sober and vigilant? _Because your enemy
the devil goeth about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour._
The evil spirit, sleeps not--is cunning and wicked. He has purposed
with himself that he will assault us, and he knows the right trick
therefor; goes about like a lion that is hungry, and roars as though
he would gladly devour all. Here St. Peter gives us an important
admonition, and forewarns us of our enemy, that we may protect
ourselves against him; as Paul also says, "we are not ignorant of the
devices of the wicked spirit." That "going about" tends to make us
heedless, and thereupon follow wrath, hatred, pride, lust, contempt
of God.

And here observe especially, that he says _the devil goeth about_. He
does not pass before your eyes, when you are armed against him, but
looks out before and behind you, within and without, where he may
attack you. If he now meets you here, he will quickly return there,
and attack you in another place; he changes from one side to the
other, and employs every kind of cunning and art that he may bring
you to fall; and if you are well prepared in one place, he will
quickly fall in upon another; and if he cannot overthrow you there,
then he assaults you somewhere else, and so never gives it up, but
goes round and round, and leaves no rest to any one. If we then are
fools and do not regard it, but go on and take no heed, then has he
as good as seized upon us.

Let every one now look to this; surely each shall trace something of
this in his own experience. He that has examined knows it well.
Therefore it is so sad for us that we go about so heedlessly. If we
rightly regard it, we should cry out, _death rather than life_. Job
has spoken thus: "Man's life on earth is nothing but an encampment, a
mere conflict and strife." Why then does God thus leave us in life
and misery? In order that faith may be exercised and grow, and that
hastening out of this life, we may have a desire of death, and an
anxiety to depart.

V. 9. _Whom withstand, firm in the faith._ Sober you should be, and
vigilant, but to this end,--the body must be in a proper frame. Yet
with all this, the devil is not routed; this only suffices to afford
the body less occasion for sin. The true sword is this, that ye be
strong and firm in the faith. If you in heart grasp hold of the word
of God and maintain your hold by faith, then the devil cannot gain
the advantage, but will be compelled to fly. If you can say, "This