Helpful Thoughts from Reading This Week

John Calvin on the Necessity of Scripture...Institutes Book I. Chapter VI.3; "Without Scripture We Fall Into Error"

"Suppose we ponder how slippery the fall of the human mind into forgetfulness of God, how great the tendency to every kind of error, how great the lust to fashion constantly new and artificial religions. Then we may perceive how necessary was such written proof of the heavenly doctrine, that it should neither perish through forgetfulness nor vanish through error nor be corrupted by the audacity of men. It is therefore clear that God has provided the assistance of the Word for the sake of all those to whom he has pleased to give useful instruction because he foresaw that his likeness imprinted upon the most beautiful form of the universe would be insufficiently effective.... For we should so reason that the splendor of the divine contenance, which even the apostle calls "unapproachable" (1Tim.6:16), is for us like an inexplicable labyrinth unless we are conducted into it by the thread of the Word; so that it is better to limp along this path that to dash with all speed outside of it...For errors can never be uprooted from human hearts until true knowledge of God is planted therein."


Jeremiah Burroughs, The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment; Chapter 2 pg.44; "The Mystery of Contentment"

"The peace of God shall keep you, and the God of peace shall be with you (Phil.4:7,9). Here is what I would observe from this text, that the peace of God is not enough to a gracious heart except it may have the God of that peace. A carnal heart could be satisfied if he might but have outward peace, though it is not the peace of God; peace in the state, and in his trading, would satisfy him. But mark how a godly heart goes beyond a carnal. All outward peace is not enough; I must have the peace of God. But suppose you have the peace of God, Will that not quiet you? No, I must have the God of peace; as the peace of God so the God of peace. That is, I must enjoy that God who gives me the peace; I must have the Cause as well as the effect. I must see from when my peace comes, and enjoy the Fountain of my peace, as well as the stream of my peace. And so in other mercies: have I health from God? I must have the God of my health to be my portion, or else I am not satisfied. It is not life, but the God of my life; it is not riches, but the God of those riches, that I must have, the God of my preservation, as well as my preservation."

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