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.

It is a most grievous threatening, when he says, that all who seek to elevate themselves, shall have God as their enemy, who will lay them low. But, on the contrary, he says of the humble, that God will be propitious and favorable to them. We are to imagine that; God has two hands; the one, which like a hammer beats down and breaks in pieces those who raise up themselves; and the other, which raises up the humble who willingly let down themselves, and is like a firm prop to sustain them. Were we really convinced of this, and had it deeply fixed in our minds, who of us would dare by pride to urge war with God? But the hope of impunity now makes us fearlessly to raise up our horn to heaven. Let, then, this declaration of Peter be as a celestial thunderbolt to make men humble.

But he calls those humble, who being emptied of every confidence in their own power, wisdom, and righteousness, seek every good from God alone. Since there is no coming to God except in this way, who, having lost his own glory, ought not willingly to humble himself?

John Calvin’s Commentary on 1 Peter 5:5

The more Satan has endeavored to dishonor marriage, the more should we vindicate it from all reproach and abuse, that it may receive its due reverence.

John Calvin’s Commentary on Genesis 2:22

Research into New Testament literature has increasingly, albeit slowly, opened up to include in its exegesis historical studies of the society and economy of the Hellenistic and Roman worlds. New insights into Roman social structure, the role of the family, ancient associations, and Roman law, as well as economic aspects, have all enhanced research into the sociohistorical dimensions of the events depicted in the Gospels and the history of early Christian communities, and have helped to illuminate the origins of early Christianity in its ancient social context. However, the sociohistorical studies that have been employed are based primarily on historical accounts, biographies of emperors, honorary inscriptions, and Roman jurisdiction which inform us first and foremost about the elites of the Roman world. As such, they tell us very little about the common people who predominate the gospels in early Christian writings. . . . Papyri and the Social World of the New Testament aims to focus on the lower classes of Roman provincial society. . . . Admittedly, conducting in-depth studies of the common people in Roman Galilee or Judaea, where most of the New Testament accounts are anchored, is nearly impossible due to a lack of sources. It is in the nearby Roman province of Egypt — and there alone — that we find sources in large quantities that provide information on the everyday lives of the Roman provincial middle and lower classes. Hundreds of thousands of papyri, preserved by favorable environmental conditions, report on details of life in Roman times, including individuals’ daily fears and worries, which are unavailable with this degree of quality and in this quantity in any other sources. . . . The immediate and personal character of papyri and ostraca grants us insights into the lives and ordinary existence of the majority of the population, thereby constituting a particularly fascinating type of ancient source. The documents permit the ordinary people of the ancient world to speak to us just as they spoke to one another. The voices of those who never appear in ancient literature — artisans, peasants, shepherds, and fishermen, their wives and children — are suddenly heard.

Sabine R. Huebner, Papyri and the Social World of the New Testament, 1-3.

Certainly more is implied than a single substitutionary exchange. Because the text reads χάριν . . . χάριτος (and not, e.g., χάριν . . . ἀντὶ νόμου), the reference is to “one blessing taking the place of another in succession” (Regard 68), to replenished grace, to a rapid and perpetual succession of blessings, as though there were no interval between the arrival of one blessing and the receipt of the next. “God’s favor comes in ever new streams” (BDAG 88a), or as Robertson puts it, “As the days come and go a new supply takes the place of the grace already bestowed as wave follows wave upon the shore” (574). The nature of the constantly renewed grace remains undefined but probably refers to the multiplied spiritual benefits of the new covenant (e.g., 1:17). 

Murray J. Harris, Exegetical Guide to the Greek New Testament: John, 38.

Tracing the history and pathology of confessional declension will give us a sense of how rapidly minor concessions to pressure can lead to doctrinal moderatism and even indifferentism.

Ian Hamilton, The Erosion of Calvinist Orthodoxy: Drifting from the Truth in Confessional Scottish Churches, 17.

He will feed his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead the mother sheep. . . . He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless. . . . but those who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint (Isaiah 40:11, 29, 31).

Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28).

He will not break a bruised reed or quench a smoldering wick until he brings justice to victory (Matthew 12:20).