"The entire number of those who are to be saved is chosen (electus) for the sake of Christ (propter Christum). For unless we hold to the knowledge of Christ, we cannot speak of election." Loci Communes, Locus 14

"We must look for a promise in which God has expressed His will, and we must understand that no other will is to be sought concerning his grace outside of His Word. The immutable will of God is that we are to hear His Son, as He has said." Loci Communes, Locus 14

"It is correct to say that the cause of our election is the merciful will of God, who does not will that the entire human race should perish, but for the sake of His Son He gathers and preserves His church." Loci Communes, Locus 14

"There is no one among all the Greek and Latin writers who has come nearer than Luther to the spirit of Saint Paul." D'Aubigne, History Of The Reformation Of The Sixteenth Century, Vol II, Book VI, Chapter II

"We must be absorbed in Christ, so that we ourselves no longer act, but Christ lives in us. As the Divine nature was incorporated with the human in the person of Christ, so man must be incorporated with Jesus Christ by faith." D'Aubigne, History Of The Reformation Of The Sixteenth Century, Vol II, Book VI, Chapter V

"They are deceivers who pretend that you have no authority over priests. That same spirit which animated Jehu against the priest of Baal, urges you, by this precedent, to abolish the Roman superstition, which is much more horrible than the idolatry of Baal." D'Aubigne, History Of The Reformation Of The Sixteenth Century, Vol II, Book VI, Chapter X

"As often as I contemplate Luther, I find him constantly greater than himself." D'Aubigne, History Of The Reformation Of The Sixteenth Century, Vol II, Book VII, Chapter VI

"Scripture imparts to the soul a holy and marvellous delight; it is the heavenly ambrosia." D'Aubigne, History Of The Reformation Of The Sixteenth Century, Vol III, Book IX, Chapter I

"To know Christ is to know his blessings." Loci Communes

"Those who despise profane literature hold theology in no greater estimation. Their contempt is a mere pretext with which they seek to conceal their idleness." D'Aubigne, History Of The Reformation Of The Sixteenth Century, Vol III, Book X, Chapter IX

"God is not the cause of sin, nor does he will sin, nor drive our wills into sin or the approval of sin." Loci Communes, Locus 3

"The devil has something uniquely his own, which he did not receive from God, namely, his lying, that is, his sin which the devil's own free will spawned." Loci Communes, Locus 3

"The substances of the devil and of man were created and sustained by God, and yet the will of the devil and the will of man are the causes of sins. For the will could abuse its own liberty and turn itself from God." Loci Communes, Locus 3

"The righteousness of the Law is called the righteousness of the flesh because to some extent external obedience can be accomplished by the powers of this nature, as Paul says, and the Law was laid down for the unrighteous, that is, to coerce the unregenerate and punish the stubborn." Loci Communes, Locus 3

"On the one hand, God determines the good things which He wills, many of which He expresses, as that the dead shall be raised on a certain day, that is, this is necessary and happens out of the necessity of consequence. On the other hand, He sets limits to the evils which He does not will, that is, He set boundaries and does not allow evils to go beyond them." Loci Communes, Locus 3

"He [Jesus] did not wish God to be sought by idle and vagrant speculations, but He wills that our eyes be fixed on the Son who has been manifested to us, that our prayers be directed to the eternal Father who has revealed Himself in the Son whom He has sent, and in the Gospel which has been given by the God who accepts us and hears our prayers for the sake of His Son our Mediator." Loci Communes, Locus 1

"With wondrous, sure, and indescribable wisdom God accepts and hears us when we pray for the sake of the Mediator." Loci Communes, Locus 1

"God is a spiritual, intelligent essence, eternal, truthful, good, pure, just, merciful, free, immeasurably powerful and wise, the eternal Father who has begotten His Son from eternity as His own image; the Son who is the coeternal image of the Father; and the Holy Spirit who proceeds from the Father and the Son, as the Deity has been revealed in the sure Word; that the eternal Father with the Son and the Holy Spirit created and preserves the heaven and the earth and all creatures; and among the human race, which was created to be in His image and to be obedient to Him, He has chosen for Himself the church so that by this church the one and true Deity might be revealed with sure and certain witness through the Word which has been given by the prophets and apostles, so that He might be recognized, invoked, and worshipped according to that divinely given Word; and all religions should be condemned which devise other gods, and this true Deity should be glorified in eternal life." Loci Communes, Locus 1

"We must always keep in mind the principle that the creation of things and their preservation is expressly the work of the entire Trinity, the eternal Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit." Loci Communes, Locus 1

"There are three persons in the Godhead, immeasurable, coeternal, of the same substance: the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son, who is called the Word and the image of the eternal Father, and the Holy Spirit. There are no other persons in the Godhead." Loci Communes, Locus 1

"Of Free Will they teach that man's will has some liberty to choose civil righteousness, and to work things subject to reason. But it has no power, without the Holy Ghost, to work the righteousness of God, that is, spiritual righteousness; since the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, 1 Cor. 2,14; but this righteousness is wrought in the heart when the Holy Ghost is received through the Word. These things are said in as many words by Augustine in his Hypognosticon, Book III: We grant that all men have a free will, free, inasmuch as it has the judgment of reason; not that it is thereby capable, without God, either to begin, or, at least, to complete aught in things pertaining to God, but only in works of this life, whether good or evil. "Good" I call those works which spring from the good in nature, such as, willing to labor in the field, to eat and drink, to have a friend, to clothe oneself, to build a house, to marry a wife, to raise cattle, to learn divers useful arts, or whatsoever good pertains to this life. For all of these things are not without dependence on the providence of God; yea, of Him and through Him they are and have their being. "Evil" I call such works as willing to worship an idol, to commit murder, etc. They condemn the Pelagians and others, who teach that without the Holy Ghost, by the power of nature alone, we are able to love God above all things; also to do the commandments of God as touching "the substance of the act." For, although nature is able in a manner to do the outward work, (for it is able to keep the hands from theft and murder,) yet it cannot produce the inward motions, such as the fear of God, trust in God, chastity, patience, etc." Augsberg Confession (of which Melanchthon is the author)