the true wrestlings

[The public shows] excite, [Tertullian] says, all sorts of wild and impure passions, anger, fury, and lust; while the spirit of Christianity is a spirit of meekness, peace, and purity.

"What a man should not say he should not hear. All licentious speech, nay, every idle word is condemned by God. The things which defile a man in going out of his mouth, defile him also when they go in at his eyes and ears. The true wrestlings of the Christians are to overcome unchastity by chastity, perfidy by faithfulness, cruelty by compassion and charity."

Philip Schaff, The History of the Christian Church, vol. 2 (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2006) 342.

the chief good of man

For whatever the philosophers may have ever said of the chief good, it is nothing but cold and vain, for they confined man to himself, while it is necessary for us to go out of ourselves to find happiness. The chief good of man is nothing else but union with God; this is attained when we are formed according to him as our exemplar.

John Calvin, Commentary on Hebrews (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2009) 98.

the genius and spirit

We may go further and say that coercive Sunday laws are against the genius and spirit of the Christian religion which appeals to the free will of man, and uses only moral means for its ends. A Christian government may and ought to protect the Christian Sabbath against open desecration, but its positive observance by attending public worship, must be left to the conscientious conviction of individuals. Religion cannot be forced by law. It looses its value when it ceases to be voluntary.

Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church vol. 2 (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2006) 202.

line upon line

In condescension to our ignorance, it has pleased GOD, not only to give us what might have been deemed sufficient for our information, but also to add “line upon line,” so that there might be every help given to those who have a desire to know the truth, and every reasonable excuse taken away from such as resolve to oppose it, and to follow the guidance of self-will and the delusions of their own proud minds and depraved hearts. It might then seem strange to us that defect, insufficiency, and obscurity have been ascribed to the Scriptures, did we not know that these charges have been made by such as wish Revelation to be otherwise than it is; they having imbibed errors and adopted superstitions to which it yields no countenance, but which it condemns in terms so plain, that they must be represented as defective or obscure in order to be evaded.

John Owen, “Translator’s Preface,” Calvin’s Commentary on Hebrews (Baker: Grand Rapids, 2009) v.