The good war

For better is it to contend with vices than without conflict to be subdued by them. Better, I say, is war with the hope of peace everlasting than captivity without any hope of deliverance. We long, indeed, for the cessation of this war, and, kindled by the flame of divine love, we burn for entrance into that well-ordered peace in which whatever is inferior is for ever subordinated to what is above it. (Augustine City of God p786)

Augustine sounds a lot like John Owen . . .