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GILDAS
On the Ruin and Conquest of Britain
page 78
SB C M, 100.] St. PAUL S ZPISXLS8.
from this wickedness. And afterwards, " Bnt thou, according to thy hardness and impenitent heart, dost lay up for thyself wrath, against the day of wrath, and revelation of the just judgment of God, who will yield unto every one according unto his works." And again, "For there is no acceptation of persons with God. For whosoever have offended without the law, shall also without the law perish ; whosoever have offended in the law, shall by the law be judged. For the hearers of the law shall not with God be accounted just, but the doers of the law shall be justified." How severe a sentence shall they therefore sustain, who not only leave undone what they ought to accomplish, and forbear not what they are forbidden, but also flee away from the very hearing of the word of God, as from a serpent, though lightly sounding in their ears.
§ 99. But let us pass over to that which followeth to this effect: "What shall we therefore say, shall we continue still in sin that grace may abound ? God forbid, for we who are dead to sin, how shall we again live in the same ?" And somewhat afterwards, "Who shall separate us," saith he, " from the love of Christ, tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or the sword ? " What one, I pray you, of all you, shall with such an affection be possessed in the inward secret of his heart, since ye do not only labour for achieving of piety, but also endure many things for the working of impiety, and offending of Christ ? Or who hath respected this that followeth ? " The night hath passed, and the day approached. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and put on the armour of light, even as in the day : let us honestly walk, not in banqueting, and drunkenness, not in couches, and wantonness, not in contention, and emulation ; but put ye on our Lord Jesus Christ, and make no care to bestow your flesh in concupiscences."
§ 100. And again, in the first Epistle to the Corinthians, he saith: "As a wise workmaster have I laid the foundation, another buildeth thereupon, but let every man consider how he buildeth thereon. For no other man can lay any other foundation besides that which is laid, even Christ Jesus. But if any man buildeth upon this, gold, and silver, precious
urtones, hay, wood, stubble, every one's work shall.be mani-
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