QUOTATIONS FROM EARLIER WRITERS.

 

SHORT QUOTATIONS FROM EARLIER WRITERS (with occasional additional comments.)

    From the Reformation Reformed theology ought to have developed itself firmly and at once. The church had not only recovered the position she occupied at the end of the seventh century, but had taken a great step in advance. That the Reformed theology did not adequately avail itself of its great position nothing can prove more clearly than that after centuries the first attempt- that of Calvin- retains its supremacy. I attribute this failure of Reformed theology to develop itself completely as a failure to conceive adequately what that science is-the sum of all revealed truth.
Robert J. Beckinridge, 1859.
     Calvin- in the sanctified line from Paul and Augustine, was called to hugely advance true Biblical theology. Within the complex situation of Renaissance Europe further progress stalled, although as time went on other greats, notably Britain’s John Owen, made further clarifications and advances. In the following struggles with heresy, oppression, and later humanism and destructive apostate criticism, it is true, as Breckinridge noted, that true theology has failed to advance, and even the most zealously Reformed men hark back to Reformation and Puritan days and (with some notable exceptions in specific areas and doctrines) have failed to build on that foundation and deepen and clarify Biblical truth. In many ways such an advance is exactly what (God willing) this ministry is attempting to foster.

     Those who read the Bible most love it best. They find something new in it at every fresh perusal. They prefer it to all other books and can say with David: O how I love thy law! It is my meditation all the day.  (Psalm 119: 97).
James W. Alexander. c. 1835.

    If at any time we are troubled at the small number of those who believe, let us call to mind that none comprehend the mysteries of God except those to whom it is given.
John Calvin.

    God often forgives sinners, but he never forgives sin. The sinner is only forgiven on the ground of another having borne his punishment.
A.W. Pink.

    Death is where the believer hands in the pearl of faith, and receives the pearl of sight.
Anon (Puritan).

    It is said that Oliver Cromwell visited one of the great Cathedrals of England and saw in an alcove twelve solid silver statues. “Who are these?” he asked. “They are the twelve apostles” was the answer. “If they are apostles let them go about doing good” said Cromwell. The hint was taken, the statues were removed and melted down and made into silver coins. The coins than paid the salaries of godly preachers, who in turn had the means of supplying the needs of the deserving poor of the town. Christians should not be statues, but, because they are Christians, go about doing good.
Anon.

    Ladies’ head-covering in meetings is certainly Scriptural, but there is always the converse danger of pride in headgear. It is reported of an American Reformed church that in the early twentieth-century when ladies’ hats with wide brims became the fashion there was suddenly erected a barrier in the pews behind which those at the back could no longer see the preacher!
Anon.

   To detect wolves in sheep’s clothing: look closely and the stitching always shows.
Anon.

   The Jews preserved the letter of Scripture entire, but lost the sense. The papists keep the text, but let go the truth.
John Arrowsmith (Puritan).

    At prayer meetings there are often people who show eccentricities that need checking. It may be over-long praying restricting others opportunities, or inappropriate petitions. In one instance a man always prayed in an extremely loud voice, to the annoyance of the other members. Finally the Pastor took him aside and said “I am afraid that you are not walking very closely with God.”  The man was shocked and asked why that was so. “You can’t be very near to God if you need to shout to make him hear” was the reply. The hint was taken.
Anon.

     Balaam’s ass: The ass turned prophet because the prophet had turned into an ass.
Anon.

    There are many professing Christians, but few possessing Christians.
Anon.

    Every baptism recorded in the New Testament, whether it be John’s baptism, or the baptism of Jesus by John, or Christian baptism, has its roots in the diverse baptisms (Hebrews 9:10) of the Pentateuch. All were by sprinkling or pouring.
Duane Spencer.

    In the nineteenth-century there was a strong culture of Sabbath keeping, especially in major cities, with risk of loss of respect for Sabbath breaking. The truth, however, was often that those taking the rest of the week out of Sunday often tended to take Sunday out of the rest of the week.
Anon.

    The Psalms are church songs, and all who belong to the church are to sing them. Both young men and maidens, old men and children, let them praise the name of the Lord (Psalm 148:12-13). The ripe believer, who can triumph in the steadfast hope of God’s glory is to land his voice to swell the song of the church when she cries to God out of the depths, and the penitent, who is still sitting in darkness, is not to refrain his voice when the church pours out in song her sense of God’s love. The whole church has fellowship in the Psalms, and from this fellowship her divine Head does not turn away.
William Binnie.

    I am first a Christian, next a catholic, then a Calvinist, fourthly a paedobaptist, and fifthly a Presbyterian, I think of these as towers rising one upon the other- narrower as they rise, yet as we ascend our outlook widens.
John ‘Rabbi’ Duncan.

    A narrow theology, founded on the theologian’s idiosyncrasies is, after all, no theology at all.
John ‘Rabbi’ Duncan.

    If I were to die in the pulpit, I would desire to die preaching repentance, or if I die out of the pulpit, I would desire to die practicing repentance. He that repents daily for the sins of that day, when he comes to die, will have the sins of one day only to repent of.
John Dod.

    Five persons were studying what were the best means to mortify sin. One said, to meditate on death, the second to meditate on judgement, the third to meditate on the joys of heaven, the fourth to meditate on the torments of hell, but the fifth said, to meditate on the blood and sufferings of Jesus Christ. Certainly the last is the choisest and strongest motive of all. We must dwell and muse upon it and apply that precious blood to our souls, and sorrow and doubt will flee away.
Thomas Brooks.

    It is no exaggeration to say that God’s covenant is the key to the interpretation of the whole of God’s word. God’s covenant covers every phase of our lives: our families, our place in God’s church, our place in the world, our calling, our plans and purposes, our prayers, our very existence, for we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, that God has before ordained that we should walk in (Ephesians 2:10).
Prof. Herman Hanko.

    God loves a cheerful giver-and he also loves a cheerful forgiver.
Anon.

    A Wesleyan once asked a Calvinist if sinless perfection is obtainable in this life. The answer was, “No. But seek to live each day as carefully as if it was”
Anon.

    We are all desirous to have fair and well printed Bibles. Believe it, the fairest impression of the Bible is to have it well printed on the reader’s heart.
John Arrowsmith (Puritan).

    It is not right for Christians to Judaise and abstain from labour on the Jewish Sabbath, but to work on that same day. They should rather respect the Lord’s Day, and, if possible, abstain from labour on it, as Christians. But if they should be found Judaisers, then let them be anathema in the sight of God.
The Council of Laodicea, c. 350 A.D.
     It is interesting that the Council was convened at Laodicea- where there had been a danger of Judaising as early at Paul’s Epistles to the Colossians and Ephesians.

    I think that infant baptism is an ordinance of Christ because, if our children are not to be baptized they are left inferior in their privilege to the Jews, and why should not our children be initiated into Christ as they?
George Whitefield.

    It was the design of Paul in his Epistle to the Hebrews to teach that the religion of the people of God is, for substance and intention, the same in both Testaments. Modern times have been refining on the Reformation till by degrees they have conceived and brought forth a sort of philosophical religion, distinct from everything the world had seen before.
William Jones, 1811.
     This is a quote that should be considered most carefully, for William Jones recognised over 200 years ago exactly what Reformation Christian Vision is attempting to alert believers to and oppose today! Needless to say, as his sound words were nor heeded, thing have become far, far, worse since. Bible Christianity- that is WHOLE BIBLE Christianity must be recovered.

    The doctrine of most evangelical churches today is the humanist theology of Erasmus and Rome. This is why fundamentalists and liberals, Protestants and Catholics, high church and Pentecostals can work side by side. What they hold in common is the exalted doctrine of man espoused by Erasmus, defined by Arminius, made popular by the Wesleys, and given a final polish by the many religious psychologists of our own times.
Duane Spencer.

    In Britain the Reformers and Puritans objected to the use of the Latin cross on and in churches, or as a decoration or as jewellery. They contended that it was of pagan origin, and was associated with superstition and idolatry. The Latin cross is certainly not to be found as a symbol of the faith in the Catacombs until Christianity was losing its apostolic character. Hence the cross was regarded by our Protestant forefathers as a sign of a compromising, decadent, and corrupt Christianity. At the beginning of the nineteenth-century no Protestant places of worship had crosses. These reappeared with many other ecclesiastical ornaments which had been proscribed at the time of the Reformation, with the rise of the Anglo-Catholic movement. It is true to say that in Britain, in circles where the material cross is introduced, the preaching of the true cross begins to wane.
Bishop D.A. Thompson.

    It may be questioned whether a man be bound even in a case of adultery to put away his wife. Our Lord in Matthew 5:32 rather permits divorcement in that case than commands it. Though it be true that adultery be a capital crime and be punished by the Judges (Job 31:11), that is if the business be brought before them and proved, yet we read not that the husband was anywhere bound to prosecute his wife, especially if he saw her penitent and thought good to retain her (For what knowest thou, O man, whether thou mayest gain thy wife 1. Corinthians 7;16), or put her away without noise and without public shame more privately by bill of divorce.
Robert Gell  1659.

    Christianity has never attained to that perfect form which it should have by virtue of the Old Testament promises.
Bengel, c.1750.

    Like a tree that sucks nurture from a soil enriched by its own fallen leaves, our Bible is the outgrowth of many years and many minds, the aim being to give to the English speaking people not a mere literary luxury but a book which all ranks and classes could easily understand and enjoy.
John Eadie.
     This was said of the King James (Authorised) Bible, but the point is that the theological and hermeneutical skills of many sanctified minds since 1611 should have been employed to constantly make a good thing better.

   It has been said that all theological truth is in the Bible, but it takes controversy to make it plain.
Anon.

    The worldwide church needs to learn to study Scripture together as a global community. Paying attention to our brothers and sisters abroad can open the echo chamber and allow new voices in.
Richard O’Brian, 2012.
     Quite right- but this can only really be if the whole world was using the SAME Bible, albeit translated into different languages, as closely uniform as the languages will permit. Today even in the most preferred language, English, we have a confusing variety of ‘Bibles’ on offer. These benefits would only occur if 1) we have as accurate an English Bible as possible, and, 2) that is used as a model for other accurate translations, so that people in other language groups will recognise the format and structure and feel that they share the common Bible, although presented in different modern languages. Given that all can study on a common basis, and share their insights for the common good. This alone will demonstrate the true spiritual unity of the global redeemed and elected church.

     The professor who withholds his children from the covenant sign has no part in the covenant himself, and thus has no right to the covenant meal.
Hugh Binnie. 1832.

   We owe the Scriptures the same reverence that we owe to God.
John Calvin.

   We are persuaded that the best method of expounding the great truths of the Christian religion is that which most accurately reproduces the teachings of the Bible writers and formulates them in the full light of the gospel of Jesus. In the simple but remarkable records of the New Testament the precious truths of the older Scriptures, even the jot and tittle, are seen in their higher pleroma. The Christian revelation fulfils and consummates the entire Hebrew cult.
Milton Terry, 1907.

    I do not seek to understand Scripture that I may believe, I believe Scripture in order to understand.
Anselm of Canterbury, c. 1100 A.D.

   Deprived of the Temple, priest, and sacrifice, Rabbinical Judaism has made a consistent effort to water down the importance of the sacrifices and shed blood which alone makes atonement for the soul. In place of the atonement the Day of Atonement itself has been declared (e.g. by Rabbi Ammon of Mayence, c. 1100 A.D.) to make atonement for sinners, without the necessity of sacrifice. Without the New Testament the Old Testament is incomplete, a promise without a fulfilment, a shadow without a reality.
Victor Buksbazen.

    When a scoffing infidel thought to perplex a pious little girl by asking; “How big is your God?” she replied: “He is so great that the heaven of heavens cannot contain him, yet he is so loving as to dwell in this little heart of mine.”
William S. Plumer.

    The old Presbyterian faith into which I was born was based, throughout, on the idea of covenant family religion, church membership by God’s holy act of baptism and following this a regular catechetical training of the young, with direct reference to progressing to the table itself. In one word, all proceded on the theory of sacramental, educational, religion.
John Williamson Nevin c. 1850.

    Infant baptism is a practice that the church has always had, always held. Let no one, therefore, whisper in your ears a contrary doctrine. The church received it as the faith of our ancestors, and perseveringly holds it to the end.
Augustine of Hippo, c. 400 A.D.

    God as a rule saves elect children in their infancy, whether before baptism or at the time of their baptism. These infant children are not viewed as candidates for the saving work of God by the Spirit at some later time, when perhaps they receive a ‘conversion experience.’ They are viewed as having already received salvation so that they increase and grow up in the Lord Jesus just as, already being alive physically, they are to develop and mature in their physical life. The Reformed faith views the baptised infant child of believing parents as regenerated so that the saving work of the Spirit within them consists of spiritual increase, growth, and development by means of pastoral care.
Prof. David Engelsma.
     This truth has sometimes been called presumptive regeneration but that is a poor description. The believing parents and the church do not presume but believe that God’s election runs primarily in the line of covenant, and that he heeds he prayers of believing prospective parents and is faithful to his promises. On this elective and covenantal foundation the child is baptised.

    In the Papacy the virtue and substance of baptism remain. The efficiency of baptism does not depend upon the person administering it. We confess that those baptised in it do not require a second baptism.
French Reformed Confession of Faith, 1559.

      How many have been worse, and how few have been better, for prosperity? Even Jeshurun waxed fat and kicked (Deuteronomy 32:15). In the time of the Judges whenever they had respite from trouble they presently fell into idolatry. When Uzziah was strong his heart was lifted up to his destruction (2. Chronicles 26:16). Some there are who are not in trouble like other men, their eyes stand out with fatness, they have more that heart could wish. But are they better by it? No, Pride surrounds them like a girdle, violence covers them like a garment (Psalm 73:6). So true is the maxim: If favour is shown to the wicked he will not learn righteousness, in the land of uprightness he will deal unjustly, and nor behold the majesty of the LORD.
Elisha Coles.

    In the beginning of the Reformation men walked, some twenty, some forty, miles to the hearing of the word of God. Now they will scarcely come from their houses to the Kirk and remain there one hour to hear the word, but abide at home.
Robert Bruce, 1589.
     The gospel is most treasured when it is most scarce and most opposed. When it is freely and comfortably available it is least valued. Such is mankind!

    Prayer, meditation, and temptation make a minister.
Martin Luther.

    We have planted the sovereign drug, Arminianism, which we hope will purge the Protestants from their heresy, and it flourisheth and bears fruit in due season. We cannot be too careful and circumspect in this regard. I am at this time transported with joy to see how happily all instruments and means co-operate to our purposes.
An intercepted letter from a Jesuit in England to his superior in Brussels, noted and placed in the State Papers by Lord Clarendon, March, 1628.

    Deliver me from the narrowing influence of human lessons. Teach me directly out of the fullness and freeness of thine own Word.
Thomas Chalmers.

   The sins of teachers are teaching sins. There is a natural theology, but not a natural Christology.
Thomas Birkett.

    Those do well who pray morning and evening in their families. Those do better who pray and read the Scriptures. Those do best who pray and read and sings the Psalms.
Wilhelmus a’Brakel.

    It is altogether natural that children growing up in the bosom of the church under faithful application of the means of grace should be quickened into (conscious) spiritual life in a comparatively quiet way.
John Williamson Nevin.
     Does this suggest that saving faith is inherited? No, that is a misconception. Souls are inherited, as bodies are, from parents. Faith is applied sovereignly by God in terms of his covenant faithfulness. Thus the person is traduced from the parents, and the saving element that redeems the person comes from God by grace, within the covenant relationship and promises of a covenant seed to his elect.

    The church must shine by Scripture light. To do so the church must be ruled by Scripture. The church’s power is not authoritative, but only ministerial. Hence when we set up the name of a church let us see whether it walks in the way of Christ, that is, whether she is his spouse or not, by whether or not she walks according to his institutions.
John Collings.

   God sanctifies a child by the ministry of water in baptism, and feeds our souls in the Lord’s Supper by feeding our bodies with bread and wine. It should not surprise us if the neglect of either of them leads to the condemnation of those who despise them, since they are God’s instruments ordained by him to convey his grace to us.
William Perkins, 1605.

     Tradux animae, tradux peccati  (the transmission of souls means the transmission of sin).
Tertullian (c.160-225 A.D.)
     As God created the entire human nature by way of creation, and then individualised that nature by the method of procreation, why would he then massively interfere with that process by creating innumerable souls, as babies are conceived and born? On the sixth day God’s creating work was completed. As mankind is of one genetic nature, then he must be so as to his spiritual part as well as his physical part. Thus the entire human nature is procreated. Soul, considered as an immaterial substance, is no more diminished as to that substance by procreation from it, than are physical bodies divided or diminished by bodily procreation. Again, the Western mindset stumbles when faced with invisible and spiritual realities.

    Every cross has a call in it.
George Whitefield.

    How idle is the pretense of infallibility of the Popes of Rome when Peter, who is claimed as their founder, often erred, even after he was made an Apostle. Christ said to him “Get thee behind me”, “Put up thy sword”, etc., and Paul “Withstood him to his face, for he was to be blamed.” Hardly any good man has left behind him more proofs of liability to err than this very Apostle, yet the Popes claim to derive their infallibility through him. Could hr transmit what he never had, and never claimed? Away with such idle dreams!
William S. Plumer.

      The life of Duane E. Spencer (1920-1981) is a remarkable testimony to the miracle of divine grace. That testimony can be summed up in a sentence: he never stopped studying and revising his opinions as he learned more about the Bible. His convictions led him from the Methodist church into the independent Bible Church concept, where he could more faithfully set forth the teachings of the Scriptures. His studies led him to become convinced of the reality of God’s sovereign initiative in salvation, and he became one of the strongest preachers of the doctrine of election in the country. Spencer’s theological pilgrimage was not over, however. A few years later he abandoned the remnants of the premillennial convictions he had formerly held, and embraced amillennialism. Spencer had never been committed to immersion as the mode of baptism, though he had allowed for it. Now, however, in the Reformed context he was challenged to rethink the question of infant baptism. Continued Bible study led him to the Reformed view of baptism, and consequently of ecclesiology. Spencer brought Grace Bible Church into the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.
James B. Jordan.
     This, of course, is the path that all sincere disciples should follow. If sincerely done it will inevitably lead to much the same result!

    Since God chooses to be worshipped in no other way than according to his own appointment, he cannot endure new modes of worship to be devised. As soon as men allow themselves to wander beyond the limits of the word of God, the more labour and anxiety they display in worshipping him, the heavier the condemnation which they draw down upon themselves, for by such innovation religion is dishonoured.
John Calvin.

     It is plain that, without any professional precentor to lead them, the fishermen of Galilee could sing the Psalms, and no doubt they had them by heart.
William Binnie.

    There is nothing about which the living God expresses so vehement a jealousy as the method in which men approach him in worship. Nadab and Abihu did not think so, but they made a dreadful mistake.
John L. Girardeau.

    What contemporary hymn writer can say with David: The Spirit of the Lord spoke by me, and his word was on my tongue? Let him who is able to make this boast, and have it verified by the Lord Jesus Christ and his holy apostles, offer his compositions to be sung alongside David’s glorious praises!
Douglas W. Comin.

    I have regularly and attentively read these Holy scriptures and am of the opinion that this volume, independently of its divine origin, contains more sublimity and beauty, more pure morality, more important history, and finer strains of poetry and eloquence than can be collected from all other books, in whatever age or language they may have been composed.
Sir William Jones, written on the fly-leaf of his Bible (Eighteenth Century.)

    There are some travelling to heaven at this moment of whom the church and the world know nothing. They flourish in secret places like the ‘lily among thorns’ and seem ‘to waste their sweetness on the desert air’, but Christ loves them and they love Christ.
J.C. Ryle, 1856.

   It is said that when Oliver Cromwell was visiting an English town he was approached by a Puritan pastor who complained that an Anglican (Church of England) church was seducing his people away. (The Church of England was at that time disestablished and in effect a dissenting denomination.) “How is that so?” Asked Cromwell. “They are preaching them away” was the reply. “Then preach them back again!” Said Cromwell.
Anon.

    No one to whom the Bible has been made known will fail in learning everything necessary to be believed and practiced, except though their own fault.
William Cunningham.

    This is the incontrovertible ground of infant baptism- the identity, as it were, of the parent and infant child. God has established it, grace has revealed it, reason rejoices in it, nature cleaves to it. Let us value the blessing as we ought, and pity those who refuse it.
William Ross Hamilton c.1860.

    My conclusion is that whenever the Scriptures speak of wine as a comfort, a blessing, or a libation to God, and rank it with such articles as corn and oil, they mean- they can only mean- such wines as contained no alcohol that could have a mischievous tendency, and that when they denounce it, prohibit it, and connect it with drunkenness and revelling, they can only mean alcoholic or intoxicating wine.
Professor Moses Stuart.

    One of the fundamental teachings of Biblical theology is that the overall truth of God is given though a process of gradual development. Each further unfolding of truth gives a clearer perspective of the events of theology that preceded it.
James A. Borland.

    In the midst of the appalling confusion of the innumerable sects of Christianity the Bible, God’s living word of truth, is the Christian’s only sure protection against doctrinal deception and demonic despoliation- the Bible rightly understood and implicitly obeyed. Satan and his hosts can by-pass human opinions and man’s interpretations, but they cannot penetrate the impregnable defence of God’s holy word.
Merrill F. Unger.

    I am told that there are about ten thousand parishes in England. I believe that more than nine thousand of these are destitute of the gospel.
John Newton 1801.
     This in 1801, when England was still regarded as a highly Christian and Bible-believing nation, with the benefits of the Great Awakening of the latter part of the previous century taking root, and evangelicals coming forward in the Established Church. What would Newton of thought of the Church of England, and of the nation itself, today?

    Divisions and separations are most objectionable in religion. They weaken the cause of true Christianity. But before we blame people for them we must be careful to lay the blame where it is deserved. False doctrine and heresy are worse than schism. If people separate themselves from teaching that is positively false and unscriptural they ought to be praised rather than reproved. In such cases separation is a virtue and not a sin. Controversy in religion is a hateful thing, but there is one thing that is even worse than controversy, and that is false doctrine allowed, and permitted without protest or molestation.
J.C. Ryle.

     Before I was converted I used to read the Bible every day but I did not begin to understand it. After I received Jesus Christ as my Saviour and Lord one of the first ways in which I knew that something had happened to me was that the Bible became a new book. As I read it God began to speak to me.
John Stott.

    The Father imposed his wrath due unto, and the Son underwent punishment for either: (1) ALL the sins of ALL men, or, (2) ALL the sins of SOME men, or, (3) SOME of the sins of ALL men. In which case it may be said: (a) that if the last case be true then ALL men still have some sins to answer for, and so NONE are saved. (b) If the first case, then why are not are not ALL men free from the punishment due to their sins? If the answer is ‘because of their unbelief’ then I answer, is unbelief a sin, or is it not? If not why should men be punished for it? If it is, then ALL sins are not in fact atoned for. This only leaves us with (2). Christ suffered, in their stead, for ALL of the sins of ALL the ELECT.
Anon.

    We enjoy access to, suppose, from 1,000 to 2,000 more manuscripts than were available when the Textus Receptus was formed. Nineteen-twentieths of these documents might just as well be still lying in the monastic libraries from which they were obtained.
J. W. Burgon.

    There is a story told of three rather well-to-do English theology students in the nineteenth-century who were taking exercise by horse riding. They were passing along a narrow country lane when they encountered a swaying, heavily laden, hay cart coming the other way, the load topped by an elderly rustic farm labourer. Falling into single-file to pass the cart they thought to have some fun at the old farmer’s expense. As the first rode past he called up; “Good morning, father Abraham!”  Taking the hint as the second passed he called up: “Good morning, father Isaac!”, and the third in turn called: “Good morning, father Jacob!”  The farmer turned and replied; “You are mistaken, sirs. I am neither Abraham, nor Isaac, nor Jacob. Rather I am Saul, the son of Kish, who was sent out to find his father’s asses. AND I THINK I HAVE FOUND THEM!”
Anon.

    The theatre is the shrine of Venus. The tavern is the shrine of Bacchus. Christian, you must abhor these things!
Tertullian of Carthage c. 220 A.D.

    It is right to pray to the Holy Spirit. A prayer to the Spirit may be something like this: Holy Spirit, who was poured out on the apostles, who was promised by the Redeemer, the Son of God, to kindle in us true knowledge and worship of God, true faith and acknowledgement of the mercy promised in the Son by the eternal Father, be our Paraclete in our undertakings and perils, and stir up our souls to give honour always, by true obedience, to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to his Son our Redeemer, and to you.
Philip Melanchton.

   The old Puritans visited their flocks by rows of houses. The visits were short. They talked a little for God, and then concluded with prayer to God. An excellent rule, which prevented idle chatter, and made the visits profitable.
John Berrige c. 1780.

    In persecution earth is shut, but heaven is open. Antichrist threatens, but Christ protects. Death enters, but immortality results. The world is taken from us, but paradise opens to us. A life in time is quenched, but life eternal is commenced.
Cyprian c. 250 A.D.

   In matters of religion all the doctrines which we are required to believe, and all the duties that we are commanded to perform, are contained in the Bible, and if anything is taught or enjoined that is not found in it, nor can be fairly deduced from the doctrines and precepts of the sacred volume, it is an imposition, and should be rejected.
Thomas Jones of Edinburgh c. 1830.

    The Bible in English- our Father’s word in our mother’s tongue.
Anon.

    Foolish are those who measure the authority of a doctrine by the numbers at any time promoting it. Truth always overcomes, though at times it is held by but few.
Athanasius c. 370 A.D.

    There is not anything in the Scriptures which may be considered unimportant. There is not a single sentence which does not deserve to be meditated upon, for it is not the word of man but of the Holy Spirit, and the least syllable of it contains a hidden treasure.
Chrysostom c. 395 A.D.

    A Christian’s good works are not FOR life, but flow FROM life.
Anon.

   Why do sinful men quarrel with the sovereignty of God, the mere good pleasure of his will? Its unlimitedness, its absolute unconditionedness, is their only source of hope. Its glory is made great in their salvation.
Hugh Martin.

    I have preached the gospel to Christ’s people for forty years and it seems to me sometimes that I am only just beginning to catch a feint glimpse of the glory and power of the redemption which God has wrought for us through the Incarnation, Death, Resurrection, and Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ.
R.W. Dale c. 1870.

   The Holy Spirit is grieved by heresy and is grieved by oppression, but is also grieved by inactivity.
Rev. John Smith c. 1830.
     This is an important point for today’s Reformed to note. God has his elect, who are a fixed and constant number, and the elect will infallibly be saved and brought into the church and into eternal glory, but this marvellous fact in no way justifies inactivity in gospel work. God brings in his elect by covenant births within the covenantal community, and also by the preaching of the word for the conversion of elect previously in the world and outside of that community. As the plain fact is that the preacher (and those who witness more privately) do not and cannot know who the elect are the net must be spread as widely as possible. As stated elsewhere we must make an unlimited proclamation of a limited atonement. Reformed preachers should always be zealous of conversions. Even terms such as winning souls are not to be shunned, when we keep in mind that the Holy Spirit ‘wins’ the elect through the preached word, and the preacher (or other witness) is merely and instrument in his hands, and that all of the glory belongs to God and God alone.

    They (Romanist Scholastics) divided the Scriptures into so many senses that that they left no common sense at all.
William Tyndale.

   Who is the most diligent bishop and prelate in all England, that passeth all the rest in doing his office? I can tell, for I know who it is- I know him well. Now I think I see you listening and hearkening that I should name him. There is one that passeth all others and is the most diligent prelate and preacher in all England. And will you know who it is? I will tell you- it is the devil. He is the most diligent preacher of all others. He is never out of his diocese, he is never from his cure, you shall never find him unoccupied, he is ever in his parish, he keepeth residence at all times, you shall never find him out of the way, he is ever at home, he is ever at his plough, no lording or loitering can hinder him, you will never find him idle, I warrant you. And his office is to hinder religion, to maintain superstition, to set up idolatry. When the devil is resident and hath his plough going, then it is away with good books and up with candles, away with Bibles and up with beads, away with the light of the Gospel and up with the light of candles, yea, at noonday, it is down with Christ’s cross and up with purgatory, up with man’s traditions and man’s rules and down with God’s laws and most holy word, down with God’s honour and up with man’s honours.
Hugh Latimer c.1550.
     Latimer’s point is that as Satan is tireless in opposing Christ and the truth so we must be tireless in promoting and supporting it. There is no remission in this warfare.

    Under the New Testament dispensation the Holy Spirit takes care of edifying the church and furnishes the ministers of the gospel of reconciliation with a variety of gifts for the instructing of Christians in what they are to believe, and what they are to do. The Holy Spirit fits persons for the great work of preaching the gospel, and as he makes use of none but what are fitted for the work he must have a discerning of their hearts, and as he bestows different gifts on different persons he shows his sovereign authority according to the good pleasure of his will.
Rev. Abraham Taylor 1727.

    If Christ was no more than a man how could he be present wherever he is invoked? It is the nature of God, not of man, to be present in all places.
Novatian of Rome c. 250 A.D.

    The ancients used to say; ‘If you wish to see the Trinity, go to the Jordan.’ At Christ’s baptism the Father uttered his voice, the Son was seen standing in the river, and the Holy Spirit descended with a visible appearance.
Philip Melanchton c. 1550.

    Non eloquimur magna, sed vivimus.  (We do not speak great things, but we live great things.)
Minucius Felix c. 200 A.D.

    The union of Christians, which we profess to long for, will not be effected till all parties, laying aside prejudices and disclaiming human authorities, resolve to consult the Scriptures alone.
Rev. John Dick c. 1812.

   The greatest torment of demons is to see men reading the word of God, and labouring to understand the divine law.
Origen c. 250 A.D.

   The Old and New Testaments contain but one scheme of religion. Neither part can be understood without the other. They are like the rolls on which they were anciently written. It is but one subject from beginning to end, but the view which we obtain of it grows clearer and clearer as we unwind the roll that contains it.
Rev. Richard Cecil.

    The church comes together on the Lord’s Day in quiet reverence. The pastor reads the Bible while the church listens. The church sings psalms to God with grace in their hearts. The pastor leads the church in prayer, to adore God, confess sins, thank God for his mercies, ask for the work of the Holy Spirit, intercede for the salvation of the Jews and all nations, and pray for government leaders.
The pastor preaches a sermon to explain part of the Bible and apply it by telling the people what they must believe and do, comforting those who repent, and warning those who do not. The pastor administers baptism and the Lord’s Supper. The pastor dismisses the congregation with God’s blessing or benediction. The whole Lord’s day is kept as a Sabbath, a holy day of rest.
Joel R. Beeke & William Boekestein, as a short summary of the Westminster Directory for public worship.

    In reading and studying the Bible the absolute necessity of taking particular notice of the preceding and following, the near and the remote context of a passage, cannot be over-emphasised. It is a condition sine qua non of all sound exegesis.
Louis Berkhof.

    The great miracle of all history is the miracle of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the One in whom the triune God comes down into this world to deliver it from sin and the curse. He is the One in whom the whole elect church, chosen in Him from all eternity, is redeemed and brought into everlasting fellowship with God. The virgin birth of our Lord, his atoning sacrifice on Calvary’s accursed tree, his mighty resurrection from the dead, his glorious exaltation at the right hand of God far above all principalities and powers, belong to this great miracle of God become flesh.
Homer C. Hoeksema.

    Now what would be more absurd than that Abraham should be the father of the faithful, and yet not possess even the lowest place among the faithful? He cannot now be excluded from the number without the destruction of the Church.
John Calvin.

     Much harm has been done by some who, without qualification, press our Lord’s words in Mark 10:11: Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery against her, thereby subjecting the innocent party to the same penalty as the guilty one. But that statement is to be interpreted in the light of the fuller one in Matthew 5:32: Whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery, and whosoever shall her who is divorced [for any other cause] committeth adultery, repeated by Christ in Matthew 19:9. In those words the sole legislator for his people propounded a general rule: Whosoever putteth away his wife causeth her to commit adultery, and then he put in an exception, namely that where adultery had taken place he may put her away, and he may marry again. As Christ there teaches the lawfulness of divorce on the grounds of marital infidelity, so he teaches that it is lawful for the innocent one to marry again after such a divorce, without contracting guilt. The violation of the marriage vows severs the marriage bond, and the one who kept the vows is, after divorce is obtained, free to marry again.
Arthur W. Pink.

    God had one Son without corruption, but he never had a son without correction. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten.
John Bunyan.

    As seed virtually contains in it all that afterwards proceeds from it, the blade, stalk, ear, and full corn in the ear, so the first principle of grace implanted in the heart seminally contains all the grace which afterwards appears, and all the fruits, effects, acts and exercises of it.
John Gill.

     Election having once pitched upon a man, it will find him out and call him home, whoever he be. It called Zaccheus out of cursed Jericho, Abraham out of idolatrous Ur of the Chaldees, Nicodemus and Paul out of the college of the Pharisees, Christ’s sworn enemies, and Dionysius and Demaris out of superstitious Athens. In whatever dunghills Christ’s jewels are hidden election will both find them out, and fetch them out.
John Arrowsmith.

    Why is it that the doctrine of special election of efficacious grace in conversion, of justification by the imputed righteousness of Christ, and of the infallible perseverance of the saints, though so clearly revealed and so strongly proved in the word of God are, notwithstanding, so generally denied opposed, and ridiculed? It is because they give all the glory to God, and will not allow man so much as to boast a little.
John Bunyan.

    He is no true believer to whom sin is not the greatest burden, sorrow, and trouble.
John Owen.

    To disbelieve some of the great truths of nature, such as the law of gravitation, may be no more than a folly; to disbelieve the great truths of revelation, such as the divine nature of Christ, is a sin.
James Bannerman.

    A believer should consider: What you were in a state of sin. What you are in a state of grace. What you shall be in a state of glory.
William Dyer (Puritan).

   Any rules of interpretation applicable to Scripture must be fashioned on the principle that there is a meaning to be brought out of the word of God that is not found in any writings of man.
James Bannerman.

    You may go to heaven without health, without wealth, without honour, without pleasure, without friends, without learning, but you can never go to heaven without Christ.
William Dyer.

    In the Old Testament God had a Temple for his people. In the New Testament God has his people for his Temple.
Anon.

    The New Testament everywhere presupposes the knowledge of the Old, and in many places is inexplicable without that knowledge.
George Campbell 1814.
     This fundamental truth at once reveals the impossibility of the dispensationalist scheme, but it also exposes the deviousness of that scheme, because the New Testament, which is largely inexplicable without the Old Testament, if taken in isolation can be made to say and teach anything that is in the schemer’s mind. This is what happened with Darby, Schofield and the like.

    When we sing the Psalms, especially those in which the voice of Christ makes itself so distinctly audible as in the Sixteenth and the Fortieth, it may well affect our hearts to think that we are, in effect, sitting beside Christ as the disciples did in the guest chamber in Jerusalem, and are singing along with him out of the same book.
William Binnie.

    There are some travelling to heaven at this moment of whom the church and the world know nothing. They flourish in secret places like ‘the lily among the thorns’ and seem ‘to waste their sweetness on the desert air’, but Christ loves them, and they love Christ.
J.C. Ryle.

    Tolerance is the password in today’s church world. Tolerance is stretched to the point where every heresy, ancient and modern, is allowed to remain in the church. The consequence is that the church slides rapidly backward into deeper and deeper apostasy. And tolerance of error soon becomes intolerance of that church where the truth is truly confessed.
Prof. Herman Hanko.

    Whenever a group of men begin to slide with respect to orthodoxy they generally attempt to break, if not to conceal, their fall by declaiming against Creeds and Confessions. They have seldom failed, indeed, to protest in the beginning that they have no objections to the doctrines themselves of the Confession which they have subscribed, but rather to the principle of subscribing to Confessions at all. Soon, however, the melancholy fact unfolds that disaffection to the doctrines they once appeared to love had more influence in directing their course than they themselves imagined, and that they were receding further and further from the good way in which they formally seemed to rejoice.
Samuel Miller 1839.
     This quotation is more important than it might at first appear, for it must be contrasted with another that has become almost a common-place in evangelical and even Reformed circles, but which is totally misunderstood and thus mis-applied, and so is both deceptive and dangerous. This is the oft-quoted saying of William Chillingworth (1602-1644): “The Bible, I say, the Bible alone, is the religion of Protestants.” How often is this cited as a whole-hearted defence and affirmation of the regulative authority of Holy Scripture! In fact Chillingworth meant no such thing. All sound Protestants believe that the Bible is the sole authoritative andinspired foundation for their faith, so if Chillingworth (who had Archbishop Laud as god-father, who had briefly converted to Romanism, studied under Jesuits, re-converted to Anglicanism, was an outspoken Arminian and enemy of Puritanism, and who was frequently accused of Arianism) had meant no more than that he would have been stating the obvious, and so saying nothing remarkable but repeating a Protestant common-place. In fact Chillingworth’s intention lies in the latter part of the clause: “I say, the Bible ALONE, is the religion of protestants. He was actually arguing against the use of all Confessions or Creeds of faith. This is very important to note. All Confessionally Reformed Christians teach that the Confessions or Creeds, Catechisms, Doctrinal Summaries, Refutations of Errors, and so on are subordinate standards, and are only valid so far as they are based on and are faithful to Scripture. They explicate the Bible, and in no way at all seek to replace it. Chillingworth seeks to sweep that aside, and pleads for ‘The Bible Alone.’ Every serious Bible reader and student knows full well that the Bible is a ‘library’ of sixty-six Books, given and revealed over a long period of time, and containing a mass of inspired information. But if someone asks: “What do you believe that the Bible teaches?” you simply cannot answer “I believe everything from Genesis to Revelation”. That is true, but it conveys nothing to the enquirer. You must state an outline of the key points, either to point a serious enquirer in the right direction, or to refute an opponent. You have to make a statement of faith, a short summary- and that IS a Creed or Confession! So much better, then, to have these (at all levels of detail) ready to hand, penned by the most Biblically faithful servants of God in previous generations. Without this, as Chillingworth well knew, Bible texts taken out of context can be made the basis of anything the teacher wants to promote and there is no certainty in religion at all. In fact that way the Bible is made to undermine the Bible! That is typical Jesuitical sophistry, suspiciously hinting at Chillingworth’s Jesuit training, and his place in English church history and his continuing philosophical influence in the soon-to-follow period of Restoration England and its semi-Romanist Charles II leading to the fully Romanist James II.

     Election must be preached in the church of God. Election is the doctrine of God’s love, of God’s merciful good pleasure. The church must hear it often, but so must the unbelievers of the world. The doctrine of election must be preached on the mission field to the unconverted. Election glorifies God as God, therefore all men must hear it.
Martyn McGeown.

    The church which in all its arrangements adheres most closely to the standards laid down in the Book of God has the most substantial claim to the titles Christian, Catholic, and Apostolic, for the rule to which it conforms is authorised by our Lord himself, was observed by his Apostles, and challenges the obedience of all his followers.
W.D. Killen.

    The ecclesiastical machine moves smoothly and best fulfils its functions when the pastor teaches, the elder rules, the deacon distributes, the members believe and worship, and all honour God in their daily lives.
Thomas Witherow.

     Erasmus saw the need for reformation but insisted that it had to take place within the (corrupt) church, not by separation from it. He was like so many today who remain within an apostate church, always hoping for change, and meanwhile becoming weakened by the downward slide of the church they hope to save.
Herman Hanko.

    The souls of all departed infants are with God in glory, that in the decree of predestination to life God has included all who he decreed to take away in infancy, and that the decree of reprobation has nothing to do with them. It is not the will of your Father which is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish. (Matthew 18:14).
Augustus Toplady.

    The piety of a church will generally rise about as high as that of its minster. A cold, worldly-minded pastor is sure to have a cold church. A living pastor will have a church in which life and joy and prayer abound. How can it be otherwise since his ministrations penetrate the whole life of the body?  He is the appointed agent for edifying the people of God in their most holy faith, and their spirituality cannot rise higher than his. The general rule is that the measure of devotedness in any particular church may be gauged by that of the pastor’s heart.
Thomas Murphy.

    How may Christian parents have confidence that their children will be elect? Do as Hannah did, first beg a child from the Lord, then vow a vow to dedicate the child to God (1. Samuel 1:10-11), and God will call them his (Ezekiel 16:20-21).
Michael Harrison (Puritan).

    I say nothing against baptism with water, according to the Scriptures, but I have not seen in all the book of God a word from the mouth of the Lord Jesus to or for anyone baptised in water. It is an unalterable truth that our most glorious Christ did not at any time command anyone to be baptised in water.
Arthur Triggs  1851 (Towards the end of a long pastoral ministry.)

  Our immediate purpose is the introduction of Psalms into denominations that do not now use them. Our ultimate object is to have the book of God’s making the only recognised Book of Praise throughout the churches redeemed by the precious blood of our Lord Jesus.
Psalm Singer’s Conference Belfast, 1902.
     This God-mandated cause and vision must be ours also!

  Whoever studies the Greek New Testament in conjunction with the Septuagint will obtain such a conception of the unity of the Bible as never could be obtained from the study of the two different and discordant languages.
E.W. Grinfield 1850.

    Churches fall into decay by degrees when the number of godly decreases and are taken away and others, of the like gracious spirit and temper are not raised up in their room, and many who were not effectually called creep in unawares, until the church, having lost its upright members becomes destitute of its first love and leaves off its first works. Then, instead of truth error in doctrine springs up and, in that sense, there comes a falling from the doctrines of grace and, in consequence of that, all purity of worship is gradually destroyed until, at length, loose and licentious practices wholly exterminate that holiness and strictness that formerly prevailed.  Hereby God is provoked and, when his testimonies, admonitions, and warnings have been neglected, he comes and removes their candlestick out of its place.
Rev. Thomas Hall  c. 1760.

    He who goes about to speak of the mystery on the Trinity, and does it by words and names of man’s invention, talking of essences and existences, hypostases and personalities, priorities and co-equalities, unities and pluralities, may amuse himself and build a tabernacle in his head, and talk of something he knows not what, but a good man who feels the power of the Father, and to whom the Son has become wisdom, sanctification, and redemption, in whose heart the love of the Spirit of God is shed abroad, this man, though he understands nothing of what is unintelligible, yet he alone truly understands the Christian doctrine of the Trinity.
Bishop Taylor eighteenth-century.

    The great source of corruption of Christianity, and of defection from the faith, foretold by the inspired writers, has been the attempt to render it, in effect, a temporal kingdom, and to attempt to support and extend it by earthly means,
George Campbell 1814.
     This, of course, it the snare into which all dispensationalists and millenialists fall, up to this day. Only the events of the Lord’s return will dispel the myth.

       The Hebrew convert is but half Christian, but the Hellenist convert is an entire Christian.
J.O. Grinfield  1850.
     This quote takes a little explaining, but makes a very valid point. Grinfield is saying that a Jew who is converted but who still clings to the Hebrew Old Testament, without interpreting it through the Greek translation and the Greek New Testament, will remain but half converted. Such, sadly and tragically, is the case of most ‘Messianic Jews’ today. By ‘Hellenists’ Grinfield means Jews who are willing to see the Old Testament as having become international via the Greek Septuagint, and then explicated in the Greek New Testament, for a world-wide audience. In this way they (and us) can see the unity of the two Testaments in the unity of language as the same theological terms, based on Hebrew but translated into Greek, occur in both Testaments, and thus the fulfilling of the Old in the New. Such fully-converted Jews the church is in desperate need of in these days!

     Although the text 1. John 5:7 has been disputed, on plausible grounds, and the testimony of existing manuscripts is unfavourable to its authenticity, yet as here is positive evidence that ancient manuscripts contained it but have been destroyed or lost I think that it should not be omitted in a summary of the evidence of the doctrine of the Trinity. I have a strong persuasion that it is really a precious part of inspired Scripture, which we are not at liberty to abandon, but which was probably insidiously dropped out of some copies in the days of Arian ascendency. What confirms me in this opinion is that it is evidently referred to by both by Tertullian and Cyprian, who lived long before our oldest existing manuscripts were written.
Archibald Alexander 1846.

    It is instructive to read the writings of divines for the past two or more centuries and see how lamentable it is that at every period the church has been apparently near dissolution than it ever was before, error was never so threatening, and there was a crisis unprecedented, fearful beyond description- and yet through all the various periods the church has still been advancing! The truth is that trouble is one part of our discipline. We must have it. Who would not chose to experience a gale now and then, rather than endure a tiresome and unhealthy calm?
Prof. A. Park  1853.

     There are important lessons to be learned for any Christian who is engaged in any private or public controversy over some aspect or other of Christian truth. The duty of fighting for the faith sometimes necessitates debate and argument, and controversy will inevitably arise. But the very atmosphere of argument and debate can bring out the worst in us, and we can find it difficult to distinguish between zeal for the truth which we maintain, and zeal for our own personal victory in debate.
John Aaron 2002.

    I have no sympathy with the movement for a revised Bible version. That the Authorised version of the Bible had faults, weak points, and defects I fully allow. But after reading the existing attempts at revision I confess that I feel very strong doubts whether we are likely to alter our version for the better. It appears to me the wiser course to let well alone.
J.C. Ryle 1856.
     By Ryle’s latter days the impetus for revision was irresistible, the language of the King James (Authorised) version had become too outdated, but delay in believing revision opened the door to the inroad of higher criticism and an amended text base. The result is the modern chaos of pretended versions. His plea to ‘let well alone’ is best seen as an attempt to prevent false and destructive revision, because true and correct revision, along the time-honoured lines, had failed to take place.

    There is some other virtue in the sacraments than simply to testify and exhibit to the senses and understanding the covenanted promises made in Christ’s blood.
William Tyndale  1535.
     Here Tyndale is feeling his way towards the true Reformed awareness of the spiritual presence of Christ and the actual grace administered to the elect in the sacraments.

   As bread nourishes and strengthens man so the body of Christ, eaten by faith, feeds and sanctifies the soul of man, and nourishes the whole man for duty and godliness. As wine is drink to the thirsty, so the blood of our Lord Jesus drunk by faith quenches the thirst of the conscience and fills the hearts of the faithful with unsearchable joy.
Bullinger c.1570.

    The Scripture is a word before us, to show us where we must go. The Spirit is a word behind us, prodding us to go in the direction of the Scriptures.
William Dyer (Puritan).

   He who surrenders the first page of the Bible surrenders all. He knows not when to stop. We cannot afford to surrender the first page of Genesis, simply because upon the truth of what is there recorded depends the whole scheme of man’s salvation.
J.C. Ryle.

    Certain it is that the Calvinists in all countries have presented the strongest possible resemblance to each other- the Calvinists of Geneva, the Reformed of the Netherlands, the Huguenots of France, the Waldenses of Piedmont, the Covenanters of Scotland, and the Puritans of Old and New England, seeming to be, as it were, but members of the same family.
Francis Coxon.

     I preached up sanctification by the works of the law very earnestly for six years at Stapleford and never brought one soul to Christ. I did the same at Everton for two years, without any success at all. But as soon as I preached Jesus Christ, and faith in his blood, then believers were added to the church continually; then people flocked from all parts to hear the glorious sound of the gospel; some coming six miles, others eight, and others ten. And what is the reason why my ministry was not blessed when I preached up salvation partly by faith and partly by works? It is because this doctrine is not of God, and because he will prosper no ministers but such as preach salvation in his own appointed way; namely by faith in Jesus Christ.
William Berridge.

    Calvinism is just a full exposition and development of the sum and substance of what is represented in Scripture as done for the salvation of sinners by the three Persons of the Godhead. It represents the Father as arranging, choosing some to grace and glory, and sending his Son to seek and save them. It represents the Son as assuming human nature, and suffering and dying as the surety and substitute of his chosen people, of those whom the Father had given him in covenant. It represents the Holy Spirit as taking of the things of Christ and revealing them to man’s souls, as taking his abode in all whom Christ redeemed with his precious blood, effectually and infallibly determining them to faith and holiness, and thus applying the blessings of redemption to all for whom Christ purchased them, and finally preparing them fully for the inheritance of the saints.
Francis Coxon.

     Two things are equally strange to me: that the Jews should own the verity of the Old Testament, and particularly of Daniel’s prophecy, and not see that the Messiah had come, and that the Papists should believe the divinity of the New Testament, and particularly the Revelation, and not see that their church is antichristian.
Robert Fleming.

    Morning prayer is the key that opens the day, and evening prayer is the bolt that secures the night.
Anon.

     The various controversies among interpreters have commonly led to the admission that the old Protestant views of the meaning of the sacred text and indeed the correct ones.
Winer.

   Salvation is actual deliverance, but without a distinct reference to a price paid. Atonement is something offered to God. Redemption is something bestowed upon man. Atonement is the ground of redemption, and redemption is the result of atonement. The design of the first is to satisfy God’s justice, the design of the second is to make man blessed. The first was finished on the cross, the second is a daily operation that will not be completed until the consummation of all things.
Joseph Angus 1860.

   God does not look at the oratory  of our prayers, however elegant they are, or at the geometry of our prayers, however long they are, nor at the logic of our prayers, however methodical they are, he looks only at the sincerity of our prayers.
Thomas Brooks (Puritan).

    A door was opened to me to speak and pray, through a man who went about teaching the people to sing psalms.
Howell Harris.
     The Welsh evangelist of the eighteenth-century Great Awakening records that the ground had been broken up and the field prepared for him by an (unknown) man who simply taught the people to sing God’s psalms. It follows that in our day evangelism- the calling in of God’s elect through the preached word- would be greatly advanced if people were taught to sing the psalms. The psalms bring the singer straight into the presence of God. They are the best form of pre-evangelism possible.

    Let our English Bible be revised in a spirit of devout reverence and watchful caution. Let nothing be altered without valid reasons, but at the same time let those words and phrases which have become altogether antiquated, and consequently unintelligible to ordinary readers, be exchanged for the corresponding expressions in modern English, and let manifest mis-translations be corrected. A revision thus conducted, under a sense of responsibility to God, and with an upright purpose to glorify his name, could not fail to benefit the church. Far from detracting from the excellency of that Book which all English reading Christians so highly prize, such a revision would still more serve to endear it to our hearts, in a much as it would become an instrument still better adapted for teaching, for conviction, for correction, for discipline in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto every good work.
Henry Craik 1860.
     This never happened, and is still a great desideratum today.

    John 11:52 makes it clear that Christ died for his people under consideration of their being the children of God, and not in order to make them so, as both then elect Hebrews in Egypt (Exodus 5) and the elect heathen in Corinth (Acts 18:10) were owned of God as his before the one was redeemed or the other had the gospel preached unto them.
Arthur W. Pink.

    We must learn to distinguish between justification designed by the Tri-Une God in eternity past, justification obtained by Christ, God the Son, on Calvary’s cross, justification offered by pastors in the preaching of the gospel, and justification received by the elect soul, by the work of God the Holy Spirit.
John Beart (slightly amended.)

    It has been noted that if the Ten Commandments were to be likened to ten stones set up, in proper order, to form an arch, the fourth commandment (remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy) would be the key-stone. Experience demonstrates that if the key-stone of an arch is loosened or removed the whole edifice quickly collapses.
Rev. John Macleod.

   Among the many advantages which the first preachers of the gospel had over our modern missionaries to the heathen this was not the least, that as they did not require to undertake the preparation of a new version of the Scriptures, so they did not require to spend time in the composition of new songs or the arrangement of appropriate melodies. The Psalter, in the Greek of the Septuagint, was ready to their hand. They knew the Greek Psalms by heart themselves, and in almost every city where they planted a church the first converts consisted of Jews and proselytes who had been used to chant them in the Synagogue, and at home.
William Binnie.

     A house-going minister wins for himself a church-going people.
Thomas Chalmers.

        From the tenor of the Abrahamic covenant, as stated in Genesis 15:18 etc., and other parallel passages, it has been argued that the Jews must necessarily be restored to their own land, because the promise of God has not yet been fulfilled. But by considering the boundaries of the Holy Land accurately described in Numbers 34, and marking the situation of the placed which form the boundary line, also by an examination of 1. Kings 4:21-24, it will be seen that in the time of Solomon the covenant was fully realised.
Dr. Samuel Davidson c. 1854.

    Grace is imparted to sinful man, not because he believes, but in order that he may believe.
W.G.T. Shedd.

   Arminianism makes salvation partly the work of man. Let it never be forgotten that Arminianism is incipient modernism and leads the churches back to Arianism.
Herman Hanko.

   Men are seldom opposed to creeds-until they find that the creed is opposed to them.
Samuel Miller.

    If a man has attained unto a true understanding of the Epistle to the Romans, he has a speedy passage made unto all the most secret treasures of the Scriptures.
John Calvin.

    If there is no mention or record of the repeal of infant church membership in any part of the New Testament, then it is most certain that it was never repealed. There is no record of any such repeal in any part of the New Testament, therefore it was never repealed. If any say that it was, let them show where the repeal is recorded. It is true that circumcision has ceased because it was a ceremonial type, but infant church membership is not a type or ceremony, and so had not ceased.
Michael Harrison 1694.

    A prayerless man is a Christless man.
George Whitefield.

   The devil hath a great spite at the kingdom of Christ, and he knoweth no such compendious a way to crush it in the egg as by the perversion of youth and supplanting family duties. Religion was first hatched in families, and there the devil seeketh to crush it.
Preface to the 1658 printing of the Westminster Confession of Faith.

    We learn from the church’s title mother how useful, and even necessary, it is for us to know her, since there is no other entry into life unless we are conceived by her, nourished at her breast, and continually preserved under her care and government.
John Calvin  1559.

   The life of the single Christian can be real and healthful only as it is born from the general life of the Church, and carried onward to that end. We are Christians singly by partaking in the general life-revelation which is already at hand organically in the Church, the living and life-giving body of Jesus Christ. Then, again, the Church must be visible, or in other words not merely ideal, but actual. The actual may indeed fall short of the idea it represents, the visible church may be imperfect, but still an actual, continuously visible Church there must always be in the world if Christianity is to have either truth or reality.
John W. Nevin.

    I know how difficult it is to persuade the world that God disapproves of all modes of worship not expressly sanctioned by his word. The opposite persuasion which cleaves to them, being seated, as it were, in their very bones and marrow, is, that whatever they do has in itself a sufficient sanction provided it exhibits some kind of zeal for the honour of God.  But since God not only regards as fruitless, but also plainly abominates whatever we undertake from zeal to his worship, if it is at variance with his command, what do we gain by a contrary course? The words of God are clear and distinct: ‘In vain do they worship me. Teaching for doctrines the commandments of men’ (1. Samuel 15:22, Matthew 15:9). Every addition to his word, especially in this matter, is a lie. Mere ‘will-worship’ is vanity. This is the decision, and when once the judge has decided it is no longer time to debate.
John Calvin.

      We are Christians. Jews we are, if believers, inwardly as Paul declares, Jews as we are the spiritual seed of Abraham and partake of his faith, the benefits of that unchanging covenant of grace which was administered in the Patriarchal and Mosaic dispensations, is administered in the Christian and will, in the Heavenly, be administered throughout all ages, world without end.
John L. Girardeau.

     Singing of uninspired hymns keeps up no communion with God. It administers no holy joy. It is not a means of grace but degenerates into a mere entertainment and is in the church the same thing that music is in the playhouse.
William Romaine.

   For the Christian death shall be no death at all, but a very deliverance from death, from all pains, cares, and sorrows, miseries, and wretchedness of this world, and the very entry into rest and a beginning of everlasting joy, a tasting of heavenly pleasure so great that neither tongue is able to express, nor eye to see, nor ear to hear, nor any earthly man’s heart to conceive them, Thus is this bodily death a door or entering into life, and therefore not so much dreadful as it is comfortable, not a mischief but a remedy for all mischief, no enemy but a friend, not a cruel tyrant but a gentle guide, leading not to mortality but to immortality, not to sorrow and pain but to joy and pleasure, and that to endure for ever!
Church of England Homily Against the Fear of Death 1541-1572.

   [Where there is no true Church:] Would to God that they have the courage to gather in the name of Jesus Christ wherever they are, and to set up some sort of church, either in their houses or in those of their neighbours, to do in their place what we do in our churches.
John Calvin.

   The law instructs, history informs, prophecy predicts, examples encourage or censure, moral teachings guide, but in the Book of Psalms you will find all of these, as well as the remedy for the salvation of the soul.
Ambrose of Milan (c. 339-397 A.D.)

   Christ, who could have made every Apostle a David, was himself content to sing the Psalms of David.
Rev. Joseph Corkey  c.1900.

     The fiercest dogmatists I know are those whose only dogma is that there should be no dogma.
Rev. J. Macgregor  c. 1865.

    It is the Father, the first Person of the Trinity, in his distinctive personality, that begins the work of salvation, and, more, it is in those, and only in those, chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world and predestinated to the adoption of children, that the Father works.
William Ross Hamilton 1865.

    The idea that there is no divorce ever permitted is an idea set forth by fundamentalists, and by the Roman church, but is not held by orthodox Reformed scholars.
Morton H. Smith  c.1970.

   I do not know whether I told you, but I believe that I told them at Tottenham-court, that every Christian has a coat-of-arms, and I will give you it out of Christ’s heraldry, that is, the burning bush for every Christian is burned, but not consumed.
George Whitefield.
     As of the believer, so of the Church.

   It is observable that when the church came to prosper, when Constantine smiled upon it, it was soon hugged to death. When that great emperor gave ministers rich vestments, high honours, great livings, and golden pulpits then there was a voice heard from heaven saying, this day there is poison come into the church.
John Milton.

   Bishop Latimer came to a house one day, and the man of the house said that he had not met with a cross in all of his life. “Saddle my horse!” the good Bishop cried, “I am sure God is not where no cross is!”
George Whitefield.

    Abel was a member of the church of God in Christ, and Abel had neither circumcision nor baptism. David had faith, and was a member of the church of God in Christ, and David had circumcision but not baptism. Paul was a member of the church of God in Christ, and Paul had both circumcision and baptism. The faithful brethren at Ephesus were members of the one body, the church of God in Christ, and they had baptism but not circumcision. The Apostle, recognising the unbroken unity of the church as wholly unaffected by even the diversity of her initiatory ordinance repeats that in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. (Galatians 4:15).
Hugh McNeile  1846.
     The church existed before the call of the Jews, during the Jewish period, and since the expansion through gentile nations, in unbroken sequence. Also the initiatory sign and symbol has been carried forward in a preliminary (bloody) and later fulfilled (bloodless) sacrament. To break this chain (as in the huge error of dispensationalism) is in effect to erect a new and unheard of religion in place of Bible Christianity.

    What we want, to understand the Bible, is not the Bible improved, but our hearts renewed, that in the light of this glorious Book we may understand its glorious truths, and be saved thereby.
 John Cumming  1854.
     Agreed- but why should we not have BOTH?

  To the Christian death is simply a transfer from out-door service to in-door service.
Anon.

   Let others hunt after syllables and letters, do you look for the sense.
Jerome  c. 410 A.D.

    In Luke 21:21-24 we have an explicit prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem. After this, from verse 25 to 36 the subject is the coming of Christ to judgment. Here we ought not to labour in endeavouring to refer both parts of the prophecy to the same subject, for the one subject being typical of the other, it is according to prophetical usage that they should both be comprehended under one continuous prophecy.
Charles Terrot 1833.

    1. John 5:7: There are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. Let any unprejudiced person read the context and he must perceive a flagrant chasm if this text be removed. It is so necessary to the Apostle’s argument that the argument is not complete without it. It is abundantly more likely that these remarkable words should be left out and obliterated in copies made or kept by ancient heretics than that they should have been foisted in by the orthodox, who have authorities enough beside them for the doctrine expressed in them.
Ambrose Serle.

    Luke Short was a farmer in New England who attained his hundredth year in exceptional vigour without having sought peace with God. One day as he sat in his fields reflecting upon his long life he recalled a sermon he had heard in Dartmouth as a boy, before he sailed to America. The horror of his dying under the curse of God was impressed upon him as he meditated upon the words he had heard so long ago- and he was converted to Christ, eighty-five years after hearing John Flavel preach.
Michael Boland 1963.

    There is great reason to think that the creation Sabbath was changed when the Jews came out of Egypt, so that they kept their first Sabbath in the wilderness on the sixth day of the week, and that this continued to be the Jewish Sabbath, typical, as all their ordinances were, and that upon the resurrection of Christ the Sabbath reverted to its original seventh day. Many learned men have been of this opinion.
George Burder c. 1820.

    Christians are divinely elected or selected from the mass of mankind. The incidental way in which St. Paul speaks of it as a received truth (as early as First Thessalonians) shows that it must have formed part of his preaching from the first.
J. O. McNeil 1920.

    Unscriptural inferences from Scriptural doctrines are no arguments against the doctrines themselves, and they are made at the peril of those who make them.
William Collyer 1818.

    If that enthusiasm for the Gospel, if that opposition to popery, should ever cease in England, if a fatal fall should ever entrap the Christian cause of the nation, then will her glory become extinct, and her power be humbled in the dust.
Merle D’Aubigne 1853.

    It is by no means an exaggeration to say that God’s covenant is the key to the interpretation of the whole of God’s word. It is a truth written large on every page of Holy Writ. Only a conception of God’s everlasting covenant of grace which gives all glory to God and is faithful to the principles of his absolute sovereignty is a conception that is in keeping with the whole of the Scriptures. Throughout the history of the Church from the time of the Reformation theologians have struggled with the problem of harmonising the truths of sovereign grace with the trust of the covenant. The difficulty in harmonising these ideas was due to a wrong conception of the covenant, which interpreted the covenant as an agreement or pact between God and man. The Scriptural idea of the covenant is that of a bond of friendship and fellowship between God and his people in Christ, which brings the whole idea of the covenant into beautiful harmony with the doctrines of sovereign and particular grace.
Herman Hanko 1988.

    Jerome compares the singing of Psalms in the public assemblies of the Christians in his time to the heavenly Hallelujahs which resembled the voice of great thunderings mentioned in Revelation 19:6, and he tells us that the husbandmen and common artificers refreshed themselves in the midst of their work, and sweetened their labours, with singing the Psalms of David, and so at once served God and attended upon the duties of their calling, from which it appears that the Book of Psalms was designed by God for the perpetual use of the church.
William Lowth 1769.

    If your religion has not changed you, it is high time you changed your religion.
George Burder c. 1820.

    Whatever is to be revealed to any of us by the Holy Spirit is in the word of God already- he adds nothing to the Bible, and never will. If you feel your tongue itch to talk nonsense, trace it to the devil, and not to the Spirit of God.
C.H. Spurgeon.

    Either praying will make a man leave off sinning, or sinning will make a man leave of praying.
Old Dutch proverb.

   I know not a better rule of reading the Scriptures than to read it through from beginning to end, and when we have finished it once to begin again. We shall meet with many passages which we can make little improvement of, but not so many in the second reading as in the first, and fewer in the third reading than in the second.
John Newton.
     This is good counsel, but yet more difficulties would be removed if the Books of the Bible were arranged and printed in a more logical order than the traditional one. As it is historical fulfilment often occurs before the prophecy that went before it, and, for example, the sequence of Paul’s letters, as written within the timescale of the Book of Acts, is unhistorical. The sixty-six Books can be read in any order (so long as all are indeed read): a more logical sequence would pay dividends.

    The early building of a city by Cain created a difficulty, and it has been asked; Who inhabited it? A little calculation will, however, show that 500 years after the creation the descendants of our first parents must have amounted to many hundreds of thousands in all.
Adam Clarke.

   The destruction of Jerusalem is spoken of as the destruction of the old world. At the fall of Jerusalem all the Scripture was written, and God’s full will revealed, so that there was no further need of prophecy or revelation.
Dr. Lightfoot.
     Thus all Scripture, including the Revelation, was penned before 70 A.D.

     The Book of Psalms is the church’s voice. Here the nature of repentance is unfolded, patience is exemplified, the splendours of theology beam refulgent, Jesus is predicted, the resurrection is announced, judgment is proclaimed, the sword of vengeance is unsheathed, crowns of glory glitter, unspeakable mysteries astonish. All these are treasured up in the Book of Psalms, the common treasury of the soul.
Basil (c.330-379 A.D.)

    All persecution and martyrdom begins in slander and ends in slaughter.
Anon.

    When you teach in the church do not endeavour to draw forth praise, but rather groans, from the people- let that be your praise.
Jerome (c. 342-420 A.D.)

    In the early church Stephen preached as an apostle, served as a deacon, disputed as a divine, reasoned as a philosopher, rebuked as a father, fought as a soldier, looks as an angel, and died as a martyr.
Anon.

     If the Scriptures are compared to a body, the Psalms may well be the heart. They are so full of sweet affection passion for in other portions of Scripture God speaks to us, but in the Psalms holy men speak to God, and their own hearts. Yea, by a far more wonderful mystery God in the Psalms speaks to himself; The LORD said unto my Lord.
Richard Sibbes.

    A lion in God’s cause must be a lamb in his own.
Matthew Henry.

    He is below himself who is not above an injury.
Francis Quarles.

     The papists preserve the essential form in baptism, although they have brought in trifles of their own and mixed them up with baptism, but because they keep the substantial form it is not necessary that those who were baptised under them should be rebaptised. If indeed the virtue of regeneration flowed from the person it would be something to be considered, but because Christ himself gives regeneration to whom and when he pleases, so long as the essential form is preserved it is not necessary that this Sacrament should be reiterated.
Robert Bruce  c. 1589.

    Who is so ignorant as not to know that under the former dispensation all the saints of God were on an equal footing of acceptance with Christians of the present time?
Jerome  (c. 342-420 A.D.)

     The New Testament is nothing else but the Old deciphered and unriddled.
John Scott.

     Other sins are against God’s law, but pride is against God’s sovereignty.
Thomas Manton.

     Neither Miriam (who represented the prophets), nor Aaron (who represented the priests), nor Moses (who represented the Law), by Joshua (who represented Christ Jesus) was able to lead God’s people into the promised land.
Jerome (c. 342-420 A.D.)

    The Lord opened the heart of a seller of purple (Lydia), but he rarely opens the hearts of wearers of purple (kings and emperors).
Anon.

    The sound of men, women, and children praying together makes a noise like the waves of the sea beating on the seashore.
Basil (c.330-379 A.D.)

    Many people go from sermon to sermon, from one place of worship to another, and hear much, digest little, and do nothing.
Thomas Manton.

    Preces Nocturnae sunt Splendor Diei  (Prayers at night light up the following day.)
Anon  (Early Church.)

    The design of providence in the removals of ministers from place to place, in order to the conversion of souls, is very remarkable and wonderful. Thus oftentimes it carries them where they did not intend to go, God having, unknown to them, some elect one there, who must be called by the gospel.
John Flavel.

    It is not to be imagined that because the family and the State spring out of the primitive constitution of human nature and are common to the heathen that they are therefore to be set down either as institutions that owe no allegiance to God’s law, or as institutions upon which the dominion and law of Christ have no claim. Families and nations, if they are to answer the ends of their existence, must be in intelligent and willing subjection to the Most High, and must take his law for their rule. Now it is certain that, in our fallen world, this loyal subjection to God cannot be realised except in connection with the redemptive work of our Lord Jesus Christ. It was his design in undertaking our redemption that the effects of his mediation should extend to all the relations that have been debased by sin, and that the all-important relations of family and State were certainly not overlooked.
William Binnie.

    I defy any man living to make now-a-days any alteration in our Bible, because it is being constantly read in public and is so dispersed and well known that the alteration must be  immediately detected.
William Paley (c.1740).
     What Paley did not know and could not have imagined in his day is the modern massive money-making Bible publishing industry, organised and run from huge publishing organisations within the United States, that thrives on maximising sales and income by producing and massively promoting more and more ‘new’ (and must-have) versions. By this means the alterations that have been foisted on the Christian public are beyond counting- and the whole process is nothing short of disastrous. The true church will not thrive again until we have (in each language, and first and foremost in English) an authoritative version, the real and true Holy Bible, once again.

     For private men, upon a pretence of being gifted, to take upon themselves the public ministry cannot come from the Spirit of God, for the Spirit keeps men within their bounds.
Christopher Love (Puritan).

    Augustine of Hippo, the greatest of the church fathers mentions in his The City of God (de Civitate Dei, Book 17, chapter 15) that when he was compiling the book some of his Christian friends were expecting him to include a commentary on the David’s predictions in the Psalms concerning Christ and the church. Having considered the matter he declined- not because there was little to say, but because there was far too much!   (Copia quam inopia magis impedior.)
William Binnie (slightly amended).
     How foolish this makes the moderns who profess to fail to find Jesus in the Psalms look! Here one of the greatest Christian leaders and theologians of the early church declines to expound the subject of Christ in the Psalms- because there was so much matter there that it would hugely distort the book (The City of God) that he was writing (massive as that work is)! Augustine would have been aware that a greater than himself, the very Jesus Christ that some deny is in the Psalms had settled the issue once and for all: All things must be fulfilled which are written…IN THE PSALMS, concerning me (Luke 24:44).

    The singing of the Hallel by Christ and the eleven in the guest-chamber on the night of his betrayal may be said to mark the point at which the Psalter passed over from the old dispensation into the new, for it accompanied the celebration of the new ordinance of the Lord’s Supper, as well as the celebration of the expiring Passover. Thenceforward it is assumed that at every gathering of Christians for mutual edification someone will ‘have a Psalm’ to give out to be sung.
William Binnie.

    To be afraid of little sins, to be conscientious of little duties, and to be thankful for little mercies, is good evidence of being in a state of grace.
William S. Plumer.

    The Donatists make it a matter of reproach against us that in the church we sing with sobriety the divine songs, whereas they inflame the intoxication of their minds by singing psalms of human composition.
Augustine of Hippo.

        The styles of Daniel, of St. John, of St. Paul, of St. James, differ as much as the sounds emitted by organ pipes of wholly diverse construction. But those human instruments were fabricated, one and all, by the hands of the same divine artist.
Dean John Burgon.

    When I began to set myself to the study of divinity as my proper business, Calvin’s Institutes were recommended to me, as they were generally to all young scholars, as the best and perfect system of divinity, and the soundest to be laid as a ground-work of the study of that profession. And indeed my expectation was not at all deceived, in the reading of the Institutes.
Robert Harries (Puritan).

      I cannot but take the occasion to express my gratitude to God for my infant baptism. Of God wrought any good work upon my soul I desire, with humble thankfulness, to acknowledge the moral influence of my infant baptism upon it.
Matthew Henry.

    If a man is called to the ministry, and then that he has but three years to live, let him study for two, and preach for one.
William Tennant.

    All great earthly characters are formed in the school of self-control. All great spiritual characters are formed in the school of self-denial.
William S. Plumer.

    When a true believer falls into sin it is like a bit of grit getting into the eye- the eye weeps, and weeps, and weeps, until it weeps it out.
Anon.

    Turn the Bible into prayer.
Robert Murray McCheyne.

    I spread the Bible before God and cried to the Father that, for the sake of his Son he would, by the Spirit, shine upon it, give light into it and discover his mind in the word, and that he would grant me life, health, strength, time, and inclination for that study, and a blessing therein.
Thomas Boston.

    We ought to look upon the Bible with awe and reverence, for the presence of God in it.
John Owen.

   The first age of the church was a golden age, to return unto which will make a man (in today’s terms) a Protestant, and I may add, a Puritan.
Cotton Mather (1702).

    In dealing with his children about their spiritual state he took hold of them very much by the handle of their infant baptism and frequently inculcated upon them that they were born in God’s house, and were dedicated and given up to him, and therefore were obliged to be his servants: I am thy servant, because the son of thine handmaid’(Psalm 116:16).
Matthew Henry describing his family upbringing under his father, Philip Henry.

    In the present disturbed state of the church no more suitable a remedy can be adopted than the assembling together of godly and discrete men, well-disciplined in the school of Christ, who shall openly profess their agreement in the doctrines of religion. I wish that it might be effected that grave and learned men from the principal churches might meet together at a place appropriate, and, after diligent consideration of each article of faith, hand down to posterity a definite form of doctrine according to their united opinion.
John Calvin writing to Thomas Cranmer, 1552.

    Question: “If God is so good and loving, why does he allow so many people to be poor and needy?”
Answer: “To test your gift of charity.”
Anon (Puritan period.)

     To bewail the distresses of God’s children- that is Puritanism. To reprove a man for swearing- that is Puritanism. To banish an adulterer out of the house- that is Puritanism. To make humble suit to her majesty and the high court of Parliament for a learned ministry- that is Puritanism. The Lord send her majesty a store of such Puritans!
Job Throckmorton  speaking in the English Parliament (House of Commons), 1587.

    A due regard for the Lord’s day has generally been accounted a proper touch-stone of any person’s religion, and a good evidence of a vigorous exercise of divine grace in the soul. Pious persons, in all ages and countries, have universally attended to the sanctification of the Lord’s day.
James Reid  1811.

    In the pastoral epistles which apply to a later stage in the history of the church when things had become more settled and fixed, there is no mention of prophets. It is clear that even by then the office of the prophet was no longer necessary, and that the call was for teachers and pastors to expound the Scriptures and convey the knowledge of the truth.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones.

    None will ever be drawn to Christ by mere preaching- there must first be the supernatural operations of the Spirit to open the sinner’s heart to receive the message.
Arthur W. Pink.

   We must have the heathen converted- God had myriads of his elect among them. We must go and search for them somehow or other. Many difficulties are now removed, all lands are open to us, and distance is almost annihilated. True, we have not the pentecostal tongues, but languages are now easily acquired, while the art of printing is a full equivalent for the lost gift.
C.H. Spurgeon.

    The Holy Spirit came not to erect a new kingdom, but to glorify Christ.
Matthew Henry.

     False teachers posed a serious threat to the health and unity of the church from the start. We tend to think of the early church as pure and pristine, but heresy began to infect the church in her infancy. The threat of false doctrine was a constant theme in apostolic teaching. Jesus himself instructed believers to take special care in evaluating any spiritual message or messenger who claimed to speak for God: “You will know them by their fruits” (Matthew 7:16). The Letters of Second Peter and Jude describe what these fruits are- including the love of money, immorality, arrogance, hypocrisy, and aberrant theology. Paul commanded the Thessalonians to test all things, and hold fast what is good, and abstain from every evil (1. Thessalonians 5:21-22). Novel doctrines, self-promotion, and claims to fresh revelations from God are particular signs of a false teacher. The claim that some new teaching comes from Gog is absolutely essential to the success of any heretic’s agenda. It is equally essential the believers exercise spiritual discernment in recognising lies.
John Macarthur  2013.

   The medieval church had never in theory renounced the supreme authority of Scripture, but in practice had covered it over with all sorts of traditions. But later, in troublous times, and with the tremendous tool of the printing press, men were rediscovering the powerful and all-embracing message of the Bible. Luther, Calvin, and Zwingle did not originate the Reformation, they only emerged as leaders as the Reformation progressed.
Donnis Walters c. 1975.

    After the explanation of the Chapter they sang a Psalm, and he commonly chose a Psalm suitable to the Chapter he has expounded, and he would briefly tell his hearers how they might sing that Psalm with understanding, and what affections of soul they should be moving towards God in the singing of it. He often said: the more singing of Psalms there is in families and congregations on Sabbath days, the more like they are to heaven, and the more there is in them of the everlasting Sabbath. He would say sometimes that he loved to sing whole Psalms, rather than pieces.
Matthew Henry describing services led by his father Philip Henry.

     Revival takes for granted Arminian principles, that all are in a salvable condition, and that ministers and converts have somehow or another the power to bring sinners into a state of salvation, Hence their extraordinary efforts.
William Ross Hamilton 1866.

     God gave not the prophecies to gratify men’s curiosities by enabling them to foreknow things, but that, after they were fulfilled, they might be interpreted by the event and God’s own providence.
Sir Isaac Newton.

    Man’s fallen state, or total depravity is proven by the fact that the Law, especially the ten commandments, was given in a negative format. It is never ‘you shall do this, or do that’, but ‘you shall NOT do this or that.’ This supposes that man is far more likely to do wrong (by nature) than to do right. Fallen, man needs correction.
Anon.

    I say that it is my firm opinion that the expositions of the Book of Revelation have done great dis-service to religion- almost every commentator becomes a prophet, for as soon as he begins to explain he also begins to prophecy. And what has been the issue? Disappointment, until superficial thinkers have been led to despise prophecy itself.
Dr. Adam Clarke.

    The Apocalypse is a book of symbols. It would seem as if the actual occurance of the events foretold supply the only safe key for the interpretation of the strange images.
W.D. Killen 1850’s.
     Quite so, but if the occurance is still in the future, then for 2,000 years the church has lacked the key to open and interpret one entire Book of the Bible! On the other hand this is quite accurate, if the occurance of the events took place not long after the prediction- in this case in 70 A.D. This primary fulfilment leaves open the future and more spiritual antitype of which the physical events of 70 A.D. were the type.

    Augustine conceived the unity of the human race, not federally, but realistically. The whole human race was germinally present in the first man, and therefore actually sinned in him. The race is constituted individually, that is of a large number of independent individuals, but organically, that is of a large number of individualisations which area organic parts of that generic human nature that was present in Adam. With respect to the transmission of sin Jonathan Edwards also adopted the realistic theory. We are connected with Adam as the branches are with a tree, and consequentially his sin is also our sin and is imputed to us as such. This theory finds great favour among the Lutherans, and is also adopted by such Reformed scholars as H.B. Smith and W.G. T. Shedd.
Louis Berkhof.
     Adam was created the genetic head of the human race, prior to his being in any way their legal representative. Thus the transmission of his sin must be primarily organic, and only secondarily by a legal imputation.

    To this day the church of the Old Testament is a conundrum to Baptists, so they make a separation between the Old and New Testaments and so deny the unity of Scripture. As a result they have no conception of the biblical proof for infant baptism as it takes the place of circumcision in the New Testament era.
Herman Hanko.

    Every man is bound by the law of God to believe correctly, and to connect himself with a pure church. He is not, and cannot be, at liberty in the sight of Jehovah to neglect either.
Samuel Miller 1839.
     Does the fact that a person is non-elect, reprobate, excuse them from this decree? Surely the reprobate have no ability to believe correctly or become true members of the living church? We must bear in mind that the inability is a result of man’s sin (in the fall, and in subsequent personal sinning) and thus the inability is self-inflicted and is, in itself, sinful. This in no way alters God’ sovereign right to demand of all men just what Dr. Miller highlights, nor does it mitigate God’s right to punished them for their failure to comply.

     No church is so independent as that it can always and in all cases observe the duties it owes to the Lord Christ without conjunction with others. The church that confines its duty to the acts of its own assemblies casts itself off from the external communication of the church catholic, nor will it be safe for any man to commit the conduct of his soul to such a church.
John Owen.
     This is an important point. Just as the local church has various members, all of equal rank and importance, so the wider church, beyond the local congregation is also likened of a body with various members. If this was not so there would be a radical divide between the local, wider, and universal church, which is, spiritually. ONE body, and one bride of Christ: ‘the body is not one member, but many. If the foot should say, because I am not the hand I am not of the body, is it not part of the body? And if the ear should say, because I am not the eye I am not of the body, does that make it not of the body? If the whole body was an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing where would the smelling be? But now God has set every one of the members in the body as it has pleased him. And if they were all one member where would the body be? Now are they many members but still one body, but now God has set every one of the members in the body as it has pleased him. And if they were all one member where would the body be? Now are they many members but still one body, so the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you, nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you’ (1. Corinthians 12:14-21). This rules out Independency. But also the churches (and their officers) have no superiority on ever another: all are co-equal members of the one body: ‘God has formed the body altogether, having given greater attention to the weakest members, so that there should be no divisions in the body. The members should have the same care for each other so that when one member suffers all the members suffer with it, and when one member is honoured, all the members rejoice with it.’ This rules out Episcopacy. What is left in, broadly, the Biblical middle-way, which (for convenience) is labelled Presbyterianism.

    Owing to a sequence of minute alterations the offices of the apostolic age, originally simple and adapted to the circumstances of men, have almost imperceptibly grown into a hierarchy, and the pure elements of Church government in the first century have developed into the Prelacy and Papacy of the Middle Ages. It is humiliating to discover how soon the divine system was overlaid with human additions, and how far the very best attempts made in modern times to recover what was lost have to some extent failed in their designs.
Thomas Witherow 1889.
     Failure is, of course, no reason not to keep trying!  Sola Scriptura is the guideline, and Semper Reformanda is the pathway.

    During the time of the Acts and Epistles the church was in her formative phase, and this has to be kept in mind in the study of the Scriptures. When we turn to the Revelation, second and third Chapters, we find the churches in their settled and fully developed arrangement, and in the epistles to the churches the following truths stand out prominently: 1. To the star (angel, pastor) is the Word committed. 2. The angel (ministry) alone is to communicate the Word to others. 3. It is the Spirit’s Word that is to be spoken and heard, not man’s. 4. There is mutual fellowship among the churches: all the churches are to hear and heed what is said to each one of them. 5. There is equality among the angels: no one has authority over any other. 6. There is but one teacher in each, although other rules may assist. 7. The angels (ministers) are the one responsible agency by which goodness is to be done, and evil averted. 8. The angels (pastors) are simply the messengers or servants of the ever-beloved God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and for this office they are chosen, qualified, and set apart.
William Ross Hamilton 1866.
     In the Revelation epistles to the churches, near to the end of the Bible, we have an inspired outline of church polity, if we only recognise and heed it. There is a set-aside, recognised, acknowledged ministry. These alone are to preach, and tend the people, being divinely called thereto. This at once rules out all lay ministry (as seen in the Brethren and house church movements.) The messages to the churches, although initially and primarily to each named church, are nevertheless are intended for all of the, and beyond them to all true churches in all times- otherwise why would they be encapsulated in the Bible? This proves the connection, the organic unity of the body, the wider church. This at once rules out all independency (as seen in Congregational and most Baptist churches.) The angels or pastors are regarded as co-equals. This rules out all hierarchalism and Episcopacy (as seen in Lutheran, Anglican, and Roman Catholic churches.) With no hint of Congregationalist separation, nor Episcopal ranks and orders, nor yet the chaos of self-appointed, unordained leadership, we are simply left with the middle way: co-equal inter-connected churches led by called, trained, and set-aside leaderships. For convenience this Biblical polity, simply assumed as the correct norm in the Revelation epistles has been labelled Presbyterianism. We do not battle for a name- we insist on obeying God in the Bible, and employing the Scriptural organisation and polity, much as Moses was previously shown the way on the Mount.

     There are some churches in which the Bible is studied far more than in others, and that largely through the influence of the pastor. A love for the Bible can only be promoted by the minister constantly honouring it by his pointing out its excellencies, by his explaining and preaching it, by contriving various plans to have it studied. That pastor has accomplished a great work who has, by his preaching or other efforts, trained his people to love the Bible.
Thomas Murphy.

    The devil has a great spite against the kingdom of God, and he knows no such compendious way to crush it in the egg as by the perversion of youth and supplanting family duties. Religion was first hatched in families, and there the devil seeks to crush it.
Preface to the second printing of the Westminster Confession of Faith (1658).

    The only method and ground for true Biblical ecumenicity is not to ignore truth or theology but to vigorously study it, adhere to it, advocate it and defend it. Any type of Christia’ union or co-operation that ignores, downplays, or alters the truth is destructive of the faith.
Brian M. Schwertley.

    Psalms in praise of Immanuel, such especially as have Hallelujah at the beginning or end, are called hymns. The Psalms which relate to the Spiritual things of Christ and his kingdom, have the title song set before them by the Holy Spirit. These hymns and songs are part of the Scripture, and part of the Psalms, for the Word of Christ is to dwell in them richly in the singing of them, and when the Apostle speaks of them he calls both hymn and spiritual song a Psalm.
William Romaine.

    Archaeology plays a role in our understanding of Jesus and his world, but it is important to get it right, and we have to acquire a new humility. New Testament research is subservient to the text. The text, the twenty-seven writings, are our primary source. Obviously the same yardstick must be applied to the Old Testament. It is the text that defines our methods.
Carsten P. Thiede 2004.

    The primitive church accepted as a matter of course the institution of infant baptism because the doctrine of infant church membership, on which it is based, had been inwrought into the Jewish mind so as to constitute a sort of religious second nature by two thousand years of infant circumcision. So also for the doctrine of the Sabbath or Lord’s Day. The primitive church fell easily and naturally into the habit of observing the Lord’s Day because the doctrine on which that observance is based had been known to the church from the dawn of revelation, because, in short, the Sabbath law is a law of nature, and therefore the Lord’s Day was not a new institution but was as old as the nature of man.
James Macgregor 1866.

    Conversion expresses the outward change, but does not indicate the cause producing the change, nor does it express the nature of the change, whether to good or evil, and further, when used in direct reference to entering the kingdom it expresses only part of what is necessary. Thus in Matthew 18:4 they are not only to be converted but also to become as little children. Hence it is plain that conversion is not equivalent to believing, and the believing is the Scriptural term used to express that by which an individual becomes united to the Saviour and is saved. Thus we infer that conversion is, at best, an ambiguous term that does not of itself express what constitutes the Christian. A man may be converted, such as a drunkard from drunkenness, and not be a Christian. There may be any number of converts, and not one true believer among them.
William Ross Hamilton 1866.

    Reverence for the Sabbath symbolised reverence for God himself, and violation pf its sanctity was therefore an insult to his majesty. It is in this regard that we can best understand contemporary neglect and desecration of the holy day. It symbolises our generation’s neglect and contempt of the things of God. It is man’s refusal of God.
James Philip.

    It is impossible for man to compose a hymnal upon which all Christians can agree, yet God has given such a hymnal to his church, perfect in content and utterly devoid of human opinion. Imagine what strides would be made towards unifying the church if all of God’s people sang his songs whenever they came together for corporate worship.
Douglas Comin.

    Diabolus tenat, Deus probat.  (The devil tempts, God proves.)
Anon (Early church.)

   The ministers of Christ have two great employments on their hands. The first is the conversion of sinners and the second is the edification of saints.
James Janeway 1673.
     This emphasises the dual role of Christ’s mission on earth: 1. To save his elect, and, 2. to bring them into organised, worshipping, churches for their nurture and service. The modern church has failed disastrously because it concentrates on the first and largely ignores the second. It claims only half of Christ’s work, and wonders why it is so impoverished!

    The preacher’s emblem should be the candle, and the preacher’s motto should be: ‘Per Lucendo Pereo’: ‘I wear away in giving light to others.’
Anon (Puritan period.)

    Men fall into errors when they are men because they did not learn the principles of religion when they were children.
John Calvin.

    There is a living in the world, a meddling with the world, and a mingling in the world.
William Bridge (Puritan).
     The Christian, of course, must strive to keep to the first!

   We cry out against popery, and that very justly, but we are all Papists, or at least I am sure we are all Arminians by nature, and therefore it is no wonder that so many natural men embrace that scheme. It is true that we disclaim the doctrine of merit and are ashamed to say that we deserve any good at the hands of God, therefore, as the Apostle excellently well observes, we go about, we fetch a circuit, to establish a righteousness of our own. I have often thought , were it possible, that this single consideration would be sufficient to raise our venerable forefathers from their graves, who would thunder in their ears this fatal error.
George Whitefield.

   It is the work of ministers to make disciples. They cannot give the people justifying, saving, faith, but they can baptise and instruct them.
Daniel Isaac 1822.

    The New Testament dates the work of John the Baptist as beginning in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, which is understood in our calendar as referring to A.D. 26. The Messianic work of Jesus began shortly after the preaching of John, and continued for some three and a half years. The probability is that Christ’s ministry began towards the end of the year 26, and that the first Passover of his public work was in A.D. 27. Those who were present at the Passover in Jerusalem spoke of the Temple as being in the process of building for forty-six years. As the date of the start of the building of the Temple is known, forty-six years would also make the date A.D. 27.
Iain Murray.

   Considerable help would probably be afforded to a sincere and studious enquirer after scriptural knowledge by an edition of the Bible, corrected from the common version where indispensably necessary for clearness and justice, with the Books arranged suitably to their apparent dates, and those parts which are poetical distinguished by lines according to the Hebrew manuscripts.
Evangelical Magazine 1793.

    There are many whose superior light and knowledge only serves to fill them with false confidence and vain conceit. They look down with assumed pity on those whose views of divine truth are not so clear as their own, whilst yet, in respect to truth and honour and practice they are far inferior to the persons they despise.
Charles Simeon c. 1815.
     Simeon warns that superior knowledge and more Biblically correct and purer theology is not a subject for pride, but for humble gratitude to God who has granted it. This thankfulness should show itself in superior levels of love, of holy living, of godly example and endeavour to be ever more pleasing to God. Sounder theology must lead to better practice: if not those who are sincerely in error may be more approved by God than we are.

    The starting point for Christianity is not Matthew 1:11, but Genesis 1:1.
John MacArthur.

    It is not necessary that one should be a profound critic or a finished scholar to understand the Bible. Faith in it as the word of God, the submission of the understanding to its teaching, with a candid, natural, and common-sense interpretation of its contents is all that is needed to understand the message that it brings to man. In the presence of these qualities the most ingenious criticism and the profoundest erudition will utterly fail to mystify or pervert the Bible’s meaning.
J.A. Wylie c. 1865.

    The two Testaments, Old and New, like the two breasts of a nursing mother, give the same milk.
John Arrowsmith (Puritan).
     True: and in so few words Arrowsmith pulls the whole rug out from under all dispensationalism!

   Truly, good Christian reader, we never thought from the beginning that we should need to make a new translation, nor yet make a bad one good, but rather to make a good one better. That has been our endeavour, that our work.
The King James Revisers to the reader 1611.

    A professor may be wise in doctrine and able to vindicate the truth against all opposers, whilst his heart is entirely carnal, cold as ice and barren as a rock. ‘Though I understand all mysteries and all knowledge and have not charity (love to God and his people) I am nothing.
Abraham Booth.

   I have learned in the past thirty-two years that if a minister leads a quiet life, leaves alone the unconverted part of the world, and preaches so as to offend none and edify none he will be called by man ‘a good pastor.’ And I have also learned that if a man studies the Scriptures, labours continually for the conversion of souls, adheres to the great principles of the Reformation, and preaches powerful, convicting, sermons, he will probably be though a firebrand and a ‘troubler of Israel’. Let men say what they will, they are the true friends of the church who labour most for the preservation of the truth.
J.C. Ryle.

    A fervent Welsh preacher once argued against taking written notes into the pulpit, saying: “You cannot carry fire in paper!”  A wiser pastor replied: “No, but paper is an excellent thing for starting a fire!”
Anon (19^th century.)

   Those who clamorously demand that the origin of everything Christian be produced from the New Testament show that they understand neither the New Testament nor the Old, nor yet the very Christianity about which they prate. Christianity is more, a great deal more, than a few doctrines.
John Mason 1849.

    The absurdities of certain prophetical schools might have been avoided if they would only have recognised the essential character of the Apocalypse, that it is imagery seen in a vision, and not history foretold, and if they had only compared John’s imagery with the Hebrew prophets who first used it.
William Smith 1866.

    He who reads sermons and good books at home to save his pains of going to hear in Church is a thief to his soul in a religious habit- he consults his ease, but not for his benefit.
William Gurnall.

   The preeminent service rendered by the devils is to exercise believers in combat.
David Engelsma.

    Songs newly composed for use at church are unbecoming to the majesty of the church, and cannot but be displeasing to God.
John Calvin.

   The Arminian finds sin only in acts: the Scriptures teach that it is a matter of nature.
Prof. Herman Hanko.

   Christianity has been since its commencement the author of happiness and virtue to millions of the human race. Who would not want his son to be a Christian?
William Paley.

    The church has received the custom of baptising infants from the Apostles.
Origen c. 245 A.D.

   The most illiterate Christian, if he can but read his English Bible, will not only attain all that practical knowledge which is essential to salvation but, by God’s blessing, he will become learned in everything relating to religion to such a degree that he will not be liable to be misled by those who endeavour to engraft their own opinions upon the oracles of God.
Samuel Horseley c. 1800.

    The children of believers are born into the church. They do not become members by joining the church, or by baptism. They are born into the church by virtue of God’s covenant.
Prof. Herman Hanko.

    I began, about the year 1785, to read the Septuagint version regularly, in order to acquaint myself more thoroughly with the phraseology of the New Testament. The study of this version proved more to expand and illuminate my mind than all the theological books that I had ever consulted. It was of incalculable value towards a proper understanding of the literal sense of Scripture.
Adam Clarke.

   We baptise the young children of the faithful, as they have used and done since the Apostles’ time, and we doubt not that this mark, joined with the prayers of the church, doth seal the adoption and election in those whom he has predestinated eternally.
John Marbeck 1581.

    Although we have the standard of truth in our hands, yet few are ready to read it and think for themselves, but submissively look about for some Christian Rabbi to do their thinking for them.
Charles Ives 1878.

    Any tendency to allow sociological considerations divorced from Biblical teaching to dictate is unworthy of the Church of Christ. It is necessary to prize, ever and anon, the infallible rule of faith and practice provided for us in Holy Scripture.
John Murray 1946.

   A hypocrite is heeded by the world who think him a Christian, and hated by God for his not being one.
Anon (Puritan).

   Tolerance is the password in today’s church world. Tolerance is stretched to a point where every heresy, ancient and modern, is allowed to remain in the church. The consequence is that the church slides rapidly backward into deeper and deeper apostasy. Any tolerance of error very soon becomes intolerance of that church where the truth is truly confessed.
Prof. Herman Hanko.

    The children of God are washed with the same blood, supplied with the same grace, opposed by the same enemies, and have the same heaven in view. Therefore they love one another with a pure heart fervently.
John Newton 1781.

    All of Christ’s ways of mercy end in the saint’s joy. He wept, sorrowed, and suffered that they might rejoice, he sends the Spirit to be their comforter, he multiplies promises, he reveals their future happiness, that their joy may be full.
Richard Baxter 1649.

    What a fair one, what a only one, what an excellent and lovely one is Jesus! Put the beauty of ten thousand worlds of paradises like the garden of Eden into one, put all trees, flowers, all scents, all colours, all tastes, all joys, all sweetness, all loveliness into one. What a fair and excellent thing that would be! And yet it would be less to that fair and dearest well beloved Christ than one drop of rain to the whole seas, rivers, lakes and fountains of ten thousand earths. O, but Christ is heaven’s wonder, and earth’s wonder!
Samuel Rutherford 1637.

    We meekly beseech thee, O Father, that at the general resurrection in the last day we may be found acceptable in thy sight and receive that blessing which they well-beloved Son shall then promise to all that love and fear thee, saying: Come ye blessed children of my Father, receive the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world.
Church of England Book of Common Prayer 1662.

    It is staggering that God should love sinners, yet it is true. God loves men because he has chosen to love them, and no reason for his love can be given save his own sovereign good pleasure.
J.I. Packer 1973.

    Why are peacemakers blessed? The answer is that they are blessed because they are absolutely unlike everybody else. They differ because they are the children of God.
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones 1959.

   Do not fear, you Christians. The Spirit of God has not lost his power. In his own good time he will send his messengers even to a wicked and adulterous generation. He will convict men of sin, he will break down men’s pride, he will melt their stony hearts. Then he will lead them to the Saviour of their souls.
Gresham Machen 1937.

    If God be your portion then every promise, every attribute, every privilege, every comfort, every blessing, every mercy, every ordinance and everything sweet in the Book of God is yours, and if God is yours then everything in yours.
Thomas Brooks 1662.

    It ought to be a matter if indifference to us what work God gives us to do in his household. Men disturb themselves too much over the kind of work they are assigned to, and can scarcely believe that they are working for God unless they are harvesting all the time. It is not ours to determine how we are to do it, for none will fail of his wages.
B.B. Warfield 1916.

    Take a poor Christian of a weak understanding, a feeble memory, a stammering tongue, yet his heart is set upon God. He hath chosen him for his portion, his thoughts are upon eternity, his desires are there. I would rather die in this man’s condition than in the case of him who hath the most eminent gifts, and is most admired for his performance, whilst his heart is not thus taken up with God.
Richard Baxter 1649.

    Some years ago a young man who had originally been a maker of brushes and had studied divinity for two or three seasons was being interviewed by a Scottish Presbytery, and acquitted himself so little to their satisfaction that they judged it necessary to remand him to his first vocation, as more suited to his abilities. This decision was announced by a venerable old minister in the following manner: “Young man, it is the duty of all men to glorify God, but he calls them in different ways according to the gifts he bestows on them. Some h calls to glorify him by preaching the gospel of his Son, and others by making brushes. Now it is the unanimous judgment of this Presbytery that he has not called you to the ministry, since he has not qualified you for it, and therefore that it is your duty to go home to your father and glorify God by decent industry in making brushes.” The mode of the old gentlemen was somewhat original, but this spirit ought to pervade the church.
John Mason 1849 (slightly edited.)

    All which concerns the glory of God and the honour and prosperity of the church is unerringly and unalterably settled in the word of God, which is not yea and nay. It does not accommodate its doctrines to succeeding periods of time, nor to changing tempers, humours, and fashions. Like its divine author it is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Archibald Hall 1795.
      Quite so: and this plain fact at once exposes the foolishness and fatal errors of all shades of dispensationalism.

    The divinity of Christ rests upon the solid and unchangeable foundation that the inspired writers throughout the whole of their pages take it for granted. They were only anxious to prove Jesus of Nazareth to be the expected Messiah, which title implies his divinity, and that point being gained they considered it as a truth that required no additional argument.
George Townsend 1828.

    The liveliest preachers are those who are most familiar with the Bible without note or comment. It was this that gave such animation to the vivid books and discussions of the Puritans. Constant perusal of Scripture is the great preparation for preaching. You get good even when you know it not.
James W. Alexander.

    Prayer, prayer, prayer, the first, the second, the third elements of the Christian life, should open, prolong, and close each day. The first act of the soul in early morning should be a draught at the heavenly fountain. It will sweeten the taste for the rest of the day. If you can have but ten minutes with God at that fresh, tranquil, and tender season, make sure of thoe ten minutes. They are of more value than much fine gold.
Anon.

    Two things we must observe in baptism, namely, the sign of water used as a seal, and the body of such as have the truth of baptism, whether it be by means of faith, as of mature and understanding ones, or by means of covenant, as of immature ones, that is of the children.
Guido de Bres (Principal author of the Heidelberg Catechism).
     Compare Belgic Confession Article 34, and Heidelberg Catechism Q. & A. 74.

    Many are called but few are chosen. Certain it is that numberless sparks go out for want of seasonable blowing. The word is no sooner on some hearts than it is wiped out again, the seed no sooner sown than it is picked up by the fowls and so the receiving becomes vain, because the word and the Spirit are separated.
Bishop Lancelot Andrews c. 1610.
     The preacher must preach an unlimited offer of a limited atonement because he (being human) cannot know who among his hearers are God’s elect. The Holy Spirit blows on elect sparks and kindles them into flame. The rest go quickly out, because the word without the Spirit is dead.

    Jonah’s entombment, his three days preaching, and his denunciation of destruction to Nineveh after forty days, were completely paralleled in our Lord’s three years of ministry, his time in the tomb, and the destruction of Jerusalem after forty years.
Anon (1856).

    Allowing cultural or traditional considerations to dictate the elements of worship only serves to divide the church along man-centred lines. When God’s people determine to worship according to his revealed commands, rather than their personal tastes, wherever they find themselves geographically, the church will begin to experience the unity that God designed and intended.

Douglas Comin 2007.

    It is wonderful how some well meaning men who hesitate not in acknowledging the Scriptures as God’s word, do, nevertheless, use that word. A usual method is that when the plain, obvious, meaning of portions of Scripture do not agree with their opinions then they figurise or spiritualise it in some way or other, and then there is no difficulty in obtaining a meaning in accord with their views, no matter what they are, or they fix their minds on portions of Scripture that they think prove their views right, and turn away from the careful study of other portions which might qualify or modify them, and cause the meaning to appear differently.
William Hamilton 1865 (Slightly modified.)

    When children fall out and fight about the candle the parents come and take it away, and leave them to decide their differences in the dark.
Robert Walker c. 1780.
     Separation from churches is necessary where there is clearly false teaching or heresy or false worship, but separation over secondary or personal matters and ill-considered opinions tears churches apart and brings in darkness where there should be light.

   If you take a verse of Psalm 119 every morning to meditate upon, and so go over the Psalm twice in a year, that will bring you in love with the rest of the Scripture.
Philip Henry advice to his children, c. 1660.

    Christ claims the exclusive prerogative of ordering all the affairs of his own church. Every ordinance which he has appointed is to be diligently observed. Nothing should be exalted into an ordinance which he has not instituted. The church cannot adhere too closely to this rule. Once violated there is no limit to its destruction.
Rev. James Morgan 1865.

   The Book of Revelation, despite all the futuristic sensationalism that often obscures the meaning, is fundamentally a prophetic portrayal of the great transition from the Old to the New covenant which culminated in the judgement of apostate Israel at the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. The grand visions of the Book centre around the coming destruction of the earthly temple in Jerusalem, building to a climax in the last two Chapters as the heavenly Jerusalem, where there is no temple, is revealed descending from heaven.
Douglas Comin 2007.

    If the prophecies contained in the Book of Revelation refer to Jerusalem, the circumstances are appropriate and consonant with John himself (John 21:20, 1. John 2:18), and with the numerous and striking allusions and declarations of Paul, James, and Peter. This interpretation alone brings the Apocalypse into the system of the New Testament, binds it into the bundle of apostolic Books, consummates the teaching and confirms the declarations of the inspired writers, and exhibits the great High Priest, King, and Lawgiver as announcing the immediate fulfilment of his own predictions (Matthew 24, Luke 21, Mark 13).
Robert Blackadder 1865.

    SI STEPHANUS NON ORASSET ECCLESIA PAULUM NON HABERET.  If Stephen had not prayed, the church would not have had Paul.
Augustine of Hippo c. 400 A.D.

    Whatever God commands we are bound to do, and when we read any precepts of Scripture we should cherish the most cheerful and ready obedience. Without this our Bible reading will be of little use to us. This is what the Apostle James teaches: Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only. (James 1:22).
James W.  Alexander, c. 1835.