Calvin on Christmas

I do not consider myself a Calvinist, but I am somewhat a fan of John Calvin's work. Even with the praises of his modern disciples, he was still a deeply flawed man filled with violence and malice. Today he is either deified or disgraced. I am in the middle ground when I think of him. Despite his failures as a man, he wrote some of the most profound things about God, which is true of many men who said good things about God. I'm re-reading his sermons on the Christmas texts when I found this passage relating to his sermon on Isaiah 9. It is a comment on the different names of the Messiah:

"He is called Mighty God for the same reason that in Isaiah 7:14 he was called Immanuel. If in Christ we find nothing but human flesh and nature, out glorying will be foolish and vain, and our hope will rest on an uncertain and insecure foundation. But if he shows himself to be to us God, even the Mighty God, we may rely on him with safety. It is good for us that he is called strong or mighty because our contest is with the devil, death, and sin, enemies too powerful and strong, by whom we would be vanquished immediately if Christ's strength had not made us invincible. Thus we learn from this title that there is in Christ abundance of protection for defending our salvation, so that we desire nothing beyond him; he is God, who pleased to show himself strong on our behalf. This application may be regarded as the key to this and similar passages, leading us to distinguish between Christ's mysterious essence and the power by which he ha revealed himself to us."