What manner of perfons we ought to be, upon these principles of our religion, St. Peter has told us, in all holy converfation and godlinefs;-and I shall only remind, how different a frame of mind, the looking for, and hastening unto the coming of GoD, under such a life, is, from that of fpending our days in vanity, and our years in pleasure.

Give me leave, therefore, to conclude in that merciful warning, which our SAVIOUR, the Judge himself, hath given us, at the clofe of the fame exhortation.

Take heed to yourselves, left at any time your hearts be over-charged with furfeiting, and drunkenness, and the cares of this life ;—and so that day come upon you unawares;-for as a fnare fhall it come upon all that dwell on the face of the whole earth.-Watch therefore, and pray always, that 'ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man. Which may GOD of his mercy grant, through Jefus Chrift. Amen.

5

SERMON XXXI.

St. Peter's Character.

ACTS III. 12.

And when Peter faw it, he answered unto the people, Ye men of Ifrael, why marvel ye at this? or why look ye fo earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holinefs we had made this man to walk?

THESE

HESE Words, as the text tells us, were fpoke by St. Peter, on the occafion of his miraculous cure of the lame man, who was laid at the gate of the temple, and, in the beginning of this chapter, had asked an alms of St. Peter and St. John, as they went up together at the hour of prayer;-on whom St. Peter fastening his eyes, as in the 4th verse, and declaring he had no fuch relief to give him as he expected, having neither filver nor gold,-but that fuch as he had, the benefit of that divine power which he had received from his Mafter,

he would impart to him,-he commands him forthwith, in the name of Jefus Christ of Nazareth, to rise up and walk.-And he took him by the hand and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ancle-bones received strength; and he leaped up, ftood and walked, and entered with them into the temple, leaping and praifing GOD.

It seems he had been born lame, had paffed a whole life of defpair, without hopes of ever being restored;-so that the immediate fenfe of ftrength and activity communicated to him at once, in fo furprising and unfought-for a manner, caft him into the transport of mind natural to a man fo benefited beyond his expectation. So that the amazing inftance of a fupernatural power ;-the notoriety of fact, wrought at the hour of prayer; the unexceptionableness of the object, that it was no imposture,for they knew that it was he which fat for alms at the Beautiful gate of the temple-the unfeigned expreffions of an enraptured heart almost befide itself,

confirming the whole ;-the man that was healed, in the 10th verfe, holding his benefactors, Peter and John, entering into the temple with them, walking and leaping, and praifing GoD ;-the great concourse of people, drawn together by this event, in the 11th verfe, for they all ran unto them, into the porch that was called Solomon's, greatly wondering. Sure never was fuch a fair opportunity for an ambitious mind to have established a character of fuperior goodness and power.-To a man set upon this world, who fought his own praise and honour, what an invitation would it have been to have turned thefe circumstances to fuch a purpose ;-to have fallen in with the paffions of an aftonished and grateful city, prepoffeffed, from what had happened, fo ftrongly in his favour already, that little art or management was requifite to have improved their wonder and good opinion into the highest reverence of his fanctity, awe of his perfon, or whatever other belief fhould be neceffary to feed his pride,

or ferve fecret ends of glory and intereft.-A mind not fufficiently mortified to the world, might have been tempted here to have taken the honour due to GOD-and transferred it to himself.He might not fo-a difciple of Chrift: for when Peter faw it,-when he saw the propenfity in them to be mifled on this occafion, he anfwered and faid unto the people, in the words of the text,Ye men of Ifrael, why marvel ye at this? or why look you fo earnestly on us, as though by our own power and holinefs we had made this man to walk? -The GOD of Abraham, and of Ifaac, and of Jacob, the GoD of our fathers, hath glorified his fon Jefus.

O holy, and blessed apostle!

How would thy meek and mortified fpirit fatisfy itself in uttering fo humble and fo juft a declaration?-What an honeft triumph wouldst thou taste the fweets of,-in thus conquering thy paffion of vain glory,-keeping down thy pride, difclaiming the praises which fhould have fed it, by telling the won