phantasy and imagination of faith at any time beguile you; but be sure of your faith, try it by your living, look upon the fruits that cometh of it, mark the increase of love and charity by it towards God and your neighbour, and so shall you perceive it to be a true lively faith. If you feel and perceive such a faith in you, rejoice in it, and be diligent to maintain it, and keep it still in you; let it be daily increasing, and more and more be well working, and so shall you be sure that you shall please God by this faith; and at the length, as other faithful men have done before, so shall you, when his will is, come to him, and receive “the end and final reward of your faith,” as St Peter nameth it, “the salvation of your souls:” the which God grant us, that hath promised the same unto his faithful! To whom be all honour and glory, world without end. Amen.
An Homily or Sermon of Good Works Annexed unto Faith
Iw the last sermon was declared unto you what the lively and true faith of a christian man is; that it causeth not a man to be idle, but to be occupied in bringing forth good works, as occasion serveth.
Now, by God’s grace, shall be declared the second thing that before was noted of faith, that without it can no good work be done acceptable and pleasant? unto God. “For as a branch cannot bear fruit of itself,” saith our Saviour Christ, “except it abide in the vine, so cannot you except you abide in me. I am the vine, and yon be the branches: he that abideth in me, and I in him, he bringeth forth much fruit: for without me you can do nothing.” And St Paul proveth that Enoch had faith, because he pleased God: “For without faith,” saith he, “it is not possible to please God.” And again, to the Romans he saith: Whatsoever work is done without faith, “it is sin” Faith giveth life to the soul; and they be as much dead to God that lack faith, as they be to the world whose bodies lack souls. Without faith all that is done of us is but dead before God, although the work seem never so gay and glorious before man. Even as a picture graven or painted is but a dead representation of the thing itself, and is without life, or any manner of moving; so be the works of all unfaithful persons before God. “They do appear to be lively works, and indeed they be but dead, not availing to the eternal life”. They be but shadows and shews of lively and good things, and not good and lively things indeed; for true faith doth give life to the works, and out of such faith come good works, that be very good works indeed; and without it no work is good before God.
As saith St Augustine: “We must set no good works before faith, nor think that before faith a man may do any good work; for such works, altlfough they seem unto men to be praise-worthy, yet indeed they be but vain, and not allowed before God. They be as the course of a horse that runneth out of the way, which taketh great labour, but to no purpose. Let no man, therefore,” saith he, reckon upon his good
[[^ Toward God, Ed. 1547.] [7 To the everlasting life, Ed. 1560, 62.]]
[[^ Accepted and pleasant, Ed. 1560.] [^ So shall ye, Ed. 1547.] [8 To the work, Ed. 1547.]]
works before his faith; where as faith was not, good works were not. The intent,” saith he, “maketh the good works; but faith must guide and order the intent of man’.” And Christ saith: If thine eye be naught, thy whole body is full of darkness.” “The — eye doth signify the intent,” saith St Augustine, “wherewith a man doth a thing; so (hat he which doth not his good works with a godly intent, and a true faith that worketh by love, the whole body beside, that is to say, all the whole number of his works, is dark, and there is no light in it^.” For good deeds be not measured by the facts themselves, and so dissevered from vices?, but by the ends and intents for the which they be done. If a heathen man clothe the naked, feed the hungry, and do such other like works; yet because he doth them not in faith for the honour and love of God, they be but dead, vain, and fruitless works to him. Faith it is that doth commend the work to God: “for,” as St Augustine saith, whether thou wilt or no, that work that cometh not of faith is naught;” where the faith of Christ is not the foundation, there is no good work, what building soever we make. There is one work, in the which be all good works, that is, faith which worketh by charity?:” if thou have it, thou hast the ground of all good works; for the virtues of strength, wisdom, temperance, and justice, be all referred unto this same faith. Without this faith we have not them, but only the names and shadows of them, as St Augustine saith: All the life of them that lack the true faith is sin; and nothing is good without him that is the author of goodness: where he is not, there is but feigned virtue, although it be in the best works.” And St Augustine, declaring this verse of the psalm, The turtle hath found a nest where she may keep her young birds,” saith, that Jews, heretics, and pagans do good works: they clothe the naked, feed the poor, and do other good works of mercy; but because they be not done in the true faith, therefore the birds be lost’. But if they remain in faith, then faith is the nest and safeguard of their birds; that is to say, safeguard of their good works, that the reward of them be not utterly lost.