A SERMON ON GOOD WORKS JOINED TO FAITH.
Part One
In the last sermon it was declared to you what the lively faith[1] of a Christian is: that it does not make a man idle, but busy in bringing forth good works, as occasion arises. Now, by God's grace, the second thing that was noted before about faith shall be declared — that without it no good work can be done that is acceptable and pleasing to God. For, as our Saviour Christ says, just as a branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it remains in the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me: I am the vine, and you are the branches. He who remains in me, and I in him, brings forth much fruit; for without me you can do nothing. (John 15:4-5) And St. Paul proves that Enoch had faith, because he pleased God; for, as he says, without faith it is impossible to please God. (Hebrews 11:6) And again, to the Romans, he says, Whatever work is done without faith is sin. (Romans 14:23)
Faith gives life to the soul; and those who lack faith are as dead to God as those whose bodies lack souls are dead to the world. Without faith, all that we do is but dead before God, however fine and glorious the work may seem before men. Just as a carved or painted picture is but a dead representation of the thing itself, without life or any kind of movement, so are the works of all faithless persons before God. They appear to be living works, and yet indeed they are but dead, of no avail toward everlasting life. They are but shadows and shows of living and good things, and not good and living things in truth. For true faith gives life to works; and out of such faith come good works that are truly good works indeed; and without it no work is good before God.
As St. Augustine says: "We must set no good works before faith, nor think that before faith a man may do any good work. For such works, though they seem praiseworthy to men, yet in truth they are but vain" — and not accepted before God. "They are like the running of a horse that strays off the road, which takes great labour but to no purpose. Therefore let no man," he says, "reckon up his good works before his faith; where faith was not, good works were not. The intent," he says, "makes the good works; but faith must guide and order the intent of man."
And Christ says, If your eye is bad,[2] your whole body is full of darkness. (Matthew 6:23) "The eye signifies the intent," says St. Augustine, "with which a man does a thing." So that whoever does not do his good works with a godly intent and a true faith that works by love — the whole body besides (that is to say, the whole number of his works) is dark, and there is no light in it. For good deeds are not measured by the acts themselves, considered apart from vices, but by the ends and intents for which they are done. If a heathen clothes the naked, feeds the hungry, and does other such works, yet, because he does them not in faith for the honour and love of God, they are but dead, vain, and fruitless works to him. It is faith that commends the work to God; "for," as St. Augustine says, "whether you will or not, the work that does not come of faith is worthless."
Where the faith of Christ is not the foundation, there is no good work, whatever building we may raise. There is one work in which all good works are contained: faith, which works by charity.[3] If you have it, you have the ground of all good works; for the virtues of strength, wisdom, temperance, and justice are all referred to this same faith. Without this faith we do not have them, but only the names and shadows of them; as St. Augustine says: "All the life of those who lack the true faith is sin; and nothing is good without him who is the Author of goodness. Where he is not, there is only counterfeit virtue, even in the best works." And St. Augustine, expounding that verse of the Psalm — The turtledove has found a nest where she may keep her young (Psalm 84:3) — says that Jews, heretics, and pagans do good works: they clothe the naked, feed the poor, and do other works of mercy; but, because these are not done in the true faith, the birds are lost. But if they remain in faith, then "faith is the nest" and safeguard "of their birds" — that is to say, the safeguard of their good works, so that their reward is not utterly lost.
And this matter, which St. Augustine debates at length in many books, St. Ambrose sums up in a few words, saying: "He who would withstand vice by nature alone, whether by natural will or reason, adorns the span of this life in vain and does not attain the very true virtues; for without the worship of the true God, what seems to be virtue is vice." And yet most plainly to this purpose St. John Chrysostom writes in this way:
You shall find many who do not have the true faith and are not of the flock of Christ, and yet, as it appears, they flourish in good works of mercy. You shall find them full of pity and compassion, and given to justice; and yet, for all that, they have no fruit of their works, because the chief work is lacking. For when the Jews asked Christ what they should do to work good works, he answered, This is the work of God, to believe in him whom he sent (John 6:29); so that he called faith the work of God. And as soon as a man has faith, at once he flourishes in good works; for faith of itself is full of good works, and nothing is good without faith.
They who glitter and shine in good works without faith in God are like dead men who have fine and precious tombs, and yet it avails them nothing. Faith may not be naked, without works, for then it is no true faith; and when it is joined to works, it is yet above the works. For, as men who are truly men first have life and afterward are nourished, so must our faith in Christ go first, and afterward be nourished with good works. And life may be without nourishment, but nourishment cannot be without life. A man must needs be nourished by good works, but first he must have faith. He who does good deeds, yet without faith, does not have life. I can show a man who, by faith without works, lived and came to heaven; but without faith no man ever had life. The thief who was hanged when Christ suffered believed only, and the most merciful God justified him. And, lest any man should say again that he lacked time to do good works — for else he would have done them — it is true, and I will not contend about it; but this I will surely affirm, that faith alone saved him; for if he had lived, and not regarded faith and the works of it, he would have lost his salvation again. But this is the point I make: that faith by itself saved him, but works by themselves never justified any man.
Here you have heard the mind of St. Chrysostom, whereby you may perceive that neither is faith without works, when there is opportunity for them, nor can works avail to everlasting life without faith.
Part Two
Of the three things specially noted about lively faith in the former sermon, two have been declared to you. The first was that faith is never idle, never without good works when occasion arises; the second, that good works acceptable to God cannot be done without faith. Now we go on to the third point: namely, what kind of works they are that spring out of true faith and lead faithful men to everlasting life.
This cannot be known so well from anyone as from our Saviour Christ himself, who was asked the same question by a certain great man. "What works shall I do," said a ruler, "to come to everlasting life?" To whom Jesus answered, "If you will come to everlasting life, keep the commandments." But the ruler, not satisfied with this, asked further, "Which commandments?" The Scribes and Pharisees had made so many laws and traditions of their own, besides God's commandments, to bring men to heaven, that this man was in doubt whether he should come to heaven by those laws and traditions or by the laws of God; and therefore he asked Christ which commandments he meant. To which Christ gave him a plain answer, rehearsing the commandments of God, saying, "You shall not kill; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness; honour your father and mother; and, love your neighbour as yourself." (Matthew 19:16-19) By these words Christ declared that the laws of God are the very way that leads to everlasting life, and not the traditions and laws of men. So that this is to be taken as a most true lesson, taught by Christ's own mouth: that the works of the moral commandments of God are the very true works of faith that lead to the blessed life to come.
But the blindness and malice of man, even from the beginning, has ever been ready to fall away from God's commandments.
Adam, the first man, having but one commandment — that he should not eat of the forbidden fruit — nevertheless, against God's commandment, gave credit to the woman, who had been seduced by the subtle persuasion of the serpent; and so he followed his own will and left God's commandment. And ever since that time, all who came of him have been so blinded through original sin that they have ever been ready to fall from God and his law, and to invent a new way to salvation by works of their own devising. So much so that almost all the world, forsaking the true honour of the only eternal living God, wandered about in their own fantasies — some worshipping the sun, the moon, and the stars; some Jupiter, Juno, Diana, Saturn, Apollo, Neptune, Ceres, Bacchus, and other dead men and women. Some, not satisfied even with that, worshipped various kinds of beasts, birds, fish, fowl, and serpents; nearly every country, town, and house being divided, setting up images of such things as they liked, and worshipping them. Such was the ignorance of the people, after they fell to their own fantasies and left the eternal living God and his commandments, that they devised innumerable images and gods. In which error and blindness they remained until Almighty God, pitying the blindness of man, sent his true prophet Moses into the world to reprove and rebuke this extreme madness, and to teach the people to know the only living God and his true honour and worship.
But the corrupt inclination of man was so given to following his own fantasies, and (as you might say) to favouring his own bird that he had reared himself, that all the warnings, exhortations, benefits, and threatenings of God could not keep him from such inventions. For, despite all the benefits God showed to the people of Israel, yet when Moses went up into the mountain to speak with Almighty God, he had stayed there but a few days when the people began to invent new gods; and, as it came into their heads, they made a calf of gold, and knelt down and worshipped it. And after that they followed the Moabites, and worshipped Baal-Peor, the Moabites' god. Read the book of Judges, the books of the Kings, and the Prophets, and there you will find how inconstant the people were, how full of inventions, and more ready to run after their own fantasies than after God's most holy commandments. There you will read of Baal, Moloch, Chemosh, Milcom, Baal-Peor, Ashtaroth, Bel, the Dragon, Priapus, the Bronze Serpent, the Twelve Signs, and many others; to whose images the people, with great devotion, invented pilgrimages, richly decking and censing them, kneeling down and making offerings to them, thinking this a high merit before God, to be esteemed above the precepts and commandments of God.
And whereas at that time God commanded no sacrifice to be made except in Jerusalem only, they did the clean contrary, making altars and sacrifices everywhere — on hills, in woods, and in houses — not regarding God's commandments, but esteeming their own fantasies and devotion better than them. And this error was so widely spread that not only the unlearned people, but also the priests and teachers of the people, were corrupted — partly by love of glory and covetousness, and partly blindly deceived through ignorance by the same abominations; so much so that, king Ahab having only Elijah as a true teacher and minister of God, there were eight hundred and fifty priests who persuaded him to honour Baal and to sacrifice in the woods or groves. And so that horrible error continued, until the three noble kings — Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, and Josiah, God's chosen ministers — utterly destroyed it, and brought the people back from such feigned inventions to the very commandments of God; for which their immortal reward and glory does and shall remain with God for ever.
And, besides the inventions already mentioned, the inclination of man to have his own holy devotions devised new sects and religions, called Pharisees, Sadducees, and Scribes, with many holy and godly traditions and ordinances — so it seemed by the outward appearance and fine glittering of the works, but in truth all tending to idolatry, superstition, and hypocrisy; their hearts within being full of malice, pride, covetousness, and all wickedness. Against these sects and their pretended holiness Christ cried out more vehemently than against any other persons, saying and often repeating these words: "Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup, but within you are full of extortion and filth. You blind Pharisee and hypocrite, first make the inside clean." (Matthew 23:25-26) For, despite all the fine traditions and outward show of good works devised out of their own imagination, by which they appeared to the world the most religious and holy of all men, yet Christ, who saw their hearts, knew that inwardly, in the sight of God, they were the most unholy, most abominable, and furthest from God of all men. Therefore he said to them, "Hypocrites, the prophet Isaiah spoke very truly of you when he said: This people honours me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching the doctrines and commandments of men. For you leave the commandments of God to keep your own traditions." (Isaiah 29:13; Matthew 15:7-9)
And though Christ said that those who teach as doctrines the commandments of men worship God in vain, yet he did not mean by this to overthrow all human commandments; for he himself was always obedient to rulers and their laws, made for the good order and governance of the people. But he reproved the laws and traditions made by the Scribes and Pharisees, which were not made only for the good order of the people (as the civil laws were), but were set up so high that they were made to be a right and pure worship of God, as though they were equal with God's laws, or above them; for many of God's laws could not be kept, but had to give place to them. This arrogance God detested — that man should so exalt his own laws as to make them equal with God's laws (in which the true honouring and right worship of God consists), and to set God's laws aside for them. God has appointed his laws, by which it is his pleasure to be honoured. It is also his pleasure that all human laws not contrary to his laws should be obeyed and kept, as good and necessary for every commonwealth, but not as things in which his honour principally rests. And all civil and human laws either are or should be made to bring men the better to keep God's laws, so that consequently (or, as a result) God should be the better honoured by them. However, the Scribes and Pharisees were not content that their laws should be esteemed no higher than other positive and civil laws, nor would they have them called by the name of other temporal laws; but they called them holy and godly traditions, and would have them esteemed not only a right and true worship of God (as God's laws indeed are), but the very highest honouring of God, to which the commandments of God should give place. And for this cause Christ spoke so vehemently against them, saying, "Your traditions, which men esteem so highly, are an abomination before God." (Luke 16:15)
For commonly from such traditions there follows the transgression (or breaking) of God's commandments, and a greater devotion in keeping such things, and a greater scruple of conscience in breaking them, than of the commandments of God. So the Scribes and Pharisees kept the Sabbath so superstitiously and scrupulously that they were offended with Christ because he healed sick men, and with his apostles because they, being very hungry, plucked the ears of grain to eat on that day. And because his disciples did not wash their hands as often as the traditions required, the Scribes and Pharisees quarrelled with Christ, saying, "Why do your disciples break the traditions of the elders?" (Matthew 15:2) But Christ charged them that they, in order to keep their own traditions, taught men to break the very commandments of God.
For they taught the people such a devotion that men offered their goods into the treasury of the temple, under pretence of God's honour, leaving their fathers and mothers (to whom they were chiefly bound) unhelped; and so they broke the commandments of God to keep their own traditions. They esteemed an oath made by the gold or the offering in the temple more than an oath made in the name of God himself, or of the temple. They were more zealous to pay their tithes of small things than to do the greater things commanded by God — such as works of mercy, doing justice, or dealing sincerely, uprightly, and faithfully with God and man. "These," says Christ, "ought to be done, and the others not left undone." (Matthew 23:23) And, in short, they were of such blind judgment that they stumbled at a straw and leaped over a block; they would, as it were, daintily take a fly out of their cup and swallow down a whole camel. And therefore Christ called them blind guides, warning his disciples from time to time to avoid their teaching. For although they seemed to the world the most perfect of men, both in living and in teaching, yet their life was but hypocrisy, and their doctrine sour leaven mingled with superstition, idolatry, and perverse judgment, setting up the traditions and ordinances of man in the place of God's commandments.
Part Three
That all men might rightly judge of good works, it has been declared in the second part of this sermon what kind of good works they are that God would have his people walk in: namely, such as he has commanded in his holy Scripture, and not such works as men have devised out of their own brain, from a blind zeal and devotion, without the word of God. And by mistaking the nature of good works, man has most highly displeased God, and has departed from his will and commandment. So you have heard how much the world, from the beginning until Christ's time, was ever ready to fall from the commandments of God, and to seek other means to honour and serve him by a devotion of their own devising, and how they set up their own traditions as high as, or above, God's commandments. And this has happened in our own times also (the more to be lamented) no less than it did among the Jews; and that through the corruption, or at least the negligence, of those who chiefly ought to have preferred God's commandments and preserved the pure and heavenly doctrine left by Christ.
What man, having any judgment or learning joined with a true zeal for God, does not see and lament that there have entered into Christ's religion such false doctrine, superstition, idolatry, hypocrisy, and other enormities and abuses, so that little by little, through the sour leaven of them, the sweet bread of God's holy word has been much hindered and laid aside? Never had the Jews, in their deepest blindness, so many pilgrimages to images, nor used so much kneeling, kissing, and censing of them, as has been used in our time. Sects and feigned religions were not the fortieth part so many among the Jews, nor more superstitiously and ungodly abused, as in recent days they have been among us. These sects and religions had so many hypocritical and feigned works in their "state of religion" (as they arrogantly named it) that their lamps, as they said, were always running over, able to make satisfaction not only for their own sins but also for all their benefactors, the brothers and sisters of their orders — as most ungodly and craftily they had persuaded the multitude of ignorant people; keeping, in various places, as it were, fairs or markets of merits, full of their holy relics, images, shrines, and works of overflowing abundance, ready to be sold. And all the things they had were called holy: holy cowls, holy girdles, holy pardon-beads, holy shoes, holy roods,[4] and all full of holiness. And what can be more foolish, more superstitious, or ungodly than that men, women, and children should wear a friar's coat to deliver them from fevers or plague, or, when they die or are buried, have it cast upon them in hope of being saved thereby? And though, thanks be to God, this superstition has been little used in this realm, yet in various other realms it has been, and still is, used among many, both learned and unlearned.
But, to pass over the countless superstitions that have been practised in strange dress, in silence, in dormitory, in cloister, in chapter, in the choice of foods and drinks, and in such like things, let us consider what enormities and abuses there have been in the three chief points which they called the three essentials (or three chief foundations) of religion — that is to say, obedience, chastity, and voluntary poverty. First, under pretence (or colour) of obedience to their father in religion (an obedience they had invented themselves), they were freed by their rules and canons from obedience to their natural father and mother, and from obedience to emperor and king and all temporal power, whom by God's laws they were in plain duty bound to obey. And so the profession of an obedience not owed was a forsaking of the obedience they did owe. And how their profession of chastity was kept, it is more decent to pass over in silence, and let the world judge of what is well known, than to offend chaste and godly ears with unchaste words by describing their unchaste life. And as for their voluntary poverty, it was such that, while in possessions, jewels, plate, and riches they equalled or surpassed merchants, gentlemen, barons, earls, and dukes, yet by this subtle sophistical term, Proprium in communi — that is to say, "Property in common" — they mocked the world, persuading men that, notwithstanding all their possessions and riches, they still kept their vow and lived in voluntary poverty. But, for all their riches, they could not help father or mother, nor any others who were truly needy and poor, without the leave of their father abbot, prior, or warden. And yet they might take from every man, but they might not give anything to anyone — no, not even to those whom the laws of God bound them to help. And so, through their traditions and rules, the laws of God could bear no rule with them; and therefore that might most truly be said of them which Christ spoke to the Pharisees: "You break the commandments of God by your traditions. You honour God with your lips, but your hearts are far from him." (Matthew 15:3, 8)
And the longer the prayers they used by day and by night — under pretence (or colour) of such holiness, to win the favour of widows and other simple folk, that they might sing trentals and services for their husbands and friends, and admit (or receive) them into their prayers — the more truly is verified of them the saying of Christ: "Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows' houses under colour of long prayers; therefore your damnation shall be the greater. Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel about by sea and by land to make more novices and new brethren; and when they are let in or received into your sect, you make them children of hell, worse than yourselves." (Matthew 23:14-15) Honour be to God, who put light into the heart of his faithful and true minister of most famous memory, King Henry the Eighth, and gave him the knowledge of his word, and an earnest desire to seek his glory and to put away all such superstitious and Pharisaical sects, invented by Antichrist and set up against the true word of God and the glory of his most blessed Name — as he gave the like spirit to the most noble and famous princes Jehoshaphat, Josiah, and Hezekiah. God grant that all of us, the Queen's Highness's faithful and true subjects, may feed on the sweet and savoury bread of God's own word, and, as Christ commanded, avoid all our pharisaical and papistical leaven of man's feigned religion. This, though before God it was most abominable, and contrary to God's commandments and Christ's pure religion, was nevertheless praised as a most godly life and the highest state of perfection — as though a man might be more godly and more perfect by keeping the rules, traditions, and professions of men than by keeping the holy commandments of God.
And, briefly passing over the ungodly and counterfeit religions, let us recount some other kinds of papistical superstition and abuse: such as Beads, Lady Psalters and Rosaries, the Fifteen Os, St. Bernard's Verses, St. Agatha's Letters, Purgatory, Satisfactory Masses, Stations and Jubilees, feigned relics, hallowed Beads, Bells, Bread, Water, Palms, Candles, Fire, and such like; superstitious Fastings, Fraternities (or brotherhoods), Pardons, and similar merchandise — which were so esteemed and abused, to the great prejudice of God's glory and commandments, that they were made the highest and holiest of things, by which to attain everlasting life or remission of sin. Yes, and vain inventions, unfruitful ceremonies, and ungodly laws, decrees, and Councils of Rome were so exalted that nothing was thought comparable to them in authority, wisdom, learning, and godliness; so that the laws of Rome, as they said, were to be received by all men like the four Evangelists, to which all the laws of princes must give place; and the laws of God also were partly set aside and less esteemed, so that the said laws, decrees, and Councils, with their traditions and ceremonies, might be more strictly kept and held in greater reverence. Thus were the people, through ignorance, so blinded with the fine show and appearance of those things that they thought the keeping of them a greater holiness, a more perfect service and honouring of God, and more pleasing to God, than the keeping of God's commandments. Such has been the corrupt inclination of man — ever superstitiously given to inventing new ways of honouring God out of his own head, and then having more affection and devotion to keep them than to search out God's holy commandments and keep those; and furthermore, to mistake God's commandments for men's, and men's commandments for God's, yes, and for the highest, most perfect, and holiest of all God's commandments. And so all was so confused that scarcely any well-learned men — and but a small number of them — knew (or at least would know), and dared to affirm the truth, so as to separate (or sever) God's commandments from the commandments of men; from which grew much error, superstition, idolatry, vain religion, perverse judgment, great contention, and all ungodly living.
Therefore, as you have any zeal for the right and pure honouring of God, as you have any regard for your own souls and for the life to come — which is both without pain and without end — apply yourselves chiefly, above all things, to read and to hear God's word; mark diligently therein what his will is that you should do, and with all your endeavour set yourselves to follow it. First, you must have an assured faith in God, and give yourselves wholly to him, love him in prosperity and adversity, and dread to offend him evermore. Then, for his sake, love all men, friends and foes, because they are his creation and image, and redeemed by Christ, as you are. Consider in your minds how you may do good to all men to the utmost of your power, and hurt no one. Obey all your superiors and governors; serve your masters faithfully and diligently, in their absence as well as in their presence, not only for dread of punishment, but for conscience' sake, knowing that you are bound to do so by God's commandments. Do not disobey your fathers and mothers, but honour them, help them, and please them to the utmost of your power. Oppress not, kill not, beat not, neither slander nor hate anyone; but love all men, speak well of all men, help and relieve everyone as you can — yes, even your enemies, who hate you, who speak evil of you, and who do you harm. Take no man's goods, nor covet your neighbour's goods wrongfully, but content yourselves with what you come by honestly, and also bestow your own goods charitably, as need and occasion require. Flee all idolatry, witchcraft, and perjury. Commit no kind of adultery, sexual immorality,[5] or other unchastity, in will or in deed, with any other man's wife, widow, maid, or otherwise. And labouring continually throughout your life in this way, in keeping the commandments of God — in which stands the pure, principal, and right honour of God, and which, wrought in faith, God has ordained to be the right road and pathway to heaven — you shall not fail, as Christ has promised, to come to that blessed and everlasting life, where you shall live in glory and joy with God for ever. To whom be praise, honour, and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
The 1859 text reads "lively faith," kept as a fixed theological phrase (a living, active faith).↩︎
Original "naught" (= bad, evil; rendered "worthless" at its later occurrence). The modern sense "nothing" would mislead.↩︎
The 1859 text reads "charity," retained for its technical sense (Greek agapē).↩︎
Source reading uncertain here: "roods" (= crucifixes); the cleaned text flags it as a possible misreading of "robes."↩︎
Original "fornication"; modernized as "sexual immorality."↩︎