such honor and good name puff up the heart, and the heart
find pleasure in them. Here the saying of Solomon holds: "As the fire
in the furnace proveth the gold, so man is proved by the mouth of him
that praises him." Few and most spiritual men must they be, who, when
honored and praised, remain indifferent and unchanged, so that they do
not care for it, nor feel pride and pleasure in it, but remain entirely
free, ascribe all their honor and fame to God, offering it to Him
alone, and using it only to the glory of God, to the edification of
their neighbors, and in no way to their own benefit or advantage; so
that a man trust not in his own honor, nor exalt himself above the most
incapable, despised man on earth, but acknowledge himself a servant of
God, Who has given him the honor in order that with it he may serve God
and his neighbor, just as if He had commanded him to distribute some
gulden to the poor for His sake. So He says, Matthew v: "Your light
shall shine before men, so that they may see your good works and
glorify your Father Who is in heaven." He does not say, "they shall
praise you," but "your works shall only serve them to edification, that
through them they may praise God in you and in themselves." This is the
correct use of God's Name and honor, when God is thereby praised
through the edification of others. And if men want to praise us and
not God in us, we are not to endure it, but with all our powers forbid
it and flee from it as from the most grievous sin and robbery of divine
honor.

XXIV. Hence it comes that God frequently permits a man to fall into or
remain in grievous sin, in order that he may be put to shame in his own
eyes and in the eyes of all men, who otherwise could not have kept
himself from this great vice of vain honor and fame, if he had remained
constant in his great gifts and virtues; so God must ward off this sin
by means of other grievous sins, that His Name alone may be honored;
and thus one sin becomes the other's medicine, because of our perverse
wickedness, which not only does the evil, but also misuses all that is
good.

Now see how much a man has to do, if he would do good works, which
always are at hand in great number, and with which he is surrounded on
all sides; but, alas! because of his blindness, he passes them by and
seeks and runs after others of his own devising and pleasure, against
which no man can sufficiently speak and no man can sufficiently guard.
With this al