orks, in the privacy of his home joyfully praises God when he
fares well, or with entire confidence calls upon Him when he
fares ill, and thereby does a greater and more acceptable work
than another, who fasts much, prays much, endows churches, makes
pilgrimages, and burdens himself with great deeds in this place
and in that. Such a fool opens wide his mouth, looks for great
works to do, and is so blinded that he does not at all notice
this greatest work, and praising God is in his eyes a very small
matter compared with the great idea he has formed of the works of
his own devising, in which he perhaps praises himself more than
God, or takes more pleasure in them than he does in God; and thus
with his good works he storms against the Second Commandment and
its works. Of all this we have an illustration in the case of the
Pharisee and the Publican in the Gospel. [Luke 18:10 f.] For the
sinner calls upon God in his sins, and praises Him, and so has
hit upon the two highest Commandments, faith and God's honor.
The hypocrite misses both and struts about with other good works
by which he praises himself and not God, and puts his trust in
himself more than in God. Therefore he is justly rejected and the
other chosen.

The reason of all this is that the higher and better the works
are, the less show they make; and that every one thinks they are
easy, because it is evident that no one pretends to praise God's
Name and honor so much as the very men who never do it and with
their show of doing it, while the heart is without faith, cause
the precious work to be despised. So that the Apostle St. Paul
dare say boldly, Romans ii, that they blaspheme God's Name who
make their boast of God's Law. [Rom. 2:23] For to name the Name
of God and to write His honor on paper and on the walls is an
easy matter; but genuinely to praise and bless Him in His good
deeds and confidently to call upon Him in all adversities, these
are truly the most rare, highest works, next to faith, so that if
we were to see how few of them there are in Christendom, we might
despair for very sorrow. And yet there is a constant increase of
high, pretty, shining works of men's devising, or of works which
look like these true works, but at bottom are all without faith
and without faithfulness; in short, there is nothing good back of
them. Thus also Isaiah xlviii. rebukes the people of Israel:
"Hear ye this, ye which are called by the name of Israel, which
swear by th