The doctrine of analogy requires that when theologians describe God with a term that usually applies to created reality, they negate some aspects of the usual meaning of the term but affirm and purify other aspects. The divine attributes help identify which aspects of the term “generation” and “procession” or “spiration” in their created sense do not apply to the Godhead. This methodology has been consistently deployed throughout the history of trinitarian thought, providing increasing clarity concerning the divine processions, especially as early, implicit use of the doctrine of analogy was replaced by a conscious awareness of the doctrine in all its complexities. When restricted in accordance with this method, the meaning of “generation” provides a reason to affirm the pro-Nicene position over alternatives such as those found in Arius.

D. Glenn Butner Jr., Trinitarian Dogmatics, 52.

The doctrine of analogy helps Aquinas more clearly differentiate generation from creation by clarifying the relationship between God and the world. Aquinas recognizes that when humans use words to speak of God, they use words they have learned “as they are in creatures.” These creatures have attributes as they have received them from God, their cause. One implication is that, properly speaking, these attributes must fully belong to God and only secondarily to creatures, who have these attributes by participation. However, in our theological language, the terms primarily signify created realities perceived by the human mind and signify God only in a secondary and analogical sense . . . Analogy does not tell us which words to use of God, but once the right words are determined, the doctrine of analogy helps us to use these words precisely. As Brian Davies summarizes, “Any talk of procession in God must be understood in a way that prevents us from attributing to him anything essentially creaturely.”

D. Glenn Butner Jr., Trinitarian Dogmatics, 56-57.

The redemption decreed and accomplished is a cup which ever overflows. We cannot exhaust it.

Henry Law, Daily Prayer and Praise: The Book of Psalms Arranged for Private and Family Use, Vol. 2, 232.

5, 6 “I wait for the Lord, my soul doth wait, and in His word do I hope. My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning; I say, more than they that watch for the morning.” The Lord has promised never to leave or forsake or forget His people. He will visit them with the plentitude of His loving-kindness. He will bless them with the multitude of His tender mercies. For these sweet manifestations the believer continually waits. He looks out from His watch-tower as one watching for the morning, who knows that in the appointed time the welcome rays will illumine the eastern sky.

Henry Law, Daily Prayer and Praise: The Book of Psalms Arranged for Private and Family Use, Vol. 2, 232.

In what two spheres or states of existence do believers receive benefits from Christ? In the sphere of grace, or the Christian life here on earth; and in the sphere of glory, or the life to come.

J. G. Vos, The Westminster Larger Catechism: A Commentary, 144.

Prayer is an acknowledgment that we are needy individuals. It also demonstrates to us our personal relationship with our Lord. And it reflects genuine love and concern for our flock as we labor in prayer for their spiritual good.

Curtis C. Thomas, Practical Wisdom for Pastors, 23.

The first thing that sets Confessions apart from books like Newman’s Apologia is its audience. He [Augustine] addresses himself to only one hearer, God. The whole book is one long prayer, perhaps the longest literary prayer among the great books of the West . . . The prayer genre sets this book apart from other self-examinations . . .

Gary Willis, Augustine’s Confessions: A Biography, 21.

O Lord, since eternity is Thine, art Thou ignorant of the things which I say unto Thee? Or seest Thou at the time that which cometh to pass in time? Why, therefore, do I place before Thee so many relations of things? Not surely that Thou mightest know them through me, but that I may awaken my own love and that of my readers towards Thee, that we may all say, “Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised.” I have already said, and shall say, for the love of Thy love do I this. For we also pray, and yet Truth says, “Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask Him.” Therefore do we make known unto Thee our love, in confessing unto Thee our own miseries and Thy mercies upon us, that Thou mayest free us altogether, since Thou hast begun, that we may cease to be wretched in ourselves, and that we may be blessed in Thee; since Thou hast called us, that we may be poor in spirit, and meek, and mourners, and hungering and athirst after righteousness, and merciful, and pure in heart, and peacemakers. Behold, I have told unto Thee many things, which I could and which I would, for Thou first wouldest that I should confess unto Thee, the Lord my God, for Thou art good, since Thy “mercy endureth for ever.

Augustine, Confessions, 11.1.

The spiritual world is a reality, and the godliness and Christlikeness that compose it must also be realities. Put away from you the fatuous [silly and pointless] idea that things will somehow come all right, and that your character will adapt itself to changed surroundings. It is not so; nothing that defiles can find entrance into the kingdom of God, but only those who are “sanctified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.”

“The First Epistle to the Corinthians” by Marcus Dods in The Expositor’s Bible, Vol. 5, 659.

Each member of a Church in each day’s conduct in business and at home stakes, not only his own reputation, but the credit of the Church to which he belongs. Involuntarily and unconsciously men lower their opinion of the Church and cease to expect to find in her a fountain of spiritual life, because they find her members selfish and greedy in business, ready to avail themselves of doubtful methods; harsh, self-indulgent, and despotic at home, tainted with vices condemned by the least educated conscience. Let us remember that our little leaven leavens what is in contact with us [1 Corinthians 5:6 “Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?”]; that our worldliness and unchristian conduct tend to lower the tone of our circle, encourage others to live down to our level, and help to demoralise the community.

“The First Epistle to the Corinthians” by Marcus Dods in The Expositor’s Bible, Vol. 5, 652.

The singer is still far away from the appointed place of worship, lifting his eyes toward the distant mountains. He is not far away from Jehovah however. In His keeping, even though far away from the centre of external worship, the pilgrim realizes his safety.

G. Campbell Morgan, Notes on The Psalms, 250.