Did a proud aristocracy trace its lineage through generations of a highborn ancestry, the republican reformers, with a loftier pride, invaded the invisible world, and from the book of life brought down the record of the noblest enfranchisement, decreed from eternity by the King of kings.
George Bancroft
Calvinism’s doctrine of predestination “inspires a resolute, almost defiant, freedom in those who deem themselves the subjects of God’s electing grace: in all things they are more than conquerors through the confidence that nothing shall be able to separate them from the love of God. No doctrine of the dignity of human nature, of the rights of man, of national liberty, of social equality, can create such a resolve for the freedom of the soul as this personal conviction of God’s favoring and protecting sovereignty. He who has this faith feels that he is compassed about with everlasting love, guided with everlasting strength; his will is the tempered steel that no fire can melt, no force can break. Such faith is freedom; and this spiritual freedom is the source and strength of all other freedom.”
Rev. Joseph Thompson, D. D., LL.D. The United States as a Nation.
