were content with arrogating to themselves the vain image of it, and securely abandoned themselves to every vice. This statement being premised, it will be easy to discover where lies the error of our adversaries. For they fall into two fallacies; one respecting the word “faith,” the other respecting the word “justification.” When the apostle gives the appellation of _faith_ to a vain notion, widely different from true faith, it is a concession which derogates nothing from the argument; this he shows from the beginning in these words: “What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works?”[160] He does not say, If any one have faith without works; but, If any one boast of having it. He speaks still more plainly just after, where he ridicules it by representing it as worse than the knowledge of devils; and lastly, when he calls it _dead_. But his meaning may be sufficiently understood from the definition he gives: “Thou believest,” says he, “that there is one God.” Indeed, if nothing be contained in this creed but a belief of the Divine existence, it is not at all surprising that it is inadequate to justification. And we must not suppose this denial to be derogatory to Christian faith, the nature of which is widely different. For how does true faith justify, but by uniting us to Christ, that, being made one with him, we may participate his righteousness? It does not, therefore, justify us, by attaining a knowledge of God’s existence, but by a reliance on the certainty of his mercy.