rified with Thee in Thy heavenly kingdom, and to rejoice before Thee for ever and ever, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Now the God of hope fill me with all joy and peace in believing; that I may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost";

Giving thanks unto the Father, Who hath made me meet to be partaker of the inheritance of the saints in light'.

THURSDAY NOON.

The practice of Christian holiness enforced from a consideration of the peculiar obligation of Christians to holiness of life.

1. in that to persuade and oblige us to lead holy and virtuous lives was the principal design of our Saviour's coming into the world: to the promoting of which, not only His doctrines and precepts, but His life, and death, and resurrection &c. have a manifest and direct tendency.

THE grace of God that bringeth salvation, hath appeared to all men, Teaching us, that denying

a Rom. xv. 13.

b Col. i. 12.

ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world; Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God, and our Saviour Jesus Christ, Who gave himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.

Ye are not your own: For ye are bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.

Christ died for all, that they which live, should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him Who died for them, and rose again".

For none of us liveth to himself; and no man dieth to himself. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ both died, and rose and revived; that. He might be Lord both of the dead and living.

Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind: be sober, and hope to the end, for the grace that is to be brought unto you, at the revelation of Jesus Christ; As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former

14.

e Tit. ii. 11,
• 2 Cor. v.
15.

d 1 Cor. vi. 19, 20.

f Rom. xiv. 7, 9.

lusts, in your ignorance: But as He Which has called you is holy; so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; Because it is written, be ye holy, for I am holy. And if ye call on the Father, Who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear: Forasmuch as ye know, that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation".

But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot".

Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we being dead to sin, might live unto righteousness, by Whose stripes ye were healed.

For Christ also loved the Church, and gave Himself for it; That He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water, by the Word, That He might present it to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy, and without blemish'.

2. in that this is what every one of us solemnly engaged to do at our baptism.

8 1 Pet. i. 13-18.

1 Pet. ii. 24.

h Ibid. ver. 19.

Eph. v. 25-27.

Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into His death? Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism unto death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead, by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death; we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection: Knowing this that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed; that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead, is freed from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him: Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead, dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over Him. For in that He died, He died unto sin once; but in that He liveth, He liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin; but alive unto God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead; and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.

k Rom. vi. 3—13.

Circumcision verily profiteth, if thou keep the law but if thou be a breaker of the law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision'.

For He is not a Jew, that is one outwardly; neitheris that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God".

Even so baptism doth also now save us; not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience towards God".

For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the Spirit; and rejoice in Christ Jesus.

In Whom also ye are circumcised, with the circumcision made without hands; in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ; Buried with Him in baptism; wherein also ye are risen with Him, through the faith of the operation of God, Who hath raised Him from the dead ".

If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God.

For ye are dead; and your life is hid with Christ in God".

1 Rom. ii. 25.

0 Phil. iii. 3.

m. Ibid. ver. 28, 29.

n 1 Pet. iii. 21.

r

P Col. ii. 11, 12. a Col. iii. 1. Ibid. ver. 3.