The Doctrine of Justification by Faith

It is therefore to no purpose to handle the mysteries of the Gospel, as if Holcot and Bricot, Thomas and Gabriel, with all the Sententiarists, Summists, and Quodlibetarians of the old Roman Peripatetical School, were to be raked out of their Graves to be our guides. Especially will they be of no use unto us, in this Doctrine of Justification. For whereas they pertinaciously adhered unto the Philosophy of Aristotle, who knew nothing of any Righteousness, but what is an habit inherent in our selves, and the Acts of it, they wrested the whole Doctrine of Justification unto a compliance therewithal. So Pighius himself complained of them, Controv. 2. Dissimulare non possumus, hanc vel primam doctrinae Christianae partem (de Justificatione) obscuratam magis quam illustratam a scholasticis, spinosis plerisque quaestionibus, & definitionibus, secundum quas nonnulli magno supercilio primam in omnibus autoritatem arrogantes, &c.

It is therefore to no purpose to handle the mysteries of the Gospel, as if Holcot and Bricot, Thomas and Gabriel, with all the Sententiarists, Summists, and Quodlibetarians of the old Roman Peripatetical School, were to be raked out of their Graves to be our guides. Especially will they be of no use unto us, in this Doctrine of Justification. For whereas they pertinaciously adhered unto the Philosophy of Aristotle, who knew nothing of any Righteousness, but what is an habit inherent in our selves, and the Acts of it, they wrested the whole Doctrine of Justification unto a compliance therewithall. So Pighius himself complained of them, Controv. 2. Dissimulare non possumus, hanc vel primam doctrinae Christianae partem (de Justificatione) obscuratam magis quam illustratam a scholasticis, spinosis plerisque quaestionibus, & definitionibus, secundum quas nonnulli magno supercilio primam in omnibus autoritatem arrogantes, &c.

Secondly, A due consideration of him with whom in this matter we have to do, and that immediately, is necessary unto a right stating of our thoughts about it. The Scripture expresseth it emphatically, that it is God that justifieth, Rom. 8. ⟨p. 9⟩