d have preached and taught: Ye are
Christians indeed, and, just as well as those a hundred miles away,
ye have all of you one Christ, one baptism, one faith, one spirit,
one word, one God; so that no work that man can do helps to make a
Christian. Thus, were men included in a common faith, there would be
no difference before God, but one would be as another. This unity
have they rent asunder, in that they say, "You are a Christian, but
you must do works in order that you may be saved;" and thus they lead
us away from faith to works. Therefore St. Peter says, if we will
explain it right, nothing but this: there shall come high schools,
doctors, priests and monks, and all classes of men, who shall bring
in ruinous sects and orders, and shall lead the world astray by false
doctrines. Such are those whom he means here, for they all hold to
the notion that their state and Order saves them, and they cause men
to build and trust thereon; for where men do not hold to this view,
they carefully keep clear of entering them.

_And shall deny the Lord who bought them._ "Oh," say they, "we do not
deny the Lord at all!" But if any one says, "Since you are ransomed
by Christ, and His blood blots out your sin, what will you blot out
by your mode of life?" Then they say, "Ah! faith does not do it
alone, works must also aid towards it." Thus they confess the Lord
Christ indeed with their mouth, but with their hearts they quite deny
him. See how admirably St. Peter expresses it. They deny the Master,
he says, who has bought them: they should be under Him as under a
master whose own they were. But now, though they believe indeed that
He is their master and has purchased the whole world by His blood,
yet they do not believe that they are bought, and that He is their
master; and they say "He has indeed bought and ransomed them, but
then this is not enough,--we must first by our works expiate the sin
and make satisfaction for it." But we say, if you yourself take away
and blot out your sin, what has Christ then done? You certainly
cannot make two Christs who take away sin. He should and must be the
only one that puts away sin. If that be true, then I cannot
understand how I am myself to cancel my own sin. If I do it, I can
neither say nor believe that He takes it away. And it is the same
thing with denying Christ; for although they hold Christ to be their
master, they deny that He has bought them. They believe, indeed, that
He sits above in