“For the church is ruled by the Spirit of God, and Rom. 8 tells us that the saints are led by the Spirit of God (v. 14). And Christ abides with His church till the end of the world (Matt. 28.20). And the church is the pillar and ground of the truth (I Tim. 3:15). This we know; for the Creed which we all hold runs thus, ‘I believe in the holy catholic church.'” (Martin Luther, The Bondage of the Will, 119-120).

“God has no time for your practitioners of self-reformation, for they are hypocrites. The elect, who fear God, will be reformed by the Holy Spirit; the rest will perish unreformed” (Martin Luther, The Bondage of the Will, 99).

“The Manichees [heretics] have only one foundation: that it is wrong to ascribe to the good God the creation of any evil things. This does not in the slightest degree harm the orthodox faith, which does not admit that any evil nature exists in the whole universe. For the depravity and malice both of man and of the devil, or the sins that arise therefrom, do not spring from nature, but rather from the corruption of nature” (Translated by Ford Lewis Battles, John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 163).

“But, if you are still in ignorance, I must tell you again: men’s ordinances cannot be observed together with the Word of God, because the former bind consciences and the latter looses them. The two things are as much opposed to each other as fire and water” (Martin Luther, The Bondage of the Will, 96).

“In short, let us remember that that invisible God, whose wisdom, power, and righteousness, are incomprehensible, sets before us Moses’ history as a mirror in which his living likeness glows. For just as eyes, when dimmed with age or weakness or by some other defect, unless aided by spectacles, discern nothing distinctly; so, such is our feebleness, unless Scripture guides us in seeking God, we are immediately confused” (Translated by Ford Lewis Battles, John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 160-161)).

“No; doctrinal truth should be preached always, openly, without compromise, and never dissembled or concealed. There is no offence in it; it is the staff of uprightness” (Martin Luther, The Bondage of the Will, 95).

“Your intentions are of the best (at least, I think so); but the gouty foot laughs at your doctoring” (Martin Luther, The Bondage of the Will, 92).

“I would rather be joyful in God’s grace and bear the brunt of this temporal uproar for the sake of the Word of God — which demands to be asserted with invincible and unshakeable zeal — rather that, I say, than be ground to powder under the wrath of God by the unbearable torments of the uproar that shall be everlasting!” (Martin Luther, The Bondage of the Will, 90)

“Consciences are bound by God’s law alone, and the Papal tyranny, which by its falsehoods frightens and murders souls within, and uselessly exhausts the body from without, is an intruder that should be banished forthwith” (Martin Luther, The Bondage of the Will, 89).