of a king were not free from taxes. Peter
agreed to this; yet Jesus commanded him to go to the sea, saying, "Lest
we should offend them, go thou to the sea, and cast a hook, and take up
the fish that first cometh up; and when thou hast opened his mouth thou
shalt find a piece of money; that take, and give unto them for Me and
thee" (Matt. xvii. 27).

This example is very much to our purpose; for here Christ calls Himself
and His disciples free men and children of a King, in want of nothing;
and yet He voluntarily submits and pays the tax. Just as far, then,
as this work was necessary or useful to Christ for justification or
salvation, so far do all His other works or those of His disciples avail
for justification. They are really free and subsequent to justification,
and only done to serve others and set them an example.

Such are the works which Paul inculcated, that Christians should be
subject to principalities and powers and ready to every good work (Titus
iii. 1), not that they may be justified by these things--for they are
already justified by faith--but that in liberty of spirit they may thus
be the servants of others and subject to powers, obeying their will out
of gratuitous love.

Such, too, ought to have been the works of all colleges, monasteries,
and priests; every one doing the works of his own profession and state
of life, not in order to be justified by them, but in order to bring his
own body into subjection, as an example to others, who themselves
also need to keep under their bodies, and also in order to accommodate
himself to the will of others, out of free love. But we must always
guard most carefully against any vain confidence or presumption of being
justified, gaining merit, or being saved by these works, this being the
part of faith alone, as I have so often said.

Any man possessing this knowledge may easily keep clear of danger among
those innumerable commands and precepts of the Pope, of bishops, of
monasteries, of churches, of princes, and of magistrates, which some
foolish pastors urge on us as being necessary for justification and
salvation, calling them precepts of the Church, when they are not so
at all. For the Christian freeman will speak thus: I will fast, I will
pray, I will do this or that which is commanded me by men, not as having
any need of these things for justification or salvation, but that I
may thus comply with the will of the Pope, of the bishop, of such a
community o