the benefit of believers, and then apply it plainly to the unconverted.

You, then, who have known the Lord, do yet find your lusts and corruptions too hard for you, and till they are subdued you are miserable. Re member that a divine nature, by grace imparted, is that which is absolutely necessary for the overcoming the old. Give over depending upon your self. Sit down in self-despair, and turn your eye simply to the true and only source of health. You have a High Priest in the heavens, the surety of the new covenant, which is established on better promises than the old. When the apostle says, "there are given unto us exceeding great and pre→ cious promises," remember that Christ is the surety of them all, engaged to make them good. By these promises, that is, by trusting in them, and expecting the fulfilment of them, you are to be "made partakers of the divine nature," with all its parts and members, in actual experience. You must believe then: yes believe in Christ, and rest on him for the fulfilment of these promises, and they shall all be made good to you. When you want any parti cular lust subduing, or evil temper mortifying; strength, light, and comfort, in time of need, the way to obtain it is to fix on some passage of Scripture, which promises the blessing, in the name of Christ. Then look to Christ, and apply to him for it. As for the rest, it remains with our Saviour. When he shall cease to be faithful to his promises, and true to his character as Surety for all good to them who believe on him, then you will fail of the wished-for success; but not till then.

There is the more necessity for this faith in

Christ respecting sanctification in all its parts, bccause though you may have trusted him, in general, for your whole salvation, yet if you do not actually depend on him for the mortification of particular besetting sins, you will find their power very formidable to you. The world you are in is evil. It corrupts you by its temptations through the lust, that is, the evil nature which remains even in the regenerate. In Christ there is strength and power promised, that sin shall not have dominion over you. And this is one of the most precious promises which belong to those who are not under the law, but under grace. You feel yourselves entirely unable to escape this corruption that is in the world, through lust. Reflect that in Christ there are "exceeding great and precious promises, that by these," by faith in these, " you might be partakers of the divine nature," the image of God, the mind that was in the man Christ Jesus, in all parts of his lovely image, and so escape this corruption of the world which tempts you through the lusts of the flesh. It remains then that you put the Lord in mind of these promises, and wait on him for their fulfilment. By this method you will find meekness to prevail over anger; patience over impatience; divine fortitude over cowardice; long-suffering over malice; kindness and liberality over covetousness and selfishness; heavenly-mindedness over the love of the world; and to say all in a word, love over hatred.-This it is to put on the Lord Jesus Christ by faith, and so "make not provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof."

I scarcely know how to be sufficiently plain and

full in clearing up this point. However earnest we be against sin, and sensible of its evil and misery, yet without a real application for grace, to Christ, as the surety of the new covenant, with all its precious promises, which the text speaks of, we shall find we have no power to mortify a single lust, nor to bring forth one christian fruit. I suspect that some godly souls who look to Christ with simplicity of faith for pardon, do not with equal simplicity of faith look to him for holiness. They lose the sight of the Saviour here-May my text be the means of directing them aright. There is but one condition of our whole salvation from first to last: it is believing on the Son of God for it. Learn then, amidst the misery which your sin gives you, to prize Christ, and to make a simple use of him, by faith, for victory over the whole body of sin. Lust it will, as I apprehend; till death it will exist in us. But continued victory, by believing, is to be obtained. And, to this end, be well versed in Scripture. View all the precious promises which St. Peter speaks of: he means particularly the Old Testament promises. All these promises are in Christ, " yea and Amen, to the glory of God by us." They are all yours. Believe with respect to each of them, and you will find, as your wants lead you to them, each of them will be fulfilled to you.

I know nothing more needs to be said as to the practical and comfortable use of this subject. But it may be necessary to point out to you a few of these Old Testament promises, given for the purpose, that are remarkably precious and comprehensive. By exercising faith on these you may,

notwithstanding the body of sin dwelling in you, obtain an established, comfortable frame of soul; a real and universal progress in all holiness, and a proof that the ways of wisdom are ways of pleasantness, and paths of peace. Nor should we rest contented without the attainment of such a practical establishment in Christianity, in this life, as well as the completion of it in the life to come.

A very precious promise you have, Ezek. xxxvi. 25, 26, 27. "Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them." He only can conceive the preciousness of such a promise, who feeling, indeed, the miserable and vile idolatry of his nature, and his own helplessness in sin, comes to God in Christ with the promise, saying, "Lord, glorify this thy grace on me, let the Father be glorified in the Son," and who in patient believing finds, as all by patient believing shall find, the promise fulfilled in the conquest of sin and hell, and in bringing every lust and evil temper into captivity to the obedience of Christ.

Here is another promise made in Christ to believers. The apostle, in Heb. viii. where he is describing the new covenant, quotes it from Jeremiah. "I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts, and I will be to them

a God, and they shall be to me a people; and they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, know the Lord, for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." What an all-comprehensive promise! in which Christ the King, the Prophet and the Priest appears. How is this to be yours, O believer? By believing. There is no other condition. The nature of the thing shows it. In yourself dwelleth no good thing. You can bring nothing to God to merit his favour, or buy of him these great blessings. He is satisfied with Christ alone, who has discharged all conditions for you. What, indeed, is there in the way of condition, which you, in your own strength, are required to perform? Whatever you can conceive as necessary to be done, strength for the doing of it is here pro mised of God as a free gift. It is then by such promises as these, fully depended on, that St. Peter tells you, ye shall be "made partakers of the divine nature, and escape the corruption that is in the world through lust."

I will mention a promise or two more, which at the same time that they engage for your sanctification, ensure to you also your full and free salvation. “I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not. I will lead them in paths that they have not known. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them." If, O believer, you are afraid that you shall not persevere in holiness, hear another passage in Scripture, in which the Lord promises that shall persevere. He will prevent you, by you