you cry to them and insist, they yet measure God only by their own foot-rule; and recognizing that they do all things without generosity, that is, for a return, they cannot be induced to take any other view of God. Hence they think that God ascribes everything to merit, and that where that does not exist it is vain to hope for His favor. God takes advantage of their weakness, or rather want of faith, and invites them to good works by the hope of reward, that meantime His own may lack nothing. But if you say to me, “Since all things are done by the providence of God, why does He not cause those who are so far astray in their knowledge of Him, and who accordingly do all things under compulsion and without generosity, to be better enlightened, that with the clear-sighted they may see the thing that is most to be looked at?” I answer: “Go to Him who created them, and ask the reason of His action from Himself.” For we were not His counsellors [cf. Jer. 23:18], nor did we first give Him anything so that we have a legal right to demand something of Him in return. We know that the potter has the power to make of the same clay one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor [ef. Rom. 9: 21]; and why shall we say to our Lord and God, “Why didst thou make me after this fashion?” Because, therefore, no one denies that in the Holy Seriptures there are almost more utterances that attribute merit to our works than the reverse, we are not on that account to decide that after the manner of referees we are to take something from either side and give it to the other, in order that peace may be made between our merit and God’s grace, between our free will and God’s providence or predestination. God is not as man. But we ought rather to do that which we see those holy men did, as I have just said. Knowledge of God must be strenuously inculcated, and faith aroused. If we are successful here, the most excellent fruit will be put forth spontaneously by the good tree [cf. Mt. 7:17]. At the same time, the sluggish must be stirred up with the hope of reward and the fear of punishment, that the work of God may nowhere halt.

But if you say that thus dissension will arise between the pious and the mercenary, I answer: Nothing whatsoever of the kind. For the pious are not contentious, but teach from love;

and those who in these days, having advanced a step farther than they see generally done, leap up and scorn everyone but themselves are less pious than those who rely upon works. Piety endures all things, does all things, and never fails, ἐκπίπτει [ef. 1 Cor. 13:8]. It puts up with the feeble, therefore, has sympathy for the weaker vessel, is not carried away before smoking flax [ef. Mt. 12: 20]. But, if it were permitted to expose here the hypocrisy of certain persons who do just nothing but make a show of their own learning and who cannot endure to see anyone regarded as more learned than themselves, we should give offence, to be sure, but should safeguard the simple. In order, therefore, not to exasperate all the wrath of this turbulent small fry, I content myself with the kind of teaching that I have given above. Only let us at the same time note that, if we ever see ascribed to us by the very mouth of God what cannot belong to any but God, we are to recognize the grace which He shows towards us so lavishly as to ascribe to us what is His alone, and let us not boast or rush into contentious argument. “For we can do nothing against the truth” [II Cor. 13: 8], and we are placed here to build up, not to destroy. The Christian life is guilelessness, as I have often said already. But no soil will bring forth guilelessness more fruitfully than disregard of self. And disregard of self is more luxuriant the more of the dew of the knowledge of God it has drunk in; for the fuller one is of God, the emptier one is of oneself. Those, therefore, who from piety, and not from puffed-up knowledge, rightly recognize and confess God’s providence, devote themselves to guilelessness and nothing else. But those who do not find this path ought to be goaded on by the law, by hope, and by fear, to doing the same thing the pious do. This will seem to some rather indiscreet doctrine, but I shall not care a snap for their opinion, seeing, as I do, that the Prophets, Christ, and the Apostles walked in this path. But in order fully to meet the expectations raised by the earlier part of this treatise, which ascribed all things to providence and nothing to free will and merit, I have ordered that the brief remarks which I made on merit in answer to Emser be incorporated here. For I am too busy to do otherwise.

[For this quotation from the “Reply to Emser” see below

pp. 388-392.]

But what are we to say of those works which have been invented according to the tradition and teaching of men? They are shams, snares, traps to extort money. All works are the fruit either of piety or of the flesh; for if you are pious you devote yourself from faith to the things that faith dictates. For whosoever hath faith, God is in him and he in God [ef. I John 4:16]. And let no one say: ‘“This that you ascribe to faith belongs to love”; for we must consider that faith is used variously in the Holy Seriptures: first, for belief; then, for unyielding constancy; then, for confidence in God; and of this last only are we to understand the statement that faith saves [cf. Mk. 16:16]. But those who do not understand that faith, hope, and love are the same thing, namely, this confidence in God, will have to pass by many knotty points in Scripture unexplained. But this will be plain from the Scriptures. “By hope were we saved,” Rom. 8:24; and, “To him that believeth, his faith is reckoned for righteousness,” Rom. 4:5. If, then, hope saves, and faith saves, faith and hope must be the same thing. And let no one be troubled if sometimes hope and faith are spoken of differently; for then faith is not used to mean confidence in God, but either for some sort of belief, or for unyielding constancy or genuineness. But “God Himself is love; and he that abideth in love, abideth in God, and God in him,” I Jn. 4:16. And, Jn. 6: 56, “He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, abideth in me, and I in him.” That is: Whosoever trusteth in Christ, as having suffered for us, abideth in Christ and Christ in him. Therefore faith and love must be the same thing. And let no one marvel, and fear that I am confounding these three virtues of the theologians. For my part, I have learned from the Holy Scriptures that, unless any one of these virtues is its companion virtue, it is absolutely nothing, much less a virtue. If you have faith in regard to Christ, but do not put your hope in Him nor love Him, it amounts to nothing, James 1. If you say you have hope in God, and do not love Him, you make yourself a liar; for if you have been so taught about God that you see you ought fairly to put your hope in Him, you cannot fail to recognize that He is the supreme good; if you recognize that He is the

supreme good, you cannot fail to love Him. If you love Him and do not hope, you are a deceiver; for he cannot love God who does not trust in Him. “The union of the human heart with God, therefore, that is, piety, has different names in an ascending scale. We use faith sometimes for belief; this in the order of understanding is followed by hope, and that by love. Furthermore, this whole confidence of the human heart in God is called sometimes faith, sometimes hope and love; yet it is nothing but piety towards God, whether you love, hope, or trust. Hence, since the one thing, piety, embraces these three things, faith is used to mean love and hope to mean faith. The objection that might be raised here from I Cor. 13: 13, But the greatest of these is love,” can easily be met; for love, as I have indicated, is but the consummate form of that which is still nothing else than the heart on fire in the Lord.

I come back, however, to the point from which I digressed. He, then, in whom God is, in turn is in God; hence must fruits worthy of God grow, “for without him we can do nothing” [Jn. 15:5]. Since, therefore, good works are the fruit of faith, they are certainly of God, not ours. What, then, shall we claim in return for them, when they are not ours? How much less will those who solemnly came forth boasting of a vision of angels, which they yet had not seen, Col. 2:18, be able to demand for their works, invented and performed according to the rudiments of this world! We must agree, then, that the pious do not put a value upon their own works, and therefore never wrangle about a reward for them. On the other hand, those that put on a value are impious; for the man is not pious who has not renounced self. They that put a value upon their own works have not renounced self; therefore they are impious. Having above, in considering the law, given a touchstone by which one could find out what part of the law had been abolished and what remained, owing to the stress of my occupations I spoke of that part only which has to do with the second chief commandment, telling, namely, how those things pertaining to love of one’s neighbor will last always, and again how the things demanded under pretence of the law of love towards one’s neighbor and yet not proceeding from the Law-

[See above, p. 138.]

giver have been abolished. Meantime I forgot to speak of, or perhaps thought I had spoken of, the abolition of the law as far as it has to do with the worship of God. We must consider, therefore, that since Christ said, Matt. 22: 40, “On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets,” whatever laws are tried by them and maintain their integrity are nowhere abolished and never will be abolished. But, when some men say, “Ceremonies, therefore, are by no means to be abolished, since they are governed by the first commandment, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,’ etc. [Deut. 6:5], for ceremonies are used from love of God,” I answer that ceremonies are no proof that we love God, but the fact that we obey His will. For He says, John 14:21, He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me.” It is, therefore, an indubitable sign of love of God, if we model ourselves upon His precepts. As to ceremonies, we must constantly bear in mind, “In vain do they worship me, teaching the doctrines and precepts of men,” Matt. 15:9. They say, therefore, again: “In this way it will come to pass that we shall cherish those ceremonies which God under the old law wished performed unto Him, even promulgating directions therefor.” 1 answer, that those ceremonies had been scorned and rejected out of the mouth of God even before Christ, as is clear from Isa. 1: 11-17; Jer. 6: 20; Ezek. 20: 25; Amos 5:21. As, therefore, Christ said, John 15:8, Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; and so shall ye be my disciples,” so we all surely ought to devote ourselves to the honor of God. But how do we honor Him if we are only disciples of Christ? All who are disciples of Christ will bear much fruit unto the Father, as also Christ did. We must try, therefore, to be disciples of Christ. Now, it is the part of a disciple to become like his master. If, therefore, we are Christ’s disciples, we will “walk even as he walked,” I John 2:6. Now, Christ honored the Father by doing good to all and by finally giving Himself for all. So, surely, our ceremonies shall be none other than those that Christ used; for by these is God glorified, that is, when we are zealously devoted to truth and guilelessness, and are more ready to expose ourselves for the brethren than to trample upon them in our own interest. This is to worship the Father in spirit

and in truth [ef. Jn. 4: 24].

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