True knowledge of God, then, arises not out of fallen human nature but only out of the biblical revelation, and it involves not merely knowing the truth concerning God and Christ as a datum, but also accepting that truth in repentance and faith (Richard A. Muller, Post-Reformation Reformed Dogmatics, 1:103).

The Reformers also provided orthodoxy with fundamental insights into the character and arrangement of theology — namely, the locus method, the notion of a historical series of topics in theology and the sense of a Pauline “order” of movement from the problem of sin to the topics of law, grace, the two testaments, predestination, and the church, this latter model being generally compatible with catechetical patterns and with the historical series running from creation to the eschaton (Richard A. Muller, Post-Reformation Reformed Dogmatics, 1:59).

Already in the Theses Bernenses (1528), in contrast to the Lutheran confessional writings, we find an initial description of Scripture as the Word of God and therefore as the ground of theology and the church, indicating early on the Reformed theology, both in concessions and in more or less systematic works, to begin with a clear enunciation of its principia (Richard A. Muller, Post-Reformation Reformed Dogmatics, 1:54).

The Reformation is incomplete without its confessional and doctrinal codification. What is more, Protestantism could hardly have survived if it had not developed, in the era of orthodoxy, a normative and defensible body of doctrine consisting of a confessional foundation and systematic elaboration (Richard A. Muller, Post-Reformation Reformed Dogmatics, 1:27).

A so-called Christianity proving cold or hostile towards the interests of the life to come has ceased to be Christianity in the historic sense of the word (Geerhardus Vos, Pauline Eschatology, 63).

The chief end for which Israel had been created was not to teach the world lessons in political economy, but in the midst of a world of paganism to teach true religion, even at the sacrifice of much secular propaganda and advantage” (Geerhardus Vos, Biblical Theology, 125).

The theocracy, the abode of Israel in Canaan, typified the perfected kingdom of God, the consummate state of heaven where there no longer will be a distinction between church and state (Danny E. Olinger, Geerhardus Vos: Reformed Biblical Theologian, Confessional Presbyterian, 152).

But we are to enjoy God, as well as to glorify him — 1. By choosing him as the portion of our souls, and seeking and finding our highest happiness in Him. . . . 2. God is enjoyed, as well as honored, by trusting him. . . . 3. God is to be enjoyed perfectly and eternally, by all who make the glorifying and enjoying of Him their chief end. This is expressly stated, in the answer we consider, as that at which we ought constantly to aim. The present is but the bud of being–the smallest part, the incipient stage of our existence (Ashbel Green, Lectures on the Shorter Catechism of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America: Addressed to Youth, 31-32).

If we would glorify God, we must be reconciled to him through Jesus Christ his Son, our Saviour. We must accept of Christ as he is offered in the gospel; rely on him alone for our acceptance with God; know the power of the Holy Spirit, the Sanctifier, in forming us into the likeness of Christ; and always approach the Father of mercies, through the mediation of the Redeemer, by the aids and influence of the blessed Spirit. It is in the work of redemption by Christ, that it is the purpose of God to glorify Himself, more than in all his other works: and it is utterly vain to think of glorifying Him, if we do not humbly and thankfully receive Christ for all the purposes for which he was given; and do not see and admire the glory of God, as it shines transcendently in the great work of our redemption (Ashbel Green, Lectures on the Shorter Catechism of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America: Addressed to Youth, 31).

Let us beware lest we in our pride accept the erroneous notion that idolatry consists only in kneeling before visible objects of adoration, and that civilized peoples are therefore free from it. The essence of idolatry is the entertainment of thoughts about God that are unworthy of Him (A. W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy, 3).