in an erroneous manner. To be always aware of the best mode of glorifying God is a very difficult attainment : yet is it that which we should aspire after ; nor should we be ever satisfied, till grace has gained an entire ascendant over the soul, and become to us, as it were, a second nature, easy, uniform, and powerful in its operations.]
Of these things therefore we need to be reminded — [It is true, that we confess readily the need of universal holiness : yea, so generally is this acknowledged, that we may all be said to " know and be established in this truth." But " though you do know it, and are estabhshed in it, I must put you in remembrance of it " again and again. " It is meet and right " that I should remind you of it : for your happiness both in this world and the next depends on your continued and practical remembrance of it. Only look at the preceding declarations of the Apostle, and you will be convinced of this. He tells you, that, if there be in you any allowed want of any of the graces which he had specified, ** you are blind, and living in an habitual violation of your baptismal engagements ^ :" and that it is only by abounding in the constant exercise of these graces that you can ever hope for " an abundant entrance into the kingdom of our Lord and Sa\iour Jesus Christ ^" Remember this then, I earnestly intreat you. Enter minutely into the considera- tion of those several graces of which holiness is com- posed*^ and set yourselves daily and hourly to the
practice of them. St. Peter felt it his duty, " as long as he should be in this tabernacle, to put the primitive Christians in remembrance of these tilings :" and it cannot but be ne- cessary to remind you of them also : nor can your Minister perform his duty to you aright, without labouring with all his might to inculcate this needful and salutary lesson.]
But let US more particularly inquire,
II. Why he was so anxious to impress them on their minds — Amongst other reasons which might be mentioned, the following were prominent. He reminded them thus earnestly,
1. Because on their remembrance of these things depended the eternal welfare of their souls —
[Whatever principles they had embraced, they were of no further value than as they were operative upon their souls to the production of universal holiness. By their works they
would
'ver. 9. "ver. 11. Ser.S— 7-