Lascivious Temptresses

"If lustful looking be so grievous a sin, then those who dress and expose themselves with desires to be looked at and lusted after...are not less, but even more guilty. In this matter it is only too often the case that men sin, but women tempt them so to do. How great, then, must be the guilt of the great majority of the modern misses who deliberately seek to arouse the sexual passions of our young men. And how much greater still is the guilt of most of their mothers for allowing them to become lascivious temptresses."

-A.W. Pink The Sermon on the Mount,

The "feed me" church mentality

Sanctified Afflictions

"Christ chiefly manifests Himself to the Christian in times of affliction because then the soul unites itself most closely by faith to Christ. The soul in time of prosperity, scatters its affections and loses itself in the creature, but there is a uniting power in sanctified afflictions by which the soul (as in rain the hen collects her brood) gathers his best affections unto his Father and his God."

Richard Sibbes (1577-1635)

You are Dumb and Stupid

"Accept Suffering from God with un­questioning submission. Whatever you do and think, especially in times of suffering, when you are an afflicted Christian, do not, if you believe, sit in judgment on your life and actions; otherwise you will go wrong. You are dumb, stupid, you are being tried and held captive, and you cannot speak aright about your affairs or pass judgment on them. You are told to "wait on the Lord" (Ps. 27:14). And do not be offended; do not murmur and despair. For you are not giving your actions and afflictions the proper name. Your judgment is false, your talk is wrong, your wisdom is fool­ishness. For the will of God is that the old man be destroyed and the flesh mor­tified. However, while this is being done, the flesh speaks falsely and judges fool­ishly. . . . But the spirit conquers and draws this conclusion: What God has in mind with these plans I do not under­stand, neither do I desire to know it; but I shall bear the hand of the Lord and say: Thou art my God, Thy promise and Word remain forever."

- Martin Luther

The Spectacles of Scripture

"Just as old or bleary-eyed men and those with weak vision, if you thrust before them a most beautiful volume, even if they recognize it to be some sort of writing, yet can scarcely construe two words, but with the aid of spectacles will begin to read distinctly; so Scripture, gathering up the other wise confused knowledge of God in our minds, having dispersed our dullness, clearly shows us the true God."


-John Calvin in the Institutes of the Christian Religion
(Book 1, Chapter 6)