Turretin on the Reformation

Here's a great quote from Francis Turretin about the entire point of the Reformation (HT: Shane Lems):

Our religion is that which is wholly occupied with knowing the one and triune God, the Creator, preserver and Redeemer, and rightly worshipping him according to his command. It gives the entire glory of our salvation to God alone and writes against man alone the true cause of his sin and destruction.”


It is our religion which recognizes no other rule of faith and practice besides the sacred Scriptures; no other Mediator and head of the church than Christ; no other propitiatory sacrifice than his death, no other purgatory than his blood; no other merit than his obedience; no other intercession than his prayers.

It is our religion which depresses man as much as possible by taking away from him all presumption of his own strength and merits; and rises him to the highest point by preaching that the grace and mercy of God is the only cause of salvation, both as to acquisition and as to application.

It is our religion which brings solid peace and consolation to the soul of the believer in life and in death by the true confidence which it orders him to place, not in the uncertainty and vanity of his own righteousness or human satisfactions, but in the sole mercy of God and most perfect righteousness of Christ, which, applied to the heart by faith, takes away doubt and distrust and ingenerates a vivid persuasion of salvation after this life.

Institutes of Elenctic Theology III:139