In so far as our nature is created after the image of God in original righteousness, this excellency could be lost and our nature become depraved; but not our creation after God's image so far as it pertains to its essence (quod ad substantiam).Sacred Theology, 507
Life is not merely a gift, it is a task, an achievement. We are not simply passive recipients of the Good, but free and determinative agents who react upon what is given, taking it up into our life and working it into the texture of our character. Christianity and Ethics A Handbook of Christian Ethics
The essence of sin is selfishness. It is the deliberate choice of self in preference to God—personal and wilful rebellion against the known law of righteousness and truth. Christianity and Ethics A Handbook of Christian Ethics
An African prince, who was brought to England and resided there some time, being asked what he thought of the Bible, answered, that he believed it to be from God, for he found all the good people in favor of it, and all the bad people against it!The Canon of the Old and New Testaments Ascertained, or The Bible Complete without the Apocrypha and Unwritten Traditions
Conviction, then, is no part of a sinner's salvation—but the clear practical knowledge of the fact that he cannot save himself, and is entirely dependent on the saving grace of God.Thoughts on Religious Experience
Between atheism and superstition, there is this great difference; the latter may authorize some crimes, the former opens the flood-gates to all.The Canon of the Old and New Testaments Ascertained, or The Bible Complete without the Apocrypha and Unwritten Traditions
The theologian must not be content to discuss merely speculative problems about God and man. He must seek above all things to bring the truths of revelation to bear upon human practice. All knowledge has its practical implicate.
One of the most grievous of the effects of sin is the deformation of the image of God reflected in the human mind, and there can be no recovering from sin which does not bring with it the correction of this deformation and the reflection in the soul of man of the whole glory of the Lord God Almighty.Inspiration and Authority of the Bible, Chapter 1
God created us for this: to live our lives in a way that makes him look more like the greatness and the beauty and the infinite worth that he really is. This is what it means to be created in the image of God.
though the divine glory is displayed in man's outward appearance, it cannot be doubted that the proper seat of the image is in the soul.Institutes, Book 1 Chapter 15
The rationalist will not receive many of the doctrines of revelation because they do not accord with his preconceived notions, which he calls the dictates of reason. The enthusiast will not submit to the authority of scripture because he imagines that he is under the direction of a superior guide. The one makes his own reason the judge of what he will receive as true form the volume of revelation; the other determines every thing, whether it relate to opinion or practice, by the suggestion of his fancied inspiration.Sermon at Opening of General Assembly
man was made in the image and likeness of God in respect to his mind, by which he excels irrational creatures; in his image, however, according to memory, intelligence, and love; in his likeness according to innocence and justice, which are naturally in the rational mind.The Sentences, Book 2, Dist 16, Ch3