whoever believes and trusts God, doth not commit sin, and cannot
sin." Again, Psalm xxxiv: "None of them that trust in Him shall do
sin." And in Psalm ii: "Blessed are all they that put their trust in
Him." 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.

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. This is the teaching of St. Paul, Romans
xiv: "Whatsoever is not done of or in faith is sin." 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 he pleases God, is possible only for
a Christian who is enlightened and strengthened by grace.

That these words seem strange, and that some call me a heretic because
of them, is due to the fact that men have followed blind reason and
heathen ways, have set faith not above, but beside other virtues, and
have given it a work of its own, apart from all works of the other
virtues; although faith alone makes all other works good, acceptable
and worthy, in that it trusts God and does not doubt that for it all
things that a man does are well done. Indeed, they have not let faith
remain a work, but have made a habitus of it, as they say, although
Scripture gives the name of a good, divine work to no work except to
faith alone. Therefore it is no wonder that they have become blind and
leaders of the blind. And this faith brings with it at once love,
peace, joy and hope. For God gives His Spirit at once to him who trusts
Him, as St. Paul says to the Galatians: "You received the Spirit not
because of your good works, but when you believed the Word of God."

V. In this faith all works become equal, and one is like the other; all
distinctions between works fall away, whether they be great, small,
short, long, few or many. For the works are acceptable not for their
own sake, but because of the faith which alone is, works and lives in
each and every work without distin