Indeed the apostle in one place seems to extend the meaning of the word much farther; where he says, _Not the hearers of the law, but the doers of the law shall be justified_. Here he appears to refer our justification, to the sentence of the great day. And so our Lord himself unquestionably doth, when he says, _By thy words thou shalt be justified_: proving thereby, that _for every idle word men shall speak, they shall give an account in the day of judgment_. But perhaps we can hardly produce another instance, of St. _Paul’s_ using the word in that distant sense. In the general tenor of his writings, it is evident he doth not. And least of all in the text before us, which undeniably speaks, not of those who have already _finished their course_, but of those who are now just _setting out_, just _beginning to run the race which is set before him_. III. 1. But this is the third thing which was to be considered, namely, who are they that are justified? And the apostle tells us expresly, _the ungodly_: He, that is, God, _justifieth the ungodly_: the ungodly of every kind and degree, and none but the ungodly. As _they that are righteous need no repentance_, so they need no forgiveness. It is only sinners that have any occasion for pardon: it is sin alone which admits of being forgiven. Forgiveness therefore has an immediate reference to sin, and (in this respect) to nothing else. It is our _unrighteousness_ to which the pardoning God is _merciful_: it is our _iniquity_ which he _remembereth no more_. 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.