NINE LECTURES
UPON THE
HISTORY OF SAINT PETER;
^DELIVERED DURING LENT, 1829, AT THE
CHURCH OF ST. LUKE, CHELSEA^
BY THE
REV. HENRY BLUNT, A.M.
RECTOR OF UPPER CHELSEA,
AND LATE BELLOW OF PEMBROKE COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE.
NINTH EDITION. X / i ^ i p.
LONDON :
J. HATCHARD AND SON, PICCADILLY.
1833.
S-l
MACINTOSH, PRINTER,
GREAT NEW-STREET, LONDON.
PREFACE.
AMIDST the numerous occupations in
which every parochial clergyman must
be engaged, there is little time for the
composition of elaborate discourses. All
that can usually be effected, is to speak
plainly and affectionately, week by week,
and day by day, of those great and
blessed truths which engage, we trust,
some portion of our own hearts, and of
the hearts of many among the flocks
committed to our charge. That nine
A2
VI PREFACE.
Lectures preached consecutively should,
therefore, possess small claim to public
attention, will astonish no one ; that
they should have been published at the
desire of some of the Congregation,
will not astonish those who know any
thing of the partiality naturally existing
between every Minister and the people
among whom he dwells.
The endeavour of the Author has
simply been to bring before his hearers
some of the admirable points in the cha-
racter of St. Peter, and to illustrate
some of the striking situations in which
he was placed, in the hope, and with
the prayer, that acting in faith upon the
Divine promises, 1 this feeble effort for
the glory of God and the good of hi-
1 See Isaiah lv. 10, 11.
PREFACE.
Vll
people, may not be permitted to be
wholly fruitless, but that the bread of
life thus cast upon the waters may be
found after many days.
Chelsea, June, 1829.
CONTENTS.
Page
LECTURE I.
Peter brought by Andrew to our Lord Jesus
Christ. His confession of sinfulness ... 1
LECTURE II.
Peter walking upon the water . . . .
LECTURE III.
Peter's Confession of faith. His answer to the
inquiry, " Will ye also go away ?" . . . 43
LECTURE IV.
Peter rebuking Christ. Present at the Trans-
figuration 68
XH CONTENTS.
P.ge
LECTURE V.
Peter's inquiry, "What shall we have there-
fore ?" Our Lord's reply to this inquiry.
The second coming of the Son of man . . 91
LECTURE VI.
Peter refuses to have his feet washed by Christ 1 1 7
LECTURE VII.
Peter present at our Lord's agony . . . .143
LECTURE Vin.
Peter's denial of lu's Lord. Peter's repentance 107
LECTURE IX.
Peter's interview with his risen Saviour. Peter's
death 190
LECTURES.
LECTURE I.
LUKE v. 8.
WHEN SIMON PETER SAW IT, HE FELL DOWN AT
JESUS' KNEES, SAYING, DEPART FROM ME, FOR I
AM A SINFUL MAN, O LORD."
HAVING found, upon a former occasion,
that the biography of one, eminent in the
writings of the Old Testament, offered
many valuable lessons, both to the
Christian minister and the Christian
hearer, it is my intention, during the
present season of Lent, to bring before
you some of the remarkable passages in
the life of one of the great and good men
under the New Testament dispensation.
B
LECTURE I.
The individual, whose history I have
selected for this purpose, is Simon Peter
of whom it is not too much to assert,
that, after our blessed Lord himself, there
is no one for whom a stronger preposses-
sion is excited in our bosoms, no one
with whom we more early sympathize,
or, in the affecting incidents of whose
eventful history, we take a more lasting
interest.
In the prosecution of this endeavour,
I shall confine myself to some of the
most striking incidents in the life of
Peter, narrated in the Gospels, the length
of the present season not being sufficient
to admit of our embracing the whole of
the instructive details of his eventful
biography contained in the Scriptures.
May the divine grace so co-operate
with the imperfect attempt, as to render
it instrumental, through the power of
the Holy Spirit of God, to the imparting
to us some portion of that fervent love to
the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, that
LECTURE I.
zealous attachment to his service, that
implicit obedience to his commands,
which so remarkably characterized this
distinguished apostle !
Of the early history of Simon Peter,
nothing has been handed down to us by
the pen of inspiration : the earliest re-
cord which is given of him in the word
of God, is contained in the first chapter
of St. John's Gospel.
From the period when John the Bap-
tist became acquainted with the Saviour
of the world, at the waters of Jordan,
he preached him as " the way, the
truth, and the life," to his own disci-
ples. Among these disciples of the
Baptist, was Andrew, Simon Peter's
brother, the first who, directed by the
testimony of John, devoted himself to
the service of the Messiah. No sooner
had he seen and conversed with Jesus,
than, as we find in the forty-first verse
of the chapter to which we have already
alluded, Andrew, naturally anxious to
B 2
LECTURE I.
dispense to those he loved, something
of the gratitude and joy with which
his own heart was overflowing, " first
findeth his own brother Simon, and
saith unto him, We have found the
Messias ; and he brought him to Jesus."
Here then is the commencement of
the scriptural biography of Peter the
hour in which he is carried, by the
active exertions of a brother's love, to the
feet of the Redeemer. All that pre-
ceded this important event, is considered
by the inspired historian as undeserving
of a single word. Let others tell of the
early genius and precocious talents of
those whose history they narrate : to the
Evangelist, the point alone from which
the narrative becomes worthy of his
pen, is the hour which beholds the
subject of his history brought to an
acquaintance with the Saviour of the
world. What a lesson is this to us,
my Christian brethren !
That portion of our lives which we,
LECTURE I. 5
perhaps, are apt to dwell upon with the
greatest delight, the pleasures and follies
of our youth, the exploits of our man-
hood, the unsanctified pursuits in which
so many of our later years have been
wasted, form, in the sight of the saints
and angels, no portion of our history.
They recognize us only from the time,
that " being made one with Christ, and
Christ with us," we commence a new
life unto the Lord ; and having become
members of his blessed family, we be-
come objects of the deepest interest and
the tenderest anxiety even to the inha-
bitants of heaven. They reckon our
years not from the day we were born,
but from the time we were " born again,'*
and made heirs of the kingdom : of all
prior to that event, the best which we
can hope and ask at the hands of God is,
that it may be blotted out of the book of
his remembrance ; that it may be cast
into the depths of the sea, and never be
permitted to rise up against us to shame
6 LECTURE I.
us in this world, or to condemn us in
that which is to come. But, my brethren,
while the real Christian believes, and
rejoices to believe this, how does it affect
the man of the world ? Do I not address
some, and perhaps even of those ad-
vanced in life, who, in this view, are but
as infants ? Do I address any who have
lived their threescore years and ten, and
whose spiritual life has not even now
commenced ? Surely here is deep cause
for earnest, solemn reflection, for fervent
and heart-felt prayer : fifty, sixty, seventy
years thrown away upon a worthless and
unsatisfying world not a year, not a
day, not an hour, really given to God.
You were born a stranger to him, and
you are a stranger still. The day of
reckoning is at your doors, and you
have nothing ready for the account.
Would to God that this might be the
resolution of your hearts to-day : " The
time past of my life shall suffice to have
wrought the will of the Gentiles ;" hence-
LECTURE I. 7
forth I will resolve, in the strength of
the Lord, to begin in earnest to live to
God. Let your spiritual history now
commence, if you have never yet been
made acquainted with the Lord Jesus
Christ, never yet been brought into the
blessed relationship of his family; " to-
day, while it is called to-day, harden
not your hearts;" earnestly and faith-
fully seek that spirit of adoption whereby
you can alone be enabled to begin, in
the children's language, " to cry, Abba,
Father," and in the children's spirit, to
look for the children's home.
While commencing the spiritual his-
tory of Peter, we cannot but remark the
pleasing circumstance, that it was his
own brother Andrew, who first led him
to his Lord and Saviour. If it be true,
(and who will venture to deny it ?) that
the enjoyment of the social affections is
the highest temporal gratification, and
the interchange of the kindly offices of
love the most blessed occupation here
8 LECTURE I.
below then how nearly do these ap-
proach to the delights of a holier state
of existence, and the occupations of a
higher order of intelligences, when they
are purified by the love of God, and
consecrated to the cross of Christ ! If it
be interesting to the parent to mark the
first opening efforts of the infant mind,
and to trace the first springs of thought
in the infant breast, how much more
delightful is it to be made instrumental
in sowing the first seeds of spiritual
knowledge, and in teaching the first
lessons of spiritual love ! To behold the
little countenances of our dear children
lighted up, and their eyes sparkling with
intelligence, while listening to a theme
which angels themselves desire to look
into ; and to feel, while thus engaged,
that we are opening up in their young
hearts sources of future peace and joy,
over which the present changeful state
of things shall exercise no control, but
which shall continue to flow on, when
LECTURE Ii y
time itself has ceased to flow. If there
be any thing which can increase those
natural feelings of love that exist between
the husband and the wife, the parent
and the child, the brother and the sister,
surely it is the being thus made the
blessed instruments in the hand of God,
in bringing these near and dear con-
nexions within the still closer bonds of
the gospel of Christ.
Deeply does the Christian feel for
those who cannot sympathise with him
here ; deeply does he pity those to whom
such blessings are unknown : even in
this world there is no other real security
for the strongest ties, for there is no such
love as this engenders. The relationship
between the spiritual father and his spi-
ritual children, is the closest, dearest,
most enduring that can be found on
earth ; and when this is superadded
to the ties of natural affection, when
the several members of a Christian
family are thus " knit together in
B 5
10 LECTURE I.
love" 1 in Christ Jesus, then it is, that
family union assumes almost a heavenly
character, and those who are bound by
its sweet influences here, will not be
separated throughout eternity.
We have now beheld Simon Peter,
by the affectionate efforts of his own
brother Andrew, brought to an acquaint-
ance with the Messiah ; but it does not
appear, that from this hour he became
one of his constant attendants, or that
this was the period when he entirely
devoted himself, heart and soul, to the
labours of the apostleship. We find that
for a little period, he returned to the
usual avocations of a fisher's life, to his
boats and to his nets ; and although,
doubtless, not forgetful of the high pri-
vilege he had once enjoyed, yet obviously
requiring a more distinct and decisive
command from the Lord of heaven and
earth, before he became sensible of the
glorious destiny which awaited him. The
1 Col, ii. 2.
LECTURE I. 11
circumstances under which this command
was vouchsafed, are related in the fifth
chapter of St. Luke's Gospel, where we
read that our Lord having, upon the
lake of Gennesaret, taught the people out
of Simon Peter's ship, desired him to
launch out into the deep, and to let
down his nets for a draught. No sooner
had this injunction been complied with,
than so vast a multitude of fishes were
taken, that " the nets brake and the
vessels themselves began to sink." Then
it was that Peter, enlightened by the
Holy Spirit of God, began really to dis-
cover the divine nature, and to be con-
vinced of the supernatural power of Him
whom he had already acknowledged as
the Messiah of God ; and the immediate
consequence was that recorded in the
text, ' c he fell down at Jesus' knees, say-
ing, Depart from me, for I am a sinful
man, O Lord !"
Behold the remarkable effect of a
single unclouded view of the incarnate
12 LECTURE 1.
Deity ! An overwhelming sense of the
greatness of the Saviour, and of the
nothingness, and less than nothingness,
of his sinful creatures. How uniformly
has this been the result, in all ages, of
a clear and visible manifestation to fallen
man of the second person of the ever-
blessed Trinity. Thus, in the case of
the holy and devoted Job, after he had
beheld that glorious vision of the eter-
nal God, which he describes, we see
him humbled in the dust, we hear
him saying, in the voice of the deepest
penitence and self-abhorrence, " I have
heard of thee by the hearing of the ear,
but now mine eye seeth thee, wherefore
\ abhor myself and repent in dust and
ashes." 2 Thus was it also with Isaiah,
when he beheld the Lord sitting upon
his throne, and surrounded by the
glorious seraphim : " Then said I, Woe
is me, for I am undone, because I am
a man of unclean lips, for mine eyes
2 Jobxlii. 5, 6.
LECTURE I. 13
have seen the King, the Lord of hosts."*
Thus is it, even at the present moment,
with ourselves ; never are the power
and the perfections of the Saviour truly
brought home to the heart, without
being accompanied by a self-accusing,
self-condemning knowledge of our own
souls. The first language of the con-
victed sinner is, " Depart from me, for
I am a sinful man, O Lord !" Not that
he really desires the departure of his
Saviour, but that he is so overwhelmed
with a sense of the power and the
purity of Christ, and with the guilt
and weakness of himself, that he can-
not but acknowledge that he is " not
worthy that the Saviour should come
under his roof," or take up his promised
abode within his bosom.
We say that this is still the invariable
effect of a real manifestation of the
Saviour to the hearts of his fallen
creatures. It is true, you may have
3 Isaiah vi. 5.
14 LECTURE I.
heard, read, and spoken of Christ from
your very infancy, and no such effect
have been produced ; but this will not
disprove our assertion, because you
may have heard, and read, and spoken
of Him, and, alas ! know him not. But
the moment you do know him, the
moment he fulfils to you his gracious
promise of manifesting 4 himself to his
people as he does not to the world ;
the moment you are enabled by the
divine Spirit really to see " the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ," 5
you will find that the declaration of
Peter is the only appropriate language
of your heart, "I am a sinful man,
Lord !"
Is not this, my Christian brethren,
the first feeling of the convicted con-
science? are not these the first utter-
ings of the awakened heart? We do
not hesitate to say, that the divine
Spirit never, in any single instance,
4 See John xiv. 21, 22. * 2 Cor. iv. 6,
LECTURE I. 15
really reveals a saving knowledge of
Christ, without at the same time thus
convincing of sin. The depth of this
feeling, the intensity of its anguish,
the length of its duration, will vary in
almost every different instance, for it
is a fatal, though common mistake, to
imagine that upon this point the expe-
rience of one believer forms a model or
a measure for another. In some the
soul is permitted to be long bowed
down by a sense of sin ; and days of
sorrow and nights of watchfulness are
wearily endured before peace is applied,
and the Comforter fulfils his blessed
office ; in others, the conviction is so
closely followed by the reception of the
Saviour's promises, or rather, so iden-
tified with it, that there is nothing
known of the deeper pangs and acuter
agonies of a guilty conscience ; but, be
assured of this, that in all, yes, in
every imaginable case in the case of
the most moral, the most virtuous, the
16 LECTURE I.
most lovely the plague of an evil heart
must be acknowledged ; sin must be
felt, must be deplored, must be con-
fessed before God, or the great work is
undone, the Saviour is not clearly seen,
the reconciliation to God is not effected.
My brethren, I would beseech you
to apply this to your own souls. Have
you ever enjoyed, do you now enjoy,
such a sight of your Redeemer, by the
eye of faith, as compels you to confess
your sinfulness, and to cry for pardon;
to acknowledge from your heart " that
you have left undone those things
which you ought to have done, and
you have done those things which you
ought not to have done, and there is
no health in you?" If this has never
yet been the language of your soul, be
assured that you have not seen him,
neither known him. " You may have
heard of him by the hearing of the
ear," but you cannot say, " Now mine
eye seeth thee." O ! seek unceasingly
LECTURE I. 17
for this spiritual vision ; pray that you
may be able to say, " Whereas I was
blind, now I see." It is the sight of
Jesus which (speaking not from the
experience of an individual, but from
the testimony of all ages of the church
of Christ) alone possesses a converting
efficacy here it is the same blissful
sight which shall alone possess a trans-
forming efficacy hereafter ; for mark the
testimony of inspiration itself to this im-
portant truth : " Now are we the sons of
God, and it doth not yet appear what
we shall be ; but we know that when he
shall appear, we shall be like him, FOR
we shall see him as he is." 6
No sooner had Peter made the con-
fession of which we have been speaking,
than we read that Jesus said unto him,
" Simon, fear not, from henceforth thou
shalt catch men : And when they had
brought their ships to land, they forsook
all, and followed him."
6 1 John iii. 2.
18 LECTURE I.
Observe in these words the two-fold
lesson they impart ; the tenderness of the
Saviour " Fear not;" the obedience of
the new disciple " He forsook all, and
followed Jesus." When we speak to you
of a Saviour, blessed be God, we speak
of a Being unchanged and unchangeable,
" the same yesterday, to-day, and for
ever." Were these his words to Peter?
and are they not, then, assuredly his
words to you ? Yes ; even to you and
to your children to the end of time.
There is not an individual to whom I
now address myself, who has ever said,
or who shall ever say, from the bottom
of a broken and a contrite heart, " I
am a sinful man, O Lord ;" to whom
that Lord shall not reply, " Fear not.",
How blessed an assurance to the truly
penitent ! how comforting a declaration
to the sorrowing soul ! Are you saying,
with the deeply repentant Psalmist,
11 There is no soundness in my flesh,
because of thine anger ; neither is there
LECTURE I. 19
any rest in my bones, by reason of my
sin. For mine iniquities are gone over
mine head : as an heavy burden they are
too heavy for me to bear." 7 Then hear
the reply of that gracious Being to whom
you complain " Fear not;" " though
your sins be as scarlet, they shall be
as white as snow ; though they be red
like crimson, they shall be as wool:" 8
' c for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken
it." Are you not only deploring the guilt
of your sins, but lamenting at the same
time the weakness of your faith ? " Fear
not," says the all-powerful and compas-
sionate Redeemer, " my grace is sufficient
for thee, for my strength is made perfect in
weakness." 9 Be assured, therefore, upon
the testimony of that revealed word
which cannot alter, and shall not fail,
though heaven and earth shall pass
away ; be assured upon this evidence,
that the believing penitent has no ground
7 Psalm xxxviii. 3, 4.
8 Isa. i. 18. 9 2 Cor. xii. 9.
20 LECTURE I.
for fear ; that the same Saviour addresses
you, at this hour, in the same accents of
tenderness and compassion, which he
addressed eighteen hundred years ago to
Peter ; and that His pardon, His grace,
His glory, are your own. Fall low be-
fore his feet, as Peter did, with a humble
and a contrite spirit ; plead before His
throne of grace with the outpourings of
a full heart, and He will raise you as
he did this convicted sinner, and be
Himself your portion for time and for
eternity.
But, my Christian brethren, we may
not finish here : the love of the Saviour
is indeed infinite, and unutterable, and
entire ; but remember that he is " be-
come the author of eternal salvation
unto all them" only " that obey him." 1
" Peter forsook all, and followed Jesus."
Are you endeavouring to imitate so
exalted an example? to forsake, not a
portion of that which is offensive to the
1 Heb. v. 9.
LECTURE 1. 21
eye, and contrary to the word of our
God, but all, every besetting sin, every
uncharitable temper, every doubtful
pleasure, every worldly entanglement
which opposes you, or impedes you
in following Jesus ; making no single
reserve for any favourite pleasure, or
any questionable profit, but faithfully
and boldly plucking them out, and
casting them from you, as a free-
will offering, at the command of your
Redeemer ? Who among us is there
thus really striving to forsake all for
Christ ? A careful examination of our
thoughts, our words, our actions, even
for this single day which is passing over
us, would, we fear, leave the holiest with-
out an answer, and without excuse. Yet,
my brethren, this it is to be a Christian ;
time can make no alteration in the re-
quirements of that name ; it is still in
this sense obligatory upon all who bear
the name of Christ, to forsake all, to
deny themselves, to take up the cross,
22 LECTURE I.
and to follow Christ. What shall we
then say to these things ? Who is there
that does not stand self-convicted before
that God who seeth the heart ? Who is
there that will refuse to say, " God be
merciful to me a sinner !" Who is there
that will not heartily unite in this most
appropriate petition of our church :
" Grant, O merciful God, that as thine
holy apostles, leaving all that they had
without delay, were obedient unto the
calling of thy Son Jesus Christ, and fol-
lowed him ; so we, forsaking all worldly
and carnal affections, may evermore be
ready to follow thy holy commandments,
through Jesus Christ our Lord."
23
LECTURE II.
MATT. xiv. 29.
" AND WHEN PETER WAS COME DOWN OUT OF THE
SHIP, HE WALKED ON THE WATER, TO GO TO JESUS."
SIMON PETER, having now become one
of our Lord's constant attendants, and
having been ordained one of his twelve
apostles, is henceforth to be found, in
every incident of importance, holding a
most prominent situation among the fol-
lowers of our Lord, and bearing a most
distinguished part.
Is there an undertaking of peculiar
hazard and danger, requiring the highest
exertion of faith and the most unbounded
display of courage such, for example,
as the walking upon the surface of the
24 LECTURE II.
troubled deep? this undaunted apostle
is foremost in the attempt. Is there a
doubt cast upon the devoted attachment
of the followers of our Lord, and from
the lips of our Lord himself, " Will ye
also go away?" this affectionate being
is the first, from the full outpourings
of a loving heart, to repel the impu-
tation ; " Lord, to whom shall we go?
thou hast the words of eternal life."
Is there an inquiry which could probe
the faith, and accurately ascertain the
degree of light and knowledge which the
apostles possessed, " Whom say ye that
I am?" this supernaturally instructed
disciple is the man unhesitatingly to
reply, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of
the living God."
May the same Spirit who, upon each
of these deeply interesting occasions, in-
fluenced the heart of Peter, be present
with us this morning, while we endea-
vour profitably to consider the conduct
of the apostle, under the first of these
LECTURE II. 25
widely differing circumstances ; and may
this Divine Teacher impart to us some
blessed portion of Peter's courage, of
Peter's wisdom, and of Peter's love !
The incident to which I shall at present
call your attention is contained in the
14th chapter of St. Matthew's Gospel,
where we read, that after a day spent in
the most laborious and fatiguing acts of
beneficence and charity ; after miracu-
lously healing the sick and feeding the
fainting multitude, our Lord had with-
drawn himself from the presence of his
beloved disciples, to spend the greater
portion of the night in secret communion
with his heavenly Father. A night of
fervent prayer, after a day of ceaseless
labour ! What an example for us, my
brethren, who are too ready to consider
the smallest feelings of fatigue, even if
not induced by doing the works of him
who sent us, an excuse fully sufficient for
the intermission or the diminution of our
communion with Heaven, ! that there
26 LECTURE II.
might be a larger portion of the Spirit
which influenced our Divine Master shed
abroad upon us his unprofitable servants !
that there might be more of that secret
communion with God, that intimate and
habitual intercourse with him, the dearth
of which spreads such a meagreness and
coldness over all the labours of us his mi-
nisters, and such a formality and deadness
over the best services of you, his people !
While our Lord was thus engaged on the
mountains which surrounded the lake, his
disciples were on board their vessel, tossed
with the waves, for the wind was con-
trary. Many a weary hour had passed,
and they were doubtless anxiously longing
for the presence of their Divine Master ;
when in the fourth watch, about three
o'clock in the morning, they beheld him
walking towards the vessel, upon the sur-
face of the sea. No sooner had his accents
of encouragement and assurance reached
their ears, " It is I, be not afraid," than
Peter answered, " Lord, if it bethou, bid
LECTURE II. 27
me come unto thee on the water. And
he said, Come ; and when Peter was come
down out of the ship, he walked on the
water to go to Jesus." How striking,
how unprecedented an instance of courage
and of faith ? At a single word from the
lips of his Divine Master, the undaunted
apostle unhesitatingly steps upon the
surface of the tempest-tossed ocean, and
firmly believes that he shall find a solid
footing upon those soft and yielding
waters. What motive could be suffi-
ciently powerful for such a daring ? Was
it the mere desire of distinguishing him-
self above his fellows ? Was it an ambi-
tious anxiety to place himself upon an
equality with his Omnipotent Master ?
No, surely ; these were motives which
never found a momentary entertainment
in Peter's bosom. Observe the language
of the request ; it is not merely, Enable
me to walk upon the waters ; give me
power to perform as great a miracle as
thou art thyself performing ; let me do as
c 2
28 LECTURE II.
man has never done ; but, " Bid me come
unto thee upon the waters," that was the
feeling which sanctified the request ; Pe-
ter hears the voice of his beloved Master,
and if sanctioned by one word from him,
the most tremendous of the elements shall
not separate them : though the winds
blow a tempest around his head, he will
venture through ; though the waters be
unfathomable beneath his feet, he will
venture on. The true Christian, who
has experienced the powerful influence of
the love of Christ upon his own heart, is no
longer surprised to find that Peter dared
to walk upon the water, when he reads
that it was to go to Jesus. What encou-
ragement is there in this incident for the
believer ! what comfort for those who are
commencing the spiritual life, and desir-
ing to draw near with faith to the Sa-
viour ! Upon such a subject, you cannot
ask more than your Redeemer will readily
grant : you cannot ask too much ye are
not straitened in God, ye are straitened
LECTURE II. 29
only in your own selves ; you cannot seek
too near an access, too close an union
with him in whom you believe. Imagine
the greatest obstacle you can imagine to
be between you and your God, and they
sink into insignificance when compared
with the opposing elements between Peter
and his Lord. But you will perhaps reply,
that yours are spiritual obstacles ; when
you would approach God, you have a
fearful host of disobedient thoughts, and
rebellious desires, and evil tempers, and
impure passions, drawn up in battle ar-
ray before you, and continually driving
you far from him in whom your soul
would delight, successfully opposing your
every effort to approach him. Here is
no sufficient reason for despair; that all-
powerful voice which bid Peter come to
his Divine Master, even through the op-
posing tempest, can call, and cheer, and
encourage you, and make you more than
conqueror over these most fearful adver-
saries of your soul.
30 LECTURE II.
But, perhaps, to some whom I ad-
dress, there are obstacles widely different
from these. You cannot draw near as
you could desire to God, because your
strength is perfect weakness ; every re-
solution fails in the hour of trial; day
testifies unto day, and night unto night
a sad, sad catalogue of broken deter-
minations and successful temptations and
a yielding softness of spirit, which shrinks
from the attacks of your great adversary,
and falls before the slightest blow in the
day of battle. To you I would also say,
there is comfort in this view of the power
of your Redeemer. Was he, in the days
of his flesh, able to fix the flowing ocean?
and has he not power to fix your wan-
dering thoughts, and to stay your waver-
ing resolutions ? Was he able to make
the liquid waters firm as a pavement of
adamant beneath the feet of Peter ? and
is there any thing too weak for him to
strengthen, too yielding for him to ren-
der firm? No; be assured your very
LECTURE II. 31
weakness is your strength, if it but lead
you to cast yourself unreservedly upon
the Lord Jesus, the fountain of strength,
for your support. But remember, that
it was only in the power of the Lord
that Peter ventured ; had he attempted
it in his own strength, he would inevit-
ably have sunk beneath the waves. If
you are really sincere in the desire of
drawing nigh unto God, earnest in the
prayer, " Bid me come unto thee," the
word of Christ will not be wanting to
encourage, the power of Christ will not
be wanting to enable you to go to him,
though all the weakness and all the
wickedness of your fickle and corrupt
nature should place themselves between
you.
Thus far we have seen a most instruc-
tive and beautiful exhibition of Peter's
courage and faith ; we are now to behold
the imperfection of these very graces ex-
hibited, and in the self-same hour, and
by the self-same individual. It is per-
32 LECTURE II.
haps not unworthy of observation, that
in sacred history we invariably find that
the recorded defects of the people of
God are on the side of their most con-
spicuous graces. Thus, the recorded sin
of the father 1 of the faithful was want
of faith of the meek and gentle Moses, 2
that he spake unadvisedly with his lips
of the patient Job, 3 that he was im-
patientof the man after God's own
heart, that he was sensual 4 of the ten-
der-hearted John, 5 that he was vindic-
tive of the lion-hearted Peter, 6 that he
was cowardly. The Spirit of God has
recorded these failures of the best of
men, to convince us, if we are capable
of conviction, that man, even in his best
estate, is " deceitful upon the weights,
altogether lighter than vanity itself;" and
that if tried by his own merits in the
balance of the sanctuary, he would, un-
1 Gen. xii. 12, 13. 2 Psalm cvi. 32, 33.
3 Jobiii. 1, 2, 3. <2 Sam. xi. 4.
5 Luke ix. 54. Matt. xiv. 30.
LECTURE II.
33
der the most favourable circumstances,
infallibly be found wanting.
Peter had not only boldly ventured on
that path of miracle, but had proceeded
some little distance upon it with the
most perfect security ; when, to our sur-
prise and dismay, we read, that, " when
he saw the wind boisterous he was
afraid ; and, beginning to sink, he cried,
saying, Lord, save me !" What an in-
stantaneous transition ! from a boldness
which had voluntarily courted an un-
known danger, to a timidity which feared
where his own experience might have
convinced him that it was safe. And
shall we, my brethren, harshly condemn
the faithful apostle for this act of faith-
lessness? Our Lord once said, 7 " Let
him that is without sin among you cast
the first stone." So would we now say,
let him who would ha.ve dared to place
his foot where Peter did, condemn him
for his want of courage ; if you believe,
7 John viii. 7.
c5
34 LECTURE II.
that at a single word of bidding from
your Divine Master, you would unhesi-
tatingly have taken one step with this
intrepid disciple, you may be privileged
to arraign him that he advanced no
further. " It was," says the Evangelist,
"when he saw the wind boisterous that
he began to sink." He had, therefore,
withdrawn his stedfast gaze from his
Divine Master, and was faithlessly look-
ing around upon the dark clouds and the
still darker waters. How does every
word of this instructive narrative agree
with the believer's experience, and come
home to the believer's heart ! When is
it that the Christian fails ? When is it
that the Christian desponds? When is
it that the Christian begins to sink ? Not
in the hour, however great the trial or
afflicting the dispensation, when the eye
of faith is stedfastly fixed upon his Sa-
viour ; this is not the hour when the
Christian sinks : it is when he forgets
and disobeys that most important com-
LECTURE II. 35
mand, " Look unto me, and be ye
saved ;" when his path is overcast, and
trouble and temptation so thickly sur-
round him, that his thoughts are led to
fasten themselves upon these outward
difficulties or inward trials, and thus to be
withdrawn from the fountain of strength
and succour. Christian brethren, this is
a temptation against which we cannot
too earnestly or too constantly be upon
our guard ; for it is one of the most com-
mon and most successful with which our
spiritual enemy assails us. Let nothing
induce you to turn the eye of faith, even
for a passing hour, from the Saviour of
sinners ; while you look on him you are
safe : danger begins the moment that
you cease to do so : once turn aside, be-
cause the cloud is dark, or the wind is
boisterous ; give the reins to a despond-
ing imagination ; follow out the delusive
reasonings of a deceitful or a doubting
heart, and the inevitable effect will be,
that every moment so spent will the
36 LECTURE II.
more widely separate you from Him,
who alone can be your refuge and your
support. Your strength, your only
strength, consists in cleaving daily,
hourly, momentarily, (as the parasitic
plant of a summer clings to the oak of
ages,) to your Redeemer, and drawing
from his unsearchable riches and his in-
exhaustible fulness, a sufficiency for all
your poverty and for all your need.
While we thus comment upon the
apostle's faithlessness, let us not forget
that it was the act of a moment, and but
a moment : no sooner did he begin to
sink, than he cried, " Lord, save me!"
There was no faithlessness in that peti-
tion. Even at his lowest estate, the
true believer is a believer still. He may
begin to sink, but the cry of fear with
him will also be the cry of faith : while
sinking, his eye will once more rest
upon a merciful and pardoning Saviour ;
while falling, he will cry with the falling
Psalmist, " O cast me not away from
LECTURE II. 37
thy presence, and take not thy Holy
Spirit from me ;" and with that sinning
Psalmist he will find restoring grace,
with that sinking apostle he will feel the
outstretched arm.
Continuing the history, we are told
that " Jesus stretched forth his hand and
caught him, and said unto him, O thou
of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?"
Behold the blessed effects of a single
heartfelt prayer. Though beginning to
sink, it was not too late ; though pos-
sessing but little faith, it was not too
feeble. It was enough for our compas-
sionate Redeemer that it was the cry of
one who had no hope but in his mercy,
yet in that mercy had the most unshaken
confidence. These were the wings which
carried that short petition, " Lord, save
me !" directly to the heart of him to
whom it was addressed. This then is
a true specimen of acceptable prayer.
With such an example, and such an
encouragement before us, let me urge
38 LECTURE II.
you to ask yourselves, my brethren, Are
these the feelings which occupy my heart
when I raise my voice in prayer? have
I ever offered one such earnest, heart-
felt petition as this of Peter at the throne
of grace? You have this day uttered
many prayers ; you have made use of
a form of words truly scriptural, truly
spiritual, truly applicable to all the mul-
tiplied necessities of the largest congre-
gation ; but you may have been no more
benefited by these petitions, than the
beggar would be enriched by walking
over a golden pavement. Did you pray
the prayers even which your lips have
uttered? When you repeated, " Lord,
have mercy upon us, miserable sinners,"
was there any feeling of misery any
real conviction that you were sinners
any heart-felt desire for mercy ? When
your minister, solemnly addressing him-
self to the omnipotent Jehovah, exclaimed,
" O God, make speed to save us,' 1 and
you replied, " O Lord, make haste to
LECTURE II. 39
help us," was this a mere formal repe-
tition of a request in which you had no
interest ; or was it an earnest expression
of real feeling, warm from the heart,
dictated by a sense of weakness which
you acknowledge yourselves utterly un-
able to remedy? Was it urged by a
conviction as heartfelt as that of the
drowning Peter, that if God do not help
you, if Christ do not save you, you must
perish, and perish everlastingly? Without
these feelings, there may be many words,
but there is no prayer. Prayer is simply
the faithful utterance of those desires
and of those necessities of which, even
when unuttered, the heart is full. It
cannot, therefore, exist without the con-
sciousness of your own helplessness, and
of your Saviour's all-sufficiency : with-
out these feelings, hours of prayer will
be unheeded ; with them, be assured,
the smallest whisper that faith shall ever
utter will not return unanswered.
But we must hasten to the conclusion
40 LECTURE II.
of the incident upon which we have been
engaged. " When they were come into
the ship, the wind ceased," and, as St.
John has added to his narration, " im-
mediately the ship was at the land
whither they went." What the disciples
had laboured to effect during the live-
long night, by their own exertions and
without avail, is performed in a moment
by the power and presence of their
Master. Before he enters, we are told,
" the ship was now in the midst of the
sea, tossed with waves, for the wind was
contrary." When he enters, the wind
ceases and the vessel moves forward
through the still waters to the haven
where it would be. My Christian bre-
thren, do I address any among you whose
souls resemble at this hour this tempest-
beaten vessel ? who have ploughed your
way hitherto with toil and difficulty
through the dark waters of a dreary
world, but have wandered widely from
your course, and even now have no com-
LECTURE II. 41
fortable assurance that the morning light
will find you making the land of your
inheritance ? Here are glad tidings for
you ; tidings which we pray the Spirit
of God to carry home to your hearts :
here is One whom the winds and the sea
obey, who is willing to become the in-
mate of your bosom, and there to take
up his lasting abode, and to speed you
on your way rejoicing. It is his absence
that has raised the storm you cannot
quell, and which has kept you, and will
for ever keep you, from the wished-for
haven. In vain you labour to advance
by your own poor and hopeless efforts :
watch after watch of your short night is
passing, and the shore is still far, far
beyond your view. O ! believe me, it
is his presence which can effect what
neither man nor angel can attempt : It
is his presence, though you know it not,
which is all you need. Admit him freely
in all his offices as Prophet, Priest, and
King, into your heart, and from that
42 LECTURE II.
hour the tempest within and the storm
without shall alike be hushed, and you
shall be carried forward calmly, peace-
fully, and joyfully, through the still
waters, to that haven where you would
be. You shall not only see, but enter
that blissful country where Christ for
ever reigns, the " King of kings and
Lord of lords."
43
LECTURE III.
MATT. xvi. 18.
" I SAY ALSO UNTO THEE, THAT THOU ART PETER, AND
UPON THIS ROCK I WILL BUILD MY CHURCH, AND THE
GATES OF HELL SHALL NOT PREVAIL AGAINST IT."
AT the present day, when the pretensions
of the church of Rome have assumed
a prominency which in this Protestant
kingdom has been long denied them, it
behoves every member of our national
establishment (as far as his leisure and
ability will permit) to make himself
master of the doctrinal subjects in dis-
pute. I do not mean to say that he is
bound to enter the dry and barren field
of polemical divinity, and to lose his
time and his temper in the mazes of
religious controversy ; but simply, with
44 LECTURE III.
the Bible in his hand, and with earnest
prayer for the divine teaching, to exa-
mine the great leading points of differ-
ence between the churches ; that he
may not himself be " carried away
with every wind of doctrine," and that
he may be able wisely to give to others
" an answer of the hope that is in him."
We have lived so long in a state of
security, that many of us are really
ignorant of the chief causes which led
our forefathers to separate from a church
which had " made the word of God
of none effect through their traditions." 1
The consequence of this ignorance is,
that men hesitate not to assert, that the
differences between the churches are
little more than verbal differences ; not
considering that such an acknowledg-
ment, if it were true, would distinctly
prove the reformed religion to be what
the Romanist has always pronounced it,
an unjustifiable schism.
1 Mark vii. 13.
LECTURE III. 45
Feeling the truth of these reflections
most powerfully myself, I trust you will
bear with me, if, while speaking upon
the words of the text, I am led to dwell
upon them in a more argumentative
manner than has usually been adopted
in these Lectures. At the same time
I shall feel it my bounden duty, as it is
on all occasions my earnest desire, most
scrupulously to avoid every angry and
.irritating consideration ; and while en-
deavouring to speak the truth in sin-
cerity, to endeavour equally to speak it
in love, remembering that if our creed
be more pure, and our church more
scriptural than those from whom we
differ, a double wo will be ours, if the
spirit in which we differ be not more
heavenly, the temper more chastened
and subdued.
Our Lord, in the chapter from which
the text is taken, had asked his dis-
ciples, saying, " Whom do men say
that I the Son of Man am?" " And
46 LECTURE III.
they said, Some say that thou art John
the Baptist, some Elias, and others
Jeremias, or one of the prophets. He
saith unto them, But whom say ye that
I am ? And Simon Peter answered and
said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of
the living God." A confession of faith
which, whether we consider the period
at which it was made, or the great pecu-
liarity and fulness of it, is the most
remarkable which the pages of inspira-
tion have presented to us. It is, indeed,
impossible to convey in our own lan-
guage, without tautology, all the accu-
rate precision of the original, which
might have been thus literally rendered :
" Thou art the Christ, the Son of the
God, the living God ; " marking most
emphatically, that Peter not only be-
lieved (as even a heathen centurion
could confess) that Jesus Christ was the
" Son of God/' but that he was the
only Son, of the only God of heaven
and earth.
LECTURE III. 47
It was in reply to this confession, that
" Jesus answered and said unto Peter,
Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for
flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto
thee, but my Father which is in heaven."
Man may be powerful in imparting the
knowledge of this world, which comes
to nought ; man may impart the know-
ledge even of spiritual truth, but in im-
parting faith he is utterly powerless.
This is the prerogative of the Divinity
himself : " Flesh and blood" never shall
and never can convey it : " all thy
children are taught of Thee," says the
prophet, and never can the seed of
saving faith be sown in the heart, but
by the power of God the Holy Ghost,
who has distinctly claimed the honour
of this great and blessed work, when he
thus spake by the pen of inspiration :
" By grace are ye saved through faith,
and that not of yourselves, it is the gift
of God." Our Lord having therefore
pronounced him blessed who received
48 LECTURE III.
this precious gift, thus continued, " And
I say also unto thee, thou art Peter,
and upon this rock I will build my
church, and the gates of hell shall not
prevail against it."
It will be unnecessary for me to inform
the generality of my hearers, that this
is the remarkable declaration of our
Lord, upon which the arrogant preten-
sions of the church of Rome to supre-
macy and infallibility have been founded.
It is here, according to her exposition of
the passage in question, that our Lord
appointed Peter his vicegerent upon
earth, the acknowledged head of his
church, and with ample power to be-
queath, and to perpetuate this astonishing
authority to his successors throughout
all ages, even unto the end of time.
If our Lord had really, by these words,
conferred any such remarkable autho-
rity or power upon Peter, it would
still remain for the Romanist to demon-
strate that this authority had descended
LECTURE III. 49
to the bishops of Home, of whom, as an
old writer has well remarked, " whether
they are Peter's successors in place or
no, is a question ; but that they are not
his successors in the truths of Christi-
anity, is past all question." We, how-
ever, do not believe that the words of
the text were intended to convey any
such supremacy even to Peter, but that
when our Lord said, " Upon this rock I
will build my church," he spoke not of
Peter, but of the confession of faith, or
rather the object of the confession, which
Peter had just made. To this opinion
the most eminent of the ancient fathers,
St. Chrysostom, has added the full
weight of his valuable testimony ; for
he expressly says, " Upon this rock,
that is, upon the faith of his profession."
But not to enter too deeply into this
inquiry, which would occupy, as it has
indeed already done, volumes of contro-
versy, I would merely offer two of the
many arguments by which this unjusti-
50 LECTURE III.
fiable assumption of the church of Rome
has been controverted. First, I would
remind those of my hearers who consult
the original language of the Scriptures
of truth, that when our Lord says,
" Thou art Peter," or thou art a stone,
he makes use of a masculine substantive,
and one usually applied by the classical
writers to a fragment of a rock, or such
a stone as a man can lift. When he
continues the sentence, " and upon this
rock," he changes the word into a fe-
minine noun, which is always employed
by the classical writers to express the
solid rock itself; and he continues to
refer to this feminine noun throughout
the sentence. A change of expression
which, to say the least, would be ex-
tremely improbable, if our Lord were
speaking of the same person, or the
same thing throughout.
To those of my hearers with whom
this argument cannot be expected to
avail, I would address one, the weight
LECTURE III. 51
of which may be appreciated by all. If
our Lord had really thus conspicuously
pointed out Peter to the notice of the
other disciples as the acknowledged head
of his church, should we not have be-
held him on every future occasion recog-
nized as their chief, by his companions ?
Instead of this, we do not find that in
any single instance he ever assumed
such supremacy, or that it was ever
offered him. Nay, so wholly uncon-
scious do the disciples appear to have
been of any such distinction, that we
find them, to the very end of our Lord's
residence among them, disputing " which
of them should be greatest." 2 A point
upon which there could have been no
possible ground for dispute, if the sen-
tence before us (as the Romanists ex-
plain it) had long before, and on the
authority of Christ himself, for ever de-
cided the question. I would only add
upon this subject, a paraphrase of the
2 Luke ix. 46.
D2
52 LECTURE III.
verse under consideration, which may
put it in a clearer light to the English
reader: " I say unto thee, that I have
rightly given unto thee the name of
Peter, which signifies a stone, for thou
hast, by this confession, proved thyself
a living stone in that foundation of my
prophets and apostles, whereof / myself
am the chief corner-stone, and the solid
rock upon which my church shall be so
surely built, that the powers of hell shall
not prevail against it."
Is it then true, my brethren, that
there is a church of which not the
apostle Peter, but the Lord Jesus Christ
himself, is the everlasting foundation ;
and has it pleased a merciful God that
your lot should be cast in a land where
a living branch of that true church is
planted ? Bless the Lord for this above
all your other mercies. Rejoice not that
you are rich, or healthy, or powerful,
but in this rejoice, that God has brought
you within the blessed sounds of the
LECTURE III. 53
gospel of life, and within the pale of that
church which his own right hand has
planted. But while you thus rejoice,
rejoice with trembling : great are your
mercies, countless are your privileges, but
be assured that fully in proportion also is
your responsibility. No church however
pure, no outward ordinances however
perfect, no services however scriptural,
can of themselves ensure salvation. You
will not be saved as a congregation, but
as individuals. The gates of hell cannot
prevail against the church, because it is
built upon the rock of Christ, but they may
and unquestionably will be found, on the
last day, to prevail against many nominal
members who have swelled the ranks,
and filled the temples of the purest
church. The inquiry, then, for each
is this : " Other foundation can no man
lay than that is laid, which is Jesus
Christ ; " 3 has this foundation been
deeply laid, by the Spirit of God, in
3 1 Cor. iii. 11.
54 LECTURE III.
my own soul? have I been thus turned
from death unto life ; and am I now
walking not after the flesh but after
the Spirit ? If these things be so, then
indeed may we affirm that you are a
true member of the true church of the
Redeemer ; then we may say to you
individually, what Christ has here de-
clared of his church at large " The
gates of hell shall not prevail against"
you : for it is to you that he speaks,
when he says, " My sheep hear my voice,
and I know them, and they follow me :
and I give unto them eternal life, and
they shall never perish, neither shall any
man pluck them out of my hand." 4
Our Lord having uttered his remark-
able prophecy of the perpetuity of his
church, thus continues to address him-
self to Peter " I will give unto thee
the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and
whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth
shall be bound in heaven, and what-
4 John x. 27, 28.
LECTURE III. 55
soever thou shalt loose on earth shall
be loosed in heaven." " To bind and
to loose" were terms in common usage
among the Jews, " meaning simply to
prohibit and to permit." The authority
therefore thus bestowed upon Peter, and
the other apostles, alluded not to per-
sons but to doctrines ; it was the power
to bind, or to prohibit, such things as
might be detrimental to the interests
of the infant church ; and we find them
afterwards using this power, for example,
by binding or forbidding circumcision to
the believers, and the eating of things
offered to idols, of things strangled, and
of blood : and the power to loose, was
the power to allow their followers to
continue the observations of those non-
essentials, the prohibition of which might
have wounded the tender consciences
of the new converts ; and we find an
example of the apostles' use of this
authority, by their allowing purification
(although a remnant of the ceremonial
56
LECTURE III.
law) to Paul and four other brethren,
for the purpose of avoiding scandal. 5
By " the keys of the kingdom of
heaven," is intended simply the power
of first opening the doors of the new
religion, through which, as the king-
dom of grace here, believers were to pass
to the kingdom of glory hereafter ; and
accordingly we find Peter, on the day of
Pentecost, as regarded the Jews, and
afterwards at the house of Cornelius, as
respected the Gentiles, thus engaged ;
being on these occasions honoured as
the first person, who instrumentally
opened both to Jews and Gentiles the
doors of the kingdom of heaven.
Let us, however, pass from these sub-
jects of Biblical criticism to one of those
affecting incidents with which the life
of Peter is replete, and which is well
calculated to minister delight and en-
couragement to all who hear it. Our
Lord had, as we find recorded in the
5 Acts xxi. 24.
LECTURE III. 57
6th of St. John, throughout a long and
impressive discourse, been delivering
some of the deepest, and, to unen-
lightened minds, most staggering doc-
trines of his gospel. He had, for the
first time, taught his hearers that vital
truth of the new revelation, spoken
spiritually, and to be understood entirely
spiritually, " Except ye eat the flesh
of the Son of man, and drink his blood,
ye have no life in you;" 6 and in reply
to the suppressed murmurs and discon-
tent of his auditory, instead of qualify-
ing his statements to meet their carnal
apprehensions, he added the still more
distasteful doctrine, " no man can come
to me, except the Father which hath
sent me draw him." 7
These are the humbling truths which
have in all ages roused the indignation
and awakened the animosity of the
natural heart ; truths for which even
the divine eloquence of our Lord him-
6 John vi. 53. 7 John vi, 44.
D5
58 LECTURE III.
self and the affectionate tenderness with
which he promulgated them, could ob-
tain no favourable reception ; for we
are immediately informed, " From that
time many of his disciples went back,
and walked no more with him." 8
If our Lord, when he took' upon him
our nature, did not disdain to partake
with us of its sympathies and its infir-
mities, this must have been to his feeling
heart one of the most trying events of
his ministry. To the common observer,
indeed, " the crown of thorns" might
seem to wound more deeply, the Roman
spear to do its work more terribly, but
those who know the value of immortal
souls will readily acknowledge, that the
spear and the thorns could give no pang
equally acute with that inflicted by the
sight of one backsliding disciple !
Truly distressing is it to the minister
of peace, to drive even the most in-
different and the most hardened from
8 John vi. 66.
LECTURE III.
59
the blessed sounds of that salvation,
which it is his duty and his delight to
offer with equal freeness unto all : how
much more painful is it, then, my
brethren, when those who have for a
time listened with pleasure and received
the word with joy, and heard it gladly,
" go back and walk no more with him !"
Yet even when this occurs, with such
an example before his eyes, the minis-
ter of Christ will not complain " The
disciple is not above his master, -nor
the servant above his Lord. It is enough
for the disciple to be as his master,
and the servant as his Lord." 9 If it
be our painful lot to behold those among
you, who we hoped might have been
" our joy and crown of rejoicing, in
the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ
at his coming," 1 turning aside in disgust
at the plainness, or in contempt at the
humbling nature of those truths, which
we feel it our bounden duty to impart,
9 Matt. x. 24. ! 1 Thess. ii. 19.
60
LECTURE III.
we will not qualify or compromise the
terms of our message ; we will not alter
one iota of the declarations of God, to
disarm your enmity, or to conciliate
your good will ; neither will we con-
demn or reproach you for these things :
we will rather " pray the Lord of the
harvest that he may send forth other
labourers into his harvest," 2 who may
gather in the full sheaves where we
have only gleaned the scattered ears ;
who may be abundantly fruitful where
we have been barren ; who may, with-
out suppressing the truths of Scripture,
be enabled to present them more un-
exceptionably, and to enforce them more
successfully. We will rest contentedly
upon the promises of our God, and be-
lieve with the prophet of old, " I have
laboured in vain, I have spent my
strength for nought and in vain ; yet
surely my judgment is with the Lord,
and my work with my God." 3 " Thougli
2 Luke x. 2. 3 Isaiah xlix. 1.
LECTURE III. 61
Israel be not gathered," the Lord shall
be glorified.
The inspired historian, having men-
tioned this fact of the departure even of
" many of the disciples," immediately
adds our Lord's own affecting comment
upon it : " Then said Jesus unto the
twelve, Will ye also go away ? Then
Simon Peter answered, Lord, to whom
shall we go ? Thou hast the words of
eternal life. And we believe and are
sure that thou art that Christ, the Son
of the living God." 4 How near do such
little incidents as these appear to bring
us to the heart of Jesus, and of him
whose life we are considering ! we can
almost behold the affectionate Redeemer
looking round upon his " little flock, " 5
and while marking their diminished num-
bers, making that inquiry which must
have touched the hardest heart ; we can
imagine we see the zealous Peter press-
ing forward from the circle, and almost
4 John vi. 6769. 5 Luke xii. 32.
62 LECTURE III.
interrupting the reproachful inquiry,
eager to disclaim, for his brethren and
himself, the possibility of such an act,
burning to relieve his own bosom by
a voluntary confession of a faith already
matured unto certainty, and a regard
which even then had ripened into love.
Who can read his answer, " Lord, to
whom shall we go ? thou hast the words
of eternal life," without rejoicing that
a reply so encouraging to the heart of
every believer was thus elicited, and
without sincerely desiring to appropriate
it to himself? Be assured, my brethren,
that there are states of mind in which
these incidents, which the careless reader
of his Bible is apt to consider trifling
and unimportant, come home with the
most irresistible energy and power
times when we are unable to apprehend
the blessed doctrines, or to apply the
precious promises of Scripture ; but
when a single brief and touching sen-
timent like this will carry balm to the
LECTURE III. 63
wounded spirit, or suggest a prayer to
the prayerless heart. Often have I
heard one of the most interesting writers
of the present day declare, that at a
period of his life, when his soul was
powerfully tempted to " deny the Lord
who bought him," and to fall back into
the mazes of infidelity from which he
had even then but partially escaped, the
only declaration of Scripture upon which
he could find a momentary resting-place
was that which we are now considering.
That during this awful and long con-
tinued conflict, in the solitude of a sick
room, a prey to pain and weakness,
greatly needing those consolations which
the errors of a false religion and the
heartless dogmas of scepticism never
could supply, unable to close with the
blessed offers of salvation through the
blood of Jesus, and yet willing to cling,
as with a dying hand, to his cross, the
affecting exclamation which burst con-
tinually from his lips, and alone im-
64 LECTURE III.
parted even a hope of peace, was this :
" Lord, to whom shall I go ? thou
hast the words of eternal life." A cry
of faith, faint and imperfect indeed ; so
imperfect and so faint, that had man
been judge, it never would have reached
the mercy-seat, and yet a cry which,
presented by a merciful High Priest,
entered into the ears of the Lord God
of Sabaoth, and brought " help from
the sanctuary and strength from out of
Zion." 6
But, my brethren, melancholy is the
state of those who leave the great ques-
tion undecided till such an hour as that ;
with a body weakened by suffering, and
a mind impaired by disease, to have to
struggle against our mighty enemy, and
to seek, for the first time, a refuge from
his attacks; to be asking, " To whom
shall I go?" when you ought to be
saying, " I know whom I have be-
lieved;" 7 to be preparing for the con-
6 Psalm xx. 2. 7 2 Tim. i. 12.
LECTURE III. 65
flict, when you ought to be ready to say,
" I have fought the good fight, I have
kept the faith ; " to be putting on the
helmet at the very hour when you ought
rather to be looking for the crown.
Why will you thus delay ? Why will
you not now voluntarily ask the question,
which your fears will then compel you to
ask, " To whom shall we go ?" We are
now able to reply to you, " Behold the
Lamb of God which taketh away the sins
of the world." 8 We are now able to as-
sure you, "him that cometh unto him he
will in no wise cast out." 9 Trifle not
with these offers, I beseech you, my be-
loved brethren, as if they were for ever
within your reach, and waiting your ap-
proval. It may not always be in our
power thus to offer, or in yours to ac-
cept, these gracious proposals. There is
a time when long indifference may have
closed the ears, or habitual sin have
hardened the heart against every mes-
sage of a Saviour's love. There is a
8 John i. 29. 9 John vi. 37.
66 LECTURE III.
time when the Spirit may cease to strive
with you, when he may " laugh at your
calamity, and mock when your fear
cometh ;' ?1 when you may be given over
to the waywardness of your own will, or
to the undisturbed indulgence of your
own indifference. If we could lead you
to the bed-side of one of the many who,
in this vast parish, are yearly passing
from time into eternity, without any
saving knowledge of him to whom they
are going, such a sight would preach,
far " louder than a thousand homilies,"
the urgent necessity, while in full pos-
session of your health and of your facul-
ties, of seeking him who alone " has the
words of eternal life."
You do not know, God grant you
never may know, by experience, the
miseries of the chamber of sickness when
unillumined by the rays of the gospel of
peace ; the agonies of a dying hour with
the great work of salvation left undone.
A God to go to, but no Father a Judge,
1 Prov. i. 26.
LECTURE III. 67
but no Saviour an eternity opening be-
fore your eyes, but no heaven in which
to spend it !
O ! to whom shall you go at that
hour, if you do not now fly to the Saviour
of sinners, and find pardon for your sins,
and peace for your souls ?
Rest not, then, we urge you by all the
hopes and fears of a blissful or miserable
eternity, rest not upon an undefined ex-
pectation of God's mercy, without having
approached him through that Redeemer
who is the only "way" which mercy
has ordained. Be not content with any
thing short of this experience of the
apostle, "that you believe and are
sure," that the Saviour of sinners is
indeed your Saviour, that his offers are
accepted, his merits pleaded, his righte-
ousness applied, his commands obeyed
by you according to the grace which is
given unto you, that all these thing are
truly yours, "even as you are Christ's
and Christ is God's." 2
2 1 Cor. iii. 23.
68
LECTURE IV.
MATT. xvi. 22.
THEN PETER TOOK HIM, AND BEGAN TO REBUKE HIM,
SAYING, BE IT FAR FROM THEE, LORD, THIS SHALL
NOT BE UNTO THEE."
So deep is the corruption of our nature,
and so frequent the waywardness of our
will, that we are never more liable to
fall into sin, than when upon the highest
pinnacle of spiritual elevation. Have we
experienced much of the divine presence
in the hour of prayer, we scarcely rise
from our knees before some successful
temptation reminds us that, notwithstand-
ing our near approach to the mercy-seat,
we are earth-born sinners still. Have we
been enabled to overcome some spiritual
enemy, to resist some carnal inclination,
LECTURE IV. 69
to minister successfully to the necessities
of some poorer or more ignorant fellow-
creature, a feeling of satisfaction or self-
complacency too often succeeds the effort,
in a manner so unexpected, and for
which we are so little prepared, that we
find sin has mingled with and ruined the
duty, almost before it has been con-
cluded. Who that has ever looked atten-
tively into his own heart will deny this ?
And who that does not deny it, will
scruple to confess, with anguish of soul,
and with a secret aspiration for penitence
and pardon, "that every imagination of
man's heart is only evil continually?" 1
These reflections have naturally sug-
gested themselves from a review of that
portion of the narrative in which we are
at present engaged. In our last Lecture
we beheld Peter deserving and receiving
the approbation of his Saviour for his
astonishing confession of faith, and his
affecting demonstration of love. We are
1 Gen. vi. 5.
70 LECTURE IV.
now to see him subjected to the rebuke
of his Divine Master, for an improper ex-
hibition of that same zeal which had
lately distinguished him in so honourable
a manner above his fellows. Our Lord,
anxious to correct the misapprehension
of his followers upon the tendency of his
mission, and the nature of his kingdom,
endeavoured to prepare their minds for
the ignominy and suffering which shortly
awaited him. " From that time forth,"
as we read in the 16th chapter of St.
Matthew, " began Jesus to show unto his
disciples how that he must go unto Jeru-
salem, and suffer many things of the
elders and chief priests and scribes, and
be killed, and be raised again the third
day. Then Peter" (Peter always fore-
most either in good or ill) " took him,
and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it
far from thee, Lord, this shall not be
unto thee ;" or, as the marginal reading
gives it, " Pity thyself," O Lord, spare
thyself! His affectionate heart could not
LECTURE IV. 71
bear the thought of such indignity, and
such suffering awaiting the Master whom
he loved, and his impetuous temper
could not brook in silence to hear of it,
although foretold by that Master himself,
and declared that " thus it must be."
Upon no other occasion did our Lord
so deeply resent, or so severely reprove,
the transgression of an apostle. " He
turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee
behind me, Satan : thou art an offence
unto me, for thou savourest not the
things that be of God, but those that be
of men."
Perhaps the first feeling excited in our
minds by this reproof is rather a feeling
of dissatisfaction. We are almost tempted
to complain that the punishment was
disproportioned to the offence. Our
hearts plead for Peter, and we cannot
bear to see him in disgrace. But, my
brethren, the only method in which
fairly to estimate the criminality of the
advice, is to follow it out into action,
72 LECTURE IV.
and then to mark the tremendous conse-
quences. Our Lord checked midway in
his career of suffering ; that was the
advantage proposed. Man's redemption
unpurchased, would have been the ine-
vitable result ; the everlasting doors un-
opened ; and the great enemy of souls,
who had overcome the first Adam, tri-
umphing, for ever triumphing, over the
broken promises, and the unsuccessful
mission of the second. These were the
results for which Peter, however unwit-
tingly, was pleading. Can we be sur-
prised, therefore, that at such a moment
our Lord should recognize in the advice
of his disciple, only the evil suggestions
of Satan himself?
My brethren, there is a word of coun-
sel, a word of warning, which by God's
grace may be profitable to us all. What
was the origin of Peter's error ? It was
not merely the abundance of his love for
his Divine Master ; this will never lead
us into sin, never be imputed to us as
LECTURE IV. 73
our guilt ; never, therefore, could have
drawn forth so deeply. cutting a reproof.
Be assured that there was more than
met the ear of man in Peter's counsel ;
there was a root of bitterness, unseen
by human eye, but clearly discerned and
obviously laid open by our Lord when
he said, " Thou savourest the things
that be of men." That was the head
and front of his offending. The fear of
men, the love of men, the good opinion
of men, worldliness in its most destruc-
tive form, had struck its fibres into
Peter's heart : and had they not been
thus at once eradicated by the great
Husbandman, they would soon have
taken root downwards, and borne fruit
upwards, a prolific and a deadly harvest.
Peter had dreamed so long of a tem-
poral kingdom, of earthly grandeur and
promotion, that the painful sounds of
suffering and death grated harshly upon
his ears ; and while urging his Master
to escape them, it is too probable that
E
74 LECTURE IV.
some little hope was lingering in his
bosom, that what was evaded by the
master, would not be required of the
disciple ; that if these sufferings and
degradations were put away from Christ,
they would not be prepared for Peter,
Our Lord, therefore, has left this pointed
reproof of one of the dearest of his fol-
lowers for ever upon record, that no
future believer may indulge a hope that
he shall be held guiltless where Peter
was rebuked ; that if from worldly con-
siderations you be led to compromise
the honour of God, to prefer in your
own case, or to recommend in the case
of others, the soft and easy path of
safety in preference to the sterner and
more rugged walk of duty, whatever be
the alleged or the real motive, which
dictates such a choice, you are from
that moment " an offence," an adver-
sary to him whom you profess to follow.
How important a consideration to
every one among us ! Where is the
LECTURE IV. 75
believer, whom Satan does not, at some
period of the spiritual course, ply with
temptations similar to this ? To the
more advanced Christian it may not,
perhaps, be a frequent method of suc-
cessful assault ; but to the younger of
my hearers I would particularly apply
the case in question. Is there no friend
without, no faithless counsellor within,
who, when he beholds you really deter-
mined, by God's grace, to do or to suffer
all that the revealed word of God de-
mands, is apt to whisper in your ear,
" This be far from thee," this cannot
be required of thee ? Or when you
clearly distinguish, from the light of the
divine word, that the religion which you
profess has ever been, and is intended
ever to be, a self-denying religion ;
when you see around you practices and
habits which you are convinced are
utterly inconsistent with the principles
of the Gospel of Christ ; and when you
endeavour, by God's grace, to separate
E 2
76 LECTURE IV.
from these things, and to walk more
worthy of the vocation wherewith he
has called you, do you never receive
counsel such as this do you never hear
the insidious voice, perhaps from your
own friends, perhaps from your own
family, " Pity thyself, spare thyself;"
" Be not righteous over-much?" Is
this language not utterly unknown to
you, my brethren ? Then be assured,
by whomsoever spoken, that it is the
language of an adversary, the voice of
Satan, an injury to your souls, " an
offence" to your Saviour. Be warned
by the words of Christ himself, that
whatever would keep you back from an
unshrinking fulfilment of all God's com-
mandments, from an entire devotedness
to follow the Lord Jesus Christ, even
with the cross upon your shoulders, upon
the path of painful duty, stands self-
condemned by these words of your Re-
deemer ; for such advice " savoureth
not the things which be of God, but
LECTURE IV. 77
the things which be of men." This is
the test to which we would urge you to
bring every counsel you receive, every
advice which may be offered, " to the
law and to the testimony ; if they speak
not according to this word, it is because
there is no light in them."
Whatever savours of the things which
be of men, that is to say, whatever rule
of conduct has for its foundation the
desire of propitiating the favour, or
averting the opposition of men ; whatever
is founded upon the ungodly, though,
alas ! too fashionable doctrine of expe-
diency or worldly policy, with no refer-
ence to the will, or the honour, or the
glory of God, is unscriptural, unholy,
and unsafe. It may, for a time, have
fewer crosses, and less anxieties ; you
may congratulate yourself upon your
wisdom and your prudence ; but be as-
sured, that the end will be bitterness
and vexation of spirit. Better, infinitely
better, to take up at once the cross, to
78 LECTURE IV.
bear the opprobrium, to become, if need-
ful, a bye-word and a reproach, than, by
a constant succession of timid, tempo-
rizing efforts, always shrinking from the
confession of your real feelings, always
attributing your refusal of sinful enjoy-
ments to any motive but the true one, to
suffer the men of this world, (as David
says,) " foolishly to think that you are
even such an one as themselves;" or
worse than this, to remain so long
" halting between two opinions," that
when at last the book of life be opened,
you shall too late discover that your
name is not enrolled therein ; that you
have never been decidedly with the Sa-
viour, and that therefore he has pro-
nounced you to be against him ; that as
you have not suffered with him, so neither
shall you be glorified together.
The course of the history in which we
are engaged, has now brought us to one
of the most beautiful incidents in the life
of our Lord his transfiguration ; the
LECTURE IV.
79
particulars of which astonishing event
are thus related : "It came to pass that
Jesus taketh with him Peter, and James,
and John." All the disciples were not
to be thus highly favoured. Our Lord
selected these three ; and if we inquire
why these in preference to the remainder,
it was doubtless because as they alone
were soon to be the witnesses of his
dreadful agony in the garden, the most
touching proof of the reality and infir-
mity of the manhood of Christ, they
supereminently required this strongest
evidence of the truth of his divinity.
Jesus, then, taking Peter, James, and
John, " went up into a mountain to
pray;" yes, great and unquestionable as
was the inherent power of our divine
Saviour, every mighty work which he
performed on earth was ushered in by
PRAYER. Was he to be announced at his
baptism as the beloved Son ? we are told
it was " while Jesus was PRAYING that
the heavens opened and the Holy Ghost
80 LECTURE IV.
descended." Was he about to ordain
his apostles ? " he continued all night in
PRAYER to God." Did he intend to spend
the day in preaching? we read, that,
" rising up a great while before day, he
departed into a solitary place, and there
PRAYED." Did he design to encourage
the falling apostle? " I have PRAYED for
thee, that thy faith fail not." Did he
seek consolation for himself? " being in
an agony, he PRAYED more earnestly."
Thus was it also in the instance we are
considering. " As he PRAYED, the fa-
shion of his countenance altered, and
his face did shine as the sun, and his rai-
ment was white as the light."
You will observe, it was "as he
prayed." O! my brethren, how won-
derfully does God honour prayer! Not
a blessing does he promise, except in
answer to humble, fervent, faithful prayer.
He who had appointed that all these
glories should be manifested, to exalt the
Saviour in the eyes of his people, ap-
LECTURE IV. 81
pointed also that even he, the eternal
Son himself, should for our sakes ask for
them.
What can you then expect to receive
at the hands of God unasked for ? Not
even a continuance of temporal mercies,
of the garments which wax old, or of
the bread which perisheth : and if not of
this poor pittance, which our heavenly
Father bestows on you in common with
the beasts that perish, still less can you
expect to receive, unsought, the bread of
life, the garment of salvation. Be as-
sured then of this, my beloved brethren,
that if you ever hope to be the object of
the transforming power of the Holy
Spirit, it is by prayer that you must seek
it ; never do his blessed influences so fill,
and renovate, and spiritualize the soul,
as in the hour of prayer ; never are you
so closely assimilated to that glorified
state which awaits you, as when you are
enabled to draw near in secret commu-
nion to the mercy-seat, and, raised for
E 5
82 LECTURE IV.
a time above earth and its concerns,
feel, and speak, and think, almost in the
language and the thoughts of heaven.
" And behold there talked with him
two men, which were Moses and Elias,
who appeared in glory."
It was not enough that our Lord, thus
transformed and glorified, presented him-
self before his disciples ; he also called
into his presence these two of the most
eminent of his departed servants Moses,
who had long since gone the way of all
flesh, and seen corruption ; and Elijah,
who had passed out of time into eternity,
but never tasted death. Could a more
convincing proof have been offered that
Christ was the King of quick and dead,
and that " all live to him," than that
while thus sitting as a sovereign in his
robes of state, he should receive this
splendid embassy from the land of
spirits? Could a more instructive spec-
tacle, a more satisfying evidence of the
possibility of the general resurrection
LECTURE IV. 83
and the general judgment, have been
presented to the eyes of the astonished
disciples, than these two most appropriate
representatives of those who in the
graves shall one day hear the voice of
Christ, and shall come forth, and of
those who shall be alive at his coming,
and shall meet the Lord in the air, and
receive their appointed sentence ?
Truly it was a sight, which had it
only passed before the eyes of the apostles
with a momentary brilliancy, and disap-
peared, would have well repaid for years
of earthly trouble ; but there is some-
thing still untold this supernatural visit
did not pass in silence ; the disciples not
only saw these bright ones, but heard
the heavenly music of their voice.
And upon what subject did they des
cant ? what could be of sufficient interest
to engage the tongues of these spirits of
just men made perfect?
Did they converse upon the greatness
of the Saviour's majesty, or the glories
84 LECTURE IV.
of his kingdom ; upon the blessed com-
pany they had left, or the holy and
happy service in which eternity (to them
begun) was rolling on its blissful way ?
Nothing of all this engaged these holy
visitants. "They spake," says the
evangelist, "of his decease, which he
should accomplish at Jerusalem."
Doubtless, for the merciful purpose of
reconciling the minds of the apostles to
that tremendous scene, of which they
were so shortly to become the painful
witnesses. These heavenly visitors de-
sired to know nothing, to speak of
nothing, during their short return to
earth, but " Jesus Christ, and him cru-
cified !" How wonderful a tribute to
this unutterably high and holy subject !
" To the Jews a stumbling-block, to the
Greeks foolishness;" to the nominal
Christian weariness ; but to the church
of the first-born assembled in heaven,
the one great subject which engages
every tongue, brightens every eye, fills
LECTURE IV. 85
every heart. And shall we, my bre-
thren, discard this sacred theme, this
mystery of mysteries, which immortal
angels desire to look into, and glorified
saints rejoice to speak upon ? Lament-
able is it for the church of God, lament-
able for those who preach and those who
hear, when the pride of worldly wisdom
raises them above these humbling truths,
and when a system of cold morality
assumes the place of this theme of
heavenly love. And lamentable is it
also, my Christian brethren, when any
subject, be it what it may, usurps
the place of this one momentous truth ;
aye, even when the elevating subject of
Christ glorified obtains an undue pre-
eminence above the saving subject of
Christ crucified, a theme of which eter-
nity itself shall not grow tired ; or even
among the spectacles of heaven, we read
of " the Lamb as it had been slam ;" even
among the songs of heaven, we hear the
reiterated chorus, "Thou wast slain, and
86 LECTURE IV.
hast redeemed us to God by thy blood;"
even there it is the recollection of the
cross of Christ which adds unspeakably
to the lustre of his crown.
Continuing the narrative, we find that
no sooner did the disciples behold this
splendid company, than " Simon Peter
said unto Jesus, Lord, it is good for us
to be here." Yes, even the natural heart
can appreciate this ; it is good to be pre-
sent during a vision of glory, far better
than to hear of suffering, humiliation,
and death. " If thou wilt, let us make
three tabernacles, one for thee, one for
Moses, and one for Elias." St. Luke
adds to this account of it, that Peter
said this, " not knowing what he said."
Surely he could not have known what
he said, when he thus proposed that the
citizens of heaven should once more
become " strangers and pilgrims upon
earth :" he could not have known what
he said, when he offered a temporary
tabernacle of man's erecting, as a resi-
LECTURE IV. 87
dence for those who dwelt within the
walls of that " city, whose builder and
maker is God." Here, then, again the
zealous Peter " spake unadvisedly with
his lips;" for be ye sure, my brethren,
that there is not one resident in the
courts above, who would return to earth
for the most glorious of worldly portions,
or even for the dearest of earthly friends.
The language of the lowest saint in that
blessed place unquestionably is, " I would
rather be a door-keeper in the house of
my God," than to dwell in the proudest
palaces, or rule the richest kingdoms
upon earth. When, in some moment of
deep and heartfelt regret for those who
have gone before us to their rest, we are
tempted (and who is not so tempted ?)
almost to desire that our departed friends
might again revisit us, might again
6 i take sweet counsel together, and go up
with us to the house of God as friends,"
or unite their voices to ours in prayer
and praise, and once more take up a
88 LECTURE IV.
temporary abode in earthly tabernacles,
we indeed " know not what we say."
" It is good for us to be here :" blessed
for us who are at present " living by
faith, not by sight," to enjoy these im-
perfect communications with our God, to
be " upon the Mount," and approach as
near to heaven as this state of imperfec-
tion will admit ; but what would even
the highest of these enjoyments be to
those blessed spirits, who now see God's
face in righteousness, and know even as
they are known ? O ! if you hope that
you have one friend, one relative in
those blissful scenes, instead of unavailing
regrets for their absence, or desires for
their return, be more unceasingly ear-
nest, more devotedly persevering, in
following them, even as they followed
Christ; always bearing in mind the con-
solatory assurance, that you may go to
them, though they cannot return to you.
Wait but a little while, and the services
of the heavenly temple will be open to
LECTURE IV. 89
yourselves, and you shall again unite
with those you love, in praises which
shall not weary, and in a worship which
shall never cease.
But we must briefly conclude this in-
structive subject: " While Peter yet
spake, behold a voice out of the cloud,
which said, This is my beloved Son, in
whom I am well pleased, hear ye him.
And when the voice was passed, Jesus
was found alone." How glorious a tes-
timony from God himself, to the pre-
eminence of the " beloved Son !" Moses
and Elias are overshadowed by the bright
cloud, and vanish from the sight, but
Christ remains ! The law and the pro-
phets yield to the far clearer and more
glorious dispensation of the Gospel.
The veil which had long been drawn
over this great truth, is for ever thrown
aside, and Jesus stands confessed " the
blessed and only Potentate, the King of
kings, and Lord of lords !"
" Hear ye him," was the death-note
90 LECTURE IV.
of the old dispensations, as they passed
into oblivion.
" Hear ye him," is the inspiring cry
of the church militant, as she goes on her
way warring and travailing upon earth.
" Hear ye him," will form a portion
of the chorus of the church triumphant,
when, having " overcome by the blood of
the Lamb," she shall sit down an ho-
noured and a glorious bride, at the ever-
lasting table of her Lord.
How can we then, your fellow-la-
bourers, and " helpers of your joy," leave
a more hallowed sound upon your ears ?
how can we pray the blessed Spirit of
God to carry home a more valuable
admonition to your hearts, than these
words of the great Jehovah himself,
" This is my beloved Son, hear ye him?''
That you may so hear that adorable
Redeemer, as to believe, receive, and
obey him, may God of his infinite mercy
grant !
91
LECTURE V.
MATT. xix. 27.
"THEN ANSWERED PETER, AND SAID UNTO HIM, BE-
HOLD, WE HAVE FORSAKEN ALL, AND FOLLOWED
THEE; WHAT SHALL WE HAVE THEREFORE?"
AN abundance of this world's goods has
been in all ages among the greatest
impediments to a consistent following
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Seldom in
the days of his earthly sojourn, do we
read that the rich, or the mighty, or
the noble, were called into his kingdom.
Have any of the rulers believed in him ?
was the triumphant inquiry by which,
in the earliest infancy of the Gospel,
its followers were shamed into silence.
It was to the poor especially that the
Gospel was preached ; it was from the
92 LECTURE V.
ranks of the poor and the destitute that
many were chosen, " rich in faith, and
heirs of the kingdom;" and while the
Saviour of the world was despised by
the great and rejected by the wealthy,
he daily partook of the poor man's fare,
lodged in the poor man's dwelling, and
selected from the poor man's kindred
the companions of his ministry, and the
promulgators of his Gospel.
In the 19th chapter of St. Matthew,
we have an interesting account of our
Lord's conversation with a young and
wealthy ruler, who appeared desirous of
embracing the new religion ; he was
contented patiently to listen to our
Lord's injunction, " Keep the command-
ments," because he vainly flattered him-
self that his character was unimpeach-
able ; but no sooner did he hear the
words, " Sell what thou hast and follow
me," than we are told, " he went away
sorrowful, for he had great possessions."
Then said Jesus unto his disciples,
LECTURE V. 93
" Verily I say unto you, that a rich
man shall hardly enter into the king-
dom of heaven." You who are labouring
unremittingly to "join house to house,
and lay field to field," without a thought
or a desire beyond the attainment of
these perishable possessions, learn from
the lips of your Redeemer the true
nature of the work in which you are
engaged. You are merely assisting the
great enemy of your souls in forging
those golden chains with which he binds
you to his cruel service. Difficult as
the work of salvation unquestionably is
to every fallen child of Adam, to the
rich, and to the man " hastening to
be rich," the difficulty is infinitely in-
creased : with a profusion of the gifts
of God, the ungrateful heart of man
becomes, in general, strangely alienated
from the heavenly Giver : with an
earnest desire after wealth, comes an
increasing indifference to spiritual duties
and spiritual privileges ; with an attain-
94 LECTURE V.
ment of wealth comes frequently a sordid
selfishness, deadness of heart to God,
coldness to the brethren. Few Chris-
tians perish from the cutting winds of
adversity, many wither and fall away
beneath the burning sun of prosperity.
Intimately was he acquainted with the
human heart, who, looking around upon
the splendid mansion of his friend, and
remarking the exulting expression of his
countenance, exclaimed, " Aye, these
are the things that make a death-bed
terrible !"
Simon Peter, who was present at the
interview upon which we have been
commenting, no sooner witnessed the
departure of the young man, and heard
our Lord's instructive warning, than, as
we read, he answered and said unto
Jesus, " Behold, we have forsaken all,
and followed thee ; what shall we have
therefore?"
If it be (and who will deny it?) a
most difficult achievement to forsake all
LECTURE V. 95
for Christ, this inquiry of Peter will
convince us, that it is even yet more
difficult to do it with simplicity of pur-
pose and singleness of heart to suffer
no intermingling of unworthy motives
to influence us in the great work of
dedicating ourselves to God. In refer-
ence to this, watch over yourselves, my
brethren, with a most jealous eye, upon
every step of the Christian course ;
analyze carefully your motives, scru-
tinize your intentions, see that " the
recompense of the reward," especially
of the temporal reward, hold not too
prominent a station in your hearts : if
you be poor, see that your religious
duties be not to recommend you to the
rich ; if young, that they be not to
attract the notice or the praise of men.
Whatever be your station, whatever be
your age, let your prayer and your effort
be, to follow the Lord Jesus Christ, in
all godly sincerity, with a single eye to
his glory, and an utter disregard of
96 LECTURE V.
every thing compared with the one
attainment which alone is worthy of
you, the approbation of your God.
How greatly do we all need these
cautions ; for, alas ! how prone we are
to sully every effort in the cause of
Christ, by the mixture of unholy mo-
tives, and to desecrate every offering
by an undue estimation of its worth.
Observe even Peter, the warm-hearted,
the spiritually-minded Peter, unable to
restrain those natural feelings, which
would make a merit of the smallest act
of self-denial for the Lord's sake. " Be-
hold !" an exclamation of astonishment
" we have left all and followed thee.'*
We should imagine, that the man who
could speak thus, had come from palaces
of cedar, and laid crowns and sceptres
at the feet of Jesus ! Who would be-
lieve that a paltry fishing-boat and its
mended nets, were the all of which he
predicates so largely ? Yet this is con-
stantly the manner in which men speak
LECTURE V. 97
of sacrifices for the sake of Christ. How-
ever trifling, however valueless, some
questionable pleasure, some unjust or
unholy profit, if relinquished at the com-
mand of God, how is it magnified into
importance amid the littleness of our
obedience ! But turn we from the de-
mand of Peter, to the astonishing reply
of his indulgent Master : ' ' Verily, I say
unto you, that ye which have followed
me, in the regeneration, when the Son
of man shall sit on the throne of his
glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve
thrones, judging the twelve tribes of
Israel." Observe, my brethren, how
immensely disproportionate will be the
rewards of heaven to all the self-denials
and services of earth ! Instead of the
forsaken fishing-boats upon the sea of
Galilee, thrones of glory in the eternal
kingdom ! instead of the seat of the
publican, an assessorship with Christ !
Who could have anticipated such a reply
to the inquiry, " What shall we have
F
98 LECTURE V.
therefore?" We can imagine, that the
heart of Peter must have sunk within
him, under a sense of utter unworthi-
ness, when he heard of such an unspeak-
ably splendid return for so poor and
pitiful an offering.
O ! my brethren, I trust that the
heart of every one among you responds
to this feeling : reflect only for a mo-
ment, and it cannot be otherwise. When
you have forsaken all for God, what
have you sacrificed ? Some paltry gra-
tification, which perishes in the using.
When you have given up your whole
soul and body to him, what have you
bestowed? A poor, unworthy, blemished
offering, which after all was not your
own, but his who had already bought it
with a most costly price. When you
have done all for him, what are you at
your best estate? " Unprofitable serv-
ants, who have done what was your duty
to do." 1 Are you not ashamed to be for
1 Luke xvii. 10.
LECTURE V. 99
ever talking of merits and rewards, as
if the Most High were your debtor; as
if he were actually enriched by a few
indifferent prayers, or an occasional act
of self-denial, obedience, or charity ?
Does it never occur to you, that the
condescension and forbearance of God
are infinitely more exercised by the ac-
ceptance of such imperfect services, than
your obedience is magnified by the per-
formance of them ; and that your debt
of gratitude to God is therefore obviously
increased, instead of cancelled, by such
payments as these ? I cannot picture to
myself an individual, I cannot conceive
the state in which that man's heart must
be, who can believe that, standing before
the judgment-seat of Christ, a pardoned
sinner, he shall demand repayment for
his sufferings, and his services, and his
charities upon earth : nay, I cannot
imagine one who, when he shall be most
graciously reminded of these things by
our Lord, shall not rather ask, with feel-
F2
100 LECTURE V.
ings of unaffected surprise, " Lord, when
saw I thee an hungred and fed thee,
naked and clothed thee, a stranger and
took thee in ?" 2 Surely then, instead of
demanding, What shall we have? the
inquiry of a grateful heart will be,
What shall we do ? How can we more
promote the honour and glory of God ?
How can we more devote our hearts, our
time, and our substance, to him who is
" not only able, but willing to do abun-
dantly for us above all that we can ask
or think?" 3
But while we feel it thus a duty to
discountenance an over-anxious estima-
tion of our own imperfect offerings, it is
truly encouraging to observe in the
passage before us, that our gracious
Redeemer is not unmindful of them.
No sooner has he revealed the para-
mount degrees of blessedness awaiting
his disciples, than clearly to demonstrate
that his rewards should be as numerous
* Matt. xxv. 37. Eph. Hi. 20.
LECTURE V. 101
as his servants, and that in their dis-
pensation none should be forgotten, he
immediately adds, "Verily, I say unto
you, there is no man," marking that the
blessing he is about to promise should
not be limited to the apostles, " there
is no man that hath left house, or bre-
thren, or sisters, or father, or mother,
or wife, or children, or lands, for my
sake and the Gospel's, but he shall
receive an hundred-fold now in this
time ; houses, and brethren, and sisters,
and mothers, and children, and lands,
with persecutions, and in the world to
come eternal life." If then you seek
assurance of your reward, behold it
here ; but observe that it is at the same
time coupled with the assurance of suf-
fering. A real, heartfelt reception of
the Gospel of Christ may, and often
does, bring with it, even at the present
day, a species of persecution the jeer,
the taunt, the private sarcasm, the
public ridicule ; it may be accompanied
102 LECTURE V.
by the coldness of worldly friends, or
the loss of the good opinion of those
you love ; it may separate the wife from
the husband, the child from the parent,
not as the necessary consequence of the
Gospel of peace, but, as the apostle ex-
presses it, of " the carnal heart, which
is enmity against God." 4 Our Lord
well knew, that these would in all ages
be amongst the most painful trials of
his followers ; and therefore he left on
record this blessed assurance of a pro-
portionate reward, and observe how
admirably adapted to the necessities of
his people.
We will imagine a case which we
trust is not common at the present time,
but which we fear is not positively un-
known at any time. Your devotion to
the commands of your Redeemer, your
desire " to live godly in Christ Jesus," 5
no longer " to be conformed to this
world, but to be transformed by the re-
4 Rom. viii. 7. 5 2 Tim. iii. 12.
LECTURE V. 103
newing of your mind," 6 has alienated
from you the affections of your natural
counsellors and friends; the members
of your own family look coldly upon
you ; where you were accustomed to
meet with kindness, you encounter re-
proach, and in the bitterness of your
first feeling of anguish you are ready
almost to ask, how can even a Saviour
recompense me for these things? It is
in this state of mind that you will learn
to appreciate the beautiful compensation
of the promise. It is here, on earth,
and in these tender relationships, that
you have suffered thus acutely for the
sake of Christ ; then, independently of
your purchased reward hereafter ; in-
dependently of the real joys which even
here the Saviour's felt and acknowledged
presence will bestow, you shall be abun-
dantly recompensed. For every relative
you have lost, for every friend you have
estranged from you, "you shall receive/'
6 Rom. xii. 2.
104 LECTURE V.
says our Lord, " an hundred-fold now in
this present time, brethren, and sisters,
and mothers." Those who bear the Sa-
viour's image, and love the Saviour's
name, love also the Saviour's people, and
will be to you, even while on earth,
more affectionate, more valuable, more
endeared, than the nearest earthly rela-
tion, uninfluenced by these spiritual feel-
ings, could have ever been. These are
" the brethren, and sisters, and mothers,"
who shall never fail you, but having
gladdened your path by the endearments
of Christian friendship here below, shall
be united to you yet more closely, when
you shall together " shine forth as the
sun in the kingdom of your Father." 7
The next incident to which I shall de-
sire your attention in the life of him
upon whose history we are commenting,
is one of the deepest interest to every
believer ; one in which we shall find
Peter himself not so much a speaker as
7 Matt. xiii. 43.
LECTURE V. 105
a hearer, sitting at the feet of his Divine
Master, and making an inquiry upon a
subject which has in all ages deeply
engaged the thoughts and attentions of
the true church of Christ ; but perhaps
at no one period since that inquiry was
made, so universally as at the present.
We are informed in the 24th chapter of
St. Matthew, that the disciples, filled
with admiration at the architectural
magnificence of the temple, had called
the attention of our Lord to its beauties,
and in reply, that he had forewarned
them that the time was coming, when
" there should not be left one stone upon
another which should not be thrown
down." The inspired historian then
continues : " As Jesus sat upon the
Mount of Olives, the disciples came
unto him privately, saying, Tell us,
when shall these things be ? and what
shall be the sign of thy coming, and
of the end of the world ?" The reply to
the former of these inquiries, " When
106 LECTURE V.
shall these things be ?" occupies the
first twenty-eight verses of the chapter,
clearly foretelling that tremendous visita-
tion which the pages of history have since
so faithfully verified. Our Lord then
answers the latter question, "What is
the sign of thy coming?" in these words :
" Immediately after the tribulation of
those days," a tribulation, be it remem-
bered, which, though it commenced with
the destruction of Jerusalem, has not
even yet run the whole of its terrific
course " the sun shall be darkened,
and the moon shall not give her light,
and the stars shall fall from heaven, and
the powers of the heavens shall be
shaken, and then shall appear the sign
of the Son of man in heaven ; and then
shall all the tribes of the earth mourn,
and they shall see the Son of man
coming in the clouds of heaven with
power and great glory."
The mind in its present state of im-
perfection, much as it cannot but desire
LECTURE V.
107
to see the day of the Son of man, shrinks
from the scrutiny of such a vision. That
we shall all one day behold, face to face,
the Saviour of whom we now speak, and
hear, and read, and think; that we shall
see with our own eyes the print of the
nails, and the mark of the Roman spear ;
that we shall indeed look upon him,
4 c whom having not seen, we love," is as
certain as the promises of God can ren-
der it a certainty to which the heart of
the true believer turns with "joy un-
speakable and full of glory ;" 8 and never
does he say, " thy kingdom come,"
without rejoicing that Time is winging
on his way his rapid flight, and hasten-
ing the wheels of his chariot. Most
naturally then did Peter ask, " What
shall be the sign of thy coming ?" Most
naturally does the church, as if with one
voice and one heart, reiterate the in-
quiry. Upon such a subject we would
not presume to dogmatize ; great injury
8 1 Pet. i. 8.
108 LECTURE V.
has been already done to the cause of
truth, and to the minds of inquiring
Christians, by an attempt to speak
plainly and positively, where God him-
self has intentionally spoken obscurely.
We doubt not that "the day of the
Lord," 9 come when it may, "shall," to
the many, "so come as a thief in the
night;" and that, therefore, when the
world in general is least anticipating it,
there is the greatest probability of its
arrival. But of this also we feel assured,
that as no great event, no remarkable
revolution has ever happened in the
history of the world without having been
distinctly foreseen by many reflecting,
thoughtful, penetrating intellects ; so no
great event has happened, or ever will
happen, in the church of Christ, which
will not have been "looked for and
hasted unto" by many among his pre-
pared and expecting people.
We would say therefore to you, with
9 1 Thess. v. 2.
LECTURE V. 109
reference to this great event, what our
Lord has said unto all, " WATCH," " for
ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that
that day should overtake you as a thief."
The book of prophecy is in your hands ;
the remarkable events of the days in
which our lot is cast are forming a rapid
commentary upon the most ambiguous of
its pages. Suffer not these things to be
without their practical influence upon
your hearts. Fix an humble eye upon
the signs of the times ; search the Scrip-
tures of truth with reference to the return
of your Redeemer, which, from the con-
tinual allusions to it in the writings of
the New Testament, was never intended
to be overlooked ; and although it is our
firm conviction that you will not find
sufficient evidence to attach you to any
of the numerous theories at present rife,
we believe you will find sufficient, fully
sufficient to make you seriously thought-
ful, sufficient to make you " seek" more
1 1 Thess. v. 4.
110 LECTURE V.
earnestly " those things which are above,
where Christ sitteth at the right hand of
God," 2 and more ardently to long, and
more faithfully to look for " the coming
of the Son of man."
In conclusion, let me endeavour briefly
but practically to apply this portion of
the subject. Are you, my brethren, wait-
ing for the coming of your Lord ? Have
you ever considered it a Christian's duty
to make this inquiry? Do you really
believe that he shall come? And are
you anxiously expecting that solemn
event ? As Christians you assuredly are ;
you read it in your Bibles, you acknow-
ledge it in your creeds. Let me then ask,
how are you evincing by your life and con-
versation, that this is indeed an article
of your faith, an object of your hope ?
Observe for a moment the manner in
which we act under similar circumstances
in the common affairs of life. The friend
you most love has gone to some far distant
2 Col. iii. 1.
LECTURE V. Ill
clime, but he has promised to return ;
you believe his promise, the time is fixed,
and is unquestionably certain, but he has
not mentioned to you the day. During
the interval, in what manner do you con-
duct yourselves ? As the term of his long
absence wears away, does he not engross
every thought, and occupy every feeling,
and form a prominent part in every ar-
rangement ? You recollect every thing
which used to afford him pleasure, and
you prepare it for his reception ; you re-
member every thing that gave him pain,
and you most cautiously, most scrupu-
lously avoid it ; you think no sacrifice too
great, no recollection too minute, if it
may but enable you to minister to his
delight, and to gratify him on his arrival.
Your heart is so occupied with his pro-
mised return, that it is far less delightful
to you to associate with others, than to
think of and remember him. Every
morning sees you at the throne of grace,
praying that another sun may not set
112 LECTURE V.
before your anticipations have been re-
alized, and you are not, you cannot be
satisfied with any thing short of the ful-
filment of this prayer.
Now, my Christian brethren, I would
ask you to apply this to the state of your
minds with respect to the promised return
of your Lord? Do you know any thing
of such feelings as these? Do you in
any respect so feel, and so think, and so
act, with regard to his arrival ? If not,
what further proof do we require that
either you do not believe him, or you do
not love him as you ought ? If you be-
lieved him, you would live as those who
were expecting his coming ; if you loved
him, you would live as those who longed
for it. In every act of your life there
would be a reference to this wished-for
event. In your most sorrowing hours
you would " weep as though you wept
not;" 1 and in your most joyful hours
14 rejoice as though you rejoiced not ;" in
3 1 Cor. vii. 30.
LECTURE V. 113
your busiest hours you would " buy as
though you possessed not;" and every
day and every hour you would ' ' use this
world as not abusing it." You would be
careful to allow yourselves in no posture
of mind, in no indulgence of tempers, in
no occupations or amusements, in which
you would blush to be found by your
Lord.
You acknowledge, you cannot but ac-
knowledge, that all this is perfectly true
if applied to the return of any earthly
friend : what argument then will you use
to prove that it does not and ought not
to be applicable to the return of that
" friend who sticketh closer than a bro-
ther?"* Will you say that you have no
such love for him, who so loved you as
to give himself for you ; that the Bible
requires no such love, that his people
have never felt such love, that you cannot
be expected to desire his presence with
the same feelings with which you desire
4 Prov. xviii. 24.
114 LECTURE V.
the presence of those you love on earth.
So saying, you would only demonstrate
that at least one of the signs of our Lord's
return is sufficiently visible " the love
of many shall wax cold." 5 It was not so
with the holy men of old ; it was not so
with David, for he expressly said, " there
is none upon earth whom I desire in com-
parison of thee." Although the mutual
love between him and Jonathan was, as
he himself expresses it, " wonderful,
passing the love of women," it was as
nothing, and less than nothing in compa-
rison of his love to God. In this love, be
assured, every true child of God, in every
age, has partaken ; in this desire for the Sa-
viour's return, his true people have in all
ages united ; in this anxiety to keep them-
selves unspotted from the world against
his wished-for coming, all his redeemed
servants sympathize. Try then the state
of your spiritual affections by this test ;
observe what would be the effect upon
5 Matt. xxiv. 12.
LECTURE V. 115
your heart, and mind, and expectations,
if you were assured that the day of the
Lord was even now about to dawn upon
you ; if the reply to your inquiry, " What
is the sign of thy coming?" were to be,
" Behold, I come quickly," 6 would it
sound the knell of your departing plea-
sures, of all in which your hearts, and
minds, and thoughts are now engaged ;
or could you really welcome it as the ful-
filment of every prayer, the completion
of every hope? Could you reply from
your heart, " even so come, Lord Je-
sus," 7 this is the hour which I have
prayed for, hoped for, lived for, " even
so come, come quickly."
This, and this alone, is the reply of
those who, with their loins girded and
their lamps burning, are waiting for the
return of their Lord. This, then, be
assured, is the reply of all those who
shall go in with him to the wedding, and
shall sit down for ever at the marriage
Rev. xxii. 20. 7 Ibid.
116 LECTURE VI.
supper of the Lamb. That it may, there-
fore, before the bright advancing sign of
the Son of man shall be seen in the
heavens, before he shall come to you, or
you shall depart to him, be the heartfelt
reply of every soul here present, may
God of his infinite mercy grant !
117
LECTURE VI.
JOHN xiii. 8.
" PETER SAITH UNTO HIM, THOU SHALT NEVER WASH
MY FEET. JESUS ANSWERED HIM, IF I WASH THEE
NOT, THOU HAST NO PART WITH ME."
IT is one of the striking peculiarities of
the method of teaching adopted by our
divine Master, that the truths which it
was the object of his life to promulgate,
were not elaborately preached in a series
of continuous discourses, but rather inci-
dentally touched upon in some striking
apophthegm, or shadowed forth under
some significant symbol. Thus it was,
while sitting upon Jacob's well, that our
Lord so beautifully discoursed upon ' ' that
well of water which springeth up into
everlasting life." 1 It was while looking
1 John iv. 14.
118 LECTURE VI.
upon the " fields, white already to the
harvest," 2 that he so strikingly alluded
to that eternal harvest, when both " he
that soweth and he that reapeth shall
rejoice together." It was when the
people followed him for the bread that
perisheth, that he delivered one of the
most instructive of his discourses upon
" the living bread which came down
from heaven." 3 It was at the feast of
tabernacles, while beholding the Jewish
ceremony of pouring forth the water of
Siloam, " in the last day, that great
day of the feast, that Jesus stood and
cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him
come unto me, and drink." 4
In the incident with which this morn-
ing's Lecture commences, we shall find
an additional and peculiarly beautiful
testimony to the truth of this remark,
while we behold our Lord, by one of the
most significant actions of his life, illus-
2 John iv. 35, 36. 3 John vi. 51.
4 John vii. 37.
LECTURE VI. 119
trating one of the most important doc-
trines of his Gospel. We are told in the
13th of St. John, that at the supper
which took place before the feast of the
passover, or rather at the antepast, for
it is evident that it occurred upon the
same evening, " Jesus laid aside his
garments, and took a towel and girded
himself. After that he poured water
into a bason, and began to wash the dis-
ciples' feet, and to wipe them with the
towel wherewith he was girded. Then
cometh he to Simon Peter, and Peter''
(whose love for his divine Master could
but ill bear to behold him so servilely
employed,) " said unto him, Lord, dost
thou wash my feet? Jesus said, What
I do thou knowest not now, but thou
shalt know hereafter." At present you
behold only the act itself, mysterious
and unaccountable ; hereafter you shall
be fully satisfied of its wise and merciful
intention.
My Christian brethren, surely for our
120 LECTURE VI.
sakes this was written ; for us and for
our children. For will not your own
experience justify me in saying, that the
Lord has dealt thus, upon many and
most important occasions, with your-
selves ? How many an act of your gra-
cious Redeemer, many a dark and mys-
terious providence in your lives, which
was once utterly unintelligible, is even
now made clear and satisfactory ! You
have, for instance, been visited with
unexpected adversity ; your situation in
life is changed from affluence to poverty ;
or your trials have been of a different
nature you have been bereaved of those
dear relatives and friends with whom
your tenderest affections were bound up ;
and this, perhaps, at a time when they
were most valuable, most useful, most
endeared. Some of you, I doubt not,
have lived to see that these were acts of
wisdom and of mercy : and some, per-
haps, though fully reconciled to the
blow, and prostrated in the dust before
LECTURE VI. 121
the chastening visitation, and able to say
with the Shunammite of old, 5 " It is
well," cannot yet discern that it was love
which held the rod ; to you, my afflicted
brethren, your gracious Redeemer at this
day speaks as he here spoke to Peter,
" What I do thou knowest not now, but
thou shalt know hereafter." As years
roll on, if you are a child of God, you
will look back not only with content-
ment, but even with gratitude, upon
those dark and trying dispensations ; in
many instances it will, I doubt not, be
vouchsafed to you even here to distin-
guish that God has done all things wisely
and mercifully, and that some of your
most painful trials have been among
your choicest blessings. But should this
not be given to you, should you be
doomed to pass not only through this
pilgrimage state, but even out of it, in
utter ignorance of the motive of many of
your severest chastenings, rest your
5 2 Kings iv. 26.
G
122 LECTURE VI.
hearts in their most troubled hours upon
this gracious declaration of your Lord,
" THOU SHALT KNOW HEREAFTER." HlS
intentions will not be for ever thus
hidden from his children. In infancy
the child takes much from his father
upon trust ; as he grows up, it is the
parent's delight to explain to him every
act and every word. So will your hea-
venly Father also deal with you. All
shall one day be made plain to you, and
you shall see that He who " never wil-
lingly afflicts or grieves the children of
men," has not laid upon you one cross,
has not inflicted one pang, which he
could with safety to your best interests,
or to his own glory, have ventured to
withhold. Surely it will bring an in-
crease even to the joys at God's right
hand, to trace out the paths by which he
carried you thither, although you may
behold them covered with thorns, and
moistened with your tears.
But we must return to the incident
LECTURE VI. 123
before us. Peter, unconvinced and un-
satisfied by our Lord's explanation, suf-
fered the natural impetuosity of his
temper to render him even more pe-
remptory than before. " He saith unto
him, Thou shalt never wash my feet.
Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not,
thou hast no part with me." Here is at
once the key to the mystery before us :
Jesus literally washes the disciples' feet,
to signify to them most impressively that
they need him spiritually to wash and
purify their hearts.
My brethren, a more important de-
claration was never made by the Saviour
of the world, than that with which he
here addresses you. " If I wash thee
not, thou hast no part with me." You
may be the members of the visible church
of Christ, you may bear the name of
Christ, you may be baptized with a
Christian baptism, and attend upon
Christian ordinances ; but if, in the
sense here alluded to, you have not been
G 2
124 LECTURE VI.
washed by Christ, that is, cleansed from
the guilt of your sins by his blood, and
purified from the power of them by his
Spirit, you have no part in his atoning
sacrifice now, you will have no place in
his kingdom hereafter. Most solemnly
would I urge this consideration upon
your consciences, as one of the most
deeply important that can engage them.
Thousands are living in grievous error
upon this point, and I dare not hope that
none of you are among the number. If
there be but one, then let me obtain his
serious attention while I thus address
him. You believe that you are safe, be-
cause you are externally a member of a
truly scriptural church, and a regular
attendant upon her valuable services.
As the handmaid of Christ your church
is invaluable, and she is well able, under
the divine blessing, instrumentally, to
guide your path and to support your
footsteps from the time when she first
receives you into her fold, " a child of
LECTURE VI. 125
God and an inheritor of the kingdom of
heaven," until the hour when she speaks
her parting benediction, and returns her
" hearty thanks" to him in whom you
have believed, that he has taken you to
himself. But if you put her in the place
of your Redeemer, if you are seeking
that at the hands of the servant which
the Master, and the Master only, can
supply, you will find too late, that al-
though like " the mixed multitude," 6
who went up with the true Israel of God
out of the land of their captivity, you
may have swelled the ranks and echoed
the prayers of his people, you have
neither part nor lot in the purchased
inheritance.
" If I wash thee not," are the words of
our Lord. " The blood of Jesus Christ
cleanses from all sin:" 7 be assured that
he has not " washed you from your sins
in his own blood," 9 unless you have come
with a truly penitent heart, humbly con-
6 Exod. xii. 38. 7 1 John i. 7. 8 Rev. i. 5.
126 LECTURE VI.
fessing your sins, earnestly desiring par-
don, and entirely depending upon the
merits of his sacrifice and intercession to
reconcile you to God. Now, we would
solemnly ask you, has any such transac-
tion as this ever passed between God and
your soul? Have you ever been led to
see the guilt and the heinousness of sin,
to feel the plague of a corrupt heart, and
to pray for its removal ? Have you ever
been thus made the subject of the cleans-
ing efficacy of the blood of Christ, and of
the transforming, renewing influences of
his Spirit? I do not say, can you re-
member the day, can you name the hour
when such a change was effected ? There
may be, we are well aware, much en-
thusiasm upon this subject, but O ! let
not the enthusiasm of others be a cloke
for your coldness and indifference. If
such a change as this have ever taken
place in your heart, you must be sensible
of it. It is too momentous ever to be
forgotten. " A man," says Archdeacon
LECTURE VI. 127
Paley, 9 who assuredly was no enthusiast,
" might as easily forget his escape from
a shipwreck." Be not satisfied then until
you have ascertained this great truth with
regard to your own soul ; search nar-
rowly, probe deeply, see whether there
be ' < in you an evil heart of unbelief," 1 or
whether you have scriptural grounds for
believing that the " blood of sprinkling
which speaketh better things than the
blood of Abel," 2 has been applied to your
conscience, and that you have thus been
washed by Christ ; for remember, that if
not, the word of Christ himself is passed,
that you " have no part with him."
Peter, now convinced, by the words
which we have been considering, of the
great importance of this symbolical action
of our Lord, " said unto him, Lord, not
my feet only, but my hands and my head."
His prayer, now that he was enabled to
9 See Paley's Sermon " on the Doctrine of Con-
version."
1 Heb. iii. 12. 2 Heb. xii. 24.
128 LECTURE VI.
understand the spiritual meaning of the
act in which our Lord was engaged, re-
sembled the prayer of David, 3 " Lord,
wash me throughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sins." " Jesus
saith unto him, He that is washed, (or as
it might have been rendered, ' he that is
bathed,') needeth not save to wash his
feet, but is clean every whit." He who
has just come from the bath, although his
feet may be soiled by the dust upon which
he has trodden, is in other respects clean
every whit ; or, applying this to our-
selves, you who have been made the sub-
jects of the cleansing efficacy of the blood
of the " Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world," 4 " Ye are washed, ye are
sanctified, ye are justified in the name of
the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our
God." 5 You therefore need not to be
again thus washed, again justified ; but
we beseech you, rest not upon any former
act of pardon, let not the high privilege
3 Ps. li. 2. 4 Rev. xiii. 8. 5 1 Cor. vi. 11.
LECTURE VI. 129
of having been forgiven all trespasses,
make you indifferent to your continual
short-comings and sins ; be assured that
you do still unquestionably need the
daily, hourly application of the blood of
Christ for the cleansing of that pollution
which is contracted at every footstep in
this world of sin ; you therefore faith-
fully, humbly, and penitently, must also
continually resort to " the fountain opened
for sin and for un cleanness," 6 " that the
God of peace may sanctify you wholly,
and that your whole spirit and soul and
body may be preserved blameless unto
the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." 7
Our Lord having performed the signi-
ficant action upon which we have been
speaking, and again taken his place at
the table, and enlarged upon the great
Christian duty of humility, so obviously
taught us by that miracle of humility
which he had just performed, proceeds
thus to address his assembled disciples :
6 Zech. xiii. 1. 7 1 Thess. v. 23.
G 5
130
LECTURE VI.
" Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one
of you shall betray me." " Then," says
the inspired historian, " the disciples
looked one on another, doubting of whom
he spake. Now there was leaning on Jesus'
bosom one of his disciples whom Jesus
loved ; Simon Peter therefore beckoned to
him, that he should ask who it should be of
whom he spake. " He who is here alluded
to as the disciple whom Jesus loved, was,
as we find from the twenty-first chapter of
his Gospel, St. John ; he it was to whom,
as possessing so high a place in the inti-
macy and affection of our Lord, even
" leaning upon his bosom," Simon Peter
applied himself to obtain an answer to
his inquiry.
My brethren, would you inquire any
thing at the hands of God ? do you ear-
nestly desire instruction and guidance ?
then seek an interest in the prayers of
those who are admitted to the closest com-
munion with God ; they can ask for you
many things that you, through ignorance
LECTURE VI. 131
or inability, cannot ask for yourselves ;
for, " the effectual fervent prayer of a
righteous man availeth much." 8 Above
all, be sure that you make every inquiry,
present every petition, through the inter-
cession of that Friend who is nearest to
the throne of grace, even through the
only-begotten Son who is in the bosom
of the Father; all that he asks for you
will assuredly be obtained; for, if " the
effectual fervent prayer of a righteous
man availeth much," the effectual fervent
prayer of a perfect Mediator must be
irresistible.
" He then," continues the historian,
" lying on Jesus' bosom, said, Lord,
who is it ? " How beautiful is this union
of the closest intimacy, and the most
profound respect ! St. John, though
permitted to lean upon his Saviour's
bosom, remembered still the immeasu-
rable distance there must ever be be-
tween them. " Lord, who is it?" At
8 Jam. v. 16.
132 LECTURE VI.
those moments when you are admitted
to the nearest union that created, finite
beings can ever know with him who is
uncreate and eternal, beware of the
slightest approach to familiarity : in all
your inquiries, in all your prayers, while
they breathe the spirit of a child, and
are dictated by the confiding love of
a child, forget not the reverence due to
a father : remember that God himself
has said, " If I be a father, where is
mine honour ? If I be a master, where
is my fear ?" 9
Our Lord having, in answer to Peter's
inquiry, distinctly pointed out the traitor,
thus began, as we learn from the parallel
passage in St. Luke's Gospel, to caution
Peter himself against his approaching
danger : " Simon, Simon, behold, Satan
hath desired to have you, that he may
sift you as wheat : but I have prayed
for thee, that thy faith fail not : and
when thou art converted," when tliou
!l Mai. i. G.
LECTURE VI. 133
hast recovered from that fall which I
foretel, " strengthen thy brethren."
How awful a warning was this to Peter !
your great adversary u desires to have
you : " at the same time how encou-
raging ! he does but "desire:" as the
lion chained, he rages open-mouthed ;
but there is a limit which he cannot
pass.
My Christian brethren, you stand at
the present hour in the same danger
that Peter stood you have the same
adversary, and he is still filled with the
same determined animosity, still actu-
ated by the same dreadful desire to sift
out from you all that is valuable, and
to leave only the " chaff, which shall
be burned with unquenchable fire." 1
Eighteen hundred years of too success-
ful enterprise against the souls of men
are not likely to have weakened his
strength, or diminished his cunning ;
he is still the same indefatigable oppo-
1 Matt. iii. 12.
134 LECTURE VI.
nent who ruined Judas, and who almost
triumphed over Peter ; and he is at this
moment urging all his efforts of cunning
and strength, and all his inexhaustible
resources of trial and temptation, against
the soul of every individual who names
the name of Christ. He is incessantly
striving for the ruin of each, even of
the youngest, the poorest, the most in-
considerable among you, and is desiring
your soul as anxiously, as unceasingly,
as if it were the only prize upon this
world's surface worthy of his efforts.
May we not then, ought we not, as those
who have the charge over you in the
Lord, seriously to ask you, Against such
an enemy, where is your resource ? what
is your strength ? You will not find it
in your own resolutions you need not
seek it in your own heart. There is no
armour of earthly temper which is proof
against his fiery darts, no weapon that
you can form against him which shall
prosper. He who was too cunning for
LECTURE VI. 135
Solomon, too strong for Samson, will
not be baffled by your wisdom, or sub-
dued by your strength. " Resist the
devil, and he will flee from you," 2 is
the declaration of God's own word ; but
resist him in the power of your own
might, and he will laugh you to scorn.
It is from the armoury of heaven alone
that weapons can be brought fitted for
this spiritual warfare. Do you, then,
seek them there ? Does every day be-
hold you earnestly imploring, through
the merits of the Redeemer, arms from
on high to enable you to fight the good
fight ? It is through the prayer of your
ever blessed Intercessor that you can
alone find grace equal to your need ; it
is from the power of the Spirit that you
will alone obtain strength equal to your
day. " I have prayed for thee" there
is your refuge. " When the enemy
comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the
Lord shall lift up a standard against
2 James iv. 7.
136 LECTURE VI.
him" 3 there is your strength : leave
these aids unsought, and the event is
already certain, your defeat is inevitable :
seek them constantly, faithfully, fer-
vently, and we do not say you will be
invulnerable, but we do not hesitate to
say you will be invincible " kept by
the power of God, through faith, unto
salvation." 4
, Happy had it been for Peter, if, thus
warned, thus counselled by the awful
declaration that there was an enemy full
of 'power, and full of cunning, watching
for his halting, and striving for his ruin,
he had instantly acknowledged his weak-
ness, and betaken himself to the strong
for strength. There was time for reflec-
tion, time for self-searching, time for
prayer. Had he instantly cast himself
at the feet of Jesus, and poured out the
heartfelt acknowledgments of his own
utter incapacity to struggle with the ap-
proaching enemy, he would, doubtless,
3 Isa. lix. 19. 4 1 Pet. i. 5.
LECTURE VI. 137
have been saved from the hour of temp-
tation ; the shield of celestial temper
would have been thrown over him, and
the fiery darts of the wicked one would
have fallen harmless at his feet. But,
alas ! the warning voice, although it was
the voice of his Master and his God,
sounded but in vain. " Peter said unto
him, Lord, I am ready to go with thee
both into prison and to death." Then
his Divine Master, clearly perceiving the
evidences of that " haughty spirit which
goeth before a fall," 5 thus distinctly and
solemnly foretold his approaching sin :
" I tell thee, Peter, the cock shall not
crow this day before that thou shalt
thrice deny that thou knowest me."
Peter, unsubdued, unsoftened, hurried
forward by the tempter, who plies his
efforts with such rapidity, that when we
have once entered upon the treacherous
deep, wave follows wave in incalculably
quick succession " Peter said unto him,
5 Prov. xvi. 8.
138 LECTURE VI.
Though I should die with thee, yet will
I not deny thee ;" thus putting the final
seal to the sentence which now became
irrevocable. O ! my brethren, " let
him" among you " that thinketh he
standeth, take heed lest he fall." 6 Peter
firmly believed that he could die for
Christ, and yet he lived to deny and
to abjure him. At this moment, then,
how can the most sincere, most faithful,
most confident among you be more se-
cure ? Every thing of stability which
belongs to the creature, vanishes before
the tremendous onset of the powers of
darkness. You possess nothing in which
Peter was deficient ; how then can you
expect to stand where Peter fell ? Your
heart is devoted to your Redeemer and
was not Peter's ? your conscience acquits
you of any premeditated intention to
deny him and did not Peter's? your
confidence urges you to declare that
worlds should not tempt you to such an
e 1 Cor. x. 12.
LECTURE VI. 139
act and what was the language of Peter?
Alas ! it is indeed only the hour of trial
which reveals us to ourselves ; and that
hour shows us, that at our best estate we
are nothing, and less than nothing, and
vanity. You may now scoff at the pro-
bability of danger ; you may imagine
your rock so strong, that it shall never
be removed ; but you will find a season
when your solicitations to sin will be
urgent, and its pretences plausible, and
its opportunities easy, and the hopes of
recovery or concealment probable, and
the sin itself unusually fascinating ; in
such an hour, if you are trusting to your
own strength, you will assuredly fall.
There is not that sin, even to the be-
trayal of your friend and the denial of
your God, to which, in an hour of pre-
sumptuous confidence, the natural heart
may not be seduced.
My younger brethren, yours is the
age, and yours the state of Christian
feeling, when men are most confident of
140 LECTURE VI.
their stability, and therefore when they
are most liable to fall. It is to you,
then, we would particularly apply this
example. Avoid every thing approach-
ing to self-confidence, and let the con-
stant desire of your heart and effort of
your life be, to maintain a humble,
lowly, self-distrusting, prayerful walk
with God : be assured it is not any
grace already received, it is not any re-
solution made, it is not any experience
obtained, which can keep you from
falling, if you are walking carelessly or
confidently : at the same time be ye
equally assured, that it is not any tempt-
ation, not all your spiritual enemies,
however numerous, or however power-
ful, who shall prevail against you, if you
are depending simply upon your God ;
then, indeed, you shall " never perish,
neither shall any pluck you out of his
hand." 7 While, therefore, you are thus
simple in your trust, and earnest in your
7 John x. 28.
LECTURE VI. 141
watchfulness, you are safe ; it is the
separating these things which the un-
erring word of God has for ever united,
which will be your ruin. " If you look
to stand in the faith of the sons of God,"
says the judicious Hooker, 8 "you must
hourly, continually be providing and
setting yourselves to strive. It was not
the meaning of our Lord and Saviour,
in saying, ' Father, keep them in thy
name,' that you should be careless to
keep yourselves. To your own safety,
your own sedulity is required. And
then, blessed for ever and ever be that
mother's child, whose faith hath made
him the child of God. The earth may
shake, the pillars of the world may trem-
ble under us, the countenance of the
heavens may be appalled, the sun may
lose his light, the moon her beauty, the
stars their glory ; but concerning the
man that trusteth in God what is there
8 See the whole of this beautiful and well-knowij
passage, Hooker's Works, fol. edit. 1622, p. 550.
142 LECTURE VI.
in the world that shall change his heart,
overthrow his faith, alter his affections
towards God, or the affection of God to
him ? If I be of this note, who shall make
a separation between me and my God ?
I know in whom I have believed ;
I am not ignorant whose precious blood
has been shed for me : I have a Shep-
herd full of kindness, full of care, and
full of power : unto him I commit my-
self: his own finger has engraven this
sentence on the tables of my heart
c Satan hath desired to winnow thee like
wheat, but I have prayed for thee that
thy faith fail not.' Therefore the assur-
ance of my hope I will labour to keep
as a jewel unto the end ; and by labour,
through the gracious mediation of his
prayer, I shall keep it."
143
LECTURE VII.
MATT. xiv. 37.
" HE COMETH AND FINDETH THEM SLEEPING, AND
SAITH UNTO PETER, SIMON, SLEEPEST THOU?
COULDST NOT THOU WATCH ONE HOUR?"
" CEASE ye from man/' 1 is one of those
divine injunctions which, although pre-
sented to us in the word of God, and
daily and hourly impressed upon us by
the providences of God, is most difficult
of reception, and arduous in practice.
Our lot is cast for the present among
weak, imperfect, sinning mortals like
ourselves, and we feel it to be one of
the happiest circumstances of that lot,
that as we are all blest with the same
sympathies, and partakers of the same
sorrows and the same joys, these sor-
1 Isa. ii. 22.
144 LECTURE VII.
rows are divided, and these joys are
multiplied, when in the union of Chris-
tian fellowship we suffer or rejoice to-
gether. But as every virtue has some
nearly related vice, so every happiness
in our present state of imperfection has
some kindred sorrow for ever at its side ;
the very sweetnesses of human friend-
ship are too often preparing us for the
bitterness of disappointment ; and the
staff upon which we delight to lean,
only supports us for a time, that it may
gradually crumble into dust beneath our
weight, or suddenly break and pierce us
while it fails us.
We are now entering upon a scene in
which the weakness of human friend-
ship, the utter helplessness of human
friends, the necessity in our hour of need
of ceasing from man, and resting our
souls upon the rock of ages, will be
loudly taught us by the frailty and in-
firmity even of the warm-hearted Peter
himself.
LECTURE VII. 145
Immediately after those events which
were brought before you in the last dis-
course, Jesus " went forth with his dis-
ciples into a place called Gethsemane,
over the brook Cedron, where was a
garden into which he entered and his
disciples ; and Jesus saith unto them,
Sit ye here while I go and pray yonder ;
and he taketh with him Peter, James,
and John."
The same disciples who had been
witnesses of his transfiguration and his
glory, w r ere now to be the witnesses of
his humiliation and his suffering. James
and John had but a short time before
boldly asserted, that they were able to
be baptized with Christ's baptism of suf-
fering, and to drink of his cup of sorrow.
Peter had just declared that he was
ready to go with him even to prison and
to death. Of all his disciples, none
had so confidently demanded a scrutiny,
none, therefore, had less reason to com-
plain that they were now placed in the
H
146 LECTURE VII.
\
front row of the battle, and made a spec-
tacle to men and angels of the weakness
of our best determinations, and the in-
firmity of the strongest faith.
Then, continues the evangelist, " Jesus
began to be sore amazed and very heavy."
This was the period of our Lord's greatest
suffering and acutest agony. The horrors
of the cross were not to be compared
with the terrors of the garden ; in the
former his bodily sufferings were predo-
minant, but here, his mental sufferings.
That evil spirit, who, after the temp-
tation in the wilderness, had " departed
from him for a season," now returned
with tenfold greater virulence, to grapple
with him in his hour of weakness, and,
if it were possible, to frustrate for ever
the one great purpose of his mission.
Doubtless, when our Lord entered the
garden, he could discern those hosts of
spiritual enemies, who, unseen to mortal
eye, unknown to mortal apprehension,
were thronging the midnight air, waiting
LECTURE VII. 147
the appointed time, when they might
struggle, hand to hand, with the second
Adam, as they had once, alas ! too suc-
cessfully, assailed the first. That time
had now arrived. " This is your hour,"
said our Lord to the conspirators, " and
the power of darkness."
Every description which the evange-
lists give of the state of mind in which
our Lord entered upon the conflict, prove
the tremendous nature of the assault,
and the vivid and perfect anticipation of
its terrors, which possessed the mind of
the meek and lowly Jesus.
Thus the expression employed by St.
Matthew signifies literally, that Jesus
was " surrounded" with grief; that of
St. Mark, that he began to be " exceed-
ingly astonished, and to be overwhelmed
with anguish;" that of St. John, that his
soul was in the greatest " perturbation."
Then it was that our blessed Lord, in his
human nature, almost overpowered by
what should come upon him, about to
H 2
148 LECTURE VII.
pour out his soul, " with strong crying
and tears," 2 before the throne of his
heavenly Father, anxious at such an hour
to secure every aid to which suffering
mortality can fly for refuge, expected to
derive something of support and conso-
lation from human sympathy and human
friendship. For we read that he said to
the three disciples, whom he had selected
as of all his dear companions the dearest
to his heart, " My soul is exceeding
sorrowful even unto death ; tarry ye
here and watch with me."
What an entreaty was this from the
Lord of life to his poor helpless creatures !
" Watch with me :" at once the highest
duty and the sublimest privilege ever
offered to created beings ! To be thus,
as it were, united to the Saviour in his
last conflict ; while he alone fought the
battle with those powers of darkness,
from which mere mortality would have
shrunk defeated and dismayed, to be
2 Heb. v. 7.
LECTURE VII. 149
permitted to watch and to pray with
him, to strengthen his failing hands, to
cheer his fainting spirit, freely to offer
all at least of those poor services which
man could offer at such an hour, and in
such a contest ! Thus, as Aaron and Hur
of old, held up the arms of the exhausted
Moses, that Israel might triumph over
Amalek, so were those beloved disciples
now required to hold up the arms and
aid the prayers of their fainting Master.
Surely one such hour in Gethsemane
would not have been too dearly purchased
by a participation in Calvary itself.
And now, were we strictly to confine
ourselves to the history of him upon
whose life we are commenting, we should
tarry with Peter at the gate of the gar-
den, and await the return of Jesus ; but,
my Christian brethren, however deeply
we may be interested in Peter, we can-
not but be far more deeply interested in
Peter's Lord. Let us, then, for a few
moments, follow this Lamb of God into
150 LECTURE VI I.
the inmost recesses of the garden ; let
us behold his sufferings and his agony ;
let us listen to his reiterated prayer ; so
shall we, under the divine blessing, derive
a more profitable lesson from the Master,
than the disciple could ever teach us.
Behold, then, the Lord Jesus, having
withdrawn about a stone's throw from
his disciples, prepares alone to encounter
the spirits of evil ; and yet he is not
alone, for his Father is with him. 3
Listen to the first words, which, after
he has fallen upon the ground in deepest
anguish of spirit, burst from his lips : " He
said, O, my Father." Surely, never
before throughout the eternity of his
existence had these words been prompted
by such feeling as now filled and op-
pressed his bosom !
How blessed was it for our Lord, how
blessed is it for us his children, that in
our utmost extremity we have still a
Father. Human counsellors may for-
See John xvi. 32.
LECTURE VII. 151
sake, earthly aids may fail us in the day
of trial ; companionless and friendless we
may be orphans we can never be ; we
have a Father always near, always pow-
erful, always desirous to hear and willing
to answer the cry of his children. " If
it be possible," continues our suffering
Redeemer, ' c let this cup pass from me ;
nevertheless, not my will, but thine be
done." " And being in an agony, he
prayed more earnestly ; and his sweat
was as it were great drops of blood falling
to the ground." This was but the be-
ginning of sorrows ; and yet even here
behold the tremendous penalty of sin.
See the Son of God crushed even to the
earth beneath the weight of man's accu-
mulated guilt ; bleeding at every pore from
inward agony ; writhing beneath the ter-
rible attack of the tempter, and praying,
earnestly praying, that if the great work
for which he now was struggling, could
be effected with less of suffering, his hour
152 LECTURE VII.
of agony might be shortened, and this
most bitter cup be taken from his lips.
My Christian brethren, " is this no-
thing to you, all ye that pass by?" 4
Have you no personal interest in this
appalling scene ? Know you not the
cause of the tremendous conflict which
that garden witnessed ? the reason that
this man, who " knew no sin," 5 knew so
much suffering ? Alas ! this is what it
cost to redeem our souls? It was now
that the Lord of life " was wounded for
our transgressions ;" 6 he was bearing the
penalty which we had fully merited ; he
was now agonizing beneath the wrath of
God, submitting to the assaults of the
tempter, oppressed by the sins of the
whole world, suffering, the innocent for
the guilty, that he might bring us to
God.
We beseech you, brethren, when you
next dwell in imagination upon the de-
lights of some favourite sin, think of its
4 Lam. i. 12. 5 2 Cor. v. 21. 6 Isa. liii. 5.
LECTURE VII. 153
V *
effects as you behold them here. Let
your answer to the tempter be, " Get
thee behind me, Satan," I am no longer
deceived by the specious beauty of the
exterior ; I have now seen sin in all its
undisguised and terrible deformity; I
have seen its fearful effects in the garden
of Gethsemane ; and I desire, by the
help of my God, never again to look
with a momentary complacency, or to
enter into a momentary alliance with
that enemy, to ransom me from whom
my adorable Redeemer thus prayed, and
agonized, and bled.
It was in the very midst of these his
acutest sufferings, that our blessed Sa-
viour bethought himself of the friends
whom he had left at a little distance, to
comfort him by their watching, and to
strengthen him by their petitions : and,
as we are told, Jesus, seeking that solace
which he now so greatly needed, rose up
from prayer and came to his disciples.
What then must have been the feelings
H5
154 LECTURE Vtt,
of bitterness, which wrung the deeply-
sensitive and affectionate heart of our
Lord, when he discovered his followers
not watching with anxiety, not praying
with fervency, " but sleeping for sorrow."
What a picture of the slothfulness and
indifference of fallen man ! how distress-
ing an evidence of the carnal security
even of the apostles ! Much may no
doubt be spoken in extenuation : they
were borne down by grief; they had
been long watching ; the midnight air was
damp and cold ; but when we have said
all, a fearful reckoning will still remain.
Upon this, however, it best becomes
us to be silent; our own watchings are
too drowsily performed, our own prayers
too faithlessly offered, to permit us to
raise our voices against these sleeping
disciples; let us rather observe and imi-
tate the meekness of our perfect Master,
who never yet has ' ' broken the bruised
reed, or quenched the smoking flax." 7
7 Matt. xii. 20.
LECTURE VII, 155
Jesus said unto them, more in sorrow
than in anger, "Why sleep ye?" and
then, as if almost overlooking the neglect
of the others in the still greater delin-
quency of Peter, he turned to him and
said, " Simon, sleepest thou? Couldest
not thou watch one hour?" Thou hast
offered to die with me canst not thou
watch with me? St. Mark assures us,
11 They wist not what to answer him."
Do we not grieve for human nature ?
do we not grieve for Peter? do we
not grieve for ourselves, while witnessing
such a scene? He who had before so
loudly professed, to be now so guiltily
silent; he who had for his own conve-
nience or emolument watched through
so many a lonely night in his fishing-
boat, upon the sea of Galilee, to be now
unable to watch a single hour with his
suffering Master.
My Christian brethren, weep not for
Peter, but for yourselves and for your
children. It is not Peter's likeness alone
156 LECTURE VII.
which we are now pourtraying ; look
closely, and you will find some striking
features of your own. Have you not all
made great professions of service to your
Lord? Have you not all virtually de-
clared that you would be ".Christ's faith-
ful soldiers and servants unto your lives'
end ;" 8 do you not constantly renew this
dedication to him of all you are, and all
you have, in the sacrament of his supper,
the military oath which ought to bind you
to your leader ? Should he then visit you
in person, as he has declared he will
should he be present with you now in
spirit, as he has declared he is, how
would he find you occupied? As regards
the service of the Lord Jesus, are you
watching, or are you sleeping ? O ! if
your hearts return a faithful answer, how
many must reply, that although their
professions have been as loud as Peter's,
their watching has been as careless, and
their sleep as sound.
8 Baptismal Service.
LECTURE VII. 157
Let us enter yet a little more closely
into this important, this heart-searching
subject ; let us solemnly inquire of every
one among you, have you ever really
watched one hour with Christ ? Did you
ever spend an hour in secret communion
with him, or in serious meditation upon
all that he has done and suffered for you?
Perhaps you will think this too long a
period to have been thus engaged ? Then
let us again inquire have you never
watched one hour with the world? Do
you think an hour too long when spent
upon its worthless services ; nay, are
there not some of you, who do not think
a whole night too long to be spent in the
temples of sin, or in the retreats of folly ?
But when you are called upon to watch and
pray, you are wearied, utterly wearied,
before one little hour has run its course.
Would that our Lord could make the
same excuse for you which he so mer-
cifully offered for his sleeping disciples !
" The spirit indeed is willing, but the
flesh is weak." Would that of every one
158 LECTURE VII.
here present, we might truly say what-
ever be the weakness of your corrupt na-
ture, there is a heart still right with God,
a spirit which indeed is willing, which
hates the bondage of the world, and most
unwillingly submits to its degrading
trammels ! which courts not voluntarily
its sinful pleasures, but when overtaken
by the noxious torpor which they shed
around them, struggles against that sleep
of death, and rouses itself, and seeks ear-
nestly more grace, that it may be enabled
to shake off its slumbers, and work out
its salvation while it is day.
You best know, my brethren, whether
there be such a heart in you, whether
yours is the spirit which loves the world,
or which sighs that it is so restrained
and fettered down to earth by the poor
tenement of clay in which it dwells, and
longs, ardently, constantly longs, for the
hour when it shall breathe a purer at-
mosphere, and live amid the joys at
God's right hand.
Three times did the Lord thus visit
LECTURE VII. 159
his disciples ; three times did he, after
all his kindnesses and all his warnings,
find them sleeping ; and twice did he
retire from them in utter disappoint-
ment, to weep, and pray, and agonize
alone.
No human fellowship, no mortal aid
was extended to him in these hours of
suffering. " Of all whom God had given
him he had lost none;" 9 yet not one
individual could he find sufficiently
wakeful, sufficiently interested, suffici-
ently affectionate to watch and pray with
him one hour ; no single being into
whose bosom he could pour the tide
of his anguish, save into the bosom of
his God. Well did the pious psalmist
say, 1 " Put not your trust in princes,
nor in any child of men, for there is
no help in them."
At the strongest, man is too weak;
at the wealthiest, too poor ; at the firm-
est, too fickle for your support ; to-day
9 John xviii. 9. l Psalm cxlvi. 3.
160 LECTURE VII.
making protestations of fidelity, to-
morrow demonstrating their utter emp-
tiness and insufficiency. " Cease ye
from man;" 2 seek that friend who nei-
ther slumbers nor sleeps, whose " gifts
and callings are without repentance," 3
whose friendship knows no change,
whose love knows no decay, and who
has himself declared, whatever be your
danger or your sorrow, " Before they
call, I will answer ; and while they are
yet speaking, I will hear." 4
It was when our Lord was thus desti-
tute of human succour, that, as the
apostle to the Hebrews assures us, " He
was heard in that he feared;" 5 " for
there appeared an angel from heaven
strengthening him." 6 The messenger of
God rejoiced to perform the office which
man, ungrateful man, neglected.
And does not the child of God expe-
rience this at the present hour ? When
* Isaiah ii. 22. 3 Rom. xi. 29. 4 Isaiah Ixv. iM.
5 Heb. v. 7. 6 Luke xxii. 43.
LECTURE VII. 161
the heart of the proud is closed against
you, and the face of the rich is turned
away from the poor man, the throne of
grace is still open to you, the Lord does
not refuse to lift up the light of his
countenance upon you ; and when no
word of kindness, no voice of sympathy
is heard from man, many are the mes-
sages of tenderness and love which your
heavenly Father conveys into your droop-
ing hearts, by those invisible agents
whose delight it is to " minister unto
such as shall be heirs of salvation." 7
Jesus cometh unto Peter and his com-
panions "the third time, and saith unto
them, Sleep on now and take your rest ;
it is enough, the hour is come, behold
the Son of Man is betrayed into the
hands of sinners." Twice had he roused
them from their slumbers, and enforced
upon them the pressing dangers of their
situation, and the urgent necessity of
instant, fervent, prayer; adding, "Watch
and pray, lest ye enter into temptation;"
7 Heb. i. 14.
162 LECTURE VII.
ye have neither watched nor prayed with
me, O ! neglect not to do it for yourselves.
But at his third visit, how different was
the language of their Divine Master :
" Sleep on now, and take your rest;"
the time for prayer, the time for watch-
ing has run out; those precious moments
in which you might have gathered
strength for the coming conflict, have
been irretrievably wasted ; the hours
which I have spent in agony, you have
passed in sleep ; it matters little now
whether you wake or sleep, your deser-
tion is certain, your fall is inevitable.
My brethren, let these words of solemn
import sink into your souls. Many have
been your warnings ; many have been
your awakening calls ; often while sunk
in lethargy and indifference have the
words of your Saviour been urged upon
you by the voice of his ministering
servants, " Awake, thou that sleepest,
and arise from the dead, and Christ
shall give thee light." 8
8 Eph. v. 14.
LECTURE VII. 163
You cannot deny the frequency, the
urgency of these calls ; but are there
none among you who will confess that
no sooner have you heard them than you
have again composed yourselves to sleep,
forgotten all that has been promised, all
that has been threatened, until another
warning or another threatening has
broken in upon your slumbers, only
again to leave you, when its short-lived
impression has died away, in apathy and
indifference ?
The great Jehovah himself has said,
" My Spirit shall not always strive with
men." 9
Be warned then, we implore you, be-
fore warnings themselves are rendered
nugatory. Believe that the Lord is this
day expostulating with you, is this day
solemnly inquiring, " why sleep ye?" is
this day urging upon you the necessity,
the instant necessity, of watchfulness and
prayer, that you may be brought home
9 Gen. vi. 3.
164 LECTURE VII.
to God through the sufferings and death
of his dear Son. Are you still deter-
mined upon postponement, still dreaming
of delay, and looking forward to " a more
convenient season" 1 than the present?
Then is it our duty, our deeply painful
duty, to declare to you that which if you
thus persevere must be the inevitable
result ; upon you will be passed this
awful sentence: " Sleep on now, and
take your rest;" it is enough; mercy
can no longer plead for you, justice now
must have her perfect work. The neg-
lected warnings, the promises despised,
the convictions slighted, the wasted
hours, the unheeded agony of your
Redeemer, all cry aloud for justice
grace offered and contemned is now
withdrawn ; the word preached shall
not profit you ; it may still reach your
ear, but its awakening power shall be
for ever taken from it, it shall not pene-
trate your heart. Those heavenly sounds
1 Acts xxiv. 25.
LECTURE VII. 165
which come with healing on their wings
to others, shall fall with withering blight
on you. To others " a savour of life
unto life," 2 to you " a savour of death
unto death." Who can imagine a more
awful, a more pitiable lot ! You may
live to behold, as time rolls on, many
whom you know, some whom you love,
called by the joyful sound of the Gospel,
justified, sanctified, and in God's good
time for ever glorified; while you remain
unchanged, unedified, unblest, a sad,
sad monument of warnings too often and
too long neglected. The sleep in which
you voluntarily indulged, vainly thinking
that you might at your good pleasure
rouse yourself, now become habitual,
judicial, confirmed ; no waking interval,
no cessation to your slumbers until they
shall be broken by the last trumpet of
the archangel, and you shall be sum-
moned into those regions of sorrow from
which sleep will be for ever banished ;
2 2 Cor. ii. 16.
166 LECTURE VII.
where there will be no eye that slumbers,
no heart that rests throughout a dark
arid cheerless eternity ; where their
" worm dieth not, and the fire is not
quenched." 3
3 Mark ix. 44.
167
LECTURE VIII.
LUKE xxii. 61.
" AND THE LORD TURNED AND LOOKED UPON PETER.
AND PETER REMEMBERED THE WORD OF THE LORD,
HOW HE HAD SAID UNTO HIM, BEFORE THE COCK
CROW THOU SHALT DENY ME THRICE."
THE incident to which we are this morn-
ing to request your attention, is perhaps
the most painful and the most improving
in the biography we are reviewing
Peter's denial of his Divine Master !
So entirely is this distressing event
identified with Peter's memory, that
although we may find many persons
who are ignorant of the striking and
beautiful instances of zeal and of cou-
rage, of fidelity, and of love, with which
his history is replete, we shall scarcely
168 LECTURE VIII.
find an individual, however unversed in
sacred lore, who does not well remember
Peter's denial, and all its attendant cir-
cumstances of cowardice and ingratitude,
of duplicity and profaneness. Here
then is one valuable lesson imparted at
the very outset the imperishable nature
of every act, and thought, and word
of sin. Eighteen hundred years have
passed away since this admirable apostle
fought the good fight, kept the faith,
witnessed a good confession, and re-
ceived the crown of martyrdom ; yet
does this single act of apostacy and sin
keep its place upon the Christian re-
cords, and hang as a dark cloud over
the brightness of his memory. Would
that it might please the Spirit of God
to fix this humiliating fact in your re-
collection, that you may never enter
upon the smallest act of transgression,
without bearing in mind, that all you
are doing, you are doing for eternity !
The memory of every criminal pleasure,
LECTURE VIII. 169
of every guilty indulgence is immortal ;
no power on earth can teach you to
forget it ; long after your course of sin
shall be concluded, and your head laid
in the dust, and your virtues, the vir-
tues of the natural man, passed into
oblivion, the act of dishonesty, of du-
plicity, of unchastity, or of unkindness,
of which perhaps you thought but little
in the committal, shall be spoken of
among men, shall be remembered before
God. Every deed of sin is engraven,
as with the point of a diamond, upon
the everlasting tablets, and although the
ceaseless flood of time is for ever passing
over them, it cannot obliterate a single
syllable of recorded evil. O ! were it
not for the cleansing efficacy of the
blood of the Lamb, shed for every peni-
tent believer, how could the holiest
among us bear to contemplate this awful
truth ?
" Simon Peter," says the evangelist,
" followed Jesus afar off unto the high
170 LECTURE VIII.
priest's palace, and so did another dis-
ciple ; that disciple was known unto the
high priest, and went in with Jesus into
the palace of the high priest ; but Peter
stood at the door without. Then went
out that other disciple, and spake unto
her that kept the door, and brought in
Peter." Here was the commencement
of Peter's sin. Had not our Lord most
solemnly warned him, that this night he
should deny his Master ? was it there-
fore wise, was it even justifiable, that he
should thus cast himself into the very
furnace of temptation? It is in vain,
my brethren, that you commence every
morning of your life with that most
necessary petition, " Lead us not into
temptation," 1 if before the sun has set,
you willingly throw yourselves into it; r
nay, if at the very moment you utter it,
your heart acknowledges that you do
not in sincerity desire to be kept from its
allurements that in fact you love the
1 Matt. vi. 13.
LECTURE VIII. 171
temptation, while you hope to escape
the sin : such prayers rise not above
the cloudy atmosphere of earth ; they
never reach the mercy-seat of God.
But again, had not our Lord, in refer-
ence to these very trials and these very
sufferings which were awaiting himself,
distinctly declared unto Peter, " Thou
canst not follow me now?" Why then
was he not content with the gracious
promise, " Thou shalt follow me after-
wards?" Why did he not wait till that
appointed time, when he should be pro-
videntially called to sufferings and to
death, and being thus called, would have
been certain to receive grace equal to his
day ? Alas ! the time when these reflec-
tions might have sunk deep into his heart
with most powerful effect, and have arisen
to the throne of grace in all-availing
prayer, had been slumbered fruitlessly
away ; he had not watched, he had not
prayed, he had neglected to 2 "put on
2 Eph. vi. 11.
172 LECTURE VIII.
the whole armour of God," and he was
now about to cast himself unarmed "upon
the thick bosses of the bucklers " 3 of his
spiritual enemies. Who that knows the
strength of Satan, and the weakness of
unassisted man, can doubt for a single
moment that defeat, and shame, and
ruin, were the inevitable result ?
Very profitable is it to the Christian to
mark, step by step, the manner in which
the powers of darkness advanced to the
unequal conflict ; how they favoured the
approach of their intended victim, and
shielded him from the attacks of other
opponents, that "the fiery darts of the
wicked one " 4 might be pointed with a
surer aim, and strike with a more deadly
effect. No opposition was made by the
conspirators to his following his Divine
Master ; no active adherent of the chief
priests and elders drove him back ; not-
withstanding his act of violence to the
servant of the high priest, he is per-
3 Job xv. 26. 4 Eph. vi. 16.
LECTURE VIII. 173
mitted to arrive perfectly unmolested at
the gates of the palace ; there, however,
an unexpected impediment did arise,
and we are for a moment induced to
hope that he may still escape that scene
of temptation. The gates of the palace
are locked ; his entrance, therefore, ap-
pears impossible ; nothing seems left
for him but to return to his companions,
and betake himself, as they had done,
to a place of safety. Alas ! not so does
Satan suffer himself to be deprived of his
expected prey ; a friend is found, even
in the high priest's palace, to open the
door, and bring in Peter.
Thus it is invariably upon the com-
mencement of every course of sin ; the
indefatigable enemy of your souls re-
moves all obstructions, levels all opposi-
tion ; if you will but walk with him upon
forbidden paths, he will take care that,
for a time at least, they shall be both
smooth and flowery ; if you but conde-
scend to stand at the door of forbidden
174 LECTURE VIII.
pleasures, never will he permit you to be
kept waiting ; if you but entertain the
guilty inclination, Satan himself will pro-
duce the favourable opportunity, and
sooner than you should be disappointed,
he will find for you, as he did for Peter,
some friend, whose offices of intended
kindness shall open a way for your pre-
sent desires and your future ruin.
" And when they had kindled a fire in
the midst of the hall, and were set down
together, Peter sat down among them,
and warmed himself at the fire, and sat
with the servants to see the end."
Observe in this the continuation of
Peter's delinquency. Had he not thus
voluntarily intermingled with the avowed
enemies of his Lord, there would have
been no danger ; for there would have
been no opportunity of denying him.
His entrance into the palace might be,
perhaps, excused, from the supposition
that it was from fervent love to his Divine
Master, and with a zealous desire, at all
LECTURE VIII. 175
hazards, to rescue or to serve him ; but
his quietly taking his seat among the
servants of the high priest, and waiting,
like them, at the hall fire, "to seethe
end," is perfectly inexcusable.
There is something almost more dis-
tressing in the sight of Peter thus self-
ishly engaged at such a time, and in
such a place, than in Peter subdued by
fears from which the boldest might have
shrunk, and acting the denier and the
recreant.
But, my brethren, much as there is to
humble, there is nothing in all this to
astonish those who know the deep de-
pravity of our fallen nature. This is the
usual process of temptation : you enter
upon some questionable path of morals
or of conduct ; you intermingle with the
men of the world, the servants of plea-
sure and vanity, the avowed or con-
cealed enemies of your Divine Master ;
and what is the result? Coldness of
heart and deadness of feeling towards a
176 LECTURE VIII.
suffering Redeemer are speedily super-
induced ; you become as totally different
a person in the society of the men of the
world from what you have ever been
while living in close communion with
your God, as Peter amid the high-
priest's servants differed from Peter at
the paschal supper. Your own comfort,
your own ease, your own pleasures, are
soon preferred to Christ ; and being thus
gradually alienated from him you once
have loved, your affections are seared,
your heart is hardened, and your con-
science is ultimately prepared for the
still greater sin of denying and abjuring
him. If you would be safe, there must
be no compromise, no temporizing : you
must not consider how you shall act
when in the company of the ungodly ;
you must resolve that you shall not be
found in such company ; you must say,
with David, " I will not know a wicked
person ;" 5 the language of Jacob must
5 Psalm ci. 4.
LECTURE VIII. 177
be the firm resolution of your heart :
" O my soul, come not thou into their
secret ; unto their assembly, mine ho-
nour, be not thou united ;" 6 with Caleb,
you must determine at all hazards and
costs to " follow the Lord FULLY," 7 and
the event will be, that you will be kept
in the hour of temptation, and will know
by blessed experience that " peace of
God which passeth all understanding." 8
It was while Peter was thus seated
among the servants in the hall, that, as
we read, " a damsel came unto him,"
saying, " Thou also wast with Jesus of
Galilee ;" but he denied before them all,
saying, " I know not what thou sayest."
Observe carefully, my brethren, the ten-
dency of this first reply of Peter ; it was
not a direct and positive denial ; Peter,
when accused of having been with Jesus
of Galilee, had not yet attained sufficient
hardihood to declare that he never was
6 Gen. xlix. 6. 7 Numb. xiv. 24.
8 Phil. iv. 7.
178 LECTURE VIII.
with Jesus, that he knows not the man
but he rather trusts that an equivo-
cating answer will be sufficient to secure
his safety, and yet enable him to escape
the guilt of a more distinct and absolute
falsehood. " I know not what thou
sayest," I do not distinctly hear, I do
not quite understand the charge. Alas !
is not this the manner in which too many
even at the present hour, endeavour to
satisfy their own consciences, and at the
same time to keep well with the world ;
not quite to deny their Lord, but so to
escape from sinful compliances, that,
while they evade the guilt of the com-
mittal, they may also evade the danger
or the ridicule of the refusal. It is this
misplaced ingenuity, brethren, which,
while it deceives your friends, injures
the cause of your Redeemer, grieves his
Holy Spirit, and does not clear your
own souls. The straight path is the
only safe path for the Christian, for it is
the only path which leads to life ; every
LECTURE VIII. 179
other, after all its windings and all its
turnings, infallibly leads down to the
chambers of death.
Peter had scarcely time to congratulate
himself upon the success of his evasion,
when another maid saw him, and said
unto them that were there, This fellow
was also with Jesus of Nazareth ; and
again he denied with an oath, " I do not
know the man." Observe how the sin
darkens as it proceeds ; it is no longer
an equivocation : by whatever name it
might have been before denominated, it
is now an absolute and undeniable false-
hood : " I do not know the man;" a
falsehood backed by perjury, strength-
ened by an oath. Who could believe
that the man who is thus solemnly
swearing that he does not even know
our gracious Redeemer, was the same
who, but a short time since, had uttered
that most affecting declaration : " Lord,
to whom shall we go, thou hast the
words of eternal life ?" Had Judas de-
180 LECTURE VIII.
clared, " I know not the man," we
should have been ready to reply, " Truth,
for thou hast never known him ;" but when
Peter makes the same declaration, pity
and regret stifle every word of condem-
nation.
Doubly painful to a Christian are the
transgressions of a child of God, when,
beholding what he is, we remember what
he has been. When we see those among
you who " have tasted that the Lord is
gracious," 9 who have sat at their Father's
table and eaten at their Father's board,
content to feed with the prodigal " upon
the husks which the swine did eat;" 1
when we behold you who have once
loved the service of your God and the
name of your Redeemer, again turning
aside to folly, leaving the " paths of
pleasantness and peace," and denying,
by your lives and conversations, the
Lord who bought you ; then it is that
we cannot but take up the lamentation
<J 1 Peter ii. 3. J Luke xv. lf>.
LECTURE VIII. 181
of the prophet : 2 " O that my head were
waters, and mine eyes a fountain of
tears, that I might weep day and night
for the slain of the daughter of my
people." We can pray for others, but
we cannot but weep for you. When we
behold you listening unmoved to truths
which once had power to awaken your
conscience and to melt your heart ; when
we see you join in the scoff and the
ridicule against those with whom you
once rejoiced to mingle ; when we find
you no longer loving the name of Jesus
as " the chiefest among ten thousand,
arid altogether lovely;" 3 no longer
anxiously striving to fulfil the least of
his commandments ; O, with what pain-
ful emphasis do those words of the
apostle come home to our hearts : " It
is IMPOSSIBLE* for those who were once
enlightened and have tasted the heavenly
gift, and were made partakers of the
2 Jer. ix. 1. 3 Cant. v. 10.
4 Marking its extreme difficulty.
182 LECTURE VIII.
Holy Ghost, if they shall fall away, to
renew them again unto repentance, seeing
they crucify to themselves the Son of God
afresh, and put him to an open shame." 5
But the measure of Peter's iniquity
was not yet full. " After a while came
unto him they that stood by, and said
to Peter, Surely thou also art one of
this man's disciples, for thy speech be-
wrayeth thee. Then began he to curse
and to swear, saying, I know not the
man." Here was the completion of Pe-
ter's guilt ; the disgraceful act of the
denial repeated the third time, and now
accompanied by horrible oaths and im-
precations. Ought we not, before such
an example passes from our memories,
earnestly to pray, " Lead us not into
temptation," 6 and permit us not, O Lord,
to lead ourselves thither; since Peter fell,
who can be safe ? Lord, " hold thou up
our goings, that our footsteps slip not/' 7
" Immediately, while he yet spake,"
* Heb. vi. 4. 6 Matt. vi. 13. 7 Psalm xvii. 5.
LECTURE VIII. 183
continues St. Luke, " the cock crew."
Surely no malefactor condemned to suffer
for the violated laws of his country, ever
heard his last hour strike upon the prison
bell with half the agony of feeling with
which that cock-crowing rang upon the
ears of Peter ! Still was there a sight
which smote far deeper than that sound :
" The Lord turned and looked upon
Peter." Who can pourtray the silent
eloquence of that last look ? What vo-
lumes must it have spoken to the heart
of the fallen apostle ! Could he behold
that well-known countenance, and again
repeat, " I know not the man?" Could
he see his Divine Master " as a sheep
before her shearers is dumb," 8 and again
break forth into oaths and imprecations ?
Could he bear the reproach of that meek
eye, and yet remain in the guilty scene
amidst these enemies of his Saviour and
of his own soul ? No ! that single glance
was all that was required to send home
8 Isaiah liii. 7.
184 LECTURE VIII.
the arrow of conviction and repentance
to his bosom; he instantly " remembered
the word that the Lord had spoken, and
he went out and wept bitterly."
Blessed be God that such an act of
sovereign grace and pardoning mercy
has been bequeathed to us ; that as we
have witnessed Peter's fall, the fruit of
his own presumption, we are enabled
also to witness Peter's recovery, the fruit
of his Saviour's love. It was that single
look of his Redeemer which brought back
the erring sheep to the fold of the good
Shepherd. Have you, my brethren, (and
who has not ?) in thought, or word, or
deed, by your worldliness or pride, by
your unchastity or uncharitableness, vir-
tually denied a spiritual and humble, a
pure and merciful Saviour ? Then, while
you receive the solemn warning, receive
also the blessed encouragement of the
scene before you. The Lord, amidst all
his sufferings, took not his thoughts of
mercy for a single moment from his sin-
LECTURE VIII. 185
ning disciple. Be assured he has not
taken his merciful regards from you ; he
is still looking wistfully and affectionately
for your return. He did not wait until
Peter looked on him with an eye of peni-
tence, before he looked on Peter with an
eye of pity. He does not wait until you
repent, he freely offers his " preventing
grace" 9 to enable you to repent. He
does not content himself with calling
home his wandering sheep, but he seeks
those that are lost ; and when he has
found them, he carries them home " on
his shoulders rejoicing." Can you really
believe this without saying from your
heart, " Draw me, and I will run after
thee ;" 1 " Turn thou us, good Lord, and
so shall we be turned?" If I address
any whose heart convicts him that by
life and conversation he has denied him
whose name he bears, (and remember
that every forbidden act is unquestion-
ably an act of denial,) to him I would
9 See the Tenth Article of our Church.
1 Cant. i. 4.
186
LECTURE VIII.
most affectionately say let this be your
immediate resource ; fix your thoughts
and your heart earnestly and steadily
upon your Redeemer, for he, and he
alone, has both the power and the will
to restore your soul, and to reconcile
you to your heavenly Father. Let this
be your instant, fervent prayer " Lord,
look thou upon me, and be merciful
unto me, as thou usest to do unto those
that love thy name." 2 Your wanderings
cannot have been too wide, your sins too
heinous, your denials too repeated or too
aggravated, to hinder the effect of that
look of power, that look of guidance,
that look of love : through the influence
of divine grace it will not only speak to
your heart, but change your heart, and
bring you, in penitence and contrition,
back to the fold from which you have
wandered.
Observe, in conclusion, the immediate
effects of Peter's repentance : " he went
out and wept bitterly." He no longer
2 Psalm cxix. 132.
LECTURE VIII. 187
remained among the enemies of his Lord ;
he instantly forsook a scene of so much
temptation, and to him of so much sin.
We are not again told that he continued
" warming himself in the high priest's
palace," or " waiting to see the end."
That single glance of power from the
eye of his Redeemer had driven Satan
from his prey, and dissolved the chains
which he had wound about his captive ;
the " snare was broken, and he was
delivered." 3
My beloved brethren, if you are really
in earnest in your penitence, this also
will be your course ; you will imme-
diately and for ever forsake those scenes,
and those habits, and those companions,
who have induced you to deny your Lord :
cost what it may, of ease, or pleasure, or
comfort, like Peter, you will instantly go
out from them ; worlds would not tempt
you back to tread that path of danger
from which, by the preventing grace of
God, you have been so mercifully extri-
3 Ps. cxxiv. 7.
188
LECTURE VIII.
cated. But although the first proof, this
was not the only proof of Peter's peni-
tence. " He went out and wept bitterly ;"
not in expiation of his sin, for all the
tears which sinning, suffering mortality
has ever shed, are utterly unavailing to
wash away the faintest trace of guilt ; he
wept from very bitterness, from anguish
of soul, that he had so deeply offended
One so gracious and so merciful. He
was assured of his forgiveness, for that
look had told him that no anger lingered
in that pure and perfect bosom. But did
this thought arrest his tears ? No ; . it
was this which bade them doubly flow ;
he could hear his Master say, You have
denied me and disgraced me ; the tongue
of my friend has wounded me far more
deeply than all the thorns and nails of
my enemies ever can; I freely forgive
you, I have prayed for you, and this
moment demonstrates that I have not
prayed in vain ; you have escaped the
destroyer, go and sin no more.
My Christian brethren, our Lord now
LECTURE VIII. 189
speaks to you, as his silent glance then
spoke to Peter. He offers you a free and
full forgiveness ; deeply as you have
wounded him, if you will but " look on
him whom you have pierced, and mourn
because of him ; 4 if you will now, like
Peter, forsake your sins and deeply de-
plore them, you shall hear of them again
no more for ever. But let not the assu-
rance of the Saviour's pardon diminish
the tide of the sinner's tears ; this is the
mourning upon which your Lord has pro-
nounced a blessing ; this is the short-lived
sorrow which ushers in the everlasting
joy : be willing with a broken and a con-
trite heart now to " go forth weeping,
bearing precious seed," 5 and the word of
your God is pledged to you, " that you
shall doubtless come again with rejoicing,
bringing your sheaves with you."
4 Zech. xii. 10. 5 Ps. cxxvi. 6.
190
LECTURE IX.
JOHN xxi. 18.
"VERILY, VERILY I SAY UNTO THEE, WHEN THOU WAST
YOUNG, THOU GIRDEDST THYSELF, AND WALKEDST
WHITHER THOU WOULDEST; BUT WHEN THOU SHALT
BE OLD, THOU SHALT STRETCH OUT THY HANDS, AND
ANOTHER SHALL GIRD THEE, AND CARRY THEE
WHITHER THOU WOULDEST NOT."
AT the close of the last Lecture, we be-
held Peter fully convinced of the guilt of
his distressing act of cowardice and apos-
tacy, and going forth, in the bitterness of
his anguish, to pour into the bosom of his
heavenly Father the confessions of a
broken and contrite heart. Who can
describe the feelings of this affectionate
disciple, during the whole of the dreadful
day which succeeded the act of his denial ?
that day which saw the meek and perfect
LECTURE IX. 191
Saviour nailed to the cross, a spectacle
to men and angels of the infinity of the
love of God, and of the depravity of
man. If the cries of the infuriated popu-
lace, " Crucify him, crucify him!" the
imprecations of the priests and elders,
the wild mockery of the licentious sol-
diery, were able to penetrate the place of
Peter's retirement, how must every sound
have added tenfold anguish to his bitter
lamentations ; how often must he have felt,
while hearing these dreadful sufferings of
his Divine Master I have added to the
sorrows of this man of grief; I have at
least implanted one sting in that heart, at
which all the fiery darts of Satan now are
levelled; I, who have "eaten bread with
him, have lifted up my heel against him."
How deep must have been the compunc-
tion, how overwhelming the sorrow,
which such reflections would produce in
such a heart as Peter's !
No evangelist has mentioned the name
of Peter in the narrative of that day of
192 LECTURE IX.
sorrows. The beloved disciple John,
took his station beneath the cross of his
suffering Master ; the virgin mother was
present at that hour, and realized the
prophecy, " A sword shall pierce through
thine own heart also." The women
who came from Galilee were within
sight of that sad scene ; but of Peter,
the zealous, forward Peter, there is no
mention. He would not again expose
himself to his spiritual enemies ; he
would no longer trust himself to his own
courage or his own fidelity ; doubtless
those hours were spent in sorrows which
the world could never know, and in
heart-felt communings with his God
which the world could not understand.
A vail, therefore, has been drawn across
those sacred hours by all the evangelists.
It is enough to know, that Peter's tears
and prayers went up as a memorial
before God, and that that gracious
Being, who, while hanging on the ac-
cursed tree, could bestow the rewards
LECTURE IX. 193
and inheritances of Paradise, could not
but plead successfully with his heavenly
Father for the returning sinner, upon
whom, even in the very hour of his fall,
Christ himself had looked with pardoning
love.
" Very early in the morning," says
St. Mark, " the first day of the week,"
Mary Magdalene and the other women
came unto the sepulchre, so little expect-
ing the great and glorious event which
had occurred, that they brought sweet
spices to preserve that body from corrup-
tion, which had already risen triumphant
over death and the grave, and, according
to prophecy, " seen no corruption." 1
It was at this visit to the sepulchre
that an angel from heaven appeared to
them, and thus announced the fact, for
which they were so utterly unprepared :
" Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was
crucified he is risen ; he is not here."
Time would fail me were I to dwell
1 Acts ii. 37.
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194 LECTURE IX.
upon the great and wondrous truth which
was thus proclaimed ; the seal of all
which had preceded it; the entire ac-
complishment of the prophecies and the
types; the complete demonstration to
mankind that God the Father had fully
accepted the ransom which God the Son
had so freely offered. As soon as he
had exclaimed with dying lips, " It is
finished," 2 the great work of redemption
is complete, he went down into the grave,
not as its victim, hut as its Lord, " con-
quering and to conquer," 3 that he might
set his foot upon the serpent's head, even
in the very heart of his own dominions.
Had Christ remained within the noisome
walls of the sepulchre, it might fairly
have been declared that he had been un-
able to discharge the infinite weight of
debt which sinning man had contracted ;
that he had been foiled in those labours
of love, and that the last great cry upon
the cross, instead of being, as it truly
2 John xix. 30. 3 Rev. vi. 2.
LECTURE IX. 195
was, the conqueror's shout of victory,
was merely the death-cry of a suffering,
defeated impostor. The very fact, there-
fore, that death could not hold him ;
that over him Satan and the grave pos-
sessed no power ; that at his own free
will he was able to shake from him
those chains which mere mortality could
not have escaped, established for ever
these most blessed truths that the power
of death was broken ; the might of
Satan crushed; the work of redemption
finished ; and blessed, thrice blessed
consideration ! " the garments of salva-
tion" 4 fully prepared and freely offered
to every believing penitent " who names
the name of Christ, and departs from
iniquity." 5
It is not, however, so much with these
elevating subjects, with the great truth
announced by the angel at the sepulchre,
that we are at present engaged, as with
the merciful manner in which that truth
4 Isaiah Ixi. 10. 5 2 Tim. ii. 19.
K2
196 LECTURE IX.
was proclaimed : " Go, tell his disciples
and Peter, that he is risen from the
dead." How singularly striking is this
message of the heavenly minister ! We
should not have been surprised had he
said, " Go, tell his disciples and John,"
whom our Lord so dearly loved, or his
sorrowing mother, or the affectionate
Mary ; but that Peter, the erring, fallen
Peter, should have been selected as of
all the little company of believers the
most deeply interested in this great truth,
the only individual to whom an express
message should be transmitted, is indeed
a most remarkable and most affecting
instance of that " love which beareth
all things, endureth all things," 6 and
even under the deepest provocations
" never faileth." He who best knows
the heart of man, well knew that Peter's
heart was bleeding at that hour from
the effects of his late transgression ; and
he also knew, that no balm could be
1 Cor. xiii. 7, .8.
LECTURE IX. 197
applied so truly healing and consolatory
as one word of kindness and love from
his risen Master ; therefore did our Lord
select the sinning, repenting, broken-
hearted Peter, as the only individual to
whom he sent a particular announce-
ment, that as he had died for his sins,
he had now risen for his justification.
My brethren, if you have ever felt
the weight of unforgiven sin, or " the
plague of your own hearts," 7 the misery,
I might almost say the agony and the
anguish, of having offended God, grieved
his Holy Spirit, denied by your words
or actions the Lord your Redeemer, you
will be able to appreciate the blessed-
ness of that short message, that single
word of kindness, " Tell PETER that
I am risen ; " you will yourselves have
felt that there is no such cure for a
spirit wounded by transgression, a heart
broken by the consciousness of sin, as
one word of forgiveness from your Re-
7 1 Kings viii. 38.
198 LECTURE IX.
deemer and your God. I would fain
believe that there are many among you
who, having themselves experienced the
blessedness of such an act of mercy, can
deeply sympathize with Peter ; you who
have prayed in the words of the psalm-
ist, " Lord, pardon my sin, for it is
great;" 8 and have heard from the lips
of your offended Maker, " I, even I,
am he that blotteth out thy transgres-
sions for mine own sake, and will not
remember thy sins;" 9 you who, when
you deserved and expected only words
of wrath, have found promises of mercy
and words of love, carried home by the
Spirit of God to your grieving hearts ;
you, and you only, can tell what must
have been the joy of Peter at finding
himself still the object of the affectionate
recollection of his Lord, at learning that
he was still remembered by name as one
who was written in the Lamb's book of
life.
8 Psalm xxv. 11. Isaiah xliii. 25.
LECTURE IX, 199
Pleasing is it to behold in the Gospel
of this day, 1 the natural ardour with
which Peter ran to visit the empty
sepulchre ; and not content with merely
looking upon these vestiges of him who
for so short a time had made the grave
his bed, enters at once into the cavern,
that his own eyes might see, and his
own hands handle, all that now remained
on earth of one so doubly dear to him.
But we may not dwell upon these
things ; we must hasten forward to the
consideration of the last meeting which
sacred history has bequeathed to us, of
the penitent apostle and his risen Sa-
viour ; that interview in which our Lord
so tenderly reproved, and at the same
time so affectionately instructed Peter
in his future conduct, and so plainly
predicted his future fate.
Peter and the rest of his disciples had
departed unto Galilee, in pursuance of
our Lord's declaration, that he would
1 Preached on Easter Sunday.
200 LECTURE IX.
manifest himself to them there. While
waiting for this promised interview, so
forgetful do they appear to have been of
all those brilliant prospects of temporal
glory, in which they had lately indulged,
that they actually returned to their ori-
ginal occupation, and are to be found
once more engaged with their boats and
their nets. What an astonishing in-
stance of humility in men, to whom the
word of their Lord was pledged, that
" in the regeneration they should sit
upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve
tribes of Israel." While engaged in
the laborious occupation to which we
have alluded, our Lord appeared to them
standing on the shore, and having made
himself known to them by a miracle, we
are informed that that disciple whom
Jesus loved said unto Peter, " It is the
Lord."
What a moment of extreme anxiety
must not this have been to the penitent
apostle ! He had, as we have seen, re-
LECTURE IX. 201
ceived a message of kindness from his
forgiving Master ; he was conscious that
his repentance was earnest and sincere ;
still it was natural that he should feel
that there was a most painful uncertainty
as to the manner in which he should now
be received. My brethren, so to feel
was truly in the course of nature, but it
was not in the course of grace; it is a
weak faith which hesitates to cast itself
upon the infinite compassion of its God,
when seeking him through " the way,
the truth, arid the life," 2 which he has
ordained. Such was not Peter's faith ;
his heart does not appear for a single
moment to have harboured the remotest
doubt of his acceptance. No sooner did
he hear that it was the Lord, than with-
out an instant's hesitation, an instant's
misgiving, " girding his fisher's coat
around him," " he cast himself into the
sea, and swam to the shore," that he
might be the first to throw himself at the
2 John xvi. 6.
K 5
202 LECTURE IX.
feet of his indulgent Master. How beau-
tiful an instance of the actings of a truly
scriptural faith ! Would that it might
be realized in the experience of every
individual whom we now address, and in
our own soul ! Does the revealed word
of God assure you that, as a reconciled
penitent, your transgressions are blotted
out, your sins are forgiven? Then be
assured, that you are not honouring
your Lord and Saviour if you do not live
up to your high and holy privileges ; if
you still keep at a distance from him ;
still tremble with a slavish fear ; still
follow him afar off, and with a sinking
heart. This was not the spirit which
influenced Peter. He knew that his
Lord had looked upon him in mercy ;
he knew that he had deeply grieved and
bitterly wept for sin ; he knew that he
should meet with a kind and merciful
reception. These were with him matters
of positive knowledge, not of faint and
uncertain hope ; and, therefore, in the
LECTURE IX.
203
fullest dependence upon the infinity of
his Master's love, he burst through the
opposing element to cast himself at his
feet. Men, in their wisdom, may call
this presumption ; but be assured it goes
by a far different name in the courts of
heaven. Never is God more highly ho-
noured than when you most implicitly de-
pend, humbly and scripturally, upon that
covenanted love which is the brightest
attribute of his all-perfect character ;
when you rely the most entirely, build
the most largely, upon the simple decla-
rations of his promises in Christ Jesus ;
and, whatever have been your sins, your
denials, or your wanderings, having
truly lamented and forsaken them, you
draw near, cleansed in the blood of
Jesus, and cast yourselves with the most
childlike confidence into the arms of his
mercy.
But tenderly as our Lord dealt with
his penitent and humbled disciple, it
was necessary, for the sake of others as
204 LECTURE IX.
well as for the correction of Peter him-
self, that he should manifest before his
brethren the present state of his feelings
as regarded that Saviour whom he had
so lately and so disgracefully renounced.
Three times had he publicly denied his
Master, and, therefore, three times must
he as publicly declare his renewed
feelings of gratitude and love. " So
when they had dined," says the evan-
gelist, " Jesus saith to Simon Peter,
Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me
more than these ?" Thou hast once said,
" though all men should be offended be-
cause of thee, yet will not I." Dost
thou still assert this dangerous pre-emi-
nence ? Peter saith unto him, " Yea,
Lord, thou knowest that I love thee."
He does not again hazard a reply as to
the relative strength of his affections : I
know that I love thee, but I dare not
now venture to affirm that I love thee
more than these. Again the painful
question was repeated, " Simon, son of
LECTURE IX. 205
Jonas, lovest thou me?" " He saith
unto him, Yea, Lord, thou knowest
that I love thee." Yet a third time is
the inquiry urged upon him ; then, as
we read, " Peter was grieved because
he said unto him a third time, Lovest
thou me?" He replied, " Lord, thou
knowest all things, thou knowest that I
love thee ;" he saith unto him, prove the
reality of thy love by the active sincerity
of thy obedience.
Invaluable to the Christian is this
brief narrative, because it sets before
him in the plainest and most engaging
manner, the method in which our blessed
Redeemer accosts not Peter alone, but
every truly penitent believer.
Consider, my brethren, the application
of it to yourselves. The Lord, from the
throne of his glory, has beheld your
denials and your sins ; he has also, in
many instances, we trust, beheld your
penitence and your tears ; and he now
asks you all individually, the penitent
"206 LECTURE IX.
and the impenitent, " Lovest thou me?"
Here is the great test of your repentance ;
here is the proof whether you have " been
accepted in the beloved ;" 3 for to whom
much is forgiven, the same loveth much.
How will you then answer the in-
quiry ? Carefully examine your own
hearts, and ascertain whether you pos-
sess this feeling of grateful, fervent, ac-
tive love to the Redeemer ; without
which there can be no pardon, no saving
union with God the Son, no relationship
to God the Father ; for as our Lord him-
self most unequivocally declared to the
Jews, " If God were your Father, ye
would love me.' ?4 If you have been, as
too many are, in the habit of considering
all love to Christ as bordering upon en-
thusiasm or fanaticism, or originating
not in the sober revelations of God, but
in the heated imaginations of visionary
men, how will you reply to this ? Three
times do you find your Lord eliciting the
3 Eph. i. 6. 4 John viii. 42.
LECTURE IX. 207
state of Peter's mind by this single in-
quiry, " Lovest thou me?" Is it not
then our bounden duty, as the ministers
of Christ, often and earnestly to inquire
of you, Do you indeed love the Lord
Jesus Christ ?
If you do not, he has himself assured
you that you are not a child of God : if
you are not a child of God, you are not
ripening for that blissful eternity which
will be spent by his children in the many
mansions of their Father's house : if you
are not a child of God, you must be a
child of Satan, for there are but two
families into which all the inhabitants of
the earth are divided ; and if your title
be not clearly made out to the one, you
must indisputably be enrolled in the
other. Are you then conscious of this
love to a crucified Saviour ? Can you
really say with Peter, " Lord, thou
knowest all things ; thou knowest that
I love thee ?" Can you even say, "Thou
knowest that I desire to love thee ?" If
208 LECTURE IX.
ye love me, keep my commandments, 5 is
a proof which Christ himself has offered
of this important fact. Look, therefore,
into your hearts for the good tree ; look
into your lives for its invariable fruits.
They will not, they cannot be wanting if
the living germ be within ; if they be
wanting, it is sufficient to demonstrate
that the principle is absent, that the
constraining love of Christ is not shed
abroad in your hearts by the Spirit
which he alone can give unto you.
Time warns me that we must bring
this instructive narrative to a conclusion :
4 'Verily, verily," said our Lord to Peter,
" when thou wast young, thou girdedst
thyself and walkedst whither thou would -
est ; but when thou shalt be old, thou
shalt stretch forth thine hands, and an-
other shall gird thee, and carry thee
whither thou wouldest not. Follow me."
How fully this admirable apostle
obeyed the injunction, the last injunc-
5 John xvi. 15.
LECTURE IX. 209
tion 6 he ever received from the lips of
his Divine Master, every account which
has been transmitted to us, most abun-
dantly establishes. Next to St. Paul,
there was no apostle who, by the value
of his writings, the variety of his labours,
the exemplary holiness and usefulness of
his life, so closely followed the footsteps
of his Lord, as Simon Peter. There
was no apostle who appeared from this
hour so remarkably, by the power of
divine grace, to have overcome the
natural frailties of his temper and dis-
position, as St. Peter. He had, as we
have seen, before been so much the
victim of a faithless timidity, that he
had denied his Master from the fear
of the high-priest's servants. He now,
in the presence of assembled multitudes,
at the peril of his life, unhesitatingly
declared, "Let all the house of Israel
know assuredly, that God hath made
that same Jesus whom ye have cruci-
6 See John xxi. 22.
210 LECTURE IX.
fied, both Lord and Christ." 7 He had
before defended himself, almost with
rudeness, when his Divine Master had
predicted his denial and desertion. In
after ages he humbly and silently per-
mitted Paul " to withstand him to the
face." 8 These were among the un-
questionable evidences of his love to his
Lord : he became humble, meek, loving,
and obedient ; inferior to no one in
every good and perfect work, in labours
of love, in the conversion of souls.
Years pass away, and we are warned
by the history before us, that there is no
escape from man's last enemy ; that
although we may live long and labour
usefully, and glorify our Redeemer un-
ceasingly, by thought, word, and deed,
there is no total reprieve from that sen-
tence which sin, the sin of Adam, the
sin of our own souls, has passed upon us
all "The wages of sin is death." 9
"When thou art old," said our Lord,
7 Acts ii. 36. 8 Gal. ii. 11. 9 Rom. vi. 23.
LECTURE IX. 211
" thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and
another shall gird thee, and carry thee
whither thou wouldest not." How lite-
rally fulfilled, the eldest historian of the
church of Christ has sufficiently attested,
since he relates that about thirty years
after the death of his Divine Master, the
aged Peter suffered martyrdom at Rome ;
requesting as the only favour which he
would demand at the hands of men, that
he might be crucified with his head
downwards, from a feeling of the most
unfeigned humility, that the fate en-
dured by the Lord Jesus was too honour-
able for his frail and sinning servant.
It is also related, and we mention it to
mark the spirit which influenced his
latest breath, that Peter first followed
his wife to the stake, and that the last
words of encouragement with which he
cheered her departing spirit were, " Re-
member the Lord."
Such was the close of the life of him
upon whose history we have been com-
212 LECTURE IX.
menting a most painful, degrading,
dreadful death. How widely different
from the calm and placid scene from
which the spirit of the patriarch, whose
life we last year reviewed, was permitted
to take its peaceful flight ! We beheld
the venerable Jacob lying on his bed, a
bed indeed of death, but scarcely either
of sickness or of pain ; surrounded by his
children and his grandchildren, beloved,
revered, and respected : every effort
which the most affectionate attention
could make to smooth his dying pillow,
every word which he spoke treasured
up in the hearts of those around him,
and bequeathed to the church of Christ
to the latest posterity ; and at last his
placid spirit gently loosened from its
earthly resting place, and wafted into
the bosom of his God, without an effort
or a pang.
We behold, on the contrary, the aged
Peter fastened to the cross amid the
rabble rout of pagan multitudes ; his
LECTURE IX. 213
head hanging in the dust ; his hands
and feet transfixed with nails ; his whole
frame convulsed with agony ; his dying
testimony given to the winds, or heard
only to be the scoff and jeer of his un-
feeling enemies ; no pitying friend to
wipe his brow, to quench his burning
thirst, or to suggest one word of con-
solation to his departing spirit ; and
when the tortured body could endure
no longer, the soul torn from its earthly
tabernacle by that rude wrench at which
humanity shudders ! How widely dif-
ferent were the ends of these the beloved
children of the same Father, the re-
deemed servants of the same Saviour !
and yet are we assured that Peter, amid
the horrors of the cross, was as effectu-
ally supported, as entirely comforted by
the felt presence of his Divine Master, as
Jacob upon his bed of down.
Christian brethren, what must be the
power of that principle of faith in a cru-
cified Redeemer, which can thus sustain
214 LECTURE IX.
and comfort his true disciples " when the
flesh and the heart faileth ?" What must
be the might of that Saviour, who can,
under the most terrific circumstances,
thus for his believing children draw the
sting of man's last enemy ? We would
pray, if it be the will of your heavenly
Father, that death may so gently ap-
proach every individual whom we now
address, that you may not hear the
rustling of his wings until you find him
at your side : but you must have seen
from the example before you, that he
may also come, even to the dearest dis-
ciple of your Lord, in a far different
manner, armed with terrors at which
the strongest heart must quail. Do you
not then desire a protector who can,
under every imaginable circumstance,
vanquish this formidable enemy, and
hold you harmless from his most dan-
gerous assaults ? Such a protector, such
a saviour, such a friend, is this day
offered you. Cast yourselves unrc-
LECTURE IX. 215
servedly upon him. Seek in him your
" righteousness, sanctification, and re-
demption ;"* deny yourselves : take up
your cross and follow him, and he will
be to you all that he ever was to Peter
your guide in health, your joy in
sickness, your hope in death ; for he
has promised to walk with you through
that dark valley ; with his rod and his
staff to comfort you, to struggle for you,
to fight for you, to vanquish for you,
until you shall be proclaimed " more
than conquerors through him that loved
you," 2 and shall ascend with Peter to
the unspeakable joys at God's right
hand.
1 1 Cor. i. 30. * Rom. viii. 37.
THE END.
Macintosh, Printer, Great New-street, London t
By the same Author.
PUBLISHED BY J. HATCHARD AND SON.
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Part I. Third Edition.
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