The invention of the arts, and other things which serve the common use and convenience of life, is a gift of God by no means to be despised, and a faculty worthy of commendation.

It is a sign of a perverse and treacherous disposition to wound the good name of another, when he has no opportunity of defending himself.

Now we shall possess a right definition of faith if we call it a firm and certain knowledge of God's benevolence toward us, founded upon the truth of the freely given promise in Christ, both revealed to our minds and sealed upon our hearts through the Holy Spirit.

God orders what we cannot do, that we may know what we ought to ask him.

We are not to look to what men in themselves deserve but to attend to the image of God which exists in all and to which we owe all honor and love.

Mingled vanity and pride appear in this, that when miserable men do seek after God, instead of ascending higher than themselves as they ought to do, they measure him by their own carnal stupidity, and neglecting solid inquiry, fly off to indulge their curiosity in vain speculation.

When God designs to forgive us he changes our hearts and turns us to obedience by His Spirit.