ird it up well, hold
fast thereon, and suffer not yourselves to be torn from it; then
shall ye stand well. For many false teachers shall come in and set up
human doctrines that they may pervert your understanding and loose
the girdle of your faith; wherefore be admonished, and bind it well
to your mind.

The hypocrites who rest on their own works, and hence pass a
carefully abstemious life, are thus minded, that God must bring them
to heaven for their works' sake; they are puffed up, become proud,
abiding in their own opinion and blindness, like the Pharisees, Luke
xviii. Of whom also Mary speaks, in the _Magnificat_, where she uses
the same word that stands here in Peter, He hath scattered the proud
in the disposition of their hearts,--that is, in their own minds.

_Be sober._ To be sober is of service outwardly to the body, and is
the chief work of faith. For though a man has been justified, he
still is not secured from evil lusts; faith has indeed begun to
subdue the flesh, but this is ever bestirring itself, and likewise
running riot in all sorts of lusts, which would gladly break forth
again and act after their own will. Therefore the spirit must daily
work to restrain and subdue it, and must charge itself therewith,
without intermission, and have a care of the flesh that it do not
destroy faith. Therefore those persons deceive themselves, who indeed
say they have faith, and imagining that this is enough, live
thenceforth according to their own caprice. Where the faith is
genuine it must control the body and hold it in check, so that it
shall not do what it lusts after. Therefore St. Peter says that we
should be sober.

Yet he would not have us destroy the body or weaken it too much, as
we find many do who have fasted and tortured themselves to death. St.
Bernard, even, continued for a long time in this folly, although he
was truly a holy man, for he mortified his body to such an extent
that his breath was offensive and could not be endured. Yet he
afterwards forsook it, and charged his brethren that they should not
inflict injury upon the body; for he saw very well that he had
rendered himself unfit to be of service to his brethren. Therefore
St. Peter requires nothing more than that we should be sober,--that
is, mortify the body to such an extent as to prevent its being in our
apprehension too wanton; for he fixes no definite time how long we
should fast, as the Pope has done, but leaves it to each,
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