Showing posts with label J.C. Ryle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label J.C. Ryle. Show all posts

Thursday, August 27, 2020

Calvinism and the Church of England

Bishop J.C. Ryle evaluates Toplady's advocacy of Calvinism thus: 

"I do not hesitate to say that Toplady's controversial works display extraordinary ability. For example, his, "Historic Proof of the Doctrinal Calvinism of the Church of England" is a treatise that displays a prodigious amount of research and reading. It is a book that no one could have written who had not studied much, thought much, and thoroughly investigated an enormous mass of theological literature. You see at once that the author has completely digested what he has read and is able to concentrate all his reading on every point which he handles. The best proof of the book's ability is the simple fact that down to the present day it has never been really answered. It has been reviled, sneered at, and held up to scorn. But abuse is not argument. The book remains to this hour unanswered, and that for the simplest of reasons, that it is unanswerable. It proves irrefragably, whether men like it or not, that Calvinism is the doctrine of the Church of England, and that all her leading divines, until Laud's time, were Calvinists. All this is done logically, clearly, and powerfully. No one, I venture to think, could read this book through, and not feel obliged to admit that the author was an able man (The Christian Leaders of England in the Eighteenth Century (various editions)."

Roger Salter: Cranmerism, Calvinism, and The Church of England

Thursday, August 5, 2010

J.C. Ryle - To Those Who Believe, "My sheep shall never perish

J.C. Ryle, Bishop and evangelical churchman of the 19th century Church of England has left the Lord's people with much wisdom and spiritual food via his many writings.  The website J.C. Ryle Quotes has daily quotes of his.  Here is the one for August 5th:
I want you to know the length and breadth of your portion in Christ. I want you to understand the full amount of the treasure to which faith in Jesus entitles you. You have found out that you are a great sinner. Thank God for that. You have fled to Christ for pardon and peace with God. Thank God for that. You have committed yourself to Jesus for time and eternity – you have no hope but in Christ’s blood, Christ’s righteousness, Christ’s mediation, Christ’s daily all-persevering intercession. Thank God for that. Your heart’s desire and prayer is to be holy in all manner of conversation. Thank God for that. But oh, lay hold upon the glorious truth – that believing on Jesus you shall never perish, you shall never be cast away, you shall never fall away! It is written for you as well as for the apostles, “My sheep shall never perish.”
~ J.C. Ryle

Practical Religion, “Perseverance”, [Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1998], 516.