be sorely
and hardly, and will cost much striving; but whoever carefully sees
to it in his life, that faith is invigorated and made strong by good
works, he shall have an abundant entrance, and with calm spirit and
confidence go into that life to come, so that he shall die
comfortably, and despise this life, and even triumphantly go on, and
with gladness hasten to that. But those, who would come in otherwise,
shall not enter thus with joy; the door shall not stand open to them
so wide; they shall, moreover, not have such an abundant entrance,
but it shall be, narrow and a hard one, so that they tremble, and
would rather their life-day should be in weakness, than that they
should die.

V. 12. _Wherefore I will not be negligent to remind you always of
such things, although ye know them, and are established in this
present truth._ That is the same that we also have often said,
although God has now let such a great light go forth through the
revelation of the Gospel, so that we know what true christian life
and doctrine is, and see how all Scripture insists upon it, yet this
(light) we are not to neglect but use daily, not for doctrine, but
for the sake of remembrance. For there is a twofold office in the
christian church, as St. Paul says, Rom. xii.: "If any one teaches,
let him wait on teaching; if any one admonishes, let him wait on
admonition." To teach, is when any one lays down the ground of faith,
and sets it forth to those who have no knowledge of it. But to
admonish, or as Peter here says, _to remind_, is to preach to those
who know and have heard the matter already, so that they are seized
hold of and awakened, in order that they should not be heedless, but
go onward and prosper. We are all beladen with the old sluggard load,
with our flesh and blood, that chooses for ever the byroad, and keeps
us ever subject to its load, so that the soul easily falls asleep.
Therefore we are ever to urge and shake it, as a master urges his
servants, lest they become sluggish, although they know very well
what they should do; for while we must pursue this course for our
temporal support, far more must we do it in this case in spiritual
matters.

V. 13. _For I count it proper, so long as I am in this tabernacle, to
awaken and remind you._ Here St. Peter calls his body a tabernacle
wherein the soul dwells; and it is a phrase like that where in the
first Epistle he speaks of the body as a vessel or an instrument. So
St. Paul