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A Treatise on Good Works by Martin Luther
page 43 of 130 (33%)
and thanksgiving ought also of right never to cease or end. For
who can praise Him perfectly for the gift of natural life, not
to mention all other temporal and eternal blessings? And so
through this one part of the Commandment man is overwhelmed with
good and precious works; if he do these in true faith, he has
indeed not lived in vain. And in this matter none sin so much as
the most resplendent saints, who are pleased with themselves and
like to praise themselves or to hear themselves praised, honored
and glorified before men.

Therefore the second work of this Commandment is, to be on one's
guard, to flee from and to avoid all temporal honor and praise,
and never to seek a name for oneself, or fame and a great
reputation, that every one sing of him and tell of him; which is
an exceedingly dangerous sin, and yet the most common of all,
and, alas! little regarded. Every one wants to be of importance
and not to be the least, however small he may be; so deeply is
nature sunk in the evil of its own conceit and in its
self-confidence contrary to these two first Commandments.

Now the world regards this terrible vice as the highest virtue,
and this makes it exceedingly dangerous for those who do not
understand and have not had experience of God's Commandments and
the histories of the Holy Scriptures, to read or hear the heathen
books and histories. For all heathen books are poisoned through
and through with this striving after praise and honor; in them
men are taught by blind reason that they were not nor could be
men of power and worth, who are not moved by praise and honor;
but those are counted the best, who disregard body and life,
friend and property and everything in the effort to win praise
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