I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. As to the rest, there is laid up for me a crown of justice, which the Lord the just judge will render to me in that day: and not only to me, but to them also that love His coming. Make haste to come to me quickly. (2 Tim. iv. 7, 8.)
Mortification
BY SURFEITING many have perished, but he that is temperate shall prolong life. (Ecclus. xxxvii. 34.)
Be sober and watch because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goeth about seeking whom he may devour. (1 Peter v. 8.)
And you, employing all care, minister in your faith, virtue; and in virtue, knowledge; And in knowledge. abstinence; and in abstinence, patience; and in patience, godliness. (2 Peter i. 5, 6.)
But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in its concupiscences. (Rom xiii. 14.)
And take heed to yourselves, lest perhaps your heart be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness, and the cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly. For as a snare shall it come upon all that sit upon the face of the whole earth. Watch ye, therefore, praying at all times, that you may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that are to come, and to stand before the Son of man. (Luke xxi. 34-36.)
Prayer is good with fasting and alms, more than to lay up treasures of gold. (Tob. xii. 8.)
Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh, you shall die: but if by the Spirit you mortify the deeds of the flesh, you shall live. (Rom. viii. 12, 13)
