sign that they do not yet know the devil;
they are already blinded and taken captive by him, so that he can
ruin them when he pleases.

78. Genuine Christians are not thus self-confident and boastful when
they are attacked. In severe conflicts and anxieties they labor that
the devil may not deprive them of the sword. I know that I am learned
and have seen something of what the devil can do; but I must bear him
witness, from my daily experience, that he can overcome me unless I
am well established in faith and have Christ in my heart. Thomas
Munzer was so firm and inflexible, as he thought, that he dared to
say that he would not behold Christ, if he did not himself wish to
speak with him. But at last, when the devil began to attack him, men
saw what his pride and boasts were. No, they are not the ones to
accomplish anything, who go about so boastful, as if they had
consumed the devil. They do not see that they, themselves, were long
since devoured seven times over by him and are held fast in his jaws.

79. The heretic Arius was also secure and proud enough against the
pious bishops and Christians. Yea, when he was punished for his error
by his bishop, and admonished to desist, he became the more
obstinate. He complained about the bitter persecution to which he was
subjected. But his suffering was that they would not approve his
horrible blasphemy. Just so in every age the heretics and
blasphemers, yea, even open murderers and tyrants, pose as martyrs
when they are not permitted to run against God's Word and against
pious people. So confident do they try to be that they have no fear
of God. They count the devil a dead bee until, at length, he suddenly
seizes and destroys them in a moment.

80. But the poor, tempted Christians have need of the comfort and the
strength furnished by God's Word. They must anxiously contend lest
they lose, in their hours of severe temptation, God, Christ, faith,
and Our Father. Therefore, the mission intrusted to Peter, to
strengthen his brethren, is most needful. So the same comfort was
necessary in his own temptations, and he was even given it beforehand
by Christ, who declared that he had prayed for him that his faith
might not be extinguished nor fail, which faith, however, from the
time of his denial on to the third day did almost die, and scarcely
the smallest spark remained.

Hence he now, as a true apostle, comforts those who are in the like
fears and straits of a sinking and exp