The intent can never be good, unless both the end and the means be good. Thus far the philosophers & school-divines agree with us.

Whatever happiness we can have while we live here is locked up in the sacred letters.

We are justified by a lively and not a dead faith.

In commanding the Israelites to obtain gold, silver, garments, and vessels from the Egyptians, God did not order them to steal; for although at times God seems to command something against the second table, in fact he never rules against it.

Everything offered to us without the Spirit of Christ kills, whether it be from human wisdom, from natural law, or from Moses’ Decalogue. Even the gospel, if you read it without having the Spirit of Christ, is the letter and it kills.

It is not good for a man to be alone, because it is neither pleasant nor honorable nor profitable.

By these words [in Rom. 8:2-3] is manifest the number and distinction of the divine persons in the holy Trinity... First he says, that the holy ghost is he which delivers: secondly, that that spirit is given by Christ: lastly, that the son is sent of the father.

[I]f there is no study of laws and morals and none of the discipline of education, we do not develop our minds in virtue.

Calling is never offered to us by God on account of our works or merits.

Those who would define the goodness and evil of human actions by their own judgment and not by the Word and Law of God consume the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, forbidden to our first parents.

[T]he end of love that is your neighbor's good is contained in the goal of faith.

Whoever offends in one [precept of the Decalogue] is guilty of all: for the Commandments of God are joined with one another no less than are the virtues of the philosophers.

These two ideas, that God is the author of plans and gives whatever outcome he wants to actions, are not lost on the godly. Accordingly, they do not make any decisions touching upon themselves without adding the proviso “if God wishes,” a thing James teaches should be done.

Our posthumous end is to see God present and to enjoy his sight fully and quite completely. That is what Paul passionately desired to attain when he wrote to the Philippians: “I desire to depart and to be with Christ.”

For the stronger the faith, and the better God is perceived through it, the more love is inflamed toward its goal; so that the end and, as they say, the object of faith prescribes love, and love of your neighbor is as deep as your faith in God.

The world, when it does not feel Christ in itself and does not experience his joy and peace, thinks it madness to rejoice amid tribulations.

Hereby may be well understood that, which is spoken of Augustine, that to be able to have faith, hope, & charity, is of nature; but to have them is of grace. For of nature we have it, that we can passively be changed of God; but that we are changed in very deed, this is of grace.

Since beauty of the body is a gift of God, it stirs us up to piety and virtues, yet through human fault is a dangerous thing.

[T]he Church cannot be measured in terms of...worldly splendor. ... Paul affirms that “not many considered powerful, noble, or wise have been called.” And Jerome, in the preface of his third book to the Galatians, writes that the Church has been gathered from the little people.

It is profane reasoning to think that because the place of prayer appointed for the old people was richly and diversely adorned, therefore our churches also should be magnificently built and ornate.