Believing itself is no proof for the truth of that which is believed. There is a huge difference between subjective certainty and objective truth. In the case of faith or belief, everything depends on the grounds on which it rests.
~Herman Bavinck~
Reformed Dogmatics Vol. 1: Prolegomena (Grand Rapids, Michigan; Baker Academic; 2003) p. 578.
The love which a pious man bears to God and goodness, is not so much by virtue of a command enjoining him so to do, as by a new nature instructing and prompting him to it; nor doth he pay his devotions as unavoidable tribute only to appease the divine justice, or quiet his clamorous conscience; but those religious exercises are the proper emanations of the divine life, the natural employments of the new-born soul.
~Henry Scougal~
The Life of God in the Soul of Man (Scotland, UK; Christian Focus; 2005) p. 2.
Calvin had no weapon but the Bible…. Calvin preached from the Bible every day, and under the power of that preaching the city began to be transformed. As the people of Geneva acquired knowledge of God’s Word and were changed by it, the city became, as John Knox called it later, a New Jerusalem from which the gospel spread to the rest of Europe, England, and the New World’
~James Montgomery Boice~
The Expository Genius of John Calvin (Lake Mary, FL; Reformation Trust Publishing; 2007) p. 1.
Let us, then, have it fixed down in our minds that the sinfulness of man does not begin from without, but from within. It is not the result of bad training in early years. It is not picked up from bad companions and bad examples, as some weak Christians are too fond of saying. No! it is a family disease, which we all inherit from our first parents, Adam and Eve, and with which we are born.
~J.C. Ryle~
Holiness (Darlington, England; Evangelical Press; 1979) p. 16.
Let us take a short view of the miserable circumstances our first parents were now in. They were legally and spiritually dead, children of wrath and heirs of hell. They had eaten the fruit, of which God had commanded them that they should not eat. And when arraigned before God, notwithstanding their crime was so complicated, they could not be brought to confess it. What reason can be given, why sentence of death should not be pronounced against the prisoners at the bar? All must own they are worthy to die. Nay, how can God, consistently with his justice, possibly forgive them? He had threatened, that the day wherein they eat of the forbidden fruit, they should ‘surely die’ and, if he did not execute this threatening, the devil might then slander the Almighty indeed.
And yet mercy cries, spare these sinners, spare the work of thine own hands. Behold, then, wisdom contrives a scheme how God may be just and yet be merciful; be faithful to his threatening, punish the offence and at the same time spare the offender. An amazing scene of divine love here opens to our view, which had been from all eternity hid in the heart of God! Notwithstanding Adam and Eve were thus unhumbled and did not so much as put up one single petition for pardon, God immediately passes sentence upon the serpent and reveals to them a Saviour.
15 I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel.”
~George Whitefield~
The Sermons of George Whitefield (Wheaton, IL; Crossway Books; 2012) Sermon #1: The Seed of the Woman and the Seed of the Serpent.
Interested in reading more from Jonathan Edwards or learning more about him?
Below is a list of 5 of the best works by Edwards or books written about him.
1. The Works of Jonathan Edwards
The 2 volume collection of Jonathan Edward’s works contains most every work of his. If a work of his is printed in stand-alone format it is likely that it is also contained in this collection. A must-have for the reading of Edwards!
The Banner of Truth Edition: Hardback
The More Elegant Hendrikson Edition: Hardback
Digital Editions: Kindle | PDF: Vol. 1 | PDF: Vol. 2
Yale University Press Editions:
2. The Essential Edwards Collection 5 Volume Set
By way of introduction, presentation and reflection the authors unearth the choicest treasures of Edwards’ writings for lay people to discover.
5 Volume Set: Paperback Set | Kindle Set
Vol. 1: Jonathan Edwards Lover of God: Paperback | Kindle
Vol. 2: Jonathan Edwards On Beauty: Paperback | Kindle
Vol. 3: Jonathan Edwards On Heaven and Hell: Paperback | Kindle
Vol. 4: Jonathan Edwards On The Good Life: Paperback | Kindle
Vol. 5: Jonathan Edwards On True Christianity: Paperback | Kindle
3. Jonathan Edwards: A Life
A comprehensive but readable biography by George Marsden that gives the reader a sense of Edwards the man with all his strengths and frailties.
Paperback | Kindle
A Short Life: Paperback | Kindle
4. God’s Passion for His Glory: Living the Vision of Jonathan Edwards
Written by John Piper and includes the full text of Jonathan Edwards’ “The End For Which God Created the World.”
5. God’s Grand Design: The Theological Vision of Jonathan Edwards
This theological overview of Jonathan Edwards’s teaching by Sean Michael Lewis centers on God’s accomplished redemption and its personal implications for believers.
Have a different opinion?
Share with us your favorites in the comments below!
The cross of Jesus is the foundation of the glory of the saints; Calvary is the birth-place of heaven; heaven was born in Bethlehem’s manger; had it not been for the sufferings and agonies of Golgotha we should have had no blessing. Oh, saint! in every mercy see the Saviour’s blood; look on this Book–it is sprinkled with his blood; look on this house of prayer–it is sanctified by his sufferings; look on your daily food–it is purchased with his groans. Let every mercy come to you as a blood-bought treasure; value it because it comes from him; and ever more say, “Thou hast made us what we are.”
~Charles Spurgeon~
Spurgeon’s Sermons
Believing and knowing are not distinct in the matter of certainty. The certainty of faith is as firm as that of knowledge. Indeed, the certainty of faith is the more intense of the two: it is virtually unshakable and ineradicable. For their faith people are prepared to sacrifice everything, including their life. Galileo three times retracted his agreement with the Copernican system. Kepler, against his conviction, occupied himself at Graz with astrology to maintain his livelihood; the needy mother (astronomy) had to live from her foolish daughter (astrology). Who would give his or her life for a scientific thesis, for example, that the earth rotates around the sun? But religion produces martyrs. In terms of sheer power the assurance of faith far exceeds scientific certainty.
~Herman Bavinck~
Reformed Dogmatics Vol. 1: Prolegomena (Grand Rapids, Michigan; Baker Academic; 2003) p. 577-578.
Some persons on earth do not know where to put the crown; but those in heaven do. They place the diadem on the right head; and they ever sing “And he hath made us what we are.”
Well, then, beloved, would not this note well become us here? For “what have we that we have not received?” Who hath made us to differ? I know, this morning, that I am a justified man; I have the full assurance that
“The terrors of law and of God,
With me can have nothing to do;
My Saviour’s obedience and blood
Hide all my transgressions from view.”
There is not a sin against me in God’s book they have all been for ever obliterated by the blood of Christ. and cancelled by his own right hand. I have nothing to fear; I cannot be condemned. “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect?” Not God, for he hath justified; not Christ. for he hath died. But if I am justified, who made me so? I say–“And hath made me what I am.” Justification from first to last. is of God. Salvation is of the Lord alone.
~Charles Spurgeon~
Spurgeon’s Sermons
The Old Guys 
John Calvin – Sheerly by the Grace of God
25 SepAfter Adam had ruined himself and all his posterity by his deadly fall, this is the basis of our salvation, this the origin of the church: that we have been uprooted from the deepest darkness and have obtained a new life sheerly by the grace of God; that the patriarchs have by faith been made partakers of this life (just as it was offered to them by God’s word); that this word, in turn, was founded upon Christ; and that all the pious who have lived since then have, in fact, been sustained by the very same promise of salvation by which Adam was revived in the beginning.
~John Calvin~
Genesis 1-11: The Reformation Commentary on Scripture (Downers Grove, IL; IVP Academic; 2012) p. 6.
Books by John Calvin
Kindle Books
Biography of John Calvin
Online Books Available
Other Calvin Quotes at the Old Guys
Tags: John Calvin, Reformation Commentary on Scripture