, and think
that God cares nothing for them. So through their damnable
unbelief they curtail and lessen the service of God, Who is
served by all things whatsoever that are done, spoken or thought
in faith.

So teaches Ecclesiastes ix: "Go thy way with joy, eat and drink,
and know that God accepteth thy works. Let thy garments be always
white; and let thy head lack no ointment. Live joyfully with the
wife whom thou lovest all the days of the life of thy vanity."
[Eccles. 9:7] "Let thy garments be always white," that is, let
all our works be good, whatever they may be, without any
distinction. And they are white when I am certain and believe
that they please God. Then shall the head of my soul never lack
the ointment of a joyful conscience.

So Christ says, John viii: "I do always those things that please
Him." [John 8:29] And St. John says, I. John iii: "Hereby we know
that we are of the truth, if we can comfort our hearts before Him
and have a good confidence. And if our heart condemns or frets
us, God is greater than our heart, and we have confidence, that
whatsoever we ask, we shall receive of Him, because we keep His
Commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in His
sight." [1 John 3, 19 ff.] Again: "Whosoever is born of God, that
is, whoever believes and trusts God, doth not commit sin, and
cannot sin." [1 John 3, 9] Again, Psalm xxxiv: "None of them that
trust in Him shall do sin." [Ps. 34:22] And in Psalm ii: "Blessed
are all they that put their trust in Him." [Ps. 2:12] If this be
true, then all that they do must be good, or the evil that they
do must be quickly forgiven. Behold, then, why I exalt faith so
greatly, draw all works into it, and reject all works which do
not flow from it.

[Sidenote: Faith the Test of Good Works]

IV. Now every one can note and tell for himself when he does what
is good or what is not good; for if he finds his heart confident
that it pleases God, the work is good, even if it were so small a
thing as picking up a straw. If confidence is absent, or if he
doubts, the work is not good, although it should raise all the
dead and the man should give himself to be burned. [1 Cor. 13:3]
This is the teaching of St. Paul, Romans xiv: "Whatsoever is not
done of or in faith is sin." [Rom. 14:23] Faith, as the chief
work, and no other work, has given us the name of "believers on
Christ." For all other works a heathen, a Jew, a Turk, a sinner,
may also do; but to trust firmly that