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Justification takes place by works and by faith—by the works of Christ and by our faith.
If hatred of sin is necessary to God, then penal justice is equally necessary because the hatred of sin is the constant will of punishing it.
When the apostle says that 'faith is by hearing' (Rom. 10:17), he does indeed give us to understand that the ministry of the church ought to come in as the ordinary means of producing faith in adults. He does not teach, however, that the church is clearer and better known than the Scriptures.
Good works are required as the means and way for possessing salvation. Even though they don't contribute anything to the acquisition of our salvation, they are necessary to the obtainment of it. No one can be saved without them.
We do not deny that the church has many functions in relation to the Scriptures. She is: (1) the keeper of the oracles of God to whom they are committed and who preserves the authentic tables of the covenant of grace with the greatest fidelity, like a notary (Rom. 3:2); (2) the guide, to point out the Scriptures and lead us to them (Is. 30:21); (3) the defender, to vindicate and defend them by separating the genuine books from the spurious, in which sense she may be called the ground of the truth (1 Tim. 3:15*); (4) the herald who sets forth and promulgates them (2 Cor. 5:19; Rom. 10:16); (5) the interpreter inquiring into the unfolding of the true sense. But all these imply a ministerial only and not a magisterial power.
The reading and contemplation of the Scriptures is enjoined upon men of all languages, therefore the translation of it into the native tongues is necessary. Since men speak different languages and are not all familiar with those two in which it was first written, it cannot be understood by them unless translated; it comes as the same thing to say nothing at all and to say what nobody can understand. But here it happens by the wonderful grace of God that the division of tongues (which formerly was the sign of a curse) becomes now the proof of a heavenly blessing. What was introduced to destroy Babel is now used to build up the mystical Zion.
It was not necessary for the apostles to write a catechism so as to deliver their doctrines professedly. It was enough for them to hand down to us those doctrines in accordance with which all symbolical books and catechisms might be constructed. If they did not formally write a catechism, they did materially leave us either in the gospels or in the epistles those things by which we can be clearly taught the principles of religion (katécheisthai).
If theology takes some things from other systems, it is not as an inferior from superiors, but as an superior from inferiors (as a mistress freely using her handmaids). Theology does not so much take from others, as presupposes certain previously known things upon which it builds revelation.
Institutes of Elenctic Theology
That God is the object of theology is evident both from the very name (theologias and theosebeias), and from Scripture which recognizes no other principal object.Institutes of Elenctic Theology
Thus that all things are discussed in theology either because they deal with God himself or have a relation (schesin) to him as the first principle and ultimate end.Institutes of Elenctic Theology
We are weak, but we are His; we are deformed, but yet carry His image upon us. A father looks not so much at the blemishes of his child as at his own nature in him; so Christ finds matter of love from that which is His own in us. He sees His own nature in us. We are diseased, but yet His members. Whoever neglected his own members because they were sick or weak? None ever hated his own flesh. Can the head forget the members? Can Christ forget Himself? We are His fullness, as He is ours. Bruised Reed, 107
If we knew the glory of our elder Brother in heaven, we should long to be there to see Him. We children think the earth a fair garden, but compared with the garden of the Lord it is but wild, cold, barren ground. All things are fading that are here; it is our happiness to make sure of Christ.
If you win Christ, though not in the sweet and pleasant way you would have Him, it is enough. For the Well Beloved comes not our way; He must choose His way Himself. He cuts off your love to the creature that you might learn that God only is the right owner of your love, sorrow, loss, sadness, death, or the worst things that are.
O that the heaven, and the heaven of heavens were paper, and the sea ink, and the multitude of mountains pens of brass, and I able to write my dearest, my loveliest, my sweetest, my matchless, and my most unequaled and marvelous Well Beloved! Woe is me, I cannot set Him out to men and angels! I am put to my wit's end how to get His name made great. How sweet is Christ's back! O, what there is in His face! Those that see His face, how are they able to get their eye plucked off Him again!Garden of Spices, 41
Christ is not loved at all till He be loved above all. Christ All and in All, 6
Christ's sitting down at God's right hand in heaven notes the advancement of Christ's human nature to the highest honor, even to be the object of adoration to angels and men. For it is properly His human nature that is the subject of all this honor and advancement, and being advanced to the right hand of Majesty, it is become an object of worship and adoration. Not simply as it is flesh and blood, but as it is personally united to the second person and enthroned in the supreme glory of heaven. Oh, here is the mystery, that flesh and blood should ever be advanced to the highest throne of Majesty, and being there installed in that glory, we may now direct our worship to him as God man. Fountain of Life, 420
Oh! Christ's riches are so many, they cannot be numbered; they are so precious, they cannot be valued; so great, they cannot be measured. Oh, the infinite riches of our King! Christ is a mine of gold which we must dig till we find heaven.Christ\'s Famous Titles, 51
When a man shall not only design me a purse of gold but shall venture his life to bring it to me, this is grace indeed. But, alas, what are a thousand such short comparisons to the unsearchable love of Christ? Riches, 103
Christ was never so joyful in all His life that we read of as when His sufferings grew near. Then He takes the sacrament of His body and blood into His own hands and with thanksgiving bestows it among His disciples. Then He sings a hymn, then He rejoices, then He comes with a "God, I come." O the heart—the great heart—that Jesus had for us to do us good! He did it with all the desire of His soul. Riches, 103
O, pity for evermore that there should be such an one as Christ Jesus, so boundless, so bottomless, and so incomparable in infinite excellency, and sweetness, and so few to take Him! O, ye poor dry dead souls, why will ye not come hither with your toom vessels and your empty souls to this huge, and fair, and deep, and sweet well of life, and fill all your toom vessels?The Loveliness of Christ
In regard to use, the moral is the end of the others, while the others are subservient to the moral. A Clear and Simple Treatise on the Lord’s Supper
The moral law regards the Israelite people as men; the ceremonial as the church of the Old Testament expecting the promised Messiah; the civil regards them as a peculiar people who in the land of Canaan ought to have a republic suiting their genius and disposition. A Clear and Simple Treatise on the Lord’s Supper
The moral law is for the most part expressed by mtsvth ("precepts"), the ceremonial by chqym ("statutes") and the judicial by mshptym ("judgments"), which the Septuagint renders by entolas, dikaiōmata and krimata. "I will speak unto thee all the commandments, and the statutes, and the judgments, which thou shalt teach them" (Dt. 5:31); so also in 6:1, 20; 7:11; and Lev. 26:46. Sometimes however these words are synonymous and used promiscuously (Ezk. 5:6; 20:11, 16, 18). But the distinction appears principally from the nature of the thing and the office of the law (whose it is to settle the order according to which man is joined to God and his neighbor) A Clear and Simple Treatise on the Lord’s Supper
he law given by Moses is usually distinguished into three species: moral (treating of morals or of perpetual duties towards God and our neighbor); ceremonial (of the ceremonies or rites about the sacred things to be observed under the Old Testament); and civil, constituting the civil government of the Israelite people. The first is the foundation upon which rests the obligation of the others and these are its appendices and determinations. Ceremonial has respect to the first table determining its circumstances, especially as to external worship. Civil has respect to the second table in judicial things, although it lays down punishments for crimes committed against the first table. A Clear and Simple Treatise on the Lord’s Supper
For since His will can have for its object nothing but good, it cannot will evil as evil, but as terminated on the permission of that which is good. God, therefore, properly does not will sin to be done, but only wills to permit it.
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1. Thomas Watson (146)
2. Charles Spurgeon (135)
3. J.C. Ryle (117)
4. John Calvin (107)
5. J.I. Packer (93)
6. John Piper (87)
7. George Swinnock (78)
8. John Flavel (70)
9. A.W. Pink (68)
10. Louis Berkhof (63)
11. John Owen (61)
12. C.S. Lewis (59)
13. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (58)
14. B.B. Warfield (58)
15. R.C. Sproul (55)
16. Thomas Brooks (53)
17. Thomas Manton (53)
18. Heinrich Bullinger (53)
19. Matthew Henry (51)
20. Gerald Bray (50)
2. Charles Spurgeon (135)
3. J.C. Ryle (117)
4. John Calvin (107)
5. J.I. Packer (93)
6. John Piper (87)
7. George Swinnock (78)
8. John Flavel (70)
9. A.W. Pink (68)
10. Louis Berkhof (63)
11. John Owen (61)
12. C.S. Lewis (59)
13. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (58)
14. B.B. Warfield (58)
15. R.C. Sproul (55)
16. Thomas Brooks (53)
17. Thomas Manton (53)
18. Heinrich Bullinger (53)
19. Matthew Henry (51)
20. Gerald Bray (50)
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1. Sin (213)2. Scripture (152)
3. Prayer (141)
4. Faith (120)
5. Preaching (119)
6. The Law (108)
7. Gospel (104)
8. Suffering (99)
9. Salvation (91)
10. Sabbath (88)
11. Church (85)
12. Christ (82)
13. Law (61)
14. Grace (59)
15. Justification (55)
16. Truth (53)
17. Death (50)
18. Love (46)
19. Children (43)
20. Creation (43)
21. Theology (43)
22. Ten Commandments (42)
23. Heaven (39)
24. Obedience (39)
25. Sanctification (39)
26. Worship (39)