So will all tormenting fears cease. You will feel yourself in the
right way, the way of charity, the way in which Christ walked in
this world, and have boldness in the day of judgment, facing death
without conceit, indeed, but also without superstitious fear.
SERMON XXIII. THE FLESH AND THE SPIRIT
(Eighth Sunday after Trinity.)
Romans viii. 12. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the
flesh, to live after the flesh; for if ye live after the flesh, ye
shall die.
What does walking after the flesh mean? St. Paul tells us himself,
in Gal. v., where he uses exactly the same form of words which he
does here. 'The works of the flesh,' he says, 'are manifest.' When
a man gives way to his passions and appetites--when he cares only
about enjoying his own flesh, and the pleasures which he has in
common with the brutes, then there is no mistake about the sort of
life which he will lead--'Now the works of the flesh are manifest,
which are these; adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife,
seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and
such like.' An ugly list, my friends; and God have mercy on the man
who gives way to them. For disgraceful as they are to him, and
tormenting also to him in this life, the worst is, that if he gives
way to them, he will die.
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