one
has courage to do this work: so, entirely are all works comprised
in faith, has has now been often said. Therefore, apart from
faith all works, are dead, however good the form and name they
bear. For as no one does the work of this Commandment except he
be firm and fearless in the confidence of divine favor: so also
he does no work of any other Commandment without the same faith:
thus every one may easily by this Commandment test and weigh
himself whether he be a Christian and truly believe in Christ,
and thus whether he is doing good works or no. Now we see how
the Almighty God has not only set our Lord Jesus Christ before us
that we should believe in Him with such confidence, but also
holds before us in Him an example of this same confidence and of
such good works, to the end that we should believe in Him, follow
Him and abide in Him forever; as He says, John xiv: "I am the
Way, the Truth and the life," [John 14:6]--the Way, in which we
follow Him; the Truth, that we believe in Him; the life, that we
live in Him forever.

From all this it is now manifest that all other works, which are
not commanded, are perilous and easily known: such as building
churches, beautifying them, making pilgrimages, and all that is
written at so great length in the Canon Law and has misled and
burdened the world and ruined it, made uneasy consciences,
silenced and weakened faith, and has not said how a man, although
he neglect all else, has enough to do with all his powers to keep
the Commandments of God, and can never do all the good works
which he is commanded to do; why then does he seek others, which
are neither necessary not commanded, and neglect those that are
necessary and commanded?

[Sidenote: The Ninth and Tenth Commandments]

The last two Commandments, which forbid evil desires of the body
for pleasure and for temporal goods, are clear in themselves;
these evil desires do no harm to our neighbor, and yet they
continue unto the grave, and the strife in us against them
endures unto death; therefore these two Commandments are drawn
together by St. Paul into one, Romans vii, and are set as a goal
unto which we do not attain, and only in our thoughts reach after
until death. For no one has ever been so holy that he felt in
himself no evil inclination, especially when occasion and
temptation were offered. [Rom. 7:7] For original sin is born in
us by nature and may be checked, but not entirely uprooted,
except through the d