yet give
himself up to be healed. So it is with us as respects the Lord Jesus
Christ; we are assured of Eternal life, yet we have not complete
health; something of the old Adam still remains in the flesh.

Similar also is the parable in the xiii. of Matthew, where Christ
says, the kingdom of heaven is like leaven which a woman takes and
mingles in the meal until it is leavened throughout. When the meal is
made into dough, the leaven is all in it, but it has not penetrated
and worked through it, but the meal lies working, until it is
leavened throughout, and no more leaven need be added. Thus though
you have what you should have, through faith, whereby you apprehend
the word of God, yet it has not penetrated throughout, wherefore it
must continue to work till you are entirely renewed. In this way you
are to discriminate in regard to the Scriptures, and not mangle them
as the Papists do.

Therefore I say, when you read in Scripture of the Saints, that they
were perfect, understand it thus: that they as to faith were entirely
pure and without sin, but the flesh still remained, that could not
have been entirely holy. Therefore Christians desire and pray that
the body or the flesh be mortified, that it may be entirely pure.
This those who teach otherwise have neither experienced nor relished,
which leads them to speak just as they imagine and conceive by
reason; wherefore they must err. In regard to this, those great
saints who have written and taught much, have greatly stumbled.
Origen has not a word of it in his books. Jerome never understood it.
Augustine, had he not been driven to contend with the Pelagians,
would have understood it as little. When they speak of the saints,
they extol them as highly as if they were something different from,
and better than, other Christians: certainly as though they had not
felt the power of the flesh and complained thereof as well as we.

Therefore St. Peter says here, as ye would be pure and have complete
sanctification, continue to contend with your evil lusts. So also
Christ says in the Gospel of John xiii.: "Whoever is washed, must
also wash his feet;" it is not enough that his head and hands be
clean, therefore he would yet have them wash their feet.

But what does St. Peter mean, in that he says, refrain from the lusts
that war against the soul? This is what he would say: You are not to
imagine that you can succeed by sports and sleep. Sin is indeed taken
away by faith, but