2. This seems not to be at all considered by those who so vehemently contend, that a man must be sanctified, that is, holy, before he can be justified: especially by such of them as affirm, that universal holiness or obedience must precede justification (unless they mean, that justification at the last day, which is wholly out of the present question) so far from it, that the very supposition, is not only flatly impossible (for where there is no love of God, there is no holiness; and there is no love of God, but from a sense of his loving us) but also grosly, intrinsically absurd, contradictory to itself. For it is not a saint but a sinner that is forgiven, and under the notion of a sinner. God justifieth not the godly,but the ungodly; not those that are holy already, but the unholy. Upon what condition he doth this, will be considered quickly: but whatever it is, it cannot be holiness. To assert this, is to say, the Lamb of God takes away, only those sins which were taken away before.
3. Does then the good Shepherd seek and save only those that are found already? No. He seeks and saves that which is lost. He pardons those who need his pardoning mercy. He saves from the guilt of sin (and at the same time from the power) sinners of every kind, of every degree: men who till then were altogether ungodly; in whom the love of the Father was not; and consequently, in whom dwelt no good thing, no good or truly Christian temper: but all such as were evil and abominable, pride, anger, love, of the world, the genuine fruits of that carnal mind, which is enmity against God.
4. These who are sick, the burden of whose sins is intolerable, are they that need a physician; these who are guilty, who groan under the wrath of God, are they that need a pardon. These who are condemned already, not only by God, but also by their own conscience, as by a thousand witnesses, of all their ungodliness, both in thought and word and work, cry aloud for him that justifieth the ungodly, through the redemption that is in Jesus: the ungodly and him that worketh not; that worketh not before he is justified; any thing that is good, that is truly virtuousor holy, but only evil continually. For his heart is necessarily, essentially evil, till the love of God is shed abroad therein. And while the tree is corrupt, so are the fruits; for an evil tree cannot bring forth good fruit.
5. If it be objected, “Nay, but a man, before he is justified, may feed the hungry, or clothe the naked; and these are good works:” the answer is easy. He may do these, even before he is justified. And these are, in one sense, good works; they are good and profitable to men. But it does not follow, that they are, strictly speaking, good in themselves, or good in the sight of God. All truly good works (to use the words of our church) follow after justification. And they are therefore good and acceptable to God in Christ, because they spring out of a true and living faith. By a parity of reason, all works done before justification, are not good, in the Christian sense, forasmuch as they spring not of faith in Jesus Christ (tho’ from some kind of faith in God they may spring) yea rather, for that they are not done, as God hath willed and commanded them to be done, we doubt not (how strange soever it may appear to some) but they have the nature of sin.
6. Perhaps those who doubt of this, have not duly considered the weighty reason which is here assign’d, why no works done before justification, can be truly and properly good. The argument plainly runs thus:
No works are good which are not done as God hath willed and commanded them to be done:
But no works done before justification are done as God hath willed and commanded them to be done:
Therefore no works done before justification are good.
The first proposition is self-evident. And the second, that no works done before justification, are done as God hath willed and commanded them to be done, will appear equally plain and undeniable, if we only consider God hath willed and commanded, that all our works should be done in charity, (ἐν ἀγάπη) in love, in that love to God, which produces love to all mankind. But none of our works can be done in this love, while the love of the Father (of God as our Father) is not in us. And this love cannot be in us, till we receive the Spirit of adoption, crying in our hearts, Abba, Father. If therefore God doth not justify the ungodly, and him that (in this sense) worketh not, then hath Christ died in vain; then notwithstanding his death, can no flesh living be justified.
IV. 1. But on what terms then is he justified, who is altogether ungodly, and till that time, worketh not? On one alone, which is faith. He believeth in him that justifieth the ungodly. And he that believeth is not condemned: Yea, he is passed from death unto life. For therighteousness (or mercy) of God is by faith of Jesus Christ, unto all and upon all them that believe:—Whom God hath set forth for a propitiation, through faith in his blood: that he might be just, and (consistently with his justice) the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus: therefore we conclude, that a man is justified by faith, without the deeds of the law: without previous obedience to the moral law, which indeed he could not till now perform. That it is the moral law, and that alone which is here intended, appears evidently from the words that follow. Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid! Yea, we establish the law. What law do we establish by faith? Not the ritual law: not the ceremonial law of Moses. In no wise; but the great unchangeable law of love, the holy love of God and of our neighbour.