“All things around us are in opposition to the promises of God: He promises immortality; we are surrounded with mortality and corruption: He declares that He counts us as just; we are covered with our sins: He testifies that He is propitious and kind to us; outward judgments threaten His wrath. What then is to be done? We must with closed eyes pass by ourselves and all things connected with us, that nothing may hinder or prevent us from believing that God is true.”
–John Calvin, Commentaries on the Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Romans, trans. and ed. John Owen (repr. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1996), 180.
