, and go far astray with their unbelief.
But they who set a limit for Him, sin upon the other side, and come too
close with their tempting of God. So He has forbidden both, that we
should err from His Commandment neither to the left nor to the right,
that is, neither with unbelief nor with tempting, but with simple faith
remain on the straight road, trusting Him, and yet setting Him no
bounds.

VI. Thus we see that this Commandment, like the Second, is to be
nothing else than a doing and keeping of the First Commandment, that
is, of faith, trust, confidence, hope and love to God, so that in all
the Commandments the First may be the captain, and faith the chief work
and the life of all other works, without which, as was said, they
cannot be good.

But if you say: "What if I cannot believe that my prayer is heard and
accepted?" I answer: For this very reason faith, prayer and all other
good works are commanded, that you shall know what you can and what you
cannot do. And when you find that you cannot so believe and do, then
you are humbly to confess it to God, and so begin with a weak spark of
faith and daily strengthen it more and more by exercising it in all
your living and doing. For as touching infirmity of faith (that is, of
the First and highest Commandment), there is no one on earth who does
not have his good share of it. For even the holy Apostles in the
Gospel, and especially St. Peter, were weak in faith, so that they also
prayed Christ and said: "Lord, increase our faith "; and He very
frequently rebukes them because they have so little faith.

Therefore you shall not despair, nor give up, even if you find that you
do not believe as firmly as you ought and wish, in your prayer or in
other works. Nay, you shall thank God with all your heart that He thus
reveals to you your weakness, through which He daily teaches and
admonishes you how much you need to exercise yourself and daily
strengthen yourself in faith. For how many do you see who habitually
pray, sing, read, work and seem to be great saints, and yet never get
so far as to know where they stand in respect of the chief work, faith;
and so in their blindness they lead astray themselves and others; think
they are very well off, and so unknowingly build on the sand of their
works without any faith, not on God's mercy and promise through a firm,
pure faith.

Therefore, however long we live, we shall always have our hands full to
remain, with all our works