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 a