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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.

-John Calvin

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The Effect Of Our

John Calvin

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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.

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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 Denial Of Ourselves Which Christ Has So Diligently Commanded His Disciples From The Beginning Will At Last Dominate All The Desires Of Our Heart.

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

Bien Que Les étoiles Ne Parlent Pas, Même En étant Silencieux, Ils Crient. Although The Stars Do Not Speak, Even In Being Silent They Cry Out.

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.

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.

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.

In Our Good Works Nothing Is Our Own.

If People Mean That Man Has In Himself The Power To Work In Partnership With God's Grace They Are Most Wretchedly Deluding Themselves.

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

No Task Will Be So Sordid And Base, Provided You Obey Your Calling In It, That It Will Not Shine And Be Reckoned Very Precious In God's Sight.

Nothing, Including Human Suffering, Happens By Chance.

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.

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.

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

How Can It Be Said That The Weakness Of The Human Will Is Aided So As To Enable It To Aspire Effectually To The Choice Of Good, When The Fact Is, That It Must Be Wholly Transformed And Renewed?

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.

The Whole World Is A Theatre For The Display Of The Divine Goodness, Wisdom, Justice, And Power, But The Church Is The Orchestra, As It Were—the Most Conspicuous Part Of It; And The Nearer The Approaches Are That God Makes To Us, The More Intimate And Condescending The Communication Of His Benefits, The More Attentively Are We Called To Consider Them.

There Are People Who Are Known To Be Very Liberal, Yet They Never Give Without Scolding Or Pride Or Even Insolence.

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

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

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

Where Is Our Acknowledgement Of God If Our Thoughts Are Fixed On The Glamour Of Our Garments?

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

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!

A Man That Extols Himself Is A Fool And An Idiot

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.

In The Maxims Of The Law, God Is Seen As The Rewarder Of Perfect Righteousness And The Avenger Of Sin. But In Christ, His Face Shines Out, Full Of Grace And Gentleness To Poor, Unworthy Sinners.

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

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

For Even If The Word In His Immeasurable Essence United With The Nature Of Man Into One Person, We Do Not Imagine That He Was Confined Therein. Here Is Something Marvellous: The Son Of God Descended From Heaven In Such A Way That, Without Leaving Heaven, He Willed To Be Borne In The Virgin's Womb, To Go About The Earth, And To Hang Upon The Cross; Yet He Continuously Filled The World Even As He Had Done From The Beginning.

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

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

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.

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

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

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 Lord Commands Us To Do Good Unto All Men Without Exception, Though The Majority Are Very Undeserving When Judged According To Their Own Merits. But Scripture Here Helps Us Out With An Excellent Argument When It Teaches Us That We Must Not Think Of Man's Real Value, But Only Of His Creation In The Image Of God To Which We Owe All Possible Honor And Love.

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.

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

If God Does Nothing Random, There Must Always Be Something To Learn.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

I Gave Up All For Christ, And What Have I Found? Everything In Christ.

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

That Man Is Truly Humble Who Neither Claims Any Personal Merit In The Sight Of God, Nor Proudly Despises Brethren, Or Aims At Being Thought Superior To Them, But Reckons It Enough That He Is One Of The Members Of Christ, And Desires Nothing More Than That The Head Alone Should Be Exalted.

Because The Will Renewed Is The Lord's Work, It Is Wrongly Attributed To Man That He Obeys Prevenient Grace With His Will As Attendant.

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

Whoever Shall Now Contend That It Is Unjust To Put Heretics And Blasphemers To Death Will Knowingly And Willingly Incur Their Very Guilt.

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

We Must Make The Invisible Kingdom Visible In Our Midst.

While All Men Seek After Happiness, Scarcely One In A Hundred Looks For It From God.

For It Is Better, With Closed Eyes, To Follow God As Our Guide, Than, By Relying On Our Own Prudence, To Wander Through Those Circuitous Paths Which It Devises For Us.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

We Shall Never Be Clothed With The Righteousness Of Christ Except We First Know Assuredly That We Have No Righteousness Of Our Own.

Now The Great Thing Is This: We Are Consecrated And Dedicated To God In Order That We May Thereafter Think, Speak, Meditate, And Do, Nothing Except To His Glory. For A Sacred Thing May Not Be Applied To Profane Uses Without Marked Injury To Him.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

Satan Is An Astute Theologian.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

Hours In The Day

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 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.

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

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

The Name Of Christ Excludes All Merit Of Our Own.

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

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

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).

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

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

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

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!

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.

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.

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

True Faith Is Ever Connected With Hope.

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.

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.

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.

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

...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.

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.

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

Free Will Does Not Enable Any Man To Perform Good Works, Unless He Is Assisted By Grace; Indeed, The Special Grace Which The Elect Alone Receive Through Regeneration. For I Stay Not To Consider The Extravagance Of Those Who Say That Grace Is Offered Equally And Promiscuously To All

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

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

When The Bible Speaks, God Speaks.

We Are Nowhere Forbidden To Laugh.

Christian Inspirational

It Is Amazing How Much Our Lack Of Trust Provokes God If We Request Of Him A Boon That We Do Not Expect

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.

All True Knowledge Of God Is Born Out Of Obedience.

Knowledge Of God

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.

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.

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 Excellence Of The Church Does Not Consist In Multitude But In Purity.

Everyone Flatters Himself And Carries A Kingdom In His Breast.

All Truth Is God's Truth.

Our True And Genuine Wisdom Can Be Summed Up As The Knowledge Of God And The Knowledge Of Ourselves.

Knowledge Of God

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.

For Until Men Recognize That They Owe Everything To God, That They Are Nourished By His Fatherly Care, That He Is The Author Of Their Every Good, That They Should Seek Nothing Beyond Him - They Will Never Yield Him Willing Service. Nay, Unless They Establish Their Complete Happiness In Him, They Will Never Give Themselves Truly And Sincerely To Him.

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

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

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

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

Christ's Intercession Is The Continual Application Of His Death To Our Salvation.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

I Exhort All, Who Reverence The Word Of The Lord, To Read It, And Diligently Imprint It On Their Memory.

If The Gospel Be Not Preached, Jesus Christ Is, As It Were, Buried.

We Have Been Adopted As Sons By The Lord With This One Condition; That Our Life Expresses Christ, The Bond Of Our Adoption. Accordingly, Unless We Give And Devote Ourselves To Righteousness, We Not Only Revolt From Our Creator With Wicked Perfidy, But We Also Abjure Our Savior Himself.

Whenever The Lord Holds Us In Suspense, And Delays His Aid, He Is Not Therefore Asleep, But, On The Contrary, Regulates All His Works In Such A Manner That He Does Nothing But At The Proper Time.

We Must Observe That The Knowledge Of God Which We Are Invited To Cultivate Is Not That Which, Resting Satisfied With Empty Speculation, Only Flutters In The Brain, But A Knowledge Which Will Prove Substantial And Fruitful Whenever It Is Duly Perceived And Rooted In The Heart.

Knowledge Of God

I Consider Looseness With Words No Less Of A Defect Than Looseness Of The Bowels.

Prayer Is The Chief Exercise Of Faith.

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.

To Will Is Human, To Will The Bad Is Of Fallen Nature, But To Will The Good Is Of Grace.

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

Life Is Not Found In Commandments Or Declarations Of Penalties, But In The Promise Of Mercy And Only In A Gratuitous Promise.

He Who Has Learned To Look To God In Everything He Does Is At The Same Time Diverted From All Vain Thoughts.

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

The Flesh Is Willing To Flatter Itself, And Many Who Now Give Themselves Every Indulgence, Promise To Themselves An Easy Entrance Into Life. Thus Men Practice Mutual Deception On Each Other And Fall Asleep In Wicked Indifference.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

There Are Babies A Span Long In Hell.

The Creation Is Quite Like A Spacious And Splendid House, Provided And Filled With The Most Exquisite, And At The Same Time, The Most Abundant Furnishings. Everything In It Tells Of God.

If Grace Acts In Us, Grace, And Not We Who Do The Work, Will Be Crowned.

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.

When We Hear Any Mention Of Our Mystical Union With Christ, We Should Remember That Holiness Is The Channel To Do It.

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

The Cross Of Christ Only Triumphs In The Breast Of Believers Over The Devil And The Flesh, Sin And Sinners, When Their Eyes Are Directed To The Power Of His Resurrection.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

Wherefore All Theology, When Separated From Christ, Is Not Only Vain And Confused, But Is Also Mad, Deceitful, And Spurious; For, Though The Philosophers Sometimes Utter Excellent Sayings, Yet They Have Nothing But What Is Short-lived, And Even Mixed Up With Wicked And Erroneous Sentiments.

It Is A Sign Of A Perverse And Treacherous Disposition To Wound The Good Name Of Another, When He Has No Opportunity Of Defending Himself.

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.

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.

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

We Must Always Speak Of The Efficacy Of The Ministry In Such A Manner That The Entire Praise Of The Work May Be Reserved For God Alone.

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.

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

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

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

Those Little Children Have Not Yet Any Understanding To Desire His Blessing; But When They Are Presented To Him, He Gently And Kindly Receives Them, And Dedicates Them To The Father By A Solemn Act Of Blessing.

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

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.

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

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

The Vices Of Which We Are Full We Carefully Hide From Others, And We Flatter Ourselves With The Notion That They Are Small And Trivial; We Sometimes Even Embrace Them As Virtues.

The Fanaticism Which Discards The Scripture, Under The Pretense Of Resorting To Immediate Revelations Is Subversive Of Every Principle Of Christianity. For When They Boast Extravagantly Of The Spirit, The Tendency Is Always To Bury The Word Of God So They May Make Room For Their Own Falsehoods.

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

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.

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.

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).

But A Faithful Believer Will In All Circumstances Mediate On The Mercy And Fatherly Goodness Of God.

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.

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

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.

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.

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