world. A rich man, that has this fenfe as he ought to have, will in confequence have the other virtues proper to his state: he will be gentle, affable, kind, and charitable; and his fpirit, in the height of fortune, will be adorned with the meekness of the Gofpel of Chrift. A man of fenfe need not go far to learn this fubmiffion to God in the highest fortune: our Saviour's argument, that follows clofe after the text, will teach him the reasonableness of the duty: The life, fays he, is more than meat, and the body is more than raiment. The utmoft riches can do, upon the largest conceffions made to them, is to provide food and raiment, and fuch like neceffaries and conveniences of life. Put the cafe then, that, by being master of a great eftate, you are mafter of food and raiment, and can have them in what quantity or quality you please: What then? Have you lefs reafon, upon this account, to depend upon God, and to implore his aid? Confider a little: To what purpose ferves food? Is it not for the fupport of life? But can food ward off death? Are you, in all your plenty of provifions, one jot fecurer against fickness, or any accident that may rob you of your life, than the pooreft man? Will not a tile from an houfe kill a rich man, as well as a beggar? If this be the cafe, is it not very abfurd to plume yourself, and to think of fecurity, because of your plenty, when life itself, which is more than meat, is ftill expofed, and for which you can have no fecurity, but in the goodnefs of God? You have many changes of raiment, and the poor has only rags. What then? Will the gout or ftone or burning fever pay fuch respect to fine clothes, as not to approach them? Will health

always attend upon gold lace and embroidery? If it will, you are right to multiply garments: but if, after all your care for raiment, you must still depend upon God, as well as the beggar, for health and strength of body, how ridiculous is the joy over many changes of garments! Is not the body more than raiment? Since then you must trust God for your life and strength, because they are things which no care of your own, no degree of wealth can infure; had you not even as good truft him a little farther, and ease yourself of this unreasonable care for the things of life? From these and the like confiderations you may fee, that dependence upon God is as much the rich man's duty and intereft, as it is the poor man's; that to truft God, and to rely on his goodness, is to be rich towards God, and is that fort of riches which will make us eafy and happy in this life, and glorious and ever-bleffed in that which is to come. By these means we may ftill enjoy our fortunes; and, as our Church has taught us to pray,

"We may fo

"pass through things temporal, that we finally lofe "not the things eternal.".

DISCOURSE XXX.

LUKE Xxii. 61, 62.

And the Lord turned, and looked upon Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had faid unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. And Peter went out, and wept bitterly.

THE fall of St. Peter would be a very melancholy inftance of human infirmity, did it not likewife fet before us a fignal example of the divine mercy, and of the power of grace triumphing over the weakness of nature. St. Peter seems to have had the greatest share of natural courage and refolution of any of the disciples, and the fullest perfuafion of faith. He it was who made the first confeffion, and faid, Thou art Chrift the Son of the living God; by which he obtained the promise of his Lord, I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. He it was, who, when his Master's life was affaulted, drew the fword in his defence, and smote off the fervant's ear; and had left ftill greater marks of his courage and zeal, had not his Mafter rebuked his fire, bidding him put up the fword into its place again. When our Lord foretold the flight of his difciples, and that all fhould be offended because of

him, the reft by filence confeffed their fear and their fhame; Peter only ftood forth, and, with a courage feeming to be fuperior to all trials, profeffed, Though all men shall be offended because of thee, yet will I never be offended. His Lord again declared unto him, Verily I fay unto thee, that this night, before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice: but Peter, whose heart was conscious of no fear, anfwers boldly, Though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee.

As the time of our Lord's fufferings drew near, he retired to prayer, and made choice of Peter and others to join with him. But here, oppreffed with fleep, they forgot themselves and their Mafter: but foon they were awakened with the noife of those who came to apprehend them, and with the fight of fwords and ftaves. Peter ftood to his defence; and had it been a caufe proper for the decifion of the fword, he had at least died with glory; but he mistook the weapons of his warfare, and knew better how to venture his life in the field, than to refign it at the call of confcience: an evident fign that natural courage is not the true fource of confidence in fpiritual trials, in which they only can conquer, whose ftrength is not of man, but of God. No fooner were the hopes of defence taken away, and the fuccours which natural courage affordeth rendered useless, but Peter's refolution began to fail: he could not indeed totally forget his love to his Mafter, and therefore he followed him to his trial; but he followed him, as the text expreffes it, afar off, and mingled himself in the crowd of fervants who attended the chief-priefts and elders, hoping

by that artifice to pass unfuspected of any acquaintance or familiarity with the perfon accufed. But whether his fear discovered him, which even by the concern it fheweth to lie concealed often betrayeth itself, or however elfe it happened, he was challenged by a damfel, who told him, Thou also waft with Jefus of Galilee: Peter denies it, and, being again fufpected, affirms with an oath, I know not the man. A third time he is queftioned, and then, to fhew his innocence by his refentment of their fufpicions, he began to curfe and to fwear, faying, I know not the man. And now it was that the cock crew, and the Lord turned and looked upon Peter; with a look, however, full of tenderness and compaffion, that ftruck Peter to the heart, and brought to his mind his prefumption and his baseness: under this confufion he retires from the presence of his Mafter, and from the eyes of the world; and, when he thought of himself and of his Lord, he wept bitterly.

Happy tears! and bleffed were the fruits that followed them! Not long after this the scene changes again: St. Peter ftands in the place of his Mafter, before the tribunal of the high-prieft, fummoned to appear for his doctrine at the peril of his life and now he who denied Chrift when he was queftioned by a maid-servant, boldly preaches him before the high-priest and elders, testifying, that God had raised up Jefus, whom they flew, and hanged on a tree, and had exalted him with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Ifrael and forgiveness of fins: and when he had been beaten, and let go, he departed, rejoicing that he had