John Calvin on the Use of Words Not Found in Scripture

"Though heretics may snarl and the excessively [demanding and critical unreasonably find fault] at the word person as inadmissible, in consequence of its human origin, since they cannot displace us from our position that three are named, each of whom is perfect God, and yet that there is no plurality of gods, it is most uncandid to attack the terms which do nothing more than explain what the Scriptures declare and sanction.  'It were better,' they say, 'to confine not only our meanings but our words within the bounds of Scripture, and not scatter about foreign terms to become the future seed-beds of brawls and dissensions.  In this way, men grow tired of quarrels about words; the truth is lost in altercation, and charity melts away amid hateful strife.'  If they call it a foreign term, because it cannot be pointed out in Scripture in so many syllables, they certainly impose an unjust law - a law which would condemn every interpretation of Scripture that is not composed of other words of Scripture.  But if by foreign they mean that which, after being idly devised, is superstitiously defended - which tends more to strife than edification - which is used either out of place, or with no benefit which offends pious ears by its harshness, and leads them away from the simplicity of God's word, I embrace their soberness with all my heart.  For I think we are bound to speak of God as reverently as we are bound to think of him.  As our own thoughts respecting him are foolish, so our own language respecting him is absurd.  Still, however, some medium must be observed.  The unerring standard both of thinking and speaking must be derived from the Scriptures: by it all the thoughts of our minds, and the words of our mouths, should be tested.  But in regard to those parts of Scripture which, to our capacities, are dark and intricate, what forbids us to explain them in clearer terms - terms, however, kept in reverent and faithful subordination to Scripture truth, used sparingly and modestly, and not without occasion?  Of this we are not without many examples.  When it has been proved that the church was impelled, by the strongest necessity, to use the words Trinity and person, will not he who still [vehemently attacks] against novelty of terms be deservedly suspected of taking offense at the light of truth, and of having no other ground for his [violent denunciation], than that the truth is made plain and transparent?"  (John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion)

John Calvin on the Spirit and the Word

"There is nothing repugnant here to what was lately said (c. 7) that we have no great certainty of the word itself, until it be confirmed by the testimony of the Spirit.  For the Lord has so knit together the certainty of his word and his Spirit, that our minds are duly imbued with reverence for the word when the Spirit shining upon it enables us there to behold the face of God; and, on the other hand, we embrace the Spirit with no danger of delusion when we recognize him in his image, that is, in his word.  Thus, indeed, it is.  God did not produce his word before men for the sake of sudden display, intending to abolish it the moment the Spirit should arrive; but he employed the same Spirit, by whose agency he had administered the word, to complete his work by the [efficient] confirmation of the word.  In this way Christ explained to the two disciples (Luke 24:27), not that they were to reject the Scriptures and trust to their own wisdom, but that they were to understand the Scriptures.  In like manner, when Paul says to the Thessalonians, 'Quench not the Spirit,' he does not carry them aloft to empty speculation apart from the word; he immediately adds, 'Despise not prophesying' (1 Thess 5:19, 20).  By this, doubtless, he intimates that the light of the Spirit is quenched the moment prophesying fall into contempt.  How is this answered by those swelling enthusiast, in whose idea the only true illumination consists, in carelessly laying aside, and bidding adieu to the word of God, while, with no less confidence than folly, they hasten upon any dreaming notion which may have casually sprung up in their minds?  Surely a very different sobriety becomes the children of God.  As they feel that without the Spirit of God they are utterly devoid of the light of truth, so they are not ignorant that the word is the instrument by which the illumination of the Spirit is dispensed.  They know of no other Spirit than the one who dwelled and spoke in the apostles - the Spirit by whose oracles they are daily invited to the hearing of the word" (John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion).

John Calvin on Honoring and Respecting the Word of God

"Their [objection] about our cleaving to the dead letter carries with it the punishment which they deserve for despising Scripture.  It is clear that Paul is there arguing against false apostles (2 Cor 3:6), who, by recommending the Law without Christ, deprived the people of the benefits of the new covenant, by which the Lord engages that he will write his law on the hearts believers, and engrave it on their inward parts.  The letter therefore is dead, and the law of the Lord kills its readers when it is dissevered from the grace of Christ, and only sounds in the ear without touching the heart.  But if it is effectually impressed on the heart by the Spirit; if it exhibits Christ, it is the word of life converting the soul, and making wise the simple.  No, in the very same passage, the apostle calls his own preaching the ministration of the Spirit (2 Cor 3:8), intimating that the Holy Spirit so cleaves to his own truth, as he has expressed it in Scripture, that he then only exerts and puts forth his strength when the word is received with due honor and respect" (John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion).

J.C. Ryle on Christianity's Unexplainable Facts (2 of 4)

"When skeptics and infidels have said all they can, we must not forget that there are three great broad facts which they have never explained away, and I am convinced they never can, and never will.  Let me tell you briefly what they are.  They are very simple facts, and any plain man can understand them."

Fact #1 - Jesus Christ

"The second fact is the Bible itself.  If Christianity is a mere invention of man, and the Bible is of no more authority than any other uninspired volume, how is it that the book is what it is?  How is it that a book written by a few Jews in a remote corner of the earth, written at distant periods without consort or collusion among the writers; written by members of a nation which, compared to Greeks and Romans, did nothing for literature - how is it that this book stands entirely alone, and there is nothing that even approaches it, for high views of God, for true views of man, for solemnity of thought, for grandeur of doctrine, and for purity of morality?  What account can the infidel give of this book, so deep, so simple, so wise, so free from defects?  He cannot explain its existence and nature on his principles.  We only can do that who hold that the book is supernatural and of God" (J.C. Ryle, Holiness).

John Calvin on the Importance of the Word in the Depravity of Our Nature

"For if we reflect how prone the human mind is to lapse into forgetfulness of God, how readily inclined to every kind of error, how bent every now and then on devising new and fictitious religions, it will be easy to understand how necessary it was to make such a depository of doctrine as would secure it from either perishing by the neglect, vanishing away amid the errors, or being corrupted by the presumptuous audacity of men.  It being thus manifest that God, foreseeing the inefficiency of his image imprinted on the fair form of the universe, has given the assistance of his word to all whom he has ever been pleased to instruct effectually, we, too, must pursue this straight path, if we aspire in earnest to a genuine contemplation of God - we must go, I say, to the word, where the character of God, drawn from his works is described accurately and to the life; these works being estimated, not by our depraved judgment, but by the standard of eternal truth.  If, as I lately said, we turn aside from it, how great soever the speed with which we move, we shall never reach the goal, because we are off the course.  We should consider that the brightness of the divine countenance, which even an apostle declares to be inaccessible (1 Tim. 6:16), is a kind of labyrinth - labyrinth to us inextricable, if the word do not serve us as a thread to guide our path; and that it is better to limp in the way, than run with the greatest swiftness out of it.  Hence the psalmist, after repeatedly declaring (Pss 93, 96, 97, 99, etc.) that superstition should be banished from the world in order that pure religion may flourish, introduces God as reigning; meaning by the term, not the power which he possesses and which he exerts in the government of universal nature, but the doctrine by which he maintains his due supremacy: because error never can be eradicated from the heart of man until the true knowledge of God has been implanted in it" (John Calvin, Institutes of Christian Religion).

J.C. Ryle: The Office of the Minister

"Let us take notice of what Paul says of his ministerial office.

"There is a grand simplicity in the apostle's words about this subject.  He says, 'Grace is given unto me that I should preach.'  The meaning of the sentence is plain: 'To me is granted the privilege of being a messenger of good news.  I have been commissioned to be a herald of glad tidings.'  Of course we cannot doubt that Paul's conception of the minister's office included the administration of the sacraments, and the doing all other things needful for the edifying of the body of Christ.  But here, as in other places, it is evident that the leading idea continually before his mind was, that the chief business of a minister of the New Testament is to be a preacher, an evangelist, God's ambassador, God's messenger and the proclaimer of God's good news to a fallen world.  He says in another place, 'Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel' (1 Cor. 1:17).

"I fail to see that Paul ever supports the favorite theory, that there was intended to be a sacerdotal ministry, a sacrificing priesthood in the church of Christ.  There is not a word in the Acts or in his Epistles to the churches to warrant such a notion.  It is nowhere written 'God has set some in the church, first apostles, then priests' (1 Cor. 12:28).  There is a conspicuous absence of the theory in the Pastoral Epistles to Timothy and Titus, where, if anywhere, we might have expected to find it.  On the contrary, in these very Epistles, we read such expressions as these: 'God has manifested His Word through preaching;' 'I am appointed a preacher.' 'I am ordained a preacher.' 'That by me the preaching might be fully known,' (Titus 1:3; 2 Tim. 1:11; 1 Tim. 2:7; 2 Tim. 4:17).  And, to crown all, one of his last injunctions to his friend Timothy, when he leaves him in charge of an organized church, is this pithy sentence, 'Preach the Word,' (2 Tim. 4:2).  In short, I believe Paul would have us understand that, however various the works for which the Christian minister is set apart, his first, foremost and principal work is to be the preacher and proclaimer of God's Word" (Holiness, J.C. Ryle).