If any one ask, Ought we to pray for kings, from whom we obtain none of these advantages? I answer, the object of our prayer is, that, guided by the Spirit of God, they may begin to impart to us those benefits of which they formerly deprived us. It is our duty, therefore, not only to pray for those who are already worthy, but we must pray to God that he may make bad men good. We must always hold by this principle, that magistrates were appointed by God for the protection of religion, as well as of the peace and decency of society, in exactly the same manner that the earth is appointed to produce food. Accordingly, in like manner as, when we pray to God for our daily bread, we ask him to make the earth fertile by his blessing; so in those benefits of which we have already spoken, we ought to consider the ordinary means which he has appointed by his providence for bestowing them.

To this must be added, that, if we are deprived of those benefits the communication of which Paul assigns to magistrates, that is through our own fault. It is the wrath of God that renders magistrates useless to us, in the same manner that it renders the earth barren; and, therefore, we ought to pray for the removal of those chastisements which have been brought upon us by our sins.

John Calvin, on 1 Timothy 2:2, in Commentaries XXI, 52-53.

Human church-authorities, it has been said, can judge only of the credibility of your profession of faith. But there is a secret matter between God and your own soul, which must now engage your most solicitous attention. Every thing in this ordinance implies the presence of gracious affection. Even if you should escape the higher condemnation of the sacrilegious, you cannot partake of spiritual food, in an unregenerate state. Hence the manifest importance of an immediate and thorough inquiry into your condition, as a condemned or a justified soul. “Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of this bread and drink of this cup” [1 Cor. 11:28].

JAMES W. ALEXANDER, PLAIN WORDS TO A YOUNG COMMUNICANT, 28-29.

But of all means of grace, there is none which is more valuable than PRAYER; comprehending the several parts of adoration, thanksgiving, confession, supplication, and intercession. Upon your knees and looking up into the compassionate face of your Heavenly Father, you are in the posture of all others most suited to the exercise of faith, hope, love, and every Christian grace. If you decline, the declension will commence just here. The maxim is true: “Apostasy begins at the closet.” Let no slight reason satisfy you for having omitted your devotions; even as you are not content with excuses for having omitted your necessary repasts. The evils to be avoided are forgetfulness, infrequency, irregularity, formality, wandering of mind, undue brevity, irreverence, coldness, and unbelief. Question yourself as to each of these points in particular. Beware of confining yourself to mental prayer, but in your regular devotions employ audible utterance; for great is the reflex influence of the voice upon the feelings. Have stated times, at least every morning and evening; and if possible a stated place. In pursuance of the admonition, “Pray without ceasing,” let your thoughts during the employments of the day often go up in ejaculatory prayer; which is so called, because such aspirations are like arrows shot up towards heaven; and “blessed is he that hath his quiver full of them.”

James W. Alexander, Plain Words to a Young Communicant, 81-82.

So when any evil is forbidden, not only the outward gross acts, but all inward acts and degrees thereof are forbidden likewise: as under killing, provoking terms, wrath, anger (Matt. 5:21-22), under adultery, wanton looks, lustful thoughts, etc. (Matt. 5:27-30). Now, all things comprehended in a command (though not expressed) are jure divino.

JUS DIVINUM REGIMINIS ECCLESIASTICI, 81.

Comprehensively many things are contained in a command that are not expressed in the very letter of the command. Thus, orthodox expounders of the Decalogue generally do confess that all the precepts of the Decalogue are synecdochical, and God wills many things by them, more than the bare words signify.

JUS DIVINUM REGIMINIS ECCLESIASTICI, 80.

This Song, then, cannot be but pleasing to them who believe in Christ here, and long to be joined with him forever hereafter: which, whoso doth not, let him not read it; for he will get no good by it.

Argument to the Song of Songs in English Annotations (1645).

1:4 “Draw me after you . . .”

The faithful confess, that they cannot come to Christ except they be drawn.

English Annotations (1645).

In MS 286 [i.e., the Gospel Book of Saint Augustine] the words are laid out in the pattern which is called ‘per cola et commata’, meaning something like ‘by clauses and pauses’, in which the first line of each sentence fills the width of the column and any second or subsequent lines are written in shorter length. The format was almost certainly that of Jerome’s original manuscript of the Vulgate and it is characteristic of the very earliest copies. Each unit is probably what a person would read and speak aloud in a single breath. Thus Matthew opens, ‘The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, son of David, son of Abraham’, pause, take a breath, glance down silently at the next phrase, ‘Abraham begat Isaac’, another intake of breath, look back again at the text, ‘And Isaac begat Jacob, [and] Jacob begat Judah and his brothers’, breathe again, and so on. Winston Churchill typed his great speeches like this, so that they could be read at a glance and his famous oratorical pauses were graphically preordained in the layout of his script. It is an arrangement prepared primarily for reading aloud, which itself tells us something about the Gospel Book of Saint Augustine, which comes from a time of oral culture when most of the audience for the Scriptures was illiterate.

Christopher de Hamel, Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts: Twelve Journeys into the Medieval World, 21-22.

For what is jure divino is held of God and not of man, and to oppose that were to fight against God.

Jus Divinum Regiminis Ecclesiastici, 59.