Quotes from Swiss scholar Francis Turretin:
“And since new revelations are not to be expected after God has committed his whole will concerning the doctrine of salvation to the books of Scripture, what could be more derogatory to God, who has promised always to be with his church, than to assert that the books in which this doctrine is preserved have been corrupted so that they cannot be the canon of faith?”
“We deny that any supreme and infallible judge except Scripture need be sought with regard to external proof of the object, much less that the pope, who assumes such a task, is to be accepted. We believe that Scripture alone, or God speaking in it, is enough.”
More from Francis Turretin on the Sinfulness of Sin:
“Sin is desire, word, deed, contrary to the Law of God… As the sin of Adam was most heinous, so it could not but draw after itself the most dire effects both in himself and in his posterity.”
Francis Turretin the Rule of Duty
“God’s commands are not the measure of strength, but a rule of duty. They do not teach what we are now able, but what we are bound to do; what we could formerly do and from how great a height of righteousness we have been precipitated by Adam’s fall. Nor is it always true that precepts which cannot be fulfilled are unjust. The intemperate man who has rendered himself callous by habit and cannot restrain himself from lust or drunkenness (habit being turned into nature) is still bound by the laws of sobriety and temperance. So from the debtor (who has lost by gambling a large sum of money borrowed on interest) not in vain nor unjustly is the debt demanded nor has the creditor lost his right by the crime of the debtor. Since, then, man by his own fault has contracted an inability to obey God, not in vain nor unjustly does God demand from his the obedience which he owes. It is not just that sin should be an advantage to man and he be irresponsible because he has corrupted himself by his own crime.”
Francis Turretin on Christ’s Voluntary Work
” …it was not unjust for Christ to substitute himself in our room, while lie is righteous and we unrighteous. By this act no injury is done to any one. Not to Christ, for he voluntarily took the punishment upon himself, and had the right to decide concerning his own life and death, and also power to raise himself from the dead. Not to God the judge, for he willed and commanded it; nor to his natural justice, for the Surety satisfied this by suffering the punishment which demanded it. Not to the empire of the universe, by depriving an innocent person of life, for Christ, freed from death, lives for evermore; or by the life of the surviving sinner injuring the kingdom of God, for he is converted and made holy by Christ. Not to the divine law, for its honour has been maintained by the perfect fulfillment of all its demands, through the righteousness of the Mediator; and, by our legal and mystical union, he becomes one with us, and we one with him. Hence he may justly take upon him our sin and sorrows, and impart to us his righteousness and blessings. So there is no abrogation of the law, no derogation from its claims; as what we owed is transferred to the account of Christ, to be paid by him.”
Turretin on the Justification of the Wicked
“The justification of the wicked, of which Paul speaks, Rom. 4:5, ought not to be referred to an infusion or increase of habitual righteousness, but belongs to the remission of sins, as it is explained by the Apostle from David. Nay, it would not be a justification of the wicked, if it were used in any other sense than for a judicial absolution at the throne of grace. I confess that God in declaring just, ought also for that very reason to make just, that his judgment may be according to truth. But man can be made just in two ways, either in himself, or in another, either from the law, or from the gospel. God therefore makes him just whom he justifies, not in himself as if from a sight of his inherent righteousness he declared him just, but from the view of the righteousness, imputed, of Christ. It is indeed an abomination to Jehovah to justify the wicked without a due satisfaction, but God in this sense justifies no wicked one, Christ having been given to us as a Surety, who received upon himself the punishment we deserved.”
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