more than a premeditation,-one may venture upon the whole to fum up Peter's character in a few words. He was a man fenfible in his nature,—of quick paffions, tempered with the greateft humility and moft unaffected poverty of spirit that ever met in fuch a character. So that in the only criminal inftance of his life, which I have spoken to, you are at a lofs which to admire moft ;--the tendernefs and fenfibility of his foul, in being wrought upon to repentance by a look from Jefus; or the uncommon humility of it, which he testified thereupon, in the bitterness of his forrow for what he had done.-He was once prefumptuous in trufting to his own ftrength; his general and true character was that of the moft engaging meeknefs, diftruftful of himself and his abilities to the last degree.

He denied his mafter.-But in all inftances of his life, but that, was a man of the greatest truth and fincerity;-to which part of his character our Saviour has given an undeniable teftimony, in conferring on him the fymbolical name of Cephas, a rock, a name the moft expreffive of conftancy and firmnefs.

He was a man of great love to his master

and of no lefs zeal for his religion, of which, from among many, I fhall take one inftance out of St. John, with which I fhall conclude this account, Where, upon the defertion of feveral other difciples, our Saviour puts the question to the twelve,—Will ye alfo go away? Then, fays the text, Peter anfwered

anfwered and faid,-Lord! whither fhall we go? Thou haft the words of eternal life, and we believe, and know, that thou art Chrift the son of God.-Now, if we look into the Gospel, we find what our Saviour pronounced on this very confeffion.

Bleffed art thou, Simon Barjona, for fleth and blood hath not revealed it unto thee,but my Father which is in heaven.-That our Saviour had the words of eternal life,Peter was able to deduce from principles of natural reafon: because reason was able to judge from the internal marks of his doctrine, that it was worthy God, and accommodated properly to advance human nature and human happinefs.-But for all this,reafon could not infallibly determine that the meffenger of this doctrine was the Meffias, the eternal Son of the living God:-to know this required an illumination;-and this illumination, I fay, feems to have been vouchfafed at that inftant as a reward,-as would have been fufficient evidence by itself of the difpofition of his heart.

I have now finifhed this fhort effay upon the character of St. Peter, not with a loud panegyric upon the power of his keys, or a ranting encomium upon fome monaftic qualifications, with which a popifh pulpit would ring upon fuch an occafion, without doing much honour to the faint, or good to the audience :-but have drawn it with truth and fobriety, reprefenting it as it was, as confifting of virtues the moft worthy of imitation,

agree.

—and grounded, not upon apocryphal accounts and legendary inventions, the wardrobe from whence popery dreffes out her faints on these days, but upon matters of fact in the facred Scriptures, in which all Chriftians And fince I have mentioned popery, I cannot better conclude than by obferving, how ill the spirit and character of that church resembles that particular part of St. Peter's which has been made the fubject of this difcourfe.- Would one think that a church, which thrusts itself under this apostle's patronage, and claims her power under him, would prefume to exceed the degrees of it, which he acknowledged to poffefs himself ?—But how ill are your expectations anfwered, when, instead of the humble declaration in the text,Ye men of Ifrael, marvel not at us, as if our own power and holiness had wrought this; you hear a language and behaviour from the Romish court, as opposite to it as infolent words and actions can frame.

So that instead of, Ye men of Ifrael, marvel not at us,- -Ye men of Ifrael, do marvel at us,-hold us in admiration:

Approach our facred pontiff- -(who is not only holy-but holiness itself)—approach his perfon with reverence, and deem it the greatest honour and happiness of your lives to fall down before his chair, and be admitted to kifs his feet.

Think not, as if it were not our own holinefs which merits all the homage you

can

can pay us. It is our own holinefs,-the fuperabundance of it, of which, having more than we know what to do with ourselves,from works of fupererogation, we have transferred the furplus in ecclefiaftic warehouses, and, in pure zeal for the good of your fouls, have eftablished public banks of merit, ready to be drawn upon at all times.

Think not, ye men of Ifrael, or fay within yourselves, that we are unprofitable fervants; we have no good works to fpare, or that if we had-we cannot make this ufe of them; —that we have no power to circulate our indulgencies, and huckfter them out, as we do, through all the parts of Chriftendom.Know ye by these presents, that it is our own power which does this, the plenitude of our apoftolic power operating with our own holinefs, that enables us to bind and loofe, as feems meet to us on earth;to fave your fouls or deliver them up to Satan, and, as they please or difpleafe, to indulge whole kingdoms at once, or excommunicate them -binding kings in chains, and your nobles in links of iron.

all;

That we may never again feel the effects of fuch language and principles,

God of his mercy grant us.

Amen.

-may

SERMON XXXII.

THIRTIETH OF JANUARY.

EZRA, ix. 6, 7.

And I faid, O my God, I am afhamed and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God:-for our iniquities are increased over our head, and our trefpafs is grown up unto the heavens. Since the days of our fathers have we been in a great trespass unto this day.

THERE is not, I believe, throughout all history, an inftance of fo ftrange and obftinately corrupt a people as the Jews, of whom Ezra complains; for though on one hand, -there never was a people that received fo many teftimonies of God's favour to encourage them to be good,-fo, on the other hand, there never was a people which fo often felt the fcourge of their iniquities to difhearten them from doing evil.-Yet neither the one or the other feemed ever able to make them either the wifer or better;-neither God's bleffings, nor his corrections, could ever foften them;-they ftill continued a thankless unthinking people,—who profited by no leffous, neither were to be won with inercies, nor terrified with punishments,-but on every fucceeding trial and occafion, extremely dif pofed against God, to go aftray and act wickedly.

In the words of the text, the prophet's heart overflows with forrow, upon his reflec