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 _the righteousness_ (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. 2. * Faith in general is, a divine, supernatural ἔλεγχος, _evidence_ or conviction _of things not seen_, not discoverable by our bodily senses, as being either past, future or spiritual. Justifying faith implies, not only a divine evidence or conviction, that _God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself_ but a sure trust and confidence, that Christ died for _my_ sins, that he loved _me_ and gave himself for _me_. And at what time soever a sinner thus believes, be it in early childhood, in the strength of his years, or when he is old and hoary-hair’d, God justifieth that ungodly one: God for the sake of his Son; pardoneth and absolveth, him who had in him till then no good thing. Repentance indeed God had given him before: but that repentance was neither more nor less, than a deep sense of the want of all good, and the presence of all evil. And whatever good he hath or doth from that hour, when he first believes in God through Christ, faith does not _find_ but _bring_. This is the fruit of faith. First the tree is good, and then the fruit is good also.