366 PROGRESSIVE SANCTIFICATION, of Scripture must be abandoned to the clippers and mutilators of the sacred volume; for what becomes of the gra- cious promise of being " renewed from day to day ?" what of the precept, " to increase and abound more and more ?" what of the incessant inculcation of this command, repeated in all the various forms which language could supply ? A command of which neither the variety of the illustration, nor of the language which conveys it, ever alters the idea an idea which, like a golden thread, runs through the whole fabric of the New Testament. We have been accustomed to hear that fervent prayer, through the influence of the Divine Spirit, is the grand instrument of this renewal ; and it is on this ground that we have ventured to introduce the subject here, as connected with the gene- ral design of these pages. But the pre- sent doctrine completes what the former had commenced, and renders prayer wholly inapplicable to all spiritual ends;
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