Background Image

...

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.

-John Calvin

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

They Babble And Talk

John Calvin

...

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.

Views: 7

Topic

More From John Calvin

We Are Surrounded By God’s Benefits. The Best Use Of These Benefits Is An Unceasing Expression Of Gratitude.

Let Our Chief Goal, O God, Be Your Glory, And To Enjoy You Forever.

There Are Sons Of God Who Do Not Yet Appear So To Us, But Now Do So To God; And There Are Those Who, On Account Of Some Arrogated Or Temporal Grace, Are Called So By Us, But Are Not So To God.

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

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

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

Knowledge Of God

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

There Are Babies A Span Long In Hell.

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.

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.

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

Christian Inspirational

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

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.

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?

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 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.

Nothing, Including Human Suffering, Happens By Chance.

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

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.

We Must Make The Invisible Kingdom Visible In Our Midst.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

No One In This Earthly Prison Of The Body Has Sufficient Strength Of His Own To Press Forward With A Due Degree Of Watchfulness, And The Great Majority [of Christians] Are Kept Down With Such Great Weakness That They Stagger And Halt And Even Creep On The Ground, And So Make Very Slight Advances.

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

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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

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.

Prayer Doesn't Change Things - God Changes Things In Answer To Prayer.

The Torture Of A Bad Conscience Is The Hell Of A Living Soul.

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.

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

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.

Let Us Be Peaceable As Near As We Can: Let Us Relent Of Our Own Right: Let Us Not Strive For These Worldly Goods, Honour And Reputation: Let Us Bear All Wrongs And Outrages, Rather Than Be Moved To Any Debate Through Our Own Fault. But In The Meanwhile, Let Us Fight For God's Truth With Tooth And Nail.

The Majesty Of God In Itself Goes Beyond The Capacity Of Human Understanding And Cannot Be Comprehended By It.. We Must Adore Its Loftiness Rather Than Investigate It, So That We Do Not Remain Overwhelmed By So Great A Splendor.

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.

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.

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.

The Whole Gospel Is Contained In Christ.

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

Sovereignty Of God

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.

It Must Be Plain Also That We Should Not Anxiously Strive For Riches And Honors By Relying On Our Own Diligence Or Cleverness Or By Depending On The Favor Of Men Or By Trusting In The Notion Of Good Luck, But That We Should Always Expect The Lord To Direct Us To The Lot He Has Provided For Us.

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

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.

Without The Gospel Everything Is Useless And Vain.

The More We Are Oppressed By The Cross, The Fuller Will Be Our Spiritual Joy.

When The Bible Speaks, God Speaks.

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

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

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

Knowledge Of God

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 Fire Of Affliction Reveals The Quality Of Our Faith

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.

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.

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.

Faith Is The Evidence Of Divine Adoption.

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

We Must Remember That Satan Has His Miracles, Too.

Christian Inspirational

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

... Let Everyone Regard Himself As The Steward Of God In All Things Which He Possesses.

True Faith Is Ever Connected With Hope.

Humility Is The Beginning Of True Intelligence.

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

When A Certain Shameless Fellow Mockingly Asked A Pious Old Man What God Had Done Before The Creation Of The World The Latter Aptly Countered That He Had Been Building Hell For The Curious.

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.

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

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

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Thus The Woman, Who Had Perversely Exceeded Her Proper Bounds, Is Forced Back To Her Own Position. She Had, Indeed, Previously Been Subject To Her Husband, But That Was A Liberal And Gentle Subjection; Now, However, She Is Cast Into Servitude.

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

A Dog Barks When His Master Is Attacked. I Would Be A Coward If I Saw That God's Truth Is Attacked And Yet Would Remain Silent.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

Without Knowledge Of Self There Is No Knowledge Of God.

Knowledge Of God

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

In Knowing God, Each Of Us Also Knows Himself.

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.

True It Is, That He Who Has Taken Off His Affection From The Goods Of This World Has Already Sold All, And Has Made Himself Poor, So Far As Depends Upon Himself; But The Fruit And The Proof Of This Spiritual Poverty Are, Patiently To Endure The Loss Of Worldly Goods, And Without Any Regret, When It Pleases Our Heavenly Father That We Should Be Despoiled Of Them.

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

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

Joy And Patience Are Far Above Our Strength... We Must Persevere In Prayer That He May Not Permit Our Hearts To Faint... Prayer And Perseverance Are Necessary In Our Daily Conflicts. The Best Remedy To The Weariness Is Diligence In Prayer.

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

A Man That Extols Himself Is A Fool And An Idiot

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

Faith Is Tossed About By Various Doubts, So That The Minds Of The Godly Are Rarely At Peace.

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.

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.

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.

All Truth Is God's Truth.

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.

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

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.

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

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

Prayer Is The Chief Exercise Of Faith.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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).

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.

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.

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

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?

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.

Nothing Is More Dangerous Than To Be Blinded By Prosperity.

Free Will Is An Empty Term.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

For What Accords Better And More Aptly With Faith Than To Acknowledge Ourselves Divested Of All Virtue That We May Be Clothed By God, Devoid Of All Goodness That We May Be Filled By Him, The Slaves Of Sin That He May Give Us Freedom, Blind That He May Enlighten, Lame That He May Cure, And Feeble That He May Sustain Us; To Strip Ourselves Of All Ground Of Glorying That He Alone May Shine Forth Glorious, And We Be Glorified In Him?

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

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.

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.

Faith Alone Saves, But The Faith That Saves Is Not Alone.

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

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

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.

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.

Peace And Friendship Are An Amiable Thing Among Men. They Be So Indeed, And We Ought To Seek Them To The Uttermost Of Our Power. But Yet For All That, We Must Set Such Store By God's Truth, That If All The World Should Be Set On Fire For The Maintenance Thereof, We Should Not Stick At It.

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

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

The Name Of Christ Excludes All Merit Of Our Own.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

There Is No Wisdom But That Which Is Founded On The Fear Of God, Which Solomon Also Declares To Be The Chief Part Of Wisdom.

Christian Inspirational

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.

No One Will Calmly And Quietly Submit To Bear The Cross Except Those Who Have Learned To Seek Their Happiness Beyond This World.

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.

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

Those Who Fall Away Have Never Been Thoroughly Imbued With The Knowledge Of Christ But Only Had A Slight And Passing Taste Of It.

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.

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 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.

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

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.

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

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.

Trending Author

Category