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 virtuous or 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.