desert for the creature, when faith in the Creator is lively and fruitful.

13. But he said unto them, Give ye them to eat. And they said, We have no more but five loaves and two fishes; except we should go and buy meat for all this people.

The pastors ought themselves to feed their sheep: Christ, who commands them to do it, helps their insufficiency. God, does not command things impossible; those which appear so being impossible only to human weakness. But his commandment admonishes us, both to do whatever is in our power, and to beg of him whatever is not; and then he himself comes to our assistance, on purpose to make us able to perform it. We offer up an excellent prayer, when we join a grateful acknowledgment of the benefits we have received already to an humble confession of our own inability to do that which God requires of us more. Command, Lord, but, at the same time, give that which thou dost command.

14. For they were about five thousand men. And he said to his disciples, Make them sit down by fifties in a company. 15. And they did so, and made them all sit down. 16. Then he took the five loaves and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed them, and brake, and gave to the disciples to set before the multitude.

See here the duties of a true bishop, who would feed his people with the word of God: (1.) He ought to exhort them to hear it with an humble and sedate reverence, perfectly free and disengaged from all secular cares. (2.) He must first take this food, and fill himself therewith. (3.) He ought frequently to lift his heart up to God. (4.) To draw down the divine blessing upon his people by his prayers and good works. (5.) He must break the loaves, by giving such instructions as are suited to the capacity of all. (6.) He must do that by the hands of holy priests which he cannot do by himself. (7.) He must perform every thing with order and discipline in the distribution of this bread of the soul, and religiously observe the division of parishes, of which we may here behold a slight draught. (8.) He must give that to the subordinate pastors which they are to give to the people; that is, he must fill them with solid instructions and the knowledge of salvation, furnish them with means of attaining it, and put into

their hands the doctrine which has been transmitted down from Christ by those of the apostles.

17. And they did eat, and were all filled: and there was taken up of fragments that remained to them twelve baskets.

The word of God is extremely nourishing, and not to be exhausted or consumed. The more one is filled therewith, the more plentifully does it abound to him who reads it. That pastor who, upon an unforeseen necessity of preaching God's word, commits himself to him, and, in speaking out of the abundance of his heart, trusts entirely to his promise, finds sufficient both to fill his people, and plentifully to feed himself. Even the fragments, which remain after the feast of God's word, are precious; a man ought to gather them up for himself by meditation, after he has fed others by preaching. SECT. III.-PETER'S CONFESSION. THE CROSS TO BE BORNE. -WE MUST LOSE ALL IN ORDER TO BE SAVED.

18. And it came to pass, as he was alone praying, his disciples were with him; and he asked them, saying, Whom say the people that I am? Christ asks his disciples concerning their faith, after prayer, and in the privacy of retirement, on purpose to teach bishops, not to instruct nor examine into the faith of inferior pastors in the presence of the people; and to do it with abundance of prudence, and after having begged of God the Spirit of wisdom. He asks for his apostles that very faith whereof he demands of them an account, and shows Peter that the revelation made by the Father was the fruit of the prayer of the Son. (Matt. xvi. 17.) We must pray before we catechize, after the example of this adorable Head of catechists; and much more prayer is still necessary, in order to form the ministers of the church.

19. They answering said, John the Baptist; but some say, Elias; and others say, that one of the old prophets is risen again.

There is nothing but what is either uncertain or false, when the spirit of man undertakes to speak of God. Christ gave occasion to his disciples to mention the several errors of the world in relation to his person, that they might be the more fully convinced that their faith did not proceed from themselves. This is the use which we ourselves ought to make of

those mistakes and false conjectures of the mind of man which fill the world. Every thing ought thus to be instrumental to the increase of our gratitude, our love, and our faith, that we may be of the number of those to whom all things work together for good.

20. He said unto them, But whom say ye that I am? Peter answering said, The Christ of God.

There is nothing but what is true and certain, when the Spirit of God speaks by his ministers. The faith of the pastors ought to be more enlightened than that of the people. Christ applies himself to establish and confirm in his apostles the belief of his incarnation as the foundation of all religion. It is all contained in brief under this great expression, «The Christ of God;" that is to say, a man anointed and consecrated by his personal union with the eternal Son of God, to be the High Priest of the Christian religion, the true Worshipper of God, the Saviour and Mediator of men, and the Head, who, pouring out of the fulness of his Spirit and grace upon sinners, makes them Christians, and forms them into his mystical body, to which he gives his own name, and of which he raises up a living and eternal temple to God his Father.

21. And he straitly charged them, and commanded them to tell no man that thing; 22. Saying, The Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be slain, and be raised the third day.

There is a time to speak, and a time to be silent, concerning the divine mysteries. Man is both unworthy and incapable of hearing them, before Christ has, by his sufferings and death, merited for him the grace requisite thereto. We have here a symbol of the faith, or a short creed, taught by Christ himself, which comprehends all under the three great mysteries of his incarnation, his passion and death, and his resurrection. How profitable, how pleasant is it, to make this the continual object of our faith, adoration, love, imitation, meditation, and hope!

23. ¶ And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.

What is meant by the connection of this verse with the

former, if not that the mysteries of the Head must be accomplished likewise in the members; and to those who have by the baptism of the Spirit been made partakers of the divine nature in Christ, are one day to partake of his resurrection; but not unless they have partaken of his sufferings. and death. To suffer and to die the death of the gospel, is to resist in ourselves the spirit and inclinations of Adam, continually to crucify the flesh with its affections and lusts, to imitate the sufferings of Christ by mortification, and to die to our own passions, in order to follow the motions of his Spirit. Take particular notice of these words, "to them all," and "daily:" no person then is excused, no day excepted. Of what, therefore, do those think, to what do they aspire, who make every day a day of pleasure, luxury, and diversion? Who has a right to shake off the yoke of the cross, but only he who designs to have a right to nothing but hell?

24. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.

He who loves himself with respect to his life only, hates himself as to eternity. See here that which makes all the vast difference which there is between the life of true Christians and that of worldly persons. Both would willingly be saved and live happy: but the former purchase, through the merits of Christ, the blessed life of eternity, by the cross and the mortifications of this momentary life; the latter purchase a mere shadow of transitory felicity, by an eternal cross and death, and a punishment without end. Teach me, Lord, to save my life by losing it, and to be every day extremely careful not to lose it even in seeking to save it. For it is thou, O Saviour of the world, who art the great master and teacher of this important and only necessary lesson!

25. For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away?

Nothing can compensate the loss sustained by him who loses his soul. Let us then rather suffer the loss of all things, than that of our salvation. Let us but weigh the gain and the loss which there is in following or not following the rules

of the gospel, and we shall soon be convinced that it is no better than madness to be in the least doubt or suspense what to do. By doing the first, we lose at the most nothing but what we must necessarily lose in a few years, or perhaps months, and what a philosopher or a reasonable man judges unworthy of his fondness and affection. By not doing it, we lose every thing to all eternity!

26. For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and in his Father's, and of the holy angels.

Whosoever is ashamed of the truth while it is humbled and oppressed in this world, shall be humbled and confounded before truth itself, glorious and triumphant, in heaven. It is a holy kind of boldness, not to be ashamed of the humiliations. of Christ, or of any thing in his ways which seems a debasement to the eyes of the world. It is very just that he, who in time has preferred himself before God, should in eternity be abandoned to his own choice. Whoever has not thought God worthy of him, is by no means worthy of God. The testimony which God requires of us, renders him neither more rich nor more happy; but upon his, our eternal happiness entirely depends. Though the being faithful to him may cost us our lives, what do we lose which we do not receive in him again an hundred-fold?

SECT. IV. THE TRANSFIGURATION.

27. But I tell you of a truth, there be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the kingdom of God."

That which Christ does here with respect to his apostles, he frequently does with respect to his elect, by a certain confidence and presage of the glory he prepares for them imprinted on the bottom of their hearts. We see this kingdom established in the world by grace now almost seventeen ages; and yet untractable and obstinate minds can hardly be persuaded of the truth of it. I know, O Lord, that I cannot behold the consummation and glory of it without dying; give me, therefore, that desire and earnest longing which I ought to have for that happy moment which is to transport me into that eternal kingdom!