Time to come, it is of little Moment to trouble themselves with the Remembrance of what is past and gone; fince God requires nothing but their Amendment, and even Sorrow and Repentance are no farther valuable, than as they tend to Reformation. I shall not enter into Speculations upon this Subject; let Men enjoy their Reasonings But this I fay, It is impoffible to have a Sense of Religion, to think of God and ourfelves, as we ought to do, without being affected with the deepeft Sorrow for our Offences. When Men are truly concerned, they do not confider what they are to get by their Tears, or what Profit their Sorrow will yield: The Soul muft vent its Grief; and godly Sorrow is as truly the natural Expreffion of an inward Pain as worldly Sorrow, however they differ in their Caufes and Objects. St. Peter, when he went out and wept bitterly, did not ftay to confider whether he ought to weep or no; or to reflect what Ufe his Tears would be to him: His Heart was too full for fuch Reflections; he faw the Goodness of his Lord, and his own Baseness, and his Grief came as naturally into his Eyes, as when a Man bemoans the Lofs of a Father or a Mother.

Some indeed

indeed have learnt how to make a Trade of Repentance, and can balance Sin and Sorrow as exactly as a Merchant does his Accounts: And Repentance is indeed their richeft Merchandize. But the Gospel has taught us no fuch Art: There only we learn how gracious, our God is, how much it is our Duty and Intereft to obey; and from thence we learn how base and how miserable we are, when we offend. What is beyond this is the Work of Nature, which will ever start and grow afflicted at the Sight of Mifery, and knows how to lament its own Afflictions without a Guide. When therefore we find ourselves truly affected with the Senfe of our Sins, and in good earnest lament our Difobedience and Ingratitude to God, we have the beft Indication that we can have, that the Spirit of Religion is ftill alive within us, and that we are not given up to a reprobate obdurate Heart.

Laftly, There is one Obfervation of a moré general Concern, that naturally offers itfelf upon the View of this Cafe: The Inftruction of this Example to private Chriftians is very great; but yet there feems to me to be fométhing more intended in the tranfmitting this Hiftory to all Ages in the facred Writings.

The

The Gofpel was the Work of God; and though we were to receive it by the Hands of Men, yet was our Faith to be founded not in the Strength or Policy of Man, but in the Power and Wisdom of God: For this Reafon God chose the weak Things of the World to confound the strong. The Difciples, upon whom the Weight of the Gofpel was to reft, and upon whofe Management the Success feemed to depend, were Men of no diftinguished Characters; their Simplicity and Honefty were their beft Commendation: These our Lord elected, well knowing, the weaker the Inftruments were, the more evidently the Hand of God would appear in the mighty Things performed by them. Among these St. Peter plainly had the greatest Spirit and the strongest Resolution; his Readiness and Vivacity distinguished him in every Step; he was the Mouth of the Apoftles, and always ready to undertake and execute the Commands of his Lord. If there was any of the Number that could be thought capable of entering into and managing fo great a Defign as the Propagating a new Religion in the World, it was St. Peter: He therefore is called to the Trial. And how able he was of himself to VOL. II. encounter

encounter the Difficulties that were to attend the Gospel in every Step, you have already feen. Had the Gospel been left to have been conducted by him merely, it is probable that the Fame of it would not have reached our Times. And yet this fame Man, not many Weeks after, appears before the Tribunal of the Magiftrates, preaches to his Judges, and teftifies that of a truth Jefus was the Christ, and that whom they flew, and hanged on a Tree, God had raised from the Dead, and exalted him to the right Hand of his Glory. Whence this mighty Difference? or to what can it be ascribed, but to that great Spirit, for whose Coming their Lord commanded them to wait in Jerufalem, and not to enter upon their Office till they fhould receive Power from on high? If the Gospel was an Imposture, and if Chrift died to rife no more, what gave this fresh Courage to St. Peter? Had he more Confidence in a dead Man, than in his Mafter whilft on Earth? If he had not feen Chrift come from the Grave, nor received the Power of the Spirit, what could move him to expose himself for the fake of Chrift, for whofe fake whilft on Earth, and whilft the Hopes of his being

the

1

the Son of God were ftrong, he dared not to expose himself?

This plainly fhews that the Hand of God was with him, and is an Evidence to us that our Faith is the Work of God, and not of Man.

And thus, whether we confider St. Peter's Cafe as an Inftruction to ourselves, it affords us many useful Leffons and many Encouragements to direct and fupport us in our spiritual Warfare; or whether we confider it in a more general View, and as affecting his Character as he was a Minifter of the Gospel, and an Apostle of Chrift Jefus, it yields us a great Affurance and Confidence in our Faith, whilft through the Weakness of the Man we evidently difcern the Power of God, which wrought effectually with him; fo that, knowing in whom we have trufted, we need not be ashamed.