O my soul, is it possible for thee to hear the excellency of Scripture thus opened to thee, and not to burn in love to it? Hast thou been all this while in such a host bath, and still cold and shivering?The Christian Man\'s Calling
Christians need to remember that the sufficiency of Scripture gives us a comprehensive worldview that equips us to wrestle with even the most challenging ethical dilemmas of our time.
We must allow the Word of God to confront us, to disturb our security, to undermine our complacency and to overthrow our patterns of thought and behavior.
In short, I will preach it [the Word], teach it, write it, but I will constrain no man by force, for faith must come freely without compulsion. Take myself as an example. I opposed indulgences and all the papists, but never with force. I simply taught, preached, and wrote God's Word; otherwise I did nothing. And while I slept, or drank Wittenberg beer with my friends Philip and Amsdorf, the Word so greatly weakened the papacy that no prince or emperor ever inflicted such losses upon it. I did nothing; the Word did everything.
The collapse in evangelical doctrinal consensus is intimately related to the collapse in the understanding of, and role assigned to, Scripture as God's Word spoken within the church.Reformation: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow
Be thankful to God for the scriptures. What a mercy is it that God has not only acquainted us what his will is, but that he has made it known by writing!A Body of Divinity, p37
There is a circularity here I do not doubt. I am defending the Bible by the Bible. Circularity of a kind is unavoidable when one seeks to defend an ultimate standard of truth, for one's defense must itself be accountable to that standard.The Doctrine of the Word of God
either no human writings at all must be considered as true, or everyone must acknowledge that the sacred accounts are true and reliable -and hence, also divine.Synopsis of a Purer Theology, Disputation 2
What makes the Scriptures holy is not their historical accuracy or even their content, but the presence of God in them.God Is Love: A Biblical and Systematic Theology (p. 43). Crossway
The same decree of God, is the first and principal working cause of all things; it is also before all other causes, in order and time. For with God's decree, his will is always annexed, by which he can willingly effect what he has decreed. And it would be a sign of impotence to decree anything which he could not willingly compass. And with God's will is conjoined an effectual power, by which the Lord can bring to pass whatever he has freely decreed.
https://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/sdg/perkins/A%20Golden%20Chain%20-%20William%20Perkins.pdf
the Lord, according to his good pleasure, has most certainly
decreed both every thing and action — whether past, present, or to come — together with their circumstances of place, time, means, and end.
God wills that which is good, by approving it; that which is evil — in as much as it is evil — by disallowing and forsaking it. And yet, He voluntarily permits evil, because it is good that there should be evil.