God's own heart became a monument of human frailty and de- pravity. Nor is even marriage itself sufficient to extinguish the unhallowed flame. You may have, if I may so say, whole flocks at your connnand, and yet it will not keep you from coveting your neighbour's ewe-lamb™. It is grace, and grace alone, that will enable you to hold on unto the end. In Christ you may trust with joyful confidence : " He is able to keep you from fall- ing, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy"." Moreover, he has promised that " you shall have no temptation without a way to escape, that you may be able to bear it°." Apply this promise to your souls, and you shall be enabled to " cleanse yourselves from all filthiness, both of flesh and spirit, and to perfect holiness in the fear of God p." Depend not for one moment on yourselves, but " be strong in the grace that is in Christ :" and may the very God of Peace sanctify you wholly ! and I pray God that your whole body, soul, and spirit, may be sanctified wholly unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ^ !]
in 2 Sam. xii. 2, 4, 8, 9. " Jude, ver. 24. " 1 Cor. x. 13.
P 2 Cor. vii. 1 . q 1 Thess. v. 23.
Matt. V. 9. Blessed are the peace-makers : for they shall he called the children of God.
RELIGION is altogether a practical thing : it has its foundation indeed in principles ; but it has a superstructure of dispositions and actions, which are necessary both to its completion and utility. Nothing can be a stronger proof of this than the discourse before us : for, however we may suppose it designed to rectify men's notions respecting the nature of the Messiah's kingdom, and to explain the law in opposition to the false glosses of the Scribes and Pharisees, its direct tendency is to raise the standard of morality both in the hearts and lives of rnen. The beatitudes which we have already con- sidered, refer principally to the exercises of the heart : that which we propose to notice at this time, relates to the conduct: and, as our blessed Lord has counted it worthy of such a conspicuous place in his discourse,