should do us all manner of good, so that we receive these blessings not
from them, but, through them, from God. For creatures are only the
hands, channels, and means whereby God gives all things, as He gives to
the mother breasts and milk to offer to her child, and corn and all
manner of produce from the earth for nourishment, none of which
blessings could be produced by any creature of itself.

Therefore no man should presume to take or give anything except as God
has commanded, in order that it may be acknowledged as God's gift, and
thanks may be rendered Him for it, as this commandment requires. On
this account also these means of receiving good gifts through creatures
are not to be rejected, neither should we in presumption seek other
ways and means than God has commanded. For that would not be receiving
from God, hut seeking of ourselves.

Let every one, then, see to it that he esteem this commandment great
and high above all things, and do not regard it as a joke. Ask and
examine your heart diligently, and you will find whether it cleaves to
God alone or not. If you have a heart that can expect of Him nothing
but what is good, especially in want and distress, and that, moreover
renounces and forsakes everything that is not God, then you have the
only true God. If on the contrary, it cleaves to anything else, of
which it expects more good and help than of God, and does not take
refuge in Him, but in adversity flees from Him, then you have an idol,
another god.

In order that it may be seen that God will not have this commandment
thrown to the winds, but will most strictly enforce it, He has attached
to it first a terrible threat, and then a beautiful, comforting promise
which is also to be urged and impressed upon young people, that they