“We have been forewarned that an enemy relentlessly threatens us [cf. Ephesians 6:12-13], an enemy who is the very embodiment of rash boldness, of military prowess, of crafty wiles, of untiring zeal and haste, of every conceivable weapon and of skill in the science of warfare. We must, then, bend our every effort to this goal: that we should not let ourselves be overwhelmed by carelessness or faintheartedness, but on the contrary, with courage rekindled stand our ground in combat. Since this military service ends only at death, let us urge ourselves to perseverance” (John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Translated by Ford Lewis Battles, 173).

“. . . I am attempting to traverse as it were a lonely and untrodden path. I pray that I may have God as my guide and the power of the Lord as my aid, since I am unable to find even the bare footsteps of those who have traveled the way before me, except in brief fragments, in which some in one way, others in another, have transmitted to us particular accounts of the times in which they lived” (Eusebius, The Church History, Translated by Arthur McGiffert, I.I.4.).

“This work seems to me of especial importance because I know of no ecclesiastical writer who has devoted himself to this subject; and I hope that it will appear most useful to those who are fond of historical research” (I.I.6.)

“Moreover, since Christ is said to be ‘the way, the truth, and the life’ (John 14.6), and that categorically, so that whatever is not Christ is not the way, but error, not truth, but untruth, not life, but death, it follows of necessity that ‘free-will’, inasmuch as it neither is Christ, nor is in Christ, is fast bound in error, and untruth, and death” (Martin Luther, The Bondage of the Will, 305).

“The theologian’s task is not to divert the ears with chatter, but to strengthen consciences by teaching things true, sure, and profitable” (Translated by Ford Lewis Battles, John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 164).

“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)).