living God, that He is willing and able to help us? We say: Gold
makes bold; and it is true, as Baruch iii. says, "Gold is a thing
wherein men trust." But far greater is the courage which the
highest eternal Good gives, wherein trust, not men, but only
God's children.

XXVII. Even if none of these adversities constrain us to call
upon God's Name and to trust Him, yet were sin alone more than
sufficient to train and to urge us on in this work. For sin has
hemmed us in with three strong, mighty armies. The first is our
own flesh, the second the world, the third the evil spirit, by
which three we are without ceasing oppressed and troubled;
whereby God gives us occasion to do good works without ceasing,
namely, to fight with these enemies and sins. The flesh seeks
pleasure and peace, the world seeks riches, favor, power and
honor, the evil spirit seeks pride, glory, that a man be well
thought of, and other men be despised.

And these three are all so powerful that each one of them is
alone sufficient to fight a man, and yet there is no way we can
overcome them, except only by calling upon the holy Name of God
in a firm faith, as Solomon says, Proverbs xviii: "The Name of
the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous runneth into it, and
is set aloft." And David, Psalm cxvi: "I will drink the cup of
salvation, and call upon the Name of the Lord." Again, Psalm
xviii: "I will call upon the Lord with praise: so shall I be
saved from all mine enemies." These works and the power of God's
Name have become unknown to us, because we are not accustomed to
it, and have never seriously fought with sins, and have not
needed His Name, because we are trained only in our self devised