John Calvin : A Heart For Devotion, Doctrine ...

Calvin's doctrine of God humbled him. He took no pride in his formulation of that doctrine, for he could not boast in a holiness that was not his to boast about.32 Rather, he boasted only in the majesty and holiness of God. It was that holiness that made him aware of his naturally depraved condition and drove him in his struggle to think, speak, and live as Jesus did. Just as we fail daily in our endeavor to follow our Lord perfectly, so did Calvin; yet he was a man of constant repentance who was more critically aware of himself and his own frailties than anyone else could have been, even admitting toward the end of his life: \"I am, and always have been a poor and timid scholar.\"33 Such statements by Calvin were not deceitfully contrived by a mind held captive by false modesty; rather, they overflowed from a mind that had been captivated and a heart that had been humbled by God's majesty shining through His Word. As John Piper observes:

More specifically, irresistible grace refers to the sovereign work of God to overcome the rebellion of our heart and bring us to faith in Christ so that we can be saved. If the doctrine of total depravity, as we have unfolded it in the previous section, is true, there can be no salvation without the reality of irresistible grace. If we are dead in our sins, and unable to submit to God because of our rebellious nature, then we will never believe in Christ unless God overcomes our rebellion.

To this end, I have gathered here some testimonies of what these truths have meant to some great Christians of the past. For those who have known the doctrines of grace truly, they have never been mere speculation for the head, but have always been power for the heart and life.

The doctrines of our election, and free justification in Christ Jesus are daily more and more pressed upon my heart. They fill my soul with a holy fire and afford me great confidence in God my Saviour.

[6] We have abundant reason to be thankful that the- good providence of God has provided our church with a liturgy so admirably adapted to christian edification and devotion. It is so complete as a whole, and so perfectly arranged in all its parts, that whoever shall deviate from the rubrics, which prescribe the order in which it shall be used, must be no less deficient in judgment and good taste, than he is unfaithful to his obligations as a minister of the church. But it will not be sufficient that you hold the liturgy in reverent estimation yourselves. It will be your duty, from time to time, to instruct your congregations, as well in regard to its general excellency, as in relation to the import of its several offices; that they may be prepared duly to worship God with the understanding and with the heart. Especially it will be your duty to guard them against the common fault of exalting the instructions of the pulpit above the services of the desk. Divine worship is a primary object of our assembling in the house of God. Religious instruction is a subsidiary, though an important concern. But he who listens with attention and due reverence, will find much of christian edification, as well as devotion, in the exhortations, prayers, praises; and portions of scripture, which compose the liturgy.

The fall of our first parents, the corruption of all their moral powers, and the transmission of this fallen and corrupt nature to all their posterity, is fully recognized in the formularies of our church. She does not indeed express her views of the condition of human nature, by the phrase \"total depravity.\" She does not maintain with Calvin, that man is wholly averse to all good, and wholly inclined to all evil. But her language on this subject is explicit, and comes fully up to the representations of scripture: \"Original sin is the fault and corruption of the nature of every man, that is naturally engendered of the offspring of Adam, whereby man is very far gone from original righteousness, and is, in his own nature, inclined to evil, so that the flesh lusteth always contrary to the spirit.\" And again: \"We have no power to do good works pleasant and acceptable to God, without the grace of God by Christ preventing us, that we may have a good will, and working with us when we have that good will.\"--This is in consonance with the language of holy writ: \"Behold I was shapen in iniquity,\" says David, \"and in sin did my mother conceive me.\" \"I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing,\" says St. Paul: \"for to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good, I find not. For the good that I would, I do not; but the evil which I would not, that I do. I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is [7/8] present with me.\" We are, then, naturally inclined to evil, and there is no health in us. If any man think otherwise, or preach another doctrine, it should seem to me that he has little knowledge of mankind or of his own heart, and is still more ignorant of the import of the scriptures.

That our church recognizes the doctrine of a change of heart, in its proper acceptation, there can be no doubt, in the mind of any one acquainted with her standards of faith. Baptism is denominated \"an outward visible sign of an inward spiritual grace.\" The \"renewing of the Holy Ghost,\" the inward spiritual grace, is deemed no less essential to salvation than the outward symbol, \"the washing of regeneration.\" No person who lives in a state of deliberate and [10/11] habitual sin, (whether he has been baptized, or not,) has the least reason to hope for salvation, without repentance and conversion; and no sinner can repent and turn to God, without the assistance of his Spirit. Even those who live in constant communion with Christ, \"being regenerate and made his children by adoption and grace,\" are taught to pray \"that they may daily be renewed by the Holy Spirit.\"

I believe there is no christian denomination in our country, more faithful than our on, in maintaining the necessity of a radical and thorough change of nature; a change in the natural dispositions and affections of the heart, and in the habits and conduct of the life. On this point, then, I trust that you will clearly set forth the doctrines of the church, which unquestionably are the doctrines of scripture, and that you will admonish the people of your charge, that they \"put off, concerning the former conversation, the old man, which is corrupt, according to the deceitful lusts; that they be renewed in the spirit of their mind; and that they put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.\"

In the present world, good and evil are so mingled together that we sometimes find it difficult to condemn the latter, without doing injury to the former. Yet our vows of ordination, as well as our immediate duty to our divine master, require that we should always \"be ready, with all faithful diligence, to banish and drive away from the church, all erroneous and strange doctrine, contrary to God's word.\" While it is a duty from which we must not shrink, yet it is one which is to be performed with much tenderness, and caution. We must beware how we give the enemies of religion occasion to triumph in the detected abuses which sometimes accompany it. We must beware lest we injure the religious sensibilities of a weak brother. And we must beware lest we give occasion to the imputations that we are ourselves unfriendly to the cause of vital religion. But no intermixture of error can aid the advancement of religious truth. On the contrary it must retard and injure it. We, my brethren, are \"set for the defence of the gospel.\" It is our duty to guard it from the intermixture of human errors; to declare its truths with plainness and simplicity; to direct all our efforts towards the extension of its pure doctrines throughout the world; and especially to impress them on the hearts of the people of our charge, and to evince, ourselves, their saving influences in the temper of our minds, and in the conduct of our lives. 781b155fdc