where the faith of Christ is not the foundation, there is no good work, what buildings 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 is 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. And this matter, which St. Augustine at large in many books disputeth, St. Ambrose concludeth in few words, saying, He that by nature would withstand vice, either by natural will, or reason, he doth in vain garnish the time of this life, and attaineth not the very true virtues: for without the worshipping of the true God, that which seemeth to be virtue, is vice. And yet most plainly to this purpose writeth St. Chrysostom in this wise, You shall find many which have not the true faith, that be not of the flock of Christ, and yet, as it appeareth, they flourish in good works of mercy: you shall find them full of pity, compassion, and given to

John vi.

justice, and yet, for all that, they have no fruit of their works, because the chief work lacketh. For, when the Jews asked of Christ, what they should do to work good works? he answered, This is the work of God, to believe in him whom he sent: so that he called faith the work of God. And as soon as a man hath faith, anon he shall flourish in good works: for faith of itself is full of good works, and nothing is good without faith. And for a similitude, he saith, that they which glister and shine in good works without faith in God, be like dead men, which have goodly and precious tombs, and yet it availeth them nothing. Faith may not be naked without good works, for then it is no true faith: and when it is adjoined to works, yet it is above the works. For as men that be very men indeed, first have life, and after be nourished: so must our faith in Christ go before, and after 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 that doth good deeds, yet without faith, he hath no life. I can shew a man, that, by faith, without works, lived, and came to heaven: but without faith, never man had life. The thief that was hanged, when Christ suffered, did believe only, and the most merciful God justified him. And because no man shall say again that he lacked time to do good works, for else he would have done them: truth it is, and I will not contend therein, but this I will surely affirm, that faith only saved him. If he had lived, and not regarded faith and the works thereof, he should have lost his salvation again. But this is the effect, that I say, that faith by itself saved him, but works by themselves never justified any man. Here ye have heard the mind of St. Chrysostom, whereby you may perceive, that nei

ther faith is without works, have opportunity thereto, nor works can avail to everlasting life, without faith.

This Homily may be considered as an illustration of the thirteenth Article of our excellent Church, wherein is declared that, Works done before the grace of Christ, and the inspiration of his Spirit, are not pleasant to God, forasmuch as they spring not of faith in Jesus Christ, neither do they make men meet to receive grace, or (as the school-authors say) deserve grace of congruity: "yea, rather for that they are not done as God hath willed and commanded them to be done, we doubt not but they have the nature ⚫ of sin.'

The Second Part of the Homily on Good Works. OF three things which were in the former Sermon specially noted of lively faith, to be declared unto you, the first was, that faith is never idle, without good works when occasion serveth. The second, that good works acceptable to God, cannot be done without faith. Now, to go forward to the third part, that is, What manner of works they be which spring out of true faith, and lead faithful men unto everlasting life. This cannot be known so well as by our Saviour Christ himself, who was asked of a certain great man the same question. What works shall I do, said a prince, to come to ever lasting life? to whom Jesus answered, If thou wilt come to everlasting life, keep the commandments. But the prince, not satisfied herewith, asked farther, Which commandments? The scribes and pharisees had made so many of their own laws and traditions, to bring men to heaven, besides God's commandments, that this man was in doubt whether he

Matt. xix.

1

should come to heaven by those laws and traditions, or by the law of God, and therefore he asked Christ which commandments he meant. Whereunto Christ made him a plain answer, rehearsing the commandments of God, saying, Thou shalt not kill: thou shalt not commit adultery; thou shalt not steal; thou shalt not bear false witness; honour thy father and thy mother, and love thy neighbour as thyself. By which words, Christ declared that the laws of God, be the very way that doth lead to everlasting life, and not the traditions and laws of men. So that this is to be taken for a most true lesson, taught by Christ's own mouth, that the works of the moral commandments of God be the very true works of faith, which lead to the blessed life to come. But the blindness and malice of men, even from the beginning, hath ever been ready to fall from God's commandments. As Adam, the first man, having but one commandment, that he should not eat of the fruit forbidden; notwithstanding God's commandment, he gave credit unto the woman, seduced by the subtle persuasion of the serpent, and so followed his own will, and left God's commandment. And ever since that time, all that came of him, have been so blinded, through original sin, that they have been ever ready to fall from God, and his law, and to invent a new way unto salvation, by works of their own device, so much, that, almost all the world, forsaking the true honour of the only eternal living God, wandered about their own fantasies, worshipping, some the sun, the moon, the stars; some Jupiter, Juno, Diana, Saturnus, Apollo, Neptunus, Ceres, Bacchus, and other dead men and women. Some therewith not satisfied, worshipping divers kinds of beasts, birds, fish, fowl, and serpents; every country, town and house, in a manner, being divided, and

Matt. xix. Exod. xxxii.

setting up images of such things as they liked, and worshipping the same. Such was the rudeness 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 did remain, until such time as 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 much given to follow his own fantasy, and, as you would say, to favour his own bird that he brought up himself, that all the admonitions, exhortations, benefits, and threatenings of God, could not keep him from such his inventions. For notwithstanding all the benefits of God shewed unto the people of Israel, yet, when Moses went up into the mountain, to speak with Almighty God, he had tarried 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 kneeled down, and worshipped it. And after that they followed the Moabites, and worshipped Beelphegor the Moabites' god. Read the book of Judges, the book of the Kings, and the Prophets, and there you shall find how unstedfast the people were, how full of inventions, and more ready to run after their own fantasies, than God's most holy commandments. There you shall read of Baal, Moloch, Chamos, Melchom, Baalpeor, Astaroth, Bel and the Dragon, Priapus, the brazen serpent, the twelve signs, and many others, unto whose images, the people, with great devotion, invented pilgrimages, precious decking and censing them, kneeling down, and offering to them; thinking that an high merit before God, and to be esteemed above the precepts and com