There is no satisfactory way of accounting for the universal belief in the existence of God, except that such belief is founded on the very constitution of our nature.

Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Vol. 1, 198.

It is evident from the entire passage in Matthew 23 that the note of denunciation mingles with that of lamentation, and the note of wrath and judgement mingles with that of tenderness, sorrow, and weeping. This fact should serve as a salutary reminder to the preacher that this prophetic note of denunciation, if it is employed at all, must be employed with great caution, and then only if those intense spiritual emotions, which are clearly present in the soul of Christ, are also, in a measure, present in the soul of the preacher as he pleads with men ‘in Christ’s stead’.

John Carrick, The Imperative of Preaching, 39.

In each historical covenantal administration, the shared faith of God’s people has attached to the particularities of each successive covenant.

STEPHEN G. MYERS, GOD TO US – COVENANT THEOLOGY IN SCRIPTURE, 166.

True preaching always involves explicatio et applicatio verbi Dei (the explication and application of the Word of God).

John Carrick, The Imperative of Preaching, 29.

In each of the individual, historical covenantal administrations, the intended end of God’s covenantal work is stated in terms of “the Immanuel principle”—“I shall be your God and you shall be My people.” With these words, God promises to be Immanuel (which means “God with us”) to His people. God first articulates this principle to Abraham in Genesis 17:7. He has Moses reiterate it to the Israelites prior to the exodus in Exodus 6:7. The Immanuel principle then is connected with the Davidic covenant in 2 Samuel 7:14 and, after the exile, gives shape to the new covenant that the prophets proclaim to Israel in Ezekiel 36:28 and Jeremiah 31:33. Finally, 2 Corinthians 6:16 uses it to articulate what God is doing in the New Testament church, even as Revelation 21:3 proclaims it as the glorious bliss of the new heavens and the new earth. Running throughout all of the biblical covenants, there is this striking unity of purpose. God will have His people.

STEPHEN G. MYERS, GOD TO US – COVENANT THEOLOGY IN SCRIPTURE, 163.

In Romans 16:20, Paul uses the specific imagery of Genesis 3:15 to describe what God is doing, right that moment, in and through His church. In 1 John 3:8, John speaks of Jesus as coming specifically to destroy the works of the devil. In Hebrews 2:14, the Scriptures speak of Jesus Christ as the destroyer of the devil himself. In Revelation 12, John uses the imagery of Genesis 3:15 to encapsulate and represent the entire progress of redemptive history. Repeatedly, the Scriptures evoke Genesis 3:15 to crystallize what God has been doing, and what He presently is doing, in His redemptive work.

STEPHEN G. MYERS, GOD TO US – COVENANT THEOLOGY IN SCRIPTURE, 162.

As for us, we prefer to listen to Augustine, when he says: “To declare publicly what you have received is not arrogance, but faith; it isn’t haughtiness, but devotion.” (On the Words of the Lord according to Luke, Sermon 28).

Synopsis of a Purer Theology, Vol. 1, 369.

But the object of perseverance are the promises of divine grace. The certainty of these promises rests not only in the one who makes the promises, and in the promises themselves, but they are also certain to the persevering person.

Synopsis of a Purer Theology, Vol. 1, 368.

It is clear enough from what Paul states in Rom 8:30 that reprobates are never justified. . . . And although there are some among the reprobates who are reported somehow to belong to Christ because they confessed their faith, shared in the sacraments, and used the name of the Church and associated with it — they were not, in actual fact, in Christ. They appeared to be within the boundaries of faith, but they were believers in appearance only, “adhering only to professing Christ, but not binding themselves with cords of love” (Cyril, On John, book 10, chapter 24).

Synopsis of a Purer Theology, Vol. 1, 367.