John Calvin on Church History Proofs of the Credibility of Scripture

"For the best of reasons, the consent of the church is not without its weight.  For it is not to be accounted of no consequence, that, from the first publication of Scripture, so many ages have uniformly concurred in yielding obedience to it, and that, notwithstanding the many extraordinary attempts which Satan and the whole world have made to oppress and overthrow it, or completely face it from the memory of men, it has flourished like the palm tree and continued invincible.  Though in old times there was scarcely a sophist or orator of any note who did not exert his powers against it, their efforts proved unavailing.  The powers of the earth armed themselves for its destruction, but all their attempts vanished into smoke.  When thus powerfully assailed on every side, how could it have resisted if it had trusted only to human aid?  No, its divine origin is more completely established by the fact, that when all human wishes were against it, it advanced by its own energy.  And that it was not a single city or a single nation that concurred in receiving and embracing it.  Its authority was recognized as far and as wide as the world extends - various nations who had nothing else in common entering for this purpose into a holy league.  Moreover, while we ought to attach the greatest weight to the agreement of minds so diversified, and in all other things so much at variance with each other - an agreement which a divine providence alone could have produced - it adds no small weight to the whole when we attend to the piety of those who those agree; not of all of them indeed, but of those in whom as lights God was pleased that his church should shine" (John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion).

John Calvin on the Church and the Authority of Scripture

"Paul testifies that the church is 'built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets' (Eph. 2:20). If the doctrine of the apostles and prophets is the foundation of the church, the former must have had its certainty before the latter began to exist. Nor is there any room for the [criticism], that though the church derives her first beginning from thence, it still remains doubtful what writings are to be attributed to the apostles and prophets, until her judgment is interposed.  For if the Christian church was founded at first on the writings of the prophets, and the preaching of the apostles, that doctrine, wheresoever it may be found, was certainly ascertained and sanctioned [prior] to the church, since, but for this, the church herself never could have existed. Nothing, therefore can be more absurd than the fiction, that the power judging Scripture is in the church, and that on her nod its certainty depends. When the church receives it, and gives it the stamp of her authority, she does not make that authentic which was otherwise doubtful or [refuted] but, acknowledging it as the truth of God, she, as in duty bound, shows her reverence by an unhesitating assent. As to the question, How shall we be persuaded that it came from God without recurring to a decree of the church? it is just the same as if it were asked, How shall we learn to distinguish light from darkness, white from black, sweet from bitter? Scripture bears upon the face of it as clear evidence of its truth, as white and black do of their color, sweet and bitter of their taste" (John Calvin, Institutes of Christian Religion).

J.C. Ryle: The Two Systems of Religion

In his book Holiness, J.C. Ryle provides us with his observations of the Church of England in his time.  His words can very easily be used to describe the state of the churches in America.

"The plains truth is, there are two distinct and separate systems of Christianity in England at the present day.  It is useless to deny it.  Their existence is a great fact and one that cannot be too clearly known.

"According to one system, religion is a mere corporate business.  You are to belong to a certain body of people.  By virtue of your membership of this body, vast privileges, both for time and eternity, are conferred upon you.  It matters little what you are and what you feel.  You are not to try yourself by your feelings.  You are a member of a great ecclesiastical corporation.  Then all its privileges and immunities are your own.  Do you belong to the one true visible ecclesiastical corporation?  That is the grand question.

"According to the other system, religion is eminently a personal business between yourself and Christ.  It will not save your soul to be an outward member of any ecclesiastical body whatever, however sound that body may be.  Such membership will not wash away one sin, or give you confidence in the day of judgment.  There must be personal faith in Christ, personal dealings between yourself and God, personal felt communion between your own heart and the Holy Spirit.  Have you this personal faith?  Have you this felt work of the Spirit in your soul?  This is the grand question.  If not, you will be lost.

"This last system is the system which those who are called evangelical ministers cleave to and teach.  They do so, because they are satisfied that it is the system of Holy Scripture.  They do so, because they are convinced that any other system is productive of most dangerous consequences, and calculated to delude men fatally as to their actual state.  They do so because they believe it to be the only system of teaching which God will bless, and that no church will flourish so much as that in which repentance, faith, conversion and the work of the Spirit are the grand subjects of the minister's sermon." 

JC Ryle: The Devil and the Security of the True Church

"The devil may cast some of the members of the true Church into prison.  he may kill and burn and torture and hang.  But after he has killed the body, there is nothing more that he can do.  He cannot hurt the soul.  When the French troops took Rome a few years ago, they found on the walls of a prison cell, under the Inquisition, the words of a prisoner.  Who he was, we know not.  But his words are worthy of remembrance.  'Though dead, he yet speaks.'  He had written on the walls, very likely after an unjust rial, and a still more unjust excommunication, the following striking words ' Blessed Jesus, they cannot cast me out of Your true Church.'  That record is true!  Not all the power of Satan can cast out of Christ's true Church one single believer.

"I trust that no reader of this message will ever allow fear to prevent his beginning to serve Christ.  He to whom you commit your soul has all power in heaven and earth, and He will keep you.  He will never let you be cast away.  Relatives may oppose.  Neighbors may mock.  The world may slander and ridicule and jest and sneer.  Fear not!  Fear not!  The powers of hell shall never prevail against your soul.  Greater is He that is for you, than all they that are against you.

"Fear not for the Church of Christ, when ministers die, and saints are taken away.  Christ can ever maintain His own cause.  He will raise up better servants and brighter stars.  The stars are all in His right hand.  Leave off all anxious thought about the future.  Cease to be cast down by the measures of statesmen, or the plots of wolves in sheep's clothing.  Christ will ever provide for his own Church.  Christ will take care that 'the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.'  All is going on well, though our eyes may not see it.  The kingdoms of this world shall yet become the kingdoms of our God, and of His Christ."

J.C. Ryle: The Security of the True Church

"There is a glorious promise given by the Builder, 'The gates of hell shall not prevail.'

"He who cannot lie has pledged His word, that all the powers of hell shall never overthrow His Church.  It shall continue and stand, in spite of every assault.  It shall never be overcome.  All other created things perish and pass away, but not the Church which is built on the rock.

"Empires have risen and fallen in rapid succession.  Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Tyre, Carthage, Rome, Greece, Venice - where are all these now?  They were all the creations of man's hand, and have passed away.  But the true Church of Christ lives on.

"The mightiest cities have become heaps of ruins.  The broad walls of Babylon have sunk to the ground.  The palaces of Nineveh are covered with mounds of dust.  The hundred gates of Thebes are only matters of history.  Tyre is a place where fishermen hang their nets.  Carthage is a desolation.  Yet all this time the true Church stands.  The gates of hell do not prevail against it.

"Has the true Church been oppressed in one country?  It has fled to another.  Has it been trampled on and oppressed in one soil?  It has taken root and flourished in some other climate.  Fire, sword, prisons, fines, penalties, have never been able to destroy its vitality.  Its persecutors have died and gone to their own place, but the Word of God has lived and grown and multiplied.  Weak as this true Church may appear to the eye of man, it is an anvil which has broken many a hammer in times past, and perhaps will break many more before the end.  He that lays hands on it is touching the apple of His eye (. 2:8)."
Zech

J.C. Ryle: Spiritual Warfare and the Church

"The history of Christ's true Church has always been one of conflict and war.  It has been constantly assailed by a deadly enemy, Satan, the prince of this world.  The devil hates the true Church of Christ with an undying hatred.  He is ever stirring up opposition against all its members.  He is ever urging the children of this world to do his will, and to injure and harass the people of God.  If he cannot bruise the head, he will bruise the heel.  If he cannot rob believers of heaven, he will vex them by the way.

"Warfare with the powers of hell has been the experience of the whole body of Christ for six thousand years.  It has always been a bush burning, though not consumed, a woman fleeing into the wilderness, but not swallowed up (Ex. 3:2; Rev. 12:6, 16)  The visible Churches have their times of prosperity and seasons of peace, but never has there been a time of peace for the true Church.  Its conflict is perpetual.  Its battle never ends."

J.C. Ryle: The Foundation Upon Which the Church is Built

"The Lord Jesus Christ tells us, 'Upon this rock will I build My Church.'  This is the Foundation upon which the Church is built.  What did the Lord Jesus Christ mean, when He spoke of this foundation?  Did He mean the apostle Peter, to whom He was speaking?  I think assuredly not.  I can see no reason, if He meant Peter, why He did not say, 'Upon you will I build My Church.'  If He had meant Peter, He would surely have said, 'I will build My Church on you,' as plainly as He said, 'To you will I give the keys.'  No, it was not the person of the apostle Peter, but the good confession which the apostle had just made!  It was not Peter, the erring, unstable man, but the mighty truth which the Father had revealed to Peter.  It was the truth concerning Jesus Christ Himself which was the rock.  It was Christ's mediatorship, and Christ's Messiahship.  It was the blessed truth that Jesus was the promised Savior, the true Surety, the real Intercessor between God and man.  This was the rock, and this the foundation, upon which the Church of Christ was to be built."

J.C. Ryle: God's Way of Working In and Through the Church

"Great is the wisdom with which the Lord Jesus Christ builds His Church!  All is done at the right time, and in the right way.  Each stone in its turn is put in its right place.  Sometimes He chooses great stones, and sometimes He chooses small stones.  Sometimes the work goes on fast, and sometimes it goes on slowly.  Man is frequently impatient, and thinks that nothing is doing.  But man's time is not God's time.  A thousand years in His sight are but as a single day.  The great Builder makes no mistakes.  He knows what He is doing.  He sees the end from the beginning.  He works by a perfect, unalterable and certain plan.  The mightiest conceptions of architects, like Michelangelo and Wren, are mere trifling and child's play, in comparison with Christ's wise counsels respecting His Church."

J.C. Ryle: What is the Church?

"Upon this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Matt. 16:18).

"Now what is this Church?  Few inquiries can be made of more importance than this.  For want of due attention to this subject, the errors that have crept into the world are neither few nor small.

"The Church of our text is no material building.  It is no temple made with hands of wood or brick or stone or marble.  It is a company of men and women.  It is no particular visible Church on earth.  It is not the Eastern Church or the Western Church.  It is not he Church of England or the Church of Scotland.  Above all, it certainly is not the Church of Rome.  The Church of our text is one that makes far less show than any visible Church in the eyes of man, but is of far more importance in the eyes of God.

"The Church of our text is made up of all true believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, of all who are really holy and converted people.  It comprehends all who have repented of sin, and fled to Christ by faith, and been made new creatures in Him.  It comprises all God's elect, all who have received God's grace, all who have been washed in Christ''s blood, all who have been clothed in Christ's righteousness, all who have been born again and sanctified by Christ's Spirit.  All such, of every name and rank and nation and people and tongue, compose the Church of our text.  This is the body of Christ.  This is the flock of Christ.  This is the bride.  This is the Lamb's wife.  This is 'the holy catholic and apostolic Church,' of the Apostles' Creed and the Nicene Creed.  This is 'the blessed company of all faithful people; spoken of in the communion service of the Chur
ch of England.  This is the 'the Church on the Rock.'"

(Holiness, Ryle, J.C., p. 185)