Shall faith be able to save him? He now comes to one of the chief points of this epistle, to shew against the disciple of Simon , the magician, that faith alone will not save any one. We may take notice in the first place, that S. James in this very verse, supposes that a man may have faith, a true faith without good works. This also follows from v. 19. where he says: Thou believest that there is one God: thou dost well. And the same is evident by the words Jo. xii. 42. where it is said, that many of the chief men also believed in him, (Christ) . . . but did not confess it, that they might not be cast out of the synagogue. Now that faith alone is not sufficient to save a man, S. James declares by this example: If any one say to the poor and naked, go in peace, be you warmed and filled, and give them nothing, what shall it profit? Even so faith, if it have not works is dead, &c. i.e. such a faith, though it be not lost and destroyed, yet it remains in a soul that is spiritually dead, when it is not accompanied with charity and grace, which is the life of the soul, and without which faith can never bring us to eternal life. In this sense is to be understood the 20th and 26th verses of this chapter, when faith is again said to be dead without good works. This is also the doctrine of S. Paul, when he tells us that a saving faith is a faith that worketh by charity, Gal. v. 6. When he says, that although faith were strong enough to remove mountains, a man is nothing without charity. 1 Cor. xiii. 2. When he teacheth us again, that not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. S. John teacheth the same (1 Jo. iii. 14.) He that loveth not, remaineth in death.