the saints. Further, when we are dressed up and bow, kneel, pray
the rosary and the Psalter, and all this not before an idol, but
before the holy cross of God or the pictures of His saints: this
we call honoring and worshiping God, and, according to the First
Commandment, "having no other gods"; although these things
usurers, adulterers and all manner of sinners can do too, and do
them daily.

Of course, if these things are done with such faith that we
believe that they please God, then they are praiseworthy, not
because of their virtue, but because of such faith, for which all
works are of equal value, as has been said. But if we doubt or
do not believe that God is gracious to us and is pleased with us,
or if we presumptuously expect to please Him only through and
after our works, then it is all pure deception, outwardly
honoring God, but inwardly setting up self as a false god. This
is the reason why I have so often spoken against the display,
magnificence and multitude of such works and have rejected them,
because it is as clear as day that they are not only done in
doubt or without faith, but there is not one in a thousand who
does not set his confidence upon the works, expecting by them to
win God's favor and anticipate His grace; and so they make a fair
of them, a thing which God cannot endure, since He has promised
His grace freely, and wills that we begin by trusting that grace,
and in it perform all works, whatever they may be.

XII. Note for yourself, then, how far apart these two are:
keeping the First Commandment with outward works only, and
keeping it with inward trust. For this last makes true, living
children of God, the other only makes worse idolatry and the most