This doctrine is the head and the cornerstone. It alone begets, nourishes, builds, preserves, and defends the church of God; and without it the church of God cannot exist for one hour. What Luther Says: An Anthology Vol 2 (704)
Wherever the knowledge of it is taken away, the glory of Christ is extinguished, religion abolished, the Church destroyed, and the hope of salvation utterly overthrown. John Calvin: Selections from His Writings (95)
Repentance is a discovery of the evil of sin, a mourning that we have committed it, a resolution to forsake it. It is, in fact, a change of mind of a very deep and practical character, which makes the man love what once he hated, and hate what once he loved.
Surely no rebel can expect the King to pardon his treason while he remains in open revolt. No one can be so foolish as to imagine that the Judge of all the earth will put away our sins if we refuse to put them away ourselves. All of Grace (116)
Repentance causes a change in the affections, which move under the will as the commander-in-chief. It metamorphoses the affections. It turns rejoicing in sin into sorrowing for sin; it turns boldness in sin into holy shame; it turns the love of sin into hatred.Ten Commandments, 207
Here then is the design of prayer: not that God's will may be altered, but that it may be accomplished in His own good time and way. It is because God has promised certain things that we can ask for them with the full assurance of faith.https://www.monergism.com/sovereignty-god-unabridged
God is not at a distance from history, uninvolved and on the periphery, an interested spectator or distant 'first cause;' rather he is governing all things by his providence and wisdom.
All the martyrdoms were blessed and noble, and they took place according to the will of God. For it befits those who profess reater piety than others to ascribe to God the authority over all things.Martyrdom of Polycarp, 2
He shows mercy in restraining us from sin. Lusts within are worse than lions without. The greatest sign of God's anger is to give men up to their sins. 'So I gave them up to their own hearts' lust.' Psa lxxxi 12.The Ten Commandments, 70
God is never, never, never obligated to be merciful to sinners. That is the point we must stress if we are to grasp the full measure of God's grace.Chosen by God (26)
how richly does he supply us with the means of contemplating his mercy when, as frequently happens, he continues to visit miserable sinners with unwearied kindness, until he subdues their depravity, and woos them back with more than a parent's fondnessInstitutes, Book 1 Chapter 6
God does not have mercy on someone because that person has willed and run, but he willed and ran because God has had mercy on him.Contra Julianum opus imperfectrum, bk1, c141.
We must realize that Christianity is the easiest religion in the world, because it is the only religion in which God the Father and Christ and the Holy Spirit do everything. God is the Creator; we have nothing to do with our existence, or the existence of other things. We can shape other things, but we cannot change the fact of existence. We do nothing for our salvation because Christ did it all. We do not have to do anything. In every other religion we have to do something... but with Christianity we do not do anything; God has done it all: He has created us and He has sent His Son; His Son died and because the Son is infinite, therefore he bears our total guilt. We do not need to bear our guilt, nor do we even have to merit the merit of Christ. He does it all. So in one way it is the easiest religion in the world.
God in our nature, and doing all for us, and being all to us, free grace reigning through His imputed righteousness, God's free grant of Christ and His salvation, and of Himself in Christ, and the believing appropriation founded on that grant, and the comfort and holiness of heart and life flowing from that, have been my most delightful themes.Robert Mackenzie - John Brown of Haddington, 108
The Christian literary sources, backed by secular word usage and Jewish religious immersions, give an overwhelming support for full immersion as the normal action.Baptism in the Early Church : History, Theology , and Liturgy in the First Five Centuries (Eerdmans, 2009), 857
The most plausible explanation for the origin of infant baptism is found in the emergency baptism of sick children expected to die soon so that they would be assured of entrance into the kingdom of heaven.Baptism in the Early Church : History, Theology , and Liturgy in the First Five Centuries (Eerdmans, 2009), 856
There is general agreement that there is no firm evidence for infant baptism before the latter part of the second century.Baptism in the Early Church : History, Theology , and Liturgy in the First Five Centuries (Eerdmans, 2009)
Regeneration was a momentary monergistic act of quickening the spiritually dead. As such, it was God's work alone. Sanctification, however, is in one sense synergistic -it is an ongoing, cooperative process in which regenerate persons, alive to God and freed from sin's dominion (Rom. 6:11, 14-18), are required to exert themselves in sustained obedience.Concise Theology
Regeneration is birth; sanctification is growth. In regeneration, God implants desires that were not there before: desire for God, for holiness, and for the hallowing and glorifying of God's name in this world;Concise Theology
The principal exercises of religion, or virtue, respecting God, which the law of nature requires, are, 1. To contemplate him as the reason and pattern of our conduct. 2. To adore him with our soul and body as one possessed of infinite perfection. 3. To love him as one infinitely amiable and benevolent. 4. To observe and acknowledge his manifold and diversified providences, and act answerably to them. 5. To acquiesce in the whole of his will as wise and good. 6. To consider and trust in his power, wisdom, and goodness. 7. To be chiefly careful to please him, and to imitate him in his moral excellencies, who is infinitely perfect in himself, and on whose favour and the enjoyment of him, our true happiness wholly depends. 8. Cordially to listen to, believe, receive, and obey every further declaration of his will, which he is pleased to make to us.https://www.monergism.com/systematic-theology-john-brown-haddington-ebook
God may be good, nay, infinitely good, though he be not bound to render every creature happy to the uttermost. A magistrate may be very good and benevolent, though he do not adopt all his subjects to be his children or heirs.https://www.monergism.com/systematic-theology-john-brown-haddington-ebook
The belief of God's infinity, instead of discouraging, strongly encourageth us to the diligent contemplation of Him,—as much important and delightful truth concerning him, may be known, though he can never be fully and comprehensively known by ushttps://www.monergism.com/systematic-theology-john-brown-haddington-ebook
The law of the Old Testament is not a mere datum or a mere code book, but the personal word of the great King of the universe. And who is this King? From eternity to eternity the Word was with God and the Word was God (John 1:1). The King is the trinitarian God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God the Son was always at work from the beginning. The law of Moses is a reflection and foreshadowing of the absolute perfection and righteousness of Christ, rather than Christ being a reflection of the law.
It cannot be denied that in the execution of his duties the ancient "pedagogue" might also impart some elementary and useful instruction on various matters, but that was not his primary function. In the figure here used the "pedagogue" is the man—generally a slave—in whose custody the slave-owner's boys were placed, in order that this trusted servant might conduct them to and from school, and might, in fact, watch over their conduct throughout the day. He was, accordingly, an escort or attendant, and also at the same time a disciplinarian. The discipline which he exercised was often of a severe character, so that those placed under his guardianship would yearn for the day of freedom. And, as has been shown (see the explanation of verses 19, 22, and 23), that was exactly the function which the law had performed. It had been of a preparatory and disciplinary nature, readying the hearts of those under its tutelage for the eager acceptance of the gospel of justificationCommentary