On the contrary, therefore, Christ declares that the doctrine of the Gospel, though it is preached to all without exception, cannot be embraced by all, but that a new understanding and a new perception are requisite; and, therefore, that faith does not depend on the will of men, but that it is God who gives it.

We shall never be clothed with the righteousness of Christ except we first know assuredly that we have no righteousness of our own.

We say, then, that Scripture clearly proves this much, that God by his eternal and immutable counsel determined once for all those whom it was his pleasure one day to admit to salvation, and those whom, on the other hand, it was his pleasure to doom to destruction. We maintain that this counsel, as regards the elect, is founded on his free mercy, without any respect to human worth, while those whom he dooms to destruction are excluded from access to life by a just and blameless, but at the same time incomprehensible judgment

Faith and hope...are the wings by which our souls, rising above the world, are lifted up to God.

Things that are seen are temporal; things that are unseen are eternal.

Life is not found in commandments or declarations of penalties, but in the promise of mercy and only in a gratuitous promise.

For our hearts are enfeebled by prosperity, so that we cannot make the effort to pray.