SERMON CLXXXII. CHARITY QUICKENED BY REPENTANCE. FOR ST. PETER'S DAY. ST. LUKE Xxii. 32. "I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren." ALL readers of the holy Gospel must have observed CHRIST's very particular concern for St. Peter. He was manifestly favoured, in some sense, more than the rest of the Twelve. St. John, indeed, is called the Disciple whom JESUS loved, and he was admitted to lie in His breast at supper. But St. Peter is always mentioned as first in dignity over the glorious company of Apostles. In our LORD's lifetime he is always named first, both of the whole Twelve, and of the Three who were chosen to be with HIM on special occasions; and he is several times put forward to speak for the rest, in a manner which shows that they all in some way looked up to him. Likewise, after our LORD's death, whenever the Apostles were met together, except it were on that one occasion at Jerusalem, when St. James presided as Bishop of the place, the first room was given to St. Peter. It seems his place to stand up and propose matters for the rest to consider; or again, to speak in the name of the rest when any thing was to be said for them all to the Jews, to their rulers, or to particular persons; for in stance, to Ananias and Sapphira. But there are two occasions before our LORD's death, on which He seems more particularly to have shown His great love for this favoured Apostle, and to speak of him in a way which would cause all who desire to enter into the mind of CHRIST, to think very much of St. Peter. One was, when upon St. Peter's solemnly owning HIM SON of GOD, He said to him, "Thou art a Rock, and on this Rock," that is, on thee, joined to ME by this faith, I will build My Church: and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it." This seems to show, that on St. Peter, as first of the Apostles and Prophets of the New Testament, a great deal would depend; the Church was in some way to be builded upon him : and it seems also to show, that the Evil One might be expected to make some great effort to overturn St. Peter, and shake his faith: against which fearful time our LORD gives the most comfortable assurance, that the gates of Hell can never, in the end, prevail against His Church. Let Peter, and with him the body of Bishops and Pastors, of whom he is in some sense chief,-let them continue, as they will continue, in the true faith of CHRIST the SON of GOD, and the powers of darkness shall never get the better of the kingdom of Heaven. It may, in some respects, degenerate and decay but it will not be overthrown, for it is founded upon a rock. : : The other time, when our LORD's care and love of St. Peter was especially shown before His death, was on the very night of His Agony when, as HE HIMSELF told his Apostles, "Satan desired to have them, that he might sift them as wheat." The Evil One knew how much depended on the Apostles, and on St. Peter in particular; he knew it by the remarkable promise which we have just been considering and therefore, as in the case of Job, so also in their case, he sought to have power given him against them for a time, to see if he could by any means make them fall away from CHRIST. This is what our LORD calls "sifting them as wheat,"―trying them, if he could by any means find out which of them were good corn and which were chaff. This, Satan was about to do by the afflictions which came upon our LORD, and HE, knowing their weakness, prepares them for it. He prepares St. Peter in particular, by telling him that He had prayed for him in particular. What could be a greater token of the merciful love and care of our heavenly Advocate, than such an earnest and special intercession? One reason of it might be, the high place among His Apostles which He intended St. Peter should hold another, His knowing that the great Apostle's zeal and affection would before long lead him into danger beyond the others. Our LORD foresaw, that when they all forsook HIM and fled, St. Peter, with St. John, would speedily turn back, and follow HIM into the High Priest's palace, which would put him into great danger: as we know it did, for he denied three times that he had any thing to do with our LORD. CHRIST therefore, in His great mercy, prayed beforehand for St. Peter, that whatever words of unbelief he might utter in the hurry of that night's alarm, yet his faith might not fail: and we know it did not fail for the moment our SAVIOUR turned and looked upon him, he repented from the bottom of his heart, and went out, and wept bitterly. And CHRIST, Soon after His Resurrection, in token of His entire forgiveness, promised him the honour of suffering for His sake, and committed to him three times over and over the especial care of the lambs and sheep of His flock. And as the very thing which led him into temptation was his too daring, but earnest and loyal affection for our LORD, So, after he had recovered, he made good those other words of his Master: when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren." His thankfulness for his own narrow escape was to be shown by his charitable care to strengthen in every way the hands of his fellow disciples, and make them hold fast by the Rock on which he himself leaned. Thus, in the Acts of the Apostles, he strengthens them; first, by proposing to elect another in Judas's place; next, by declaring to the whole multitude the meaning of the descent of the HOLY GHOST, and the Resurrection of JESUS CHrist: whereby he laid the foundation of the Church, which thenceforth began to be built up upon him and the other Apostles. Then he strengthened all their hands by the great miracles which GOD gave him power to do; healing the lame man at the gate of the temple, and striking down Ananias and Sapphira with a word; nay, and even by his very shadow (for so we are given to understand) healing the sick as he passed by. Afterwards he goes down to Samaria, on purpose to confirm or strengthen the newbaptized there: which is the first mention of Confirmation in the history of the Church. And then what strength and courage did our SAVIOUR add to the whole Church by St. Peter, in that HE called him by an holy Angel to be first to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles, and to baptize Cornelius and his household: as also afterwards, by delivering him from prison, again through the ministry of an angel; and by that witness which he bore at Jerusalem, when the Apostles and Elders were assembled in council, against the first corrupters of the Church! Thus, wherever we find St. Peter mentioned in the Acts, he is employed in "strengthening the brethren ;" and when we read his two epistles, we find them remarkably answering the same description. The very word, "confirm," or "strengthen," appears to have dwelt upon his mind, from his manner of using it more than once. The whole, indeed, of his first epistle is taken up with strengthening his brethren against persecution; and of the second, against false and corrupt doctrine. And so he went on to the end. He who was of himself as a reed shaken with the wind, by his union with JESUS CHRIST, and the commission he received from HIM, came to be an unshaken rock, on which the unstable but well-meaning might lay hold, and find great support in time of need. Thus was St. Peter the chosen type and sample of the aid, which CHRIST has provided for us all, by ordaining regularly Bishops and Pastors in His Church. They are His special provision for strengthening the brethren; and if, in spite of this gracious care of His, the brethren still continue weak and unstable, whose fault can it be, but either the Pastors' own, for being in some way unfaithful to their trust, or else the people's, for refusing obediently to hear and follow them? Considering more particularly the words of the text, they seem to caution us especially against a certain way of thinking, which goes as far, perhaps, as any other, in making void CHRIST's good purpose in the ordinance of the Christian Ministry, discouraging very sadly both Pastors and people. The feeling I mean is, that when God's Ministers are known to have done amiss, or to be chargeable with some particular imperfection in their office, presently the devil is at hand to suggest that it is vain, perhaps presumptuous, for such as they to labour in so holy a calling. When this thought arises in a Pastor's own heart, it makes him idle, and listless in his duty; when in the heart of any of his flock, it no less certainly makes them disrespectful and undutiful. The right way, of course, is to encourage it, so far as it makes us humble, but to overcome it, when it would check us in our plain duty. For instance, if any of our former sins, of which we have truly repented, comes strongly before our conscience, we ought not to let it hinder us from setting about any good duty, but it should be brought before GOD, in prayer that He would make us very humble, circumspect, and serious in our way of performing that duty. And as to the people, the infirmity of their Pastors, or of any others in authority over them, should cause them not to despise, but to pray for them. In both cases, the example of St. Peter, if we would recollect it, might do much good. See what our LORD says to him; "Thou art on the point of a sad fall; but when thou hast been raised up again, strengthen thy brethren." St. Peter, then, if after his repentance he had drawn back from holy offices under the notion of being unworthy, would not have done according to CHRIST'S will: and if the people had rejected or scorned him for the same cause, they would have been resisting CHRIST's ordinance. He was neither to be slothful, and omit warning others, because the remembrance of his own three denials of CHRIST hung heavy at his heart; nor were they to taunt him with it, or say, This man preaches faith, yet he denied his Master in danger. 66 Let us We see at once how utterly unsuitable and wrong such feelings as these would have been in St. Peter's case. depend on it, the like feelings cannot be very right,-cannot well please CHRIST,-in the case of any other Bishop or Pastor, and the people committed to his charge. It never can be right, either in Pastors or in any other Christians, to become negligent of their duty in time to come, because they are uneasy at the thought of wrong conduct in times past. Rather let us say to ourselves, If so great exertion was necessary for a holy man like St. Peter, after he had been betrayed into one sin, of which, however, he bitterly and for ever repented, at the first call from his Master; how anxious, how unwearied, how self-denying, ought we to be, who have sinned, perhaps repeatedly and wilfully, after grace so much greater than St. Peter's, inasmuch as he was not yet in the kingdom of Heaven, as we have been ever since our baptism! And we most likely needed to be called many and many times before we would repent; whereas the holy St. Peter, at one look |