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| That we must press on and persevere in faith and virtue, and in completion of heavenly and spiritual grace, that we may attain to the palm and the crown.
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8. That we must press on and persevere in
faith and virtue, and in completion of heavenly and spiritual grace,
that we may attain to the palm and the crown.
In the book of Chronicles: “The Lord
is with you so long as ye also are with Him; but if ye forsake Him, He
will forsake you.”3745
In Ezekiel also:
“The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him in what
day soever he may transgress.”3746
Moreover, in the Gospel the Lord
speaks, and says: “He that shall endure to the end, the
same shall be saved.”3747
And again: “If ye
shall abide in my word, ye shall be my disciples indeed; and ye shall
know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”3748
Moreover, forewarning us that we ought always to be ready, and to stand
firmly equipped and armed, He adds, and says: “Let your
loins be girded about, and your lamps burning, and ye yourselves like
unto men that wait for their lord when he shall return from the
wedding, that when he cometh and knocketh they may open unto him.
Blessed are those servants whom their lord, when he cometh, shall find
watching.”3749
Also the blessed Apostle Paul, that our faith may advance and grow, and
attain to the highest point, exhorts us, saying: “Know ye
not, that they which run in a race run all indeed, yet one receiveth
the prize? So
run, that ye may obtain.3750
| 3750
Oxford edition: “For every one that striveth for the
mastery is temperate in all things.” | And they, indeed, that they may
receive a corruptible crown; but ye an incorruptible.”3751
And
again: “No man that warreth for God binds himself to
anxieties of this world, that he may be able to please Him to whom he
hath approved himself. Moreover, also, if a man should contend,
he will not be crowned unless he have fought lawfully.”3752
And
again: “Now I beseech you, brethren, by the mercy of God,
that ye constitute your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable
unto God; and be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed in
the renewing of your spirit, that ye may prove what is the will of God,
good, and acceptable, and perfect.”3753
And again: “We are
children of God: but if children, then heirs; heirs indeed of
God, but joint-heirs with Christ, if we suffer together, that we may
also be glorified together.”3754
And in the Apocalypse the same
exhortation of divine preaching speaks, saying, “Hold fast that
which thou hast, lest another take thy crown;”3755
which example of perseverance and
persistence is pointed out in Exodus, when Moses, for the overthrow of
Amalek, who bore the type of the devil, raised up his open hands in the
sign and sacrament of the cross,3756
| 3756
[Vol. i., Justin, pp. 242, 244; Barnabas, ibid., pp. 144,
145.] | and could not conquer his adversary
unless when he had stedfastly persevered in the sign with hands
continually lifted up. “And it came to pass,” says
he, “when Moses raised up his hands, Israel prevailed; but when
he let down his hands, Amalek grew mighty. And they took a stone
and placed it under him, and he sate thereon. And Aaron and Hur
held up his hands on the one side and on the other side, and
Moses’ hands were made steady even to the going down of the
sun. And Jesus routed Amalek and all his people. And the
Lord said unto Moses, Write this, and let it be a memorial in a book,
and tell it in the ears of Jesus; because in destroying I will destroy
the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.”3757
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