Page:Sermons preached in the African Protestant Episcopal Church of St. Thomas', Philadelphia.djvu/109

Rh the strength of divine grace, to resist and overcome these enemies to your peace. Christianity designs us to be of an excellent spirit; to be transformed by the renewing of our minds: to be "peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits." By exhibiting an opposite spirit we dishonor the cause of Christ, and consequently grieve the Spirit whose grand object is to advance it throughout the earth. "We have mentioned several instances in which we may grieve the Spirit; but we may add in a general way that he is grieved by every species of sin, whether it consists in doing the things we ought not to do, or in leaving undone those things which we ought to do. We are all therefore guilty in this matter, and have need daily to pray: "O God, make clean our hearts within us; And take not thy Holy Spirit from us." We shall endeavor now by a few considerations.