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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.

-John Calvin

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Whensoever God's Truth Is

John Calvin

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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.

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

Nothing Is More Dangerous Than To Be Blinded By Prosperity.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

We Must Remember That Satan Has His Miracles, Too.

Christian Inspirational

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.

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

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.

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

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

Prayer Is The Chief Exercise Of Faith.

The Blindness Of Unbelievers In No Way Detracts From The Clarity Of The Gospel; The Sun Is No Less Bright Because Blind Men Do Not Perceive Its Light.

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

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.

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?

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

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.

...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.

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.

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.

It Is A Promise Which Eminently Deserves Our Observation That All Who Are United To Christ And Acknowledge Him To Be Christ And Mediator Will Remain To The End Safe From All Danger, For What Is Said Of The Body Of The Church Belongs To Each Of Its Members Since They Are One In Christ.

Acknowledge Him

Everyone Flatters Himself And Carries A Kingdom In His Breast.

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.

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

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.

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

All Truth Is God's Truth.

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.

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

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

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

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

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 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.

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.

Satan, Who Is A Wonderful Contriver Of Delusions, Is Constantly Laying Snares To Entrap Ignorant And Heedless People.

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.

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

Sovereignty Of God

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

For As The Aged, Or Those Whose Sight Is Defective, When Any Book, However Fair, Is Set Before Them, Though They Perceive That There Is Something Written, Are Scarcely Able To Make Out Two Consecutive Words, But, When Aided By Glasses, Begin To Read Distinctly, So Scripture, Gathering Together The Impressions Of Deity, Which, Till Then, Lay Confused In Our Minds, Dissipates The Darkness, And Shows Us The True God Clearly.

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.

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

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.

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

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

The Fire Of Affliction Reveals The Quality Of Our Faith

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

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.

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

To Make Intercession For Men Is The Most Powerful And Practical Way In Which We Can Express Our Love For Them.

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

Satan Is An Astute Theologian.

There Are Babies A Span Long In Hell.

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

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 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.

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.

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 Word "hope" I Take For Faith; And Indeed Hope Is Nothing Else But The Constancy Of Faith.

Christian Inspirational

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.

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.

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.

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

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).

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.

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.

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

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.

When We Know God To Be Our Father, Should We Not Desire That He Be Known As Such By All? And If We Do Not Have This Passion, That All Creatures Do Him Homage, Is It Not A Sign That His Glory Means Little To Us?

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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).

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

Christian Inspirational

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

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.

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.

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

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

Now We Must Remark, That There Are Two Parts In The Commandment-the First Forbids The Erection Of A Graven Image, Or Any Likeness; The Second Prohibits The Transferring Of The Worship Which God Claims For Himself Alone, To Any Of These Phantoms Or Delusive Shows.

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

Without The Gospel Everything Is Useless And Vain.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

Doubtful Prayer Is No Prayer At All.

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).

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

There Is Also An Old Proverb, That They Who Pay Much Attention To The Body Generally Neglect The Soul.

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

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

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

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

Knowledge Of God

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.

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

To Crave Wealth And Honor, To Demand Power, To Pile Up Riches, To Gather All Those Vanities Which Seem To Make For Pomp And Empty Display, That Is Our Furious Passion And Our Unbounded Desire.on The Other Hand, We Fear And Abhor Poverty, Obscurity, And Humility, And We Seek To Avoid Them By All Possible Means.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

Lawful Worship Consists In Obedience Alone.

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.

He Makes This Favor Common To All, Because It Is Propounded To All, And Not Because It Is In Reality Extended To All; For Though Christ Suffered For The Sins Of The Whole World, And Is Offered Through God’s Benignity Indiscriminately To All, Yet All Do Not Receive Him.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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