Excerpt from Orations From Homer to William McKinley, Vol. 4 of 25

For good deeds be not measured by the facts themselves, and so dissevered from vices, but by the ends and intents for the which they be done. If a heathen man clothe the naked, feed the hungry, and do such other like works; yet because he doth them not in faith for the honor and love of God, they be but dead, vain, and fruitless works to him.

Faith it is that doth commend the work to God: for, as St. Augustine saith, whether thou wilt or no, that work that cometh not of faith is naught; where the faith of Christ is not the foundation, there is no good work, what building soever we make. There is one work, in the which be all good works, that is, faith which worketh by charity: if thou have it, thou hast the ground of all good works; for the vir tues of strength, wisdom, temperance, and justice be all referred unto this same faith. Without this faith we have not them, but only the names and shadows of them, as St. Augustine saith: All the life of them that lack the true faith 18 sm; and nothing is good without him that is the author of goodness: where he is not, there is but feigned virtue, although it be in the best works. And St. Augustine, declaring this verse of the psalm, The turtle hath found a nest where she may keep her young birds, saith that Jews, heretics, and pagans do good works: they clothe the naked, feed the poor, and do other good works of mercy; but because they be not done in the true faith therefore the birds be lost. But if they remain in faith, then faith is the nest and safeguard of their birds; that is to say, safeguard of their good works, that the reward of them be not utterly lost.

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