Edwards on purity of heart, or, rather, the lack of it

"At last, when it came to extremity, Pharaoh consented to let the people all go, and all that they had; but he was not steadfastly of that mind; he soon repented and pursued after them again, and the reason was, that those lusts . . . were never really mortified in him, but only violently restrained. And thus, being guilty of backsliding, after his seeming compliance with God's commands, he was destroyed without remedy."

Jonathan Edwards, The religious affections, pt. 3, sec. 12 ((Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1986 [1961]), 326), italics mine. Edwards has undoubtedly his sources, but remains nonetheless a very skillful tropologist.

Sterne on the rules of composition

"in writing what I have set about, I shall confine myself neither to [Horace's] rules, nor to any man's rules that ever lived."

     Laurence Sterne, The life and opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gent., I.4 (GBWW, 1st ed., 1952, vol. 36, p. 193).

Vallin on the distinction between creatio ex nihilo and creatio ab novo

"Creation ex nihilo isn't just tenable, it is demonstrable metaphysically. . . . Creation de novo, the fact of the beginning in time, by contrast, is a reality to be believed that has a profound significance in the revelation of [(sur)] the God of the covenant. . . .
"Creation remains . . . stricto sensu the metaphysical dependence of beings, which are not causae sui. . . . The fact of the beginning, by contrast, has less to reveal about the immanent condition of creatures than the proper name of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob."

Ph. Vallin, "Henri de Lubac et Saint Thomas d'Aquin: ouverture et structure en théologie," Revue des sciences religieuses 77, no. 2 (2003): 229, 230.

Grace does not render the nature it elevates impure

"God is not, within his creation, the rival of [the] person, and his grace does not render the nature it elevates impure."

Ph. Vallin, "Henri de Lubac et Saint Thomas d'Aquin: ouverture et structure en théologie," Revue des sciences religieuses 77, no. 2 (2003): 222. This on de Lubac's opposition to every theology of a "pure nature".