Although There Were No Hell

Loving and revering God as his father, honouring and obeying him as his master, although there were no hell, he would revolt at the very idea of offending him. (John Calvin, Institutes, Book 1, Chapter II)

To Prevent Any Man From Pretending Ignorance

That there exists in the human mind, and indeed by natural instinct, some sense of Deity, we hold to be beyond dispute, since God Himself, to prevent any man from pretending ignorance, has endued all men with some idea of His Godhead, the memory of which He constantly renews and occasionally enlarges, that all to a man, being aware that there is a God, and that He is their Maker, may be condemned by their own conscience when they neither worship Him nor consecrate their lives to His service. (John Calvin, Institutes, Book 1, Chapter III)

After They Have Closed Their Own Eyes

As a just punishment of the wicked, after they have closed their own eyes, God makes their hearts dull and heavy, and hence, seeing, they see not. (John Calvin, Institutes, Book 1 Chapter IV)

Better Than My Earthly Dearest

To love you as I should, I must worship God as Creator.

When I have learnt to love God better than my earthly dearest, I shall love my earthly dearest better than I do now. In so far as I learn to love my earthly dearest at the expense of God and instead of God, I shall be moving towards the state in which I shall not love my earthly dearest at all. When first things are put first, second things are not suppressed but increased.(C.S. Lewis, Letters of C.S. Lewis)

Surprising Humiliation

Christianity is the only major religion to have as its central event the humiliation of its God. (Bruce Shelley, Church History in Plain Language)

Peculiar Feeling

And he commands us to assist especially the saints: for though our love ought to extend itself to the whole race of man, yet it ought with peculiar feeling to embrace the household of faith, who are by a closer bond united to us. (John Calvin on Romans 12:13, Romans commentary)

Happiness Beyond This World

No man will indeed calmly and quietly submit to bear the cross, but he who has learnt to seek his happiness beyond this world, so as to mitigate and allay the bitterness of the cross with the consolation of hope. (John Calvin, commentary on Romans 12:12, commentary on Romans)