J.C. Ryle on Christ as All in the Religion of All True Christians

"I wish to guard myself against being misunderstood.  I hold the absolute necessity of the election of God the Father, and the sanctification of God the Spirit, in order to effect the salvation of everyone that is saved.  I hold that there is a perfect harmony and unison in the action of the three People of the Trinity, in bringing any man to glory, and that all three cooperate and work a joint work in his deliverance from sin and hell.  Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Spirit.  The Father is merciful, the Son is merciful, the Holy Spirit is merciful.  The same Three who said at the beginning, 'Let us create,' said also, 'Let us redeem and save.'  I hold that everyone who reaches heaven will ascribe all the glory of this salvation to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, three People in one God.

"But, at the same time, I see clear proof in Scripture, that it is the mind of the blessed Trinity that Christ should be prominently and distinctly exalted, in the matter of saving souls.  Christ is set forth as the Word, through whom God's love to sinners is made known.  Christ's incarnation and atoning death on the cross are the great cornerstone on which the whole plan of salvation rests.  Christ is the way and door, by which alone approaches to God are to be made.  Christ is the root into which all elect sinners must be grafted.  Christ is the only meeting-place between God and man, between heaven and earth, between the Holy Trinity and the poor sinful child of Adam.  It is Christ whom God the Father has sealed and appointed to convey life to a dead world (John 6:27).  It is Christ to whom the Father has given a people to be brought to glory.  It is Christ of whom the Spirit testifies, and to whom He always leads a soul for pardon and peace.  In short, it has 'pleased the Father that in Christ all fullness should dwell' (Col. 1:19).  What the sun is in the skies of heaven, that Christ is in true Christianity" (Holiness, J.C. Ryle).

John Calvin on a False View of Scripture

"Those who, rejecting Scripture, imagine that they have some peculiar way of penetrating to God, are to be deemed not so much under the influence of error as madness.  For certain giddy men have lately appeared, who, while they make a great display of the superiority of the Spirit, reject all reading of the Scriptures themselves, and deride the simplicity of those who only delight in what they call the dead and deadly letter.  But I wish they would tell me what spirit it is whose inspiration raises them to such a sublime height that they dare despise the doctrine of Scripture as mean and childish.  If they answer that it is the Spirit of Christ, their confidence is exceedingly ridiculous; since they will, I presume, admit that the apostles and other believers in the primitive church were not illuminated by any other Spirit.  None of these thereby learned to despise the word of God, but everyone was imbued with greater reverence for it, as their writings most clearly testify.  And, indeed, it had been so foretold by the mouth of Isaiah.  For when he says, 'My Spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and for ever,' he does not tie down the ancient church to external doctrine, as he were a mere teacher elements; he rather shows that, under the reign of Christ, the true and full felicity of the new church will consist in their being ruled not less by the word than by the Spirit of God.  Hence we infer that these miscreants are guilty of fearful sacrilege in tearing asunder what the prophet joins in indissoluble union.  Add to this, that Paul, though carried up even to the third heaven, ceased not to profit by the doctrine of the Law and the Prophets, while, in like manner, he exhorts Timothy, a teacher of singular excellence, to give attention to reading (1 Tim 4:13).  And the eulogium which he pronounces on Scripture well deserves to be remembered, i.e., that 'it is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect' (2 Tim 3:16).  What an infatuation of the devil therefore, to fancy that Scripture, which conducts the sons of God to the final goal, is of transient and temporary use?  Again, I should like those people to tell me whether they have imbibed any other spirit than that which Christ promises to his disciples.  Though their madness is extreme, it will scarcely carry them the length of making this their boast.  But what kind of Spirit did our Savior promise to send?  One who should not speak of himself (John 16:13), but suggest and instill the truths which he himself had delivered through the word.  Hence the office of the Spirit promised to us, is not to form new and unheard-of revelations, or to win a new form of doctrine, by which we may be led away from the received doctrine of the gospel, but to seal on our minds the very doctrine which the gospel recommends" (Institutes of the Christian Religion, John Calvin).

J.C. Ryle on the Importance of Doctrine Within the Church

"If you want to do good in these times, you must throw aside indecision, and take up a distinct, sharply cut, doctrinal religion.  If you believe little, those to whom you try to do good will believe nothing.  The victories of Christianity, wherever they have been won, have been won by distinct doctrinal theology, by telling men roundly of Christ's vicarious death and sacrifice, by showing them Christ's substitution on the cross and His precious blood, by teaching them justification by faith and bidding them believe on a crucified Savior, by preaching ruin by sin, redemption by Christ, regeneration by the Spirit, by lifting up the bronze serpent, by telling men to look and live, to believe, repent and be converted.  This, this is the only teaching which for eighteen centuries God has honored with success, and is honoring at the present day both at home and abroad.  Let the clever advocates of a broad and undogmatic theology - the preachers of the gospel of earnestness and sincerity and cold morality - let them, I say, show us at this day any English village or parish or city or town or district, which has been evangelized without 'dogma,' by their principles.  They cannot do it, and they never will.  Christianity without distinct doctrine is a powerless thing.  It may be beautiful to some minds, but it is childless and barren.  There is no getting over facts.  The good that is done in the earth may be comparatively small.  Evil may abound and ignorant impatience may murmur, and cry out that Christianity has failed.  But, depend on it, if we want to 'do good' and shake the world, we must fight with the old apostolic weapons, and stick to 'dogma.'  No dogma, no fruits!  No positive evangelical doctrine, no evangelization!"  (J.C. Ryle, Holiness)