“Again: “I conduct you not into the public view of your fellow‐servants; I do not oblige you to reveal your sins to men; lay open your conscience in the presence of God.”
“Again, that since it is not only difficult, but entirely above our strength, and beyond the utmost extent of our ability, to fulfil the law as he requires,—if we only view ourselves, and consider what we have demerited, we have not the least hope left, but, as persons rejected by God, are on the verge of eternal perdition.”
“Again: “The end for which the law was given, was to diminish that which was great, to demonstrate that you have of yourself no ability to work righteousness, that thus, being poor, indigent, and destitute, you might have recourse to grace for relief.”
“All that they say, however, comes to this conclusion—that we obtain the pardon of our transgressions from the mercy of God, but that it is by the intervention of the merit of works, by which the evil of our sins must be compensated, that the Divine justice may receive the satisfaction which is due to it.”
“Although he seems to obtain only a bare permission to afflict that holy man, yet, since this sentence is true, “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away,”(497) we conclude that God was the author of that trial, of which Satan and mischievous robbers and assassins were the immediate agents.”
“Although they may pretend therefore to the temple, the priesthood, and other similar forms, this vain glitter, which dazzles the eyes of the simple, ought by no means to induce us to admit the existence of a Church, where we cannot discover the word of God.”
“Among the inhabitants of Nineveh and Sodom, Christ himself declares that his evangelical preaching and miracles would have brought forth more fruit than in Judea.”
“And as it was not necessary that on this point we should have an assurance of faith, he has substituted in its place a judgment of charity, according to which we ought to acknowledge as members of the Church all those who by a confession of faith, an exemplary life, and a participation of the sacraments, profess the same God and Christ with ourselves.”
“And for this reason it is, that when the Scripture exhibits the method of redemption, it so often makes mention of blood; though the blood shed by Christ has not only served as an atonement to God, but likewise as a laver to purge away our pollutions.”
“And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving-kindness, and in mercies.”[760] We see how God reconciles us to himself by his mercy.”
“And, indeed, we see that in all well‐regulated churches this custom is advantageously observed; that on every Lord’s day the minister makes a formal confession, in which he represents all as guilty of sin, and supplicates pardon from the Lord on behalf of all.”
“And one of the Psalmists clearly teaches that some prayers are not ineffectual, which nevertheless do not penetrate into heaven by faith.[330] For he collects those prayers which necessity naturally extorts from unbelievers as well as from believers, but to which the event shows God to be propitious.”
