A06515:26
Here after ensueth a proper treatise of good worksHere after ensueth a propre treatyse of good workes
London : Imprinted be me Robert wire, dwelling in saint martins parish beside charring Cross, 1535?London : Imprynted be me Robert wyer, dwellynge in saynt martyns parysshe besyde charynge Crosse, 1535?
Title page typeset from the transcription.
[figure] ¶Here beginneth the book of good works.[figure] ¶Here begynneth the boke of good workes.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Where be they now which ask what be good works, what they ought to do, or how they might be good? yea where be they which say that we so preach faith that we teach ⟨image 26⟩no good works, and that there ought none to be done? Doth not this first commandment make us more busyness / than any man can fulfil? For if one man were a thousand men / yea all men or all creatures / yet here he had enough to do / and more than he might away with, whiles he is commanded to live & continue alway in faith / and trust to god / and to put trust in no other / & so to have one true god / seeing than that mans life, can not be one moment with out deed, fault, trouble, or flight / for the life of man as we see never resteth / let him that would be good and full of good works begin to be alway in this faith, let him learn oft time to do and leave undone all things in such trust / for so shall he ⟨image 27⟩find how great busyness he hath to do / and how all things stand in faith / and that faith can not be idle / and that the self same idleness is sometime the exercise and work of faith. And to be short / there is nothing that can perish or lose to us that believe that all our works please god / for than they can not be / out good & meritorious / so sayeth saint Paul / 1whither therefore ye eat or drink / or what soever you do / do all to the praise of god / it can not be done in the same name / but if it be done in the same faith / Also to the Romans / for we know well that all things work for the best to them that love god. Therefore the saying of them that say that we forbid good works and preach only faith / is like as I should say to ⟨image 27⟩a sick man / if thou haddest health / thou shouldest have all the works of thy members without the which / the works of the members be nothing / of this he might understand. That I forbid the works of the members / when my meaning is that he must have health, and than work all the works of all his members / so faith must be the chief craftsman builder and captain in all works / or else the works be utterly nought.
WHere be they nowe whiche aske what be good workꝭ, what they oughte to do, or howe they myghte be good? ye where be they which saye that we so preche faythe that we teache