The Humble Acceptance of Praise
So great is the righteousness of that man who receives his virtues from the Spirit of God, that he loves his very enemies, and so loves them that he desires that his haters and detractors may be turned to righteousness, and become his associates, and that not in an earthly but in a heavenly country. But with respect to his praisers, though he sets little value on their praise, he does not set little value on their love; neither does he elude their praise, lest he should forfeit their love. And, therefore, he strives earnestly to have their praises directed to Him from whom every one receives whatever in him is truly praiseworthy.
-- Augustine
To refuse praise out of a desire for humility is to deny the Christ in us. For if one praises out of love, then to receive it is humility and love toward the one who praises. It is the act of being the body to accept, both the virtues from God, and the praise of it that is to the glory of God.
The Wisdom of Man is Blind to Worship
The ideas of mankind concerning God, the true worship of God, and God's will, are altogether stark blindness and darkness. For the light of human wisdom, reason, and understanding, which alone is given to man, comprehends only what is good and profitable outwardly. And although we see that the heathen philosophers now and then discoursed touching God and his wisdom very pertinently, so that some have made prophets of Socrates, of Xenophon, of Plato, etc., yet, because they knew not that God sent his Son Christ to save sinners, such fair, glorious, and wise-seeming speeches and disputations are nothing but mere blindness and ignorance.
--Martin Luther
Grace and Free Will According to Pascal
To save his elect, God sent Jesus Christ to satisfy his justice, and to merit the redemptive grace of his mercy, the medicinal grace, the grace of Jesus Christ, which is nothing other than a richness and a delight in the law of God, poured out in the heart by the Holy Spirit, which, not only equaling, but even surpassing the desires of the flesh, fills the will with a greater delight in righteousness than in what the desire of the flesh offers in evil, and that in this manner the free will, charmed by the sweetness and pleasures that the Holy Spirit inspires within it more than the attractions of sin, unfailingly chooses by itself the law of God for no other reason than that it is there alone that it finds more satisfaction and there experiences its blessedness and joy.
In such a way those to whom it pleased God to extend this grace, are themselves moved unfailingly by their own free will to prefer God over created things. And this is why we say invariably that the free will is moved to do so on its own by means of this grace, for it does in fact move to do so, or that grace carries the free will to do so, for whenever grace is given the free will is unfailingly moved to do so.
-- Blaise Pascal (my translation)
Seduced by grace? It's like Piper on steroids!
The Passive Sin
"He who winketh with the eye," has an evil mind; but he who understands the invitation of the eye is not pure...for he who says Raca to his brother is guilty before the council, but he who hears it, when it is said to him, is not perfect in love.
--Soren Kierkegaard
Saint and Sinner
Ever wonder what the relationship is between the new man and the old man as they are both felt to be present in the life of a Christian? Luther explains thus:
If here upon earth, the body is unwilling, not capable of grace and Christ's leading, it must bear the Spirit, upon which Christ rides, who trains it and leads it along by the power of greace, received through Christ. The colt, ridden by Christ, upon which no on ever rode, is the willing spirit, whom no one before could make willing, tame or ready, save Christ by his grace. However the sack-carrier, the burden-bearer, the old Adam, is the flesh, which goes riderless without Christ; it must for this reason bear the cross and remain a beast of burden.
On the Legends of the Saints
We read of St Vincent, that, about to die, and seeing death at his feet, he said: Death! what wilt thou? Thinkest thou to gain anything of a Christian? Knowest thou not that I am a Christian? Even so should we learn to condemn, scorn, and deride death. Likewise, it is written in the history of St Martin, that being near his death, he saw the devil standing at his bed's feet, and boldly said: Why standest thou there, thou horrible beast? thou hast nothing to do with me. These were right words of faith. Such and the like ought we to cull out of the legends of the saints, wholly omitting the fooleries that the papists have stuffed therein.
--Martin Luther
Blessed Trinity
This I suppose to be the blessed Trinity that we read of in the holy Scriptures. The Father is the deity subsisting in the prime, unoriginated and most absolute manner, or the deity in its direct existence. The Son is the deity generated by God's understanding, or having an idea of Himself and subsisting in that idea.The Holy Ghost is the deity subsisting in act, or the divine essence flowing out and breathed forth in God's infinite love to and delight in Himself. And I believe the whole Divine essence does truly and distinctly subsist both in the Divine idea and Divine love, and that each of them are properly distinct persons.
--Jonathan Edwards
Music Ain’t Got No Sorrow
Singing has nothing to do with the affairs of this world, it is not for the law; singers are merry and free from sorrows and cares
--Martin Luther
Wonder what he would think of Country music.
Conceit of Speculation
It is the most ungodly and dangerous business to abandon the certain and revealed will of God in order to search into the hidden mysteries of God.
--Martin Luther
True Saints and Hypocrites
True saints have their minds, in the first place, inexpressably pleased and delighted with...the things of God. But the dependence of the affections of hypocrites is in a contrary order: they first rejoice...that they are made so much of by God; and then on that ground, he seems in a sort, lovely to them.
-- Jonathan Edwards