"I lay down this maxime of Divinitie; Tyranny being a worke of Sathan, is not from God, because sinne either habituall or actuall, is not from God; the power that is, must be from God; the Magistrate as Magistrate, is good, in nature of office, and the intrinsecall end of his office, Rom. 13:4. for he is the Minister of God for thy good; and therefore a power ethicall, politick, or morall, to oppresse, is not from God, and is not a power, but a licentious deviation of a power, and is no more from God, but from sinfull nature, and the old serpent, then a license to sinne." - Samuel Rutherford, Lex, Rex, or the Law and the Prince (1644), emphases added. Lex, Rex, or the Law and the Prince is available on the Puritan Hard Drive along with many other books and MP3s by Samuel Rutherford.
"The nations are bound to recognize the Bible as the supreme law of the land; as the standard of civil legislation. God's law as recorded in the Bible, reaches all the possible relations of humanity; extends to every duty that can be performed, and fastens its claims on associated bodies of men, as well as upon individual persons. Were this not true, we should have this monstrous anomaly in Jehovah's government, that while men, as individuals, are bound by the laws recorded in the Bible, in their congregated capacities, they may set these laws at defiance, and even contemn as citizens, what as Christians they are bound to honor and obey. ... The nations are bound to evince their subjection to the Son of God, by filling all their official stations with upright, godly and able men. ... In all their political institutions the nations are bound to subserve the interests of the church of God, and promote, truth and godliness. ... In all their civil, criminal, and international concerns, the kingdoms should have a supreme regard to the glory of God." - The Subjection of Kings and Nations to Messiah (1820, emphases added) by James R. Willson on the Puritan Hard Drive
Martin Luther once proclaimed that "the purpose of marriage is not pleasure and ease but the procreation and education of children and the support of a family.... People who do not like children are swine, dunces, and blockheads, not worthy to be called men and women, because they despise the blessing of God, the Creator and Author of marriage" (Christian History, Issue 39, p. 24). Luther also said that birth control was the equivalent of sodomy (probably because of the likeness between homosexual wickedness and impotent sex). John Calvin declared that birth control was the murder of future persons and the Synod of Dort issueda Bible commentary which stated that contraception was the same as abortion. If you are shocked by the strong statements from these Godly men, that really is not too surprising, because Protestant opposition to birth control has largely been forgotten in our decadent culture and century. - The Bible and Birth Control, Charles Provan, emphases added. If you want to know about Biblical principles which oppose contraception, or wish to know what the Reformers and their heirs thought about this important subject, we certainly hope that you will listen to this free audio book and sermon(click here for the free Christian resources about birth control)!
We have found not one orthodox theologian to defend Birth Control before the 1900's NOT ONE! On the other hand, we have found that many highly regarded Protestant theologians were enthusiastically opposed to it, all the way back to the very beginning of the Reformation... those in favor of Birth Control will find no one in the orthodox Protestant camp for the first four centuries to ally themselves with. - Charles Provan, The Bible and Birth Control, p. 63, emphases added.
Birth control appeals to the advanced radical because it is calculated to undermine the authority of the Christian churches. I look forward to seeing humanity free some day of the tyranny of Christianity no less than Capitalism. - Margaret Sanger (Founder of Planned Parenthood), "Killer Angel: Margaret Sanger in Her Own Words"
Westminster Annotations (1657): Commentary on Gen. 38.9 (by John Ley of the Westminster Assembly) - "...in that there is a seminal vital virtue, which perishes if the seed be spilled; and by doing this to hinder the begetting of a living child, is the first degree of murder that can be committed, and the next unto it is the marring of conception, when it is made, and causing of abortion: now such acts are noted in the scripture as horrible crimes, because, otherwise many might commit them, and not know the evil of them: it is conceived, that his brother Er before, was his brother in evil thus far, that both of them satisfied their sensuality against the order of nature, and therefore the Lord cut them off both alike with sudden vengeance; which may be for terror to those Popish Onanites who condemn marriage, and live in sodomitical impurity, and to those who, in marriage, care not for the increase of children, (which is the principle use of the conjugal estate) but for the satisfying of their concupiscence." - The Westminster Annotations (emphases added) are available on the Puritan Hartd Drive
