The presbyterial government (truly so called) is not in nature any invention of man, but an ordinance of Christ; nor is the execution of it to be stated by the will of man, but only by the sure word of prophecy, the sacred Scriptures.

Jus Divinum Regiminis Ecclesiastici, 44.

The fact that liberal theology with its naive Pelagianism has dangerously over-emphasized the concept of example does not mean that there is no role nor place for the concept of example in Reformed preaching.

John Carrick, The Imperative of Preaching: A Theology of Sacred Rhetoric, 128.

Old Testament examples are New Testament instructions.

From John Owen’s Hebrews: The Epistle of Warning quoted in John Carrick, The Imperative of Preaching: A Theology of Sacred Rhetoric, 122.

Let us resist the beginning of evil. Let us banish sinful thoughts. We are in danger from a single evil thought. If we suffer it to lodge and rest in the heart, we rock a giant. It will soon arise and overpower us.

From sermon on Mortification of Sin by Asahel Nettleton quoted in John Carrick, The Imperative of Preaching: A Theology of Sacred Rhetoric, 104.

Christianity begins with a momentous declaration. It does not begin by telling the sinner what he must do; it begins by telling the sinner what God has done. Thus Machen is absolutely correct when he asserts in Christianity and Liberalism that ‘liberalism is altogether in the imperative mood’.

John Carrick, The Imperative of Preaching: A Theology of Sacred Rhetoric, 82.

The problem with the modern man is that he has no sense of sin; he does not realize that he is ‘guilty before God’. One of the major reasons for this tragic situation is that the modern man has been exposed to a type of preaching which is, all too often, innocuous and anemic. There can be no question but that the sins of the pulpit have come home to roost in the pew.

John Carrick, The Imperative of Preaching: A Theology of Sacred Rhetoric, 80.

Preaching certainly involves application, and application is an essential part of preaching. But explication is the essential prerequisite in preaching.

John Carrick, The Imperative of Preaching: A Theology of Sacred Rhetoric, 14.

It is evident from these scriptures that the great centralities of the gospel — the pre-existence of Christ, his incarnation, his atoning death, his resurrection from the dead — are expressed in the indicative mood. These great central facts of the gospel are not — indeed, they could not be — expressed in the imperative mood which denotes a command, a request, an exhortation; they are not — indeed, they could not be — expressed in the subjunctive mood which denotes that which is contingent, hypothetical, or prospective. No, these great central facts of the gospel are expressed in the Scriptures in the only mood that is consonant with them, namely, the indicative mood. Thus Machen’s observation, ‘Christianity begins with a triumphant indicative’, reveals the perceptiveness both of a grammarian and of a theologian.

John Carrick, The Imperative of Preaching: A Theology of Sacred Rhetoric, 10.

One of the benefits to the believer who reads mythology is an understanding of how ancient Man answered ultimate questions about life without the light of revelation.

Victor P. Hamilton, The Handbook on the Pentateuch, 68.

Every change in the industrial world since the Sabbath was instituted has been a new reason why God’s Sabbath laws and ours should not be changed.

Wilbur F. Crafts, Practical Christian Sociology, 187.