Scriptures

“ The Revelations of Scripture Local: The fact that the revelations of our Bible and other scriptures relate, in the main, to matters pertaining to "our God," "our earth and its heavens," as set forth in the Book of Moses, I regard as very important in relation both to the phraseology and meaning of all the scriptures. ”

“ All you that have the Scriptures in your houses, first given perhaps by some affectionate parent, now no more—Servants, to whom some kind and pious Mistress has given a copy of the Word of God, which you have left unread—you little Children who have received a copy of this Holy Book in the Sunday or the National School—beware lest the Word of God neglected and despised should rise up against you at the last great day. Beware, lest, being Protestants in name, ye be wanting in Bible faith, Bible hope, Bible lives. ”

“ It is generally admitted by you, that the "Scriptures were given by inspiration of God;" that they are a revelation from God to man; that they are words which "holy men of God spake and penned as they were moved by the Holy Spirit." ”

“ The scriptures are our book of evidence for heaven, shall we part with our evidences? The saints of old were both advocates and martyrs for the truth, they held fast by scripture, though it was at the expence of their lives. ”

“ Do we believe in the Scriptures of Divine truth?—those which are contained in the Old and New Testaments, in the Book of Mormon, the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, and other revelations that have been given to this people? ”

“ It would be worthy of the age to print together the collected Scriptures or Sacred Writings of the several nations, the Chinese, the Hindoos, the Persians, the Hebrews, and others, as the Scripture of mankind. The New Testament is still, perhaps, too much on the lips and in the hearts of men to be called a Scripture in this sense. Such a juxtaposition and comparison might help to liberalize the faith of men. ”

“ In that case, the Scriptures are a revelation only to the elect, who, to satisfy themselves and the world, that their interpretation is the only sound one, ought to produce miracles as proof of their own inspiration, not less unequivocal than those which vindicated the authority and infallibility of the Apostles. ”

“ Before any of the New Testament Scriptures existed, there were a great many Christians in Judaea, Samaria and the pagan world, for the Christian faith was not spread by the reading of the Scriptures, but by the living word and teaching of the apostles and their disciples, or, in other words, by the Church as a teacher. 2. If the infallible Church were not at hand to enlighten us, we could not know for certain what books belong to the inspired Scriptures, nor could we be sure that the Bible, as we have it, is complete and unfalsified. ”

“ And the Scriptures, which rest on solid truth as on a firm foundation, and which, by the help of God, we have somewhat examined, -- the Scriptures, I say, show us how to approach in order to share such favor, and how we ought to live under it. ”

“ That the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the Word of God, written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and are therefore infallible, and of divine authority in all things pertaining to faith and practice, and consequently free from all error whether of doctrine, fact, or precept. ”

“ The Scriptures are not to be regarded as a storehouse of facts, promises, and precepts, without relation or dependency; but a volume in which may be found a collection of glorious truths, all forming one great and well-balanced system. ”

“ Our poets betray, in the passages which are the favorites of earnest minds, the influence of these Scriptures. From Paradise Lost to In Memoriam, from The Temple to the Christian Year, the poems which the devout delight in are either Biblical paraphrases or Biblical distillations. Our masters of fiction could not have written the scenes which most rouse our moral nature, could not have conceived the characters which most inspire our devotional nature, without the Bible. ”

“ O let thy Scriptures be my pure delight, let me not be deceived in them, neither let me deceive by them. In this confidence, and with this devotion did they assemble together; not too many, lest one should trouble another; and yet many, lest many things haply might escape them. If you aske what they had before them, truely it was the Hebrew text of the Olde Testament, the Greeke of the New. ”

“ When the Gospel, or order of things which we have received, was presented to us, we carefully compared it with the Gospel recorded in the Scriptures, and found it alike precisely, in every particular, as regarded its forms, ordinances, and the authority to administer them: its promise of the Holy Ghost and of the signs that should follow, together with a promise of a knowledge of its divinity. In many instances it was brought to us by men with whose character we were perfectly familiar, and for whose honesty and integrity we could vouch ”

“ I resolved, therefore, to direct my mind to the Holy Scriptures, that I might see what they were. And behold, I saw something not comprehended by the proud, not disclosed to children, something lowly in the hearing, but sublime in the doing, and veiled in mysteries. ”

“ This is no small matter; for every thing, which in our day will lead believers to value the Scriptures, is of importance. 2. The expounding of the Scriptures is in general more beneficial to the hearers than if, on a single verse, or half a verse, or two or three words of a verse some remarks are made, so that the portion of Scripture is scarcely anything but a motto for the subject; for few have grace to meditate much over the Word, and thus exposition may not merely be the means of opening up to them the Scriptures, but may also create in them a desire to meditate for themselves. ”

“ So that although a man possessed a copy of the Holy Scriptures, and should read it ever so diligently, and even know it by heart—that would not save him—unless he should follow up his reading by becoming a recipient of the graces of the blessed Sacraments. ”

“ In them, we see the Scriptures, or many books, gathered together into one book called The Book. In this book, we see the Word of God delivered to men by men, and these men inspired by God to be the living media of the Revelation of God to man.
Our next selected book will be the Church of England Prayer Book. ”

“ For, why the minute study of the words of Scripture carried on by all expositors, their search after the precise shade of verbal significance, their attention to the {172} minutest details of language, and to all the delicate coloring of mood and tense and accent? The high scholars who speak lightly of the theory of literal inspiration of the Scriptures by their method of study and exegesis are they who put the strongest affirmation on the doctrine which they deny. ”

“ We think it most expedient that the Scriptures be read in order, that is, that some one book of the Old and the New Testament be begun and orderly read to the end. And the same we judge of preaching, where the minister for the most part remaineth in one place; for this skipping and divagation from place to place, be it in reading, be it in preaching, we judge not so profitable to edify the Church, as the continual following of one text. ”

“ There might be more teaching for us, more illumination might be thrown on our Bible, and the way we ought to read it, by these passages, than by hundreds of conventional sermons, purporting to explain the Scriptures, but too often darkening counsel by words without knowledge. ”

“ The sacred Scriptures are an inexhaustible fountain of heavenly knowledge, but are commonly less used than they might be in illustrating and establishing the truths of religion. A text or two hinted at now and then seem lost in the multitude of other reflections and reasons which surround them ”

“ That, as reading the scriptures in our families and closets, is a great help to raise our affections, and bring us into a praying frame: So the application of scripture-doctrines and examples to our own case, will supply us with fit matter and expressions upon all occasions, when we draw nigh to God in this duty. ”

“ Inspiration of the Scriptures. According to one view the Scriptures are throughout verbally inspired, and every word in them dictated by the Spirit of God; according to another, though they are not verbally inspired, they contain a record of divine things written under divine inspiration ”

“ For the like reason we commend to Bible lovers the exposition which our beloved brother, the author of the following pages, has given of prophetic Scriptures, too little studied at the present time, and yet of increasing importance for all who would learn the purposes of God, perhaps very soon to be fulfilled. ”

“ for the scriptures were written, not to gratify our curiosity, and make us astronomers, but to lead us to God, and make us saints. ”

“ They object to calling the scriptures the word of God, as being a name applied to Christ by the sacred writers themselves, though too often misunderstood by those who extol scripture above the immediate teaching of Christ's spirit in the heart ”

“ God’s pattern, not man’s pattern, is the command we find running through all the scriptures, and the Bible is a book dealing with the science of the mind. ”

“ Learn also diligently, and from the Church, what are the books of the Old Testament, and what those of the New. And, pray, read none of the apocryphal writings [107] : for why dost thou, who knowest not those which are acknowledged among all, trouble thyself in vain about those which are disputed? Read the Divine Scriptures, the twenty-two books of the Old Testament, these that have been translated by the Seventy-two Interpreters [108] . ”

“ But as the Divine truths contained in them cannot be known without understanding the true sense of these sacred writings, hence the great question arises, How is the true sense of the Scripture to he known? One of the two great bodies of Christians - to wit, Protestants - affirm that the true sense of the Scriptures maybe sufficiently known in all things necessary to salvation by every man of sound judgment who reads them with humility and attention ”

“ The first stage in understanding the Scriptures is to learn what a writer intended to say, what he meant for the people of his day. ”

“ That it’s evident, God had no design to make a particular Enumeration in the Holy Scriptures, of all the Works of his Creation. ”

“ We have now seen, most Reverend Gentlemen, the falsification, and mutilation of the Sacred Scriptures, by the Protestant Reformers. Your Sixth Article tells the people, that the Scriptures are the only means of salvation ”

“ He did not ignore the Bible, but he knew very well that if` his doctrine were proved, then it could not contradict the Scriptures when they were rightly understood [...] ”

“ I only ask in all kindness that the man who wishes at this time to have my books will by no means let them be a hindrance to his own study of the Scriptures, but read them as I read the orders and the ordures of the pope [5] and the books of the sophists. ”

“ But the two latter points, known to God and unknown to man, touching the secrets of the heart and the successions of time, doth make a just and sound difference between the manner of the exposition of the Scriptures and all other books. For it is an excellent observation which hath been made upon the answers of our Saviour Christ to many of the questions which were propounded to Him, how that they are impertinent to the state of the question demanded: ”

“ I will confess to you further, that the majesty of the scriptures strike me with admiration, as the purity of the gospel has its influence on my heart. ”

“ We are writing a Bible with our own lives to-day, a Bible which may never be read in its fulness by human eyes, but every letter of which is known and read in heaven. Every noble life is a word of God to the world; every brave, unselfish deed is a ray of eternal truth. ”

“ As prophet he wears the writer's inkhorn. The book of life is the Lamb's book. The great things of the law and gospel which God has written to us are of his writing; for it is the Spirit of Christ, in the writers of the scripture, that testifies to us, and the Bible is the revelation of Jesus Christ. Note, It is a matter of great comfort to all good Christians that, in the midst of the destroyers and the destructions that are abroad, there is a Mediator, a great high priest, who has an interest in heaven, and whom saints on earth have an interest in. ”

“ Then I began the Bible, determined in my own mind to know whether God or man was the author. I spent the greater part of two years in reading and comparing scripture with scripture, prophecy with history, and I had not gone half through with the reading of it, before I was perfectly satisfied of its divine origin. No mortal man, or men, could have written with such harmony, wisdom, and truth, without inspiration. The Bible answered all my inquiries, settled all my doubts, established my faith, and gave me hope which has been nearly or quite twenty-seven years an anchor to my soul. ”