Himself In Some Measure Imperfect. What Consolation Is It For Us To Learn, That, Not Until We Are Along With Him, Does He Possess All His Parts, Or Wish To Be Regarded As Complete! Hence, In The First Epistle To The Corinthians, When The Apostle Discusses Largely The Metaphor Of A Human Body, He Includes Under The Single Name Of Christ The Whole Church.

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

Men Will Never Worship God With A Sincere Heart, Or Be Roused To Fear And Obey Him With Sufficient Zeal, Until They Properly Understand How Much They Are Indebted To His Mercy.

Let That Ethical Philosophy Therefore Of Free-will Be Far From A Christian Mind.

Whenever Our Sins Press Hard Against Us, Whenever Satan Would Drive Us To Despair, We Must Hold Up This Shield, That God Does Not Want Us To Be Overwhelmed In Everlasting Destruction, For He Has Ordained His Son To Be The Salvation Of The World.

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

Nothing, Including Human Suffering, Happens By Chance.

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).

If We Are Proud Of Our Talents We Betray Our Lack Of Gratitude To God.

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.

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

True Faith Is Ever Connected With Hope.

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 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.

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.

The First Part Of A Good Work Is The Will, The Second Is Vigorous Effort In The Doing Of It. God Is The Author Of Both. It Is, Therefore, Robbery From God To Arrogate Anything To Ourselves, Either In The Will Or The Act.

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

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

To Be Christians Under The Law Of Grace Does Not Mean To Wander Unbridled Outside The Law, But To Be Engrafted In Christ, By Whose Grace We Are Free From The Curse Of The Law, And By Whose Spirit We Have The Law Engraved Upon Our Hearts.

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

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

Without Knowledge Of Self There Is No Knowledge Of God.

Knowledge Of God

Humility Is The Beginning Of True Intelligence.

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

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.

It Is A Most Blessed Thing To Be Subject To The Sovereignty Of God.

Sovereignty Of God

Those Who Set Up A Fictitious Worship, Merely Worship And Adore Their Own Delirious Fancies; Indeed, They Would Never Dare So To Trifle With God, Had They Not Previously Fashioned Him After Their Own Childish Conceits.

Hypocrisy Can Plunge The Mind Of A Man Into A Dark Abyss, When He Believes His Own Self-flattery Instead Of God's Verdict.

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

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

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.

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.

There Is No Group Or Type Of People Anywhere In The World That Is Excluded From Salvation, Because God Desires That The Gospel Be Proclaimed To All Without Exception.

Our True Wisdom Is To Embrace With Meek Docility, And Without Reservation, Whatever The Holy Scriptures Have Delivered.

Faith Does Not Proceed From Ourselves, But Is The Fruit Of Spiritual Regeneration.

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

Integrity Is The Best Of All Protectors...we Cannot Be More Secure Than When Fortified By A Good Conscience.

Men Are Indeed To Be Taught That The Favour Of God Is Offered, Without Exception, To All Who Ask It; But Since Those Only Begin To Ask Whom Heaven By Grace Inspires, Even This Minute Portion Of Praise Must Not Be Withheld From Him. It Is The Privilege Of The Elect To Be Regenerated By The Spirit Of God, And Then Placed Under His Guidance And Government.

Each Eye Can Have Its Vision Separately; But When We Are Looking At Anything Our Vision, Which In Itself Is Divided, Joins Up And Unites In Order To Give Itself As A Whole To The Object That Is Put Before It.

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.

On The Contrary, Therefore, Christ Declares That The Doctrine Of The Gospel, Though It Is Preached To All Without Exception, Cannot Be Embraced By All, But That A New Understanding And A New Perception Are Requisite; And, Therefore, That Faith Does Not Depend On The Will Of Men, But That It Is God Who Gives It.

When Our Faith Is Tested By Suffering "as Gold Is Tried In A Furnace" And We Depend With Confidence On God And Rely Entirely On His Help, We Will Be Granted The Most Excellent Gift Of Patience And Through Faith We May Victoriously Persevere To The End.

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

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.

It Is Certain That Man Never Achieves A Clear Knowledge Of Himself Unless He Has First Looked Upon God's Face, And Then Descends From Contemplating Him To Scrutinize Himself.

It Would Be The Height Of Absurdity To Label Ignorance Tempered By Humility "faith"! (institutio Iii.2.3)

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.

The Effect Of Our Knowledge Rather Ought To Be, First, To Teach Us Reverence And Fear; And, Secondly, To Induce Us, Under Its Guidance And Teaching, To Ask Every Good Thing From [god], And, When It Is Received, Ascribe It To Him. For How Can The Idea Of God Enter Your Mind Without Instantly Giving Rise To The Thought, That Since You Are His Workmanship, You Are Bound, By The Very Law Of Creation, To Submit To His Authority?-- Hat Your Life Is Due To Him?-- Hat Whatever You Do Ought To Have Reference To Him.

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

Free-will Cannot Will Good And Of Necessity Serves Sin.

Knowledge Of The Sciences Is So Much Smoke Apart From The Heavenly Science Of Christ.

As By The Revolt Of The First Man, The Image Of God Could Be Effaced From His Mind And Soul, So There Is Nothing Strange In His Shedding Some Rays Of Grace On The Reprobate, And Afterwards Allowing These To Be Extinguished.

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.

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.

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.

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

Can True Repentance Exist Without Faith? By No Means. But Although They Cannot Be Separated, They Ought To Be Distinguished.

When We Recognize The Rod Of A Father, Should We Not Show Ourselves Docile Children Rather Than Rebelliously Desperate Men Who Have Been Hardened In Their Evil Doings?

Sometimes It Seems Things Go By Too Quickly. We Are So Busy Watching Out For What's Just Ahead Of Us That We Don't Take The Time To Enjoy Where We Are.

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 Scriptures Obtain Full Authority Among Believers Only When Men Regard Them As Having Sprung From Heaven, As If There The Living Words Of God Were Heard.

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

Christian Inspirational

It Having Been Said Above That God Bends All The Reprobate, And Even Satan Himself, At His Will, Three Objections Are Started. First, That This Happens By The Permission, Not By The Will Of God. To This Objection There Is A Twofold Reply, The One, That Angels And Men, Good And Bad, Do Nothing But What Is Appointed By God; The Second, That All Movements Are Secretly Directed To Their End By The Hidden Inspiration Of God.

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

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.

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

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

All The Blessings We Enjoy Are Divine Deposits, Committed To Our Trust On This Condition, That They Should Be Dispensed For The Benefit Of Our Neighbors.

There Can Be No Courage In Men Unless God Supports Them By His Word.

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

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.

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.

Nobody Seriously Believes The Universe Was Made By God Without Being Persuaded That He Takes Care Of His Works.

A Man Will Be Justified By Faith When, Excluded From Righteousness Of Works, He By Faith Lays Hold Of The Righteousness Of Christ, And Clothed In It, Appears In The Sight Of God Not As A Sinner, But As Righteous.

Prayer Is The Chief Exercise Of Faith.

God Is Undoubtedly Ready To Pardon Whenever The Sinner Turns. Therefore, He Does Not Will His Death, In So Far As He Wills Repentance. But Experience Shows That This Will, For The Repentance Of Those Whom He Invites To Himself, Is Not Such As To Make Him Touch All Their Hearts. Still, It Cannot Be Said That He Acts Deceitfully; For Though The External Word Only Renders, Those Who Hear It, And Do Not Obey It, Inexcusable, It Is Still Truly Regarded As An Evidence Of The Grace By Which He Reconciles Men To Himself.

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

The Invention Of The Arts, And Other Things Which Serve The Common Use And Convenience Of Life, Is A Gift Of God By No Means To Be Despised, And A Faculty Worthy Of Commendation.

We Are Nowhere Forbidden To Laugh.

Christian Inspirational

Where God's Spirit Does Not Reign, There Is No Humility, And Men Ever Swell With Inward Pride.

Let It Stand, Therefore, As An Indubitable Truth, Which No Engines Can Shake, That The Mind Of Man Is So Entirely Alienated From The Righteousness Of God That He Cannot Conceive, Desire, Or Design Any Thing But What Is Wicked, Distorted, Foul, Impure, And Iniquitous; That His Heart Is So Thoroughly Envenomed By Sin That It Can Breathe Out Nothing But Corruption And Rottenness; That If Some Men Occasionally Make A Show Of Goodness, Their Mind Is Ever Interwoven With Hypocrisy And Deceit, Their Soul Inwardly Bound With The Fetters Of Wickedness.

All Whom The Lord Has Chosen And Received Into The Society Of His Saints Ought To Prepare Themselves For A Life That Is Hard, Difficult, Laborious And Full Of Countless Griefs.

Let Us Not Cease To Do The Utmost, That We May Incessantly Go Forward In The Way Of The Lord; And Let Us Not Despair Of The Smallness Of Our Accomplishments.

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.

It Is A Very Important Consideration That We Are Consecrated And Dedicated To God; It Means That We May Think, Speak, Meditate, Or Do Anything Only With A View To His Glory.

Christ Is Much More Powerful To Save, Than Adam Was To Destroy.

The Angels Are The Dispensers And Administrators Of The Divine Beneficence Toward Us. They Regard Our Safety, Undertake Our Defense, Direct Our Ways, And Exercise A Constant Solicitude That No Evil Befall Us.

If God Were Not To Test Us, There Would Be No Patience.

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

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

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

When I Took The Leap, I Had Faith I Would Find A Net; Instead I Learned I Could Fly.

Our Assurance, Our Glory, And The Sole Anchor Of Our Salvation Are That Christ The Son Of God Is Ours, And We In Turn Are In Him Sons Of God And Heirs Of The Kingdom Of Heaven, Called To The Hope Of Eternal Blessedness By God's Grace, Not By Our Worth.

Since We Are All Naturally Prone To Hypocrisy, Any Empty Semblance Of Righteousness Is Quite Enough To Satisfy Us Instead Of Righteousness Itself.

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

Only Those Who Have Learned Well To Be Earnestly Dissatisfied With Themselves, And To Be Confounded With Shame At Their Wretchedness Truly Understand The Christian Gospel.

Nor, In Truth, Is It Of Little Importance To Prevent The Suspicion Of Any Difference Having Arisen Between Us From Being Handed Down In Any Way To Our Posterity; For It Is Worse Than Absurd That Parties Should Be Found Disagreeing On The Very Principles, After We Have Been Compelled To Make Our Departure From The World.

Unless We Endeavor To Do Good To Our Neighbor, Through Our Cruelty We Transgress This Law

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.

Faith Consists, Not In Ignorance, But In Knowledge, And That, Not Only Of God, But Also Of The Divine Will.

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.

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.

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.

They Who Prematurely Put Themselves Forward To Root Out Whatever Is Displeasing To Them Overthrow The Judgment Of God And Rashly Intrude Upon The Office Of Angels.

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

But Prosperity, And The Happy Issue Of Events, Ought Also To Be Attributed To His Grace, In Order That He May Always Receive The Praise Which He Deserves, That Of Being A Merciful Father, And An Impartial Judge. About The Close Of The Psalm, He Inveighs Against Those Ungodly Men Who Will Not Acknowledge God's Hand, Amid Such Palpable Demonstrations Of His Providence.

Wherever We See The Word Of God Purely Preached And Heard, There A Church Of God Exists, Even If It Swarms With Many Faults.

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.

Let Us Consider This Settled, That No One Has Made Progress In The School Of Christ Who Does Not Joyfully Await The Day Of Death And Final Resurrection.

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.

We Ought Always To Beware Of Making The Smallest Claim For Ourselves.

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

We Can Experience Joy In Adverse Circumstances By Holding God's Benefits In Such Esteem That The Recognition Of Them And Meditation Upon Them Shall Overcome All Sorrow.

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

The More Closely We See Ourselves Being Watched By Our Enemies, The More Time Intent We Should Be To Avoid Their Slanders.

To Have A Proper Understanding Of The Gospel, We Must Recognise That We Need To Lean Entirely Upon The Lord Jesus Christ And His Mercy Alone As Our Only Hope Of Salvation. ... No One Can Be Justified By The Law; Justification Is Through Faith Alone.

God Would Remain Absolutely Hidden If We Were Not Illuminated By The Brightness Of Christ.

We Are Not To Reflect On The Wickedness Of Men But To Look To The Image Of God In Them, An Image Which, Covering And Obliterating Their Faults, An Image Which, By Its Beauty And Dignity, Should Allure Us To Love And Embrace Them.

In Knowing God, Each Of Us Also Knows Himself.

We Must Not Think That [god] Takes No Notice Of Us, When He Does Not Answer Our Wishes: For He Has A Right To Distinguish What We Actually Need.

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

Faith Consists Not In Ignorance, But In Knowledge - Knowledge Not Of God Merely...but When We Recognize God As A Propitious Father Through The Reconciliation Made By Christ, And Christ As Given To Us For Righteousness, Sanctification, And Life.

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

Nothing Is More Dangerous Than To Be Blinded By Prosperity.

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.

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.

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.

At This Day . . . The Earth Sustains On Her Bosom Many Monster Minds, Minds Which Are Not Afraid To Employ The Seed Of Deity Deposited In Human Nature As A Means Of Suppressing The Name Of God. Can Anything Be More Detestable Than This Madness In Man, Who, Finding God A Hundred Times Both In His Body And His Soul, Makes His Excellence In This Respect A Pretext For Denying That There Is A God? He Will Not Say That Chance Has Made Him Different From The Brutes; . . . But, Substituting Nature As The Architect Of The Universe, He Suppresses The Name Of God.

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.

It Is Only The Goodness Of God Sensibly Experienced By Us Which Opens Our Mouth To Celebrate His Praise.

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

Concerning Our Lord Jesus Christ, We Must Also Be Aware That He Is Our Advocate, And That Without Him We Cannot Approach God.

Unless God's Word Illumine The Way, The Whole Life Of Men Is Wrapped In Darkness And Mist, So That They Cannot But Miserably Stray.

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.

Wherever We Find The Word Of God Surely Preached And Heard, And The Sacraments Administered According To The Institution Of Christ, There, It Is Not To Be Doubted, Is A Church Of God.

Lawful Worship Consists In Obedience Alone.

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.

There Cannot Be A Surer Rule, Nor A Stronger Exhortation To The Observance Of It, Than When We Are Taught That All The Endowments Which We Possess Are Divine Deposits Entrusted To Us For The Very Purpose Of Being Distributed For The Good Of Our Neighbour.

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.

When We See That The Whole Sum Of Our Salvation, And Every Single Part Of It, Are Comprehended In Christ, We Must Beware Of Deriving Even The Minutest Portion Of It From Any Other Quarter.

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

Knowledge Of God

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

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

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

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

The Scriptures Should Be Read With The Aim Of Finding Christ In Them. Whoever Turns Aside From This Object, Even Though He Wears Himself Out All His Life In Learning, He Will Never Reach The Knowledge Of The Truth.

There Is Not One Blade Of Grass, There Is No Color In This World That Is Not Intended To Make Men Rejoice.

God Is Not Limited To Any Person, But Calls Freely Whomsoever He Pleases, And Bestows On Those Who Are Called Whatever Rewards He Thinks Fit.

Let Us Fall Before The Majesty Of Our Great God, Acknowledging Our Faults, And Praying That He Will Make Us Ever More Conscious Of Them.

Unless We Fix Certain Hours In The Day For Prayer, It Easily Slips From Our Memory.

Hours In The Day

Prayers Belong Strictly To The Worship Of God. Fasting Is A Subordinate Aid, Which Is Pleasing To God No Farther Than As It Aids The Earnestness And Fervency Of Prayer.

We Cannot Rely On God's Promises Without Obeying His Commandments.

The Lord Has Not Redeemed You So You Might Enjoy Pleasures And Luxuries Or So That You Might Abandon Yourself To Ease And Indolence, But Rather So You Should Be Prepared To Endure All Sorts Of Evils.

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

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.

So Great And Boundless Is God's Wisdom That He Knows Right Well How To Use Evil Instruments To Do Good.

Every One Of Us Is, Even From His Mother's Womb, A Master Craftsman Of Idols.

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

By Predestination We Mean The Eternal Decree Of God, By Which He Determined With Himself Whatever He Wished To Happen With Regard To Every Man

Assuredly There Is But One Way In Which To Achieve What Is Not Merely Difficult But Utterly Against Human Nature: To Love Those Who Hate Us, To Repay Their Evil Deeds With Benefits, To Return Blessings For Reproaches. It Is That We Remember Not To Consider Men's Evil Intention But To Look Upon The Image Of God In Them, Which Cancels And Effaces Their Transgressions, And With Its Beauty And Dignity Allures Us To Love And Embrace Them.

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.

The Gospel Is Not A Doctrine Of The Tongue, But Of Life.

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

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.

The Name Of Christ Excludes All Merit Of Our Own.

For What Is Idolatry If Not This: To Worship The Gifts In Place Of The Giver Himself?

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.

Every Person, On Coming To The Knowledge Of Himself, Is Not Only Urged To Seek God, But Is Also Led As By The Hand To Find Him.

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.

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