its good works, he was in danger of being misunderstood by strangers,
as though he held the bare knowledge and assent to be sufficient for
justification, and such preaching would indeed have led to frivolity
and disorderly conduct. But even apart from the question whether or not
the brother of the Elector was disturbed by such scruples, Luther must
have welcomed the opportunity, when the summons came to him, to
dedicate his book Of Good Works to a member of the Electoral house. At
any rate the book could serve to acquaint him with the thoughts of his
much-abused pastor and professor at Wittenberg, for never before had
Luther expressed himself on the important question of good works in
such a fundamental, thorough and profound way.

2. The Contents of the Work.--A perusal of the contents shows that the
book, in the course of its production, attained a greater length than
was originally intended. To this fact it must be attributed that a new
numeration of sections begins with the argument on the Third
Commandment, and is repeated at every Commandment thereafter, while
before this the sections were consecutively numbered. But in spite of
this, the plan of the whole is clear and lucid. Evidently the whole
treatise is divided into two parts: the first comprising sections 1-17,
while the second comprises all the following sections. The first, being
fundamental, is the more important part. Luther well knew of the
charges made against him that "faith is so highly elevated" and "works
are rejected" by him; but he knew, too, that "neither silver, gold and
precious stone, nor any other precious thing had experienced so much
augmentation and diminution" as had good works "which should all have
but one simple goodness, or they are nothing but color, glitter and
deception." But especially was he aware of the fact that the Church was
urging nothing but the so-called self-elected works, such as "running
to the convent, singing, reading, playing the organ, saying the mass,
praying matins, vespers, and other hours, founding and ornamenting
churches, altars, convents, gathering chimes, jewels, vestments, gems
and treasures, going to Rome and to the saints, curtsying and bowing
the knees, praying the rosary and the psalter," etc., and that she
designated these alone as truly good works, while she represented the
faithful performance of the duties of one's calling as a morality of a
lower order. For these reasons it is Luther's highest obje