unless the remission of sins be apprehended first by faith. For the
heart, truly feeling that God is angry, cannot love God, unless He be
shown to have been reconciled. As long as He terrifies us, and seems
to cast us into eternal death, human nature is not able to take
courage, so as to love a wrathful, judging, and punishing God [poor,
weak nature must lose heart and courage, and must tremble before such
great wrath, which so fearfully terrifies and punishes, and can never
feel a spark of love before God Himself comforts]. It is easy for
idle men to feign such dreams concerning love as, that a person
guilty of mortal sin can love God above all things, because they do
not feel what the wrath or judgment of God is. But in agony of
conscience and in conflicts [with Satan] conscience experiences the
emptiness of these philosophical speculations. Paul says, Rom. 4,15:
The Law worketh wrath. He does not say that by the Law men merit the
remission of sins. For the Law always accuses and terrifies
consciences. Therefore it does not justify, because conscience
terrified by the Law flees from the judgment of God. Therefore they
err who trust that by the Law, by their own works, they merit the
remission of sins. It is sufficient for us to have said these things
concerning the righteousness of reason or of the Law, which the
adversaries teach. For after a while, when we will declare our
belief concerning the righteousness of faith, the subject itself will
compel us to adduce more testimonies, which also will be of service
in overthrowing the errors of the adversaries which we have thus far
reviewed.

Because, therefore, men by their own strength cannot fulfil the Law
of God, and all are under sin, and subject to eternal wrath and death,
on this account we cannot be freed by the Law from sin and be
justified but the promise of the remission of sins and of