+I. Is to savour the things of the Spirit.+--To subject a man's soul to the law of God in all the faculties and powers of the soul. The things revealed in the law are the things of the Spirit, which Spirit must at no hand be severed from the Word. +II. To walk in the path of righteousness without offence to God or man.+ +III. To walk not stragglingly, but orderly by rule, by line and measure.+--To order ourselves according to the rule and line of the Word of God. The life of a man will discover to the world what he is.--_Perkins._ Ver. 26. _Vaingloriousness._ +I. The exciting cause of many quarrels.+ +II. A source of envy and disappointment.+ +III. Unbecoming the dignity and aims of the Christian life.+ _The Vice of Vainglory and its Cure._ +I. Vainglory is a branch of pride,+ wherein men principally refer all their studies, counsels, endeavours, and gifts to the honouring and advancing of themselves. They who have received good gifts of God are often most vainglorious. Whereas all other vices feed upon that which is evil, this vice of vainglory feeds upon good things. A man will sometimes be proud even because he is not proud. +II. The cure of vainglory.+--1. _Meditation._ (1) God resisteth all proud persons and gives grace to the humble, because the vainglorious man, seeking himself and not God, robs God of His honour. (2) It is the work of the devil to puff up the mind with self-liking and conceit, that thereby he may work man's perdition. (3) There is no religion in that heart that is wholly bent to seek the praise of men. The man who desires to be talked of and admired by others gives notice to the world that his heart is not sound in the sight of God. 2. _Practice._ (1) Endeavour to acknowledge the great majesty of God, and our own baseness before Him. (2) We ought to ascribe all good things we have or can do to God alone, and nothing to ourselves. (3) In all actions and duties of religion we must first endeavour to approve ourselves to God, and the next place is to be given to man. (4) When we are reviled we must rest content; when we are praised take heed. Temptations on the right hand are far more dangerous than those on the left. (5) Men who are ambitious, if they be crossed, grow contentious; if they prosper, they are envied by others. Abhor and detest vainglory; seek to preserve and maintain love.--_Perkins._ * * * * * * * * +CHAPTER VI.+ _CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES._