, according to our teaching, were regarded as holy,
without sin and full of good works, so much so that with this
mind we would communicate and sell our good works to others,
as being superfluous to us for heaven. This is indeed true,
and seals, letters, and instances [that this happened] are at
hand.

[When there were such, I say] These did not need repentance.
For of what would they repent, since they had not indulged
wicked thoughts? What would they confess [concerning words not
uttered], since they had avoided words? For what should they
render satisfaction, since they were so guiltless of any deed
that they could even sell their superfluous righteousness to
other poor sinners? Such saints were also the Pharisees and
scribes in the time of Christ.

Here comes the fiery angel, St. John [Rev. 10], the true
preacher of [true] repentance, and with one [thunderclap and]
bolt hurls both [those selling and those buying works] on one
heap, and says: Repent! Matt. 3, 2. Now, the former [the poor
wretches] imagine: Why, we have repented! The latter [the
rest] say: We need no repentance. John says: Repent ye, both
of you, for ye are false penitents; so are these [the rest]
false saints [or hypocrites], and all of you on either side
need the forgiveness of sins, because neither of you know what
true sin is not to say anything about your duty to repent of
it and shun it. For no one of you is good; you are full of
unbelief, stupidity, and ignorance of God and God's will. For
here He is present of whose fulness have all we received, and
grace for grace, John 1, 16, and without Him no man can be
just before God. Therefore, if you wish to repent, repent
aright- your penance will not accomplish anything [is
nothing]. And you hypocrites, who do not need repentance, you
serpents' brood, who has assured you that you will escape the
wrath to come? etc. Matt. 3, 7; Luke 3, 7.

In the same way Paul also preaches, Rom. 3, 10-12: There is
none righteous, there is none that understandeth, there is
none that seeketh after God, there is none that doeth good, no
not one; they are all gone out of the way; they are together
become unprofitable. And Acts 17, 30: God now commandeth all
men everywhere to repent. "All men," he says; no one excepted
who is a man. This repentance teaches us to discern sin,
namely, that we are altogether lost, and that there is nothing
good in us from head to foot [both within and without], and
that we must absol