59. The one important thing, then, is to see to it that we have God's
Word, and that we regulate all the teachings and claims of men in
accordance therewith. We will thus distinguish between the true and
the false. We must remember, also, that human reason holds a far
inferior position to faith and is not to be acknowledged as
trustworthy, save as it is authorized by God for temporal authority.
He who has faith can easily perceive when reason conflicts with God's
Word or seeks, in its wisdom, to rise superior thereto; just as, in
worldly things, each one in his station, office, or calling, knows
full well, when another attempts the same work, whether he does it
right or not. So every householder well understands that in his home
wantonness and wrong-doing on the part of the servants are not to be
tolerated. However, in divine things, reason can so attire and adorn
itself as not to be recognized except by one who, guided by faith,
has a right knowledge of God's Word.
Reason will not refrain from intruding, with its wisdom and prudence,
into the affairs of God, where it has no orders. Thus the devil
creates endless misery, as he did at the beginning in the case of our
first parents. And yet reason will not permit, in its own domain, the
slightest interference of one unskilled in reason's code.
60. If a cobbler were to arise in the Church and censure the people
because they did not wear his make of shoes, and should try to
convince people that such a procedure was necessary to salvation,
they would pursue him out of the Church with shoes and slippers, and
cry after him: Stay at home in your shop with your shoes and lasts!
What does that concern the spiritual estate?
But when a factious spirit stands up and in his supposed wisdom
grunts forth: I am a holy, pious man. I have a special illumination
from the spirit. Therefore do not believe what the others say, which
is nothing but the dead letter, that one person can be God and man;
that a virgin can be a mother; that a man can be cleansed from sin by
water and the spoken Word, etc.,--when he does this, then there is no
one to offer resistance. Reason then gains the victory if it only
claims the glory of guidance by the Spirit, of a holy life, etc.,
even though God's Word and faith are not present in their purity.
Behold, what mischief the Turk, with his Mohammed, has wrought and is
still working, solely by claiming the honor of worshipping the one
God, and asserting that he alone has the true God! He declares that
only he and his followers are God's people on earth, to honor which
God they war and fight against the Christians. He presses his cause
the more vigorously because he has such large fortune and victory; so
even many Christians who come among them adopt their faith and become
Turks. But none of the Turks turn Christian.
61. Therefore, no other counsel can be offered for resisting the
devil and escaping destruction by him, than this, that we remain firm
in faith, says Saint Peter. One must have a heart which holds fast to
God's Word and fully understands the same and holds it to be true.
For faith cannot exist or endure without the Word, nor can it hear or
understand aught else. One must separate the Word far from all reason
and wisdom, placing it above these. He must hold reason as
nothing--yea, as dead--in matters pertaining to God's government and
to how man is to escape sin and eternal death. Reason must keep
silent and give to God's Word alone the honor which belongs to the
truth, "bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of
Christ," as Saint Paul says, 2 Cor 10, 5. If reason is to be my
teacher in these things, what need is there of faith? And why should
I not throw away all the Scriptures? We Christians, says Paul (1 Cor
1, 20-21), preach something else and higher than reason comprehends,
for the wisdom of the world is mere folly. If reason taught me that
the mother of Christ is a virgin, the angel Gabriel might have
remained in heaven and kept silent concerning the matter. Your faith,
says Paul again (1 Cor 2, 4), should not stand in the wisdom of men,
but in the power of God. Now you have seen the tricks and wiles of
the devil with which he seeks to devour you, which he bases on reason
as opposed to God's Word.
62. Peter admonishes all Christians, especially the preachers, how to
defend themselves against the devil's intrigues and artifices, with
which he seeks to capture them. In order that Christians may be
properly equipped, Saint Peter calls attention to two things: First,
we must know the enemy and realize his purpose; second, we must be
armed to meet him and defend ourselves, that we may stand before him
and conquer. He is a terrible, mighty foe, says Peter, and is the god
of this world. He has more wisdom and more deceptive snares than all
men, and can so blind and unsettle reason that it will cheerfully
believe and follow him.
He is, moreover, a wicked and bitter enemy to you who in Christ have
life. He cannot bear to see you Christ's. He thinks and plots about
nothing else than your overthrow. And think not that he is far from
you, or that he will pursue you from a distance. He has encamped
close to you and right around you; yea, in your own territory--that
is, in your flesh and blood. There he seeks how to reach you, and
overtake you when unguarded, attempting now this, now that. Misguided
faith, doubt, anger, impatience, covetousness, evil passions, etc.,
are points of attack--any place where he finds an opening or
discovers that you are weak. Therefore, think not that he is simply
jesting. He is more furious and hungry than a famished and angry
lion. He does not purpose merely to wound or prick you, but wholly to
consume you, so that nothing of body or soul will remain.
63. Whoever would withstand such a foe must be equipped with other
armor and weapons than those furnished by human wit and
understanding, by human powers or ability. Your defense is nothing
else, says Peter, than faith, which holds and grasps God's Word. And
because the believer holds fast to this, the devil can gain nothing.
It is God's truth and power, before which, with his lying and
murdering, he cannot stand; he must yield and flee. Therefore
Ephesians 6, 16 says: "Taking up the shield of faith, wherewith ye
shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the evil one." These
fiery darts are chiefly those he hurls into the heart through the
beautiful thoughts of human reason. He thus transforms himself into
an angel of light, to displace right thoughts and faith, and to
introduce human whims and false faith. His aim is, also, to lead into
doubt, distrust, hatred, and anger toward God.
Thus it is, too, in the other temptations and trials of life, when
Satan drives men into sin and disobedience against God's commandment,
into such sins as avarice, usury, anger, revengefulness, unchastity,
and other vices. Here he uses the same insidious arts, first tearing
God's Word out of the heart, then blinding reason with sweet and
beautiful thoughts. He says: The thing proposed is not so wicked. God
will not be so angry with you. He can afford to be patient with you,
you still love the Gospel. With such suggestions as these he carries
you away and plunges you under God's fearful anger and condemnation.
64. If you would withstand these wiles, there can be no other plan or
counsel than this: Fight with God's Word in firm faith against these
suggestions and allurements. Further, keep in mind both your former
misery and your present treasures of grace. Remember how you were
once under God's wrath when, without fear of God and without faith,
you were the devil's own, subject to all his will, and must have
perished had not God, in boundless goodness, forgiven you your sin
and bestowed on you his grace. And now give heed that you may not
lose this treasure, to which end the Holy Spirit has been promised
you. You need not succumb if you remain in faith. Again, if you
experience weakness and suffer want, you are bidden to call upon him,
certain that he will hear you. The promise is: "If ye shall ask
anything of the Father, he will give it you in my name," Jn 16, 23.
Also: "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatsoever
ye will, and it shall be done unto you," Jn 15, 7.
65. Peter would, with his admonitions, make Christians bold and
confident for resisting the temptations of the devil and defending
themselves. He would not have us feel terrified nor despair before
Satan, even though that wicked one press us hard through the
instrumentality of the world and of our own flesh, as well as by his
direct onslaughts. We are not to fear though he seem too strong for
us, and though surrender to his prowess seems inevitable. We are to
have a manly heart and fight valiantly through faith. We must be
assured that, if we remain firm in the faith, we shall have strength
and final victory. The devil shall not defeat us; we shall prove
superior to him.
We have been called of God and made Christians to the end that we
renounce the devil and contend against him, and thus maintain God's
name, Word, and kingdom against him. Christ, our head, has already,
in himself, smitten and destroyed for us the devil and his power. In
addition, he gives us faith and the Holy Spirit, whereby we can
wholly defeat Satan's further wickedness and his attempts to
overthrow us.
66. A Christian should bear all this in mind, I say, and learn to
experience the strength and power of faith. So will he not yield to
temptation and enticement. Nor will he, from love of the devil or the
world, to his own eternal hurt, and for the sake of small temporal
advantage, pleasure, or honor, cast from him God's grace and the Holy
Spirit, and put himself again under God's eternal anger and
condemnation.
IV. "Knowing that the same sufferings are accomplished in your
brethren who are in the world."
67. This is a very precious and comforting passage, the truth of
which Peter learned not only by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, but
from his own experience. One instance of his experience was when, in
the high-priest's house, he thrice denied his Lord, and soon
thereafter fell into such anxiety and despair that he would have
followed the traitor Judas had not Christ turned and looked on him.
It was for this reason that Christ, so soon after his resurrection,
first of all commanded that the glad tidings should be announced to
Peter. Christ also said to him, before all this happened: "Simon, ...
I made supplication for thee, that thy faith fail not; and do thou,
when once thou hast turned again, establish thy brethren," Lk 22,
31-32.