In this way good works ought to follow faith. Yet people who cannot believe and be sure that they are freely forgiven for Christ's sake, and that freely they have a reconciled God for Christ's sake, use works in a far different way. When they see the works of saints, they judge in a human way that saints have merited forgiveness of sins and grace through these works. So they imitate them, thinking that through similar works they merit forgiveness of sins and grace. They think that through these works they appease God's wrath and are counted righteous for the sake of these works. We condemn this godless opinion about works. In the first place, it hides Christ glory when people offer to God these works as a price and atonement. This honor, due to Christ alone, is credited to our works. Second, they do not find peace of conscience in these works. in true terrors, heaping up works upon works, they eventually despair because they find no work important and precious enough. The Law always accuses and produces wrath. Third, such persons never attain the knowledge of God, who judges and afflicts them. They never believe that they are heard. But faith shows God's presence, since it is certain that God freely forgives and hears us.
~BOC, AP, V (III), 82-84
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