Topic
Hence, civil government is an ordinance of God; magistrates rule by His providence and by His command, and are His agents or ministers. Obedience to them, in the Lord, is a religious duty, and rebellion against them is n…
Finally, the thought of the kingdom of God implies the subjection of the entire range of human life in all its forms and spheres to the ends of religion. The kingdom reminds us of the absoluteness, the pervasiveness, the…
The meaning of this order of things was that in Israel's life all other interests, both public and private, were subordinated to and made a part of religion. Whilst elsewhere religion was a function of the state, here th…
No new weapon does the Church get to fight her enemies withal. No change of dispensation does she undergo. She is already all that she needs to be. She is complete in her living and ever-present Head, having "all power i…
The kingdom shall grow, says the parable of the mustard seed, till it overspread the earth: It shall work into human society, says the parable of the leaven, till it penetrate with its blessed principles and character th…
For civil government, as such, whatever be the form of it, is a divine ordinance. The mission of the Church is not to supplant, but to impregnate and pervade it with a religious character, and to render it subservient to…
The millennium, therefore, if there be one, precedes, and does not, cannot follow the second coming of Christ.
Now, as the growing character of the kingdom, taught by the "mustard seed," and the penetrating and assimilating character, taught by the "leaven," go on till "the whole (earth) is leavened," and all the world have been…
What, then, have we found with respect to these ordained means of grace? Why, that the second advent, come when it may, will put them all out of date. The passages which teach this make no distinction between the means a…
The Lord's Supper is the symbol of that double attitude of the believer—to which we find ourselves ever recurring—the backward look of his faith and the forward look of his hope—its present crucifixion and anticipated gl…
Christ's second coming will exhaust the object of the Scriptures. His coming is the goal of all revelation, its furthest horizon, its last terminus, its Sabbath and haven. Thither are directed all the anxieties which div…
We have seen that the whole elect and ransomed Church is complete when Christ comes. If this be correct, we may expect to find the ordained means for the gathering and perfecting of the Church disappearing from the stage…
Here we have Christ's commission to establish his kingdom upon earth, the authority on which that commission is based, and a gracious encouragement to undertake and go through with it. The commission is, properly speakin…
"The field," which was to be sown both with tares and with wheat, is "the world" (ὁ κόσμος): that is to say, a world-wide kingdom is to be formed, embracing the genuine and the false-hearted subjects of Christ under one…
Now is it conceivable, that any primitive Christian should persuade himself that all nations might be thus discipled, baptized, and brought under the discipline of Christ's laws, in his own lifetime, or within the larges…
I attach no importance, in this argument, to the precise period of a thousand years. It occurs nowhere in Scripture but in one solitary passage. There are reasons for taking it definitely and literally; but, to some thes…
We have seen that Christ's second coming is the Church's "blessed hope." Its place in the Christian system, and in the Church's view, is over against his first coming, as its proper counterpart. As "once in the end of th…
All is thus made to centre in the Person of Christ—the contemplations and the affections of the believer travelling between his Abasement and his Exaltation, and finding in Jesus, under both aspects together, a completed…
Here both comings of Christ are brought together; the first in "grace"—the second in "glory"; the first "bringing salvation"—the second, to complete the salvation brought. To the first we look back by faith—to the second…
But the Redeemer's second appearing is, to the believer, an event of unmingled joyousness, whether as respects the honour of his Lord, which will then be majestically vindicated before the world which had set it at nough…
With them we affirm, that the Redeemer's second appearing is the very pole-star of the Church. That it is so held forth in the New Testament, is beyond dispute. Let any one do himself the justice to collect and arrange t…
What I have tried to demonstrate is that the principle of unbelief — the sovereignty of Reason and the sovereignty of the People — while it proclaims Liberty, must end in either radicalism or despotism: in the disintegra…
The Revolution, with its variety of schools of thought and its successive historical manifestations, is the consequence, the application, the unfolding of unbelief.
The Reformation cannot possibly have been the cause of the Revolution, since it sprang from an antithetical principle: from objective unity of faith rather than diversity of subjective opinions; from the infallibility of…
The Reformation wants to be free from Tradition whenever it contradicts the Bible, free from human command whenever it conflicts with the divine commandments. It desires prayerful searching of the Scriptures, not in orde…
All power is of God. A civil power is God's lieutenant and God's minister. In this duality of the relation—its twofold direction, upwards and downwards—lies the whole theory of divine right. We are to obey the higher pow…
Centralization always begins by destroying the rights of provinces and municipalities and, if forced to be consistent, ends by tolerating in fact no right or activity or existence except under its supervision and control…
The Revolution doctrine is unbelief applied to politics. A life and death struggle is raging between the Gospel and this practical atheism. To contemplate a rapprochement between the two would be nonsense.
By Revolution I do not mean one of the many events whereby a government is overthrown. Nor do I just mean by it the storm of upheaval that has raged in France. Rather, by Revolution I mean the whole inversion of the gene…
With the reality of revelation, therefore, Christianity stands or falls.
The true religion which shall satisfy our mind and heart, our conscience and our will, must be one that does not shut us up in, but lifts us up high above, the world; in the midst of time It must impart to us eternity; i…
Between the freedom of the Christian man, on behalf of which Luther entered the lists, and the liberty, equality, fraternity, which the Revolution inscribed on its banner, the difference is fundamental. Luther and Voltai…
If everything that is, exists for the sake of God, then it follows that the whole creation must give glory to God. The sun, moon, and stars in the firmament, the birds of the air, the whole of Nature around us, but, abov…
Therefore in opposition both to the atheistic popular-sovereignty of the Encyclopedians, and the pantheistic state-sovereignty of German philosophers, the Calvinist maintains the Sovereignty of God, as the source of all…
A religion confined to the closet, the cell, or the church, therefore, Calvin abhors. With the Psalmist, he calls upon heaven and earth, he calls upon all peoples and nations to give glory to God.
This dominating principle was not, soteriologically, justification by faith, but, in the widest sense cosmologically, the Sovereignty of the Triune God over the whole Cosmos, in all its spheres and kingdoms, visible and…
In this independent character a special higher authority is of necessity involved and this highest authority we intentionally call – sovereignty in the individual social spheres, in order that it may be sharply and decid…
In a Calvinistic sense we understand hereby, that the family, the business, science, art and so forth are all social spheres, which do not owe their existence to the state, and which do not derive the law of their life f…
It is further to be considered, that the general practice of religion and virtue is of great importance to their happiness… And God having in the constitution of nature made religion and virtue conducive, and even necess…
They must be such as fear God. The fear of God, in the language of scripture, does not intend a slavish, superstitious dread, as of an almighty, arbitrary and cruel Being; but that just reverence and awe of him, which na…
The business of rulers in general. And this is, to promote and secure the happiness of the whole community. For this end only they are invested with power, and only for this end it ought to be employed. The apostle tells…
The magistrate is properly the trustee of the people: He can have no just power but what he receives from them. To them he ought to be accountable for the use he makes of this power. But if a man may be invested with the…
No man is born a magistrate, or with a right to rule over his brethren. If this were the case, there must be some natural mark by which it might be known to whom this right belongs, or it could answer no end: But no man…
To conclude: This whole assembly will bear in mind, that there is another and more valuable kind of liberty, than that to which the foregoing discourse more immediately relates… a liberty, which consists in being free fr…
Once more, from a regard to religion men are obliged to defend their liberty against encroachments, though the attack should not immediately affect religion. Slavery exposes to many temptations to vice, and by debasing a…
But further; a regard to the happiness of mankind in general, makes it a duty to resist great injuries. Yielding to the unjust demands of bad men, not only lessens our power of doing good, but encourages them to repeat t…
Heaven has made us their guardians, and entrusted to our care their liberty, honour, and happiness: For when they come upon the stage, they will be deeply affected by the transactions of their fathers, especially by thei…
Once more, it is necessary for a people who would preserve their liberty, to maintain the general practice of religion and virtue. This will tend to make them courageous: The truest fortitude is ever to be found where th…
50 quotes
Hence, civil government is an ordinance of God; magistrates rule by His providence and by His command, and are His agents or ministers. Obedience to them, in the Lord, is a religious duty, and rebellion against them is n…
Finally, the thought of the kingdom of God implies the subjection of the entire range of human life in all its forms and spheres to the ends of religion. The kingdom reminds us of the absoluteness, the pervasiveness, the…
The meaning of this order of things was that in Israel's life all other interests, both public and private, were subordinated to and made a part of religion. Whilst elsewhere religion was a function of the state, here th…
No new weapon does the Church get to fight her enemies withal. No change of dispensation does she undergo. She is already all that she needs to be. She is complete in her living and ever-present Head, having "all power i…
The kingdom shall grow, says the parable of the mustard seed, till it overspread the earth: It shall work into human society, says the parable of the leaven, till it penetrate with its blessed principles and character th…
For civil government, as such, whatever be the form of it, is a divine ordinance. The mission of the Church is not to supplant, but to impregnate and pervade it with a religious character, and to render it subservient to…
The millennium, therefore, if there be one, precedes, and does not, cannot follow the second coming of Christ.
Now, as the growing character of the kingdom, taught by the "mustard seed," and the penetrating and assimilating character, taught by the "leaven," go on till "the whole (earth) is leavened," and all the world have been…
What, then, have we found with respect to these ordained means of grace? Why, that the second advent, come when it may, will put them all out of date. The passages which teach this make no distinction between the means a…
The Lord's Supper is the symbol of that double attitude of the believer—to which we find ourselves ever recurring—the backward look of his faith and the forward look of his hope—its present crucifixion and anticipated gl…
Christ's second coming will exhaust the object of the Scriptures. His coming is the goal of all revelation, its furthest horizon, its last terminus, its Sabbath and haven. Thither are directed all the anxieties which div…
We have seen that the whole elect and ransomed Church is complete when Christ comes. If this be correct, we may expect to find the ordained means for the gathering and perfecting of the Church disappearing from the stage…
Here we have Christ's commission to establish his kingdom upon earth, the authority on which that commission is based, and a gracious encouragement to undertake and go through with it. The commission is, properly speakin…
"The field," which was to be sown both with tares and with wheat, is "the world" (ὁ κόσμος): that is to say, a world-wide kingdom is to be formed, embracing the genuine and the false-hearted subjects of Christ under one…
Now is it conceivable, that any primitive Christian should persuade himself that all nations might be thus discipled, baptized, and brought under the discipline of Christ's laws, in his own lifetime, or within the larges…
I attach no importance, in this argument, to the precise period of a thousand years. It occurs nowhere in Scripture but in one solitary passage. There are reasons for taking it definitely and literally; but, to some thes…
We have seen that Christ's second coming is the Church's "blessed hope." Its place in the Christian system, and in the Church's view, is over against his first coming, as its proper counterpart. As "once in the end of th…
All is thus made to centre in the Person of Christ—the contemplations and the affections of the believer travelling between his Abasement and his Exaltation, and finding in Jesus, under both aspects together, a completed…
Here both comings of Christ are brought together; the first in "grace"—the second in "glory"; the first "bringing salvation"—the second, to complete the salvation brought. To the first we look back by faith—to the second…
But the Redeemer's second appearing is, to the believer, an event of unmingled joyousness, whether as respects the honour of his Lord, which will then be majestically vindicated before the world which had set it at nough…
With them we affirm, that the Redeemer's second appearing is the very pole-star of the Church. That it is so held forth in the New Testament, is beyond dispute. Let any one do himself the justice to collect and arrange t…
What I have tried to demonstrate is that the principle of unbelief — the sovereignty of Reason and the sovereignty of the People — while it proclaims Liberty, must end in either radicalism or despotism: in the disintegra…
The Revolution, with its variety of schools of thought and its successive historical manifestations, is the consequence, the application, the unfolding of unbelief.
The Reformation cannot possibly have been the cause of the Revolution, since it sprang from an antithetical principle: from objective unity of faith rather than diversity of subjective opinions; from the infallibility of…
The Reformation wants to be free from Tradition whenever it contradicts the Bible, free from human command whenever it conflicts with the divine commandments. It desires prayerful searching of the Scriptures, not in orde…
All power is of God. A civil power is God's lieutenant and God's minister. In this duality of the relation—its twofold direction, upwards and downwards—lies the whole theory of divine right. We are to obey the higher pow…
Centralization always begins by destroying the rights of provinces and municipalities and, if forced to be consistent, ends by tolerating in fact no right or activity or existence except under its supervision and control…
The Revolution doctrine is unbelief applied to politics. A life and death struggle is raging between the Gospel and this practical atheism. To contemplate a rapprochement between the two would be nonsense.
By Revolution I do not mean one of the many events whereby a government is overthrown. Nor do I just mean by it the storm of upheaval that has raged in France. Rather, by Revolution I mean the whole inversion of the gene…
With the reality of revelation, therefore, Christianity stands or falls.
The true religion which shall satisfy our mind and heart, our conscience and our will, must be one that does not shut us up in, but lifts us up high above, the world; in the midst of time It must impart to us eternity; i…
Between the freedom of the Christian man, on behalf of which Luther entered the lists, and the liberty, equality, fraternity, which the Revolution inscribed on its banner, the difference is fundamental. Luther and Voltai…
If everything that is, exists for the sake of God, then it follows that the whole creation must give glory to God. The sun, moon, and stars in the firmament, the birds of the air, the whole of Nature around us, but, abov…
Therefore in opposition both to the atheistic popular-sovereignty of the Encyclopedians, and the pantheistic state-sovereignty of German philosophers, the Calvinist maintains the Sovereignty of God, as the source of all…
A religion confined to the closet, the cell, or the church, therefore, Calvin abhors. With the Psalmist, he calls upon heaven and earth, he calls upon all peoples and nations to give glory to God.
This dominating principle was not, soteriologically, justification by faith, but, in the widest sense cosmologically, the Sovereignty of the Triune God over the whole Cosmos, in all its spheres and kingdoms, visible and…
In this independent character a special higher authority is of necessity involved and this highest authority we intentionally call – sovereignty in the individual social spheres, in order that it may be sharply and decid…
In a Calvinistic sense we understand hereby, that the family, the business, science, art and so forth are all social spheres, which do not owe their existence to the state, and which do not derive the law of their life f…
It is further to be considered, that the general practice of religion and virtue is of great importance to their happiness… And God having in the constitution of nature made religion and virtue conducive, and even necess…
They must be such as fear God. The fear of God, in the language of scripture, does not intend a slavish, superstitious dread, as of an almighty, arbitrary and cruel Being; but that just reverence and awe of him, which na…
The business of rulers in general. And this is, to promote and secure the happiness of the whole community. For this end only they are invested with power, and only for this end it ought to be employed. The apostle tells…
The magistrate is properly the trustee of the people: He can have no just power but what he receives from them. To them he ought to be accountable for the use he makes of this power. But if a man may be invested with the…
No man is born a magistrate, or with a right to rule over his brethren. If this were the case, there must be some natural mark by which it might be known to whom this right belongs, or it could answer no end: But no man…
To conclude: This whole assembly will bear in mind, that there is another and more valuable kind of liberty, than that to which the foregoing discourse more immediately relates… a liberty, which consists in being free fr…
Once more, from a regard to religion men are obliged to defend their liberty against encroachments, though the attack should not immediately affect religion. Slavery exposes to many temptations to vice, and by debasing a…
But further; a regard to the happiness of mankind in general, makes it a duty to resist great injuries. Yielding to the unjust demands of bad men, not only lessens our power of doing good, but encourages them to repeat t…
Heaven has made us their guardians, and entrusted to our care their liberty, honour, and happiness: For when they come upon the stage, they will be deeply affected by the transactions of their fathers, especially by thei…
Once more, it is necessary for a people who would preserve their liberty, to maintain the general practice of religion and virtue. This will tend to make them courageous: The truest fortitude is ever to be found where th…