as strangers scattered throughout several countries, but yet elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, &c. Sdly, There is the apostolic wish and prayer for them, Grace unte you, and peace be multiplied. I. I would speak a little concerning the first of these, the penman of this epistle, Peter an apostle of Jesus Christ. He describes himself from his name and also from his office. His name was Peter: this was a name that Christ gave him, and therefore you may well think that the man would remember it; his own name, (if I may so say) his Christian name. His circumcision name was Simon, and Jonas was his father; and of this our Lord puts him in mind, John xxi. 15, 16, 17. Mark iii. 16. Simon son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was the name that Christ gave him, Simon whom he surnamed Peter, recorded by all the Evangelists. Again. We have a description of the man from his office; An apostle of Jesus Christ. I shall not now speak of his apos tolic office; it died with him, and I believe will never rise again for it was an office only adapted to a particular state of the church of Christ: which state will never return, and therefore the like officers will never be renewed again; Acts i. 21, 22. for the apostolic office was (as you have often heard) to be a witness unto, and the apostle, one of personal acquaintance with the man Christ, both before and after his death and resurrection. But, however, there are several things concerning this man, the author of this epistle, that I would take notice of for your edification. As, 1st, The strange way of the man's calling; how he was called to be an apostle: an extraordinary miracle was wrought, and extraordinary terror seized on him when he was thus wrought upon; it is said, Luke v. 8, 9. that he was astonished, and fel! down at Jesus' knees, and said, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. Is there any hope that Christ and this man will ever be acquainted together, when at his first meeting, the first prayer that the man makes is, Lord, be gone, and leave me? 2. Another great fault that we find in this man, was the bad counsel that he gave to his master, for which the meek Jesus called him by the name of the Devil. Matth. xvi. 22, 23. Get thee behind me, Satan; for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men. I confess the sin was great, the folly and the forwardness of the man was great. It is said in the text, then Peter took Christ; the meaning is, that he took him aside from the company; the bold man would deliver a rebuke to Christ: he took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord; this shall not be unto thee. 3. Another thing concerning this man, was his woful denial of his Master; now who would think that ever this man should be an apostle of Jesus Christ, that had denied his master so dreadfully? Three of the Evangelists make mention of the history of it, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, Matth. xxvi. Mark xiv. Luke xxii.; and John makes mention of the threatenings of it, John xiii. 38. Peter's denying of Christ was a dreadful sin, and there were prodigious aggravations of it 1st, Christ warned him of it, and he did not believe his master. It is a sad matter, sirs, when Christians (for Peter was so, and a good one too, notwithstanding all these sins), when Christians, I say, will hold up their good thoughts of themselves against all the awful warnings of the word of God. Though all men deny thee, yet will not I; it may be the rest "will do so, but, Lord, do not suspect the like of me:" Peter refused to take in the warnings Christ gave him. 2dly, He fell on a slight and slender temptation, only the voice of a damsel in charging him to be one of them. Peter would have fared never the worse, if he had said, "Yes, I am one of them, and I count it my glory to belong "to such a master;" he would have had never the worse fare: for he had his master's pass, If ye seek me, let these go their way, John xviii. 8.: that was a security sufficient for them all. 3dly, His sin was greatly aggravated, in that it was a repeated transgression; thrice did he do this had he only denied his blessed Lord and Master through a sudden pang of fear, he might have recovered himself again on better thoughts; but a good while after he doth it again, and a little while after that, he doth it a third time, with cursing and swearing. 4thly, The worst of all was, that all this was done when his master was at his lowest, and done in his hearing too for his master was but at a very little distance from him; it may be there stood only a small guard between our blessed Lord and Peter, and behind that woful company the man was denying his master. It is said, Luke xxii. 61. The Lord turned and locked on him; to be sure he was within his eye, if not within his hearing: from whence take this observation, It is certainly a great aggravation of sin, when it is committed in the special presence of God; then it is in a special way provoking. 4. We have another thing remarkable in Peter, namely, his being restored again: notwithstanding all this, the man became an apostle of Jesus Christ! Peter, the denier of Jesus Christ, is Peter an apostle of Jesus Christ! How came this man to be raised again? What assurance have we from the word, that the man after his awful fall was well raised up again? 1st, He was raised up again to his apostolical office, in the beginning of it, by Christ's looking on him, and looking repentance into him. Luke xxii. 61, 62. The Lord turned and looked on Peter, and Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice; and Peter went out and wept bitterly. 2dly, We find that he was restored again by that gentle message that the angel sent by the women, Mark xvi. 7. Tell his disciples and Peter: it shewed the Lord's special remembrance of Peter; it spoke forth certainly Christ's special minding of him: for the angel delivered nothing but what was the mind of Christ. 3dly, Our Lord restored him thrice very solemnly, suitable to his threefold denial of him. Christ asked him three questions, and Peter returneth him an answer to each; and Christ sends him back to his apostolical office upon his reply. Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? Lord, saith the man, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Well, would our Lord say, art thou risen so far as to be a sound-hearted lover of me? Go, take care of my people, feed my sheep, feed my lambs, John xxi. 15, 16, 17. 4thly, The apostle Peter was specially installed, and owned in his apostolic office, by a signal testimony of the Holy Ghost, in the second of the Acts: and it may be from that day to this (and there have been a great many the first years since), never was there any preaching that had so much of the divine power going along with it; with one sermon three thousand were converted! Well might the man be called an apostle of Jesus, he was indeed a messenger of Christ, and had his master's presence with him. 5thly, We have another evidence of this, and that concerns us; fruit of the Gentiles was committed to him, Acts x. the honour of converting and bringing into Christ the first fruits of the Gentiles. The first church could hardly bear the thoughts of this; and this he remembered many years after. Brethren, saith he, Acts xv. 7. Ye know, how that a good while ago, God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel and believe. He had There are only two words that I would say, as the USE you should learn to make of such an explained history. 1. Learn to know how far the corruption that is in the hearts of believers may go in a day of God's leaving them, and in a day of great temptation; the corruption, I say, that remains in a true believer, who is sanctified in part, but who is justified wholly; the corruption that is lodged in a true believer may work very strongly. God save any of you from making a bad use of this! It is a certain truth, No creature knows how bad even a good man may be if God leaves him; what dreadful sins a believer himself may commit if God leaves him to himself. Therefore it was a grave rebuke that a foul malefactor, condemned for his wickedness, gave to one who checked him, and asked him, how he could do such. wickedness? the poor wretch replied, What will not that man do whom God leaves? A most savoury and true answer. Let no persons therefore settle themselves upon this, that their state is good, and that a saving change is wrought in them by the Spirit of God; all this may be true, and yet you may be left of God to do very wicked things. Peter abhorred the thoughts of denying Christ, and resolved rather to die than do it, and yet did it, because he was then left of God. - 2. You are from hence called to admire the grace of God, and the sovereign grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, in passing by one, and in taking up another, by preventing utter ruin when some of his peop were very near to it: none in all the world can tell how many times they have been just on the brink of hell, and our Lord Jesus Christ hath put forth his hand and supported them, that they fell not quite in. Peter was in this case: and truly, if we weigh the matter in a just balance, there was but one thing wanting that Judas had; Judas did not betray his Master for any hatred he bore him, nor did he betray him with a design of having him killed: for we find that the man was surprised when he saw that Christ was condemned, and brought back the money again to the high-priest. The poor wretch only betrayed him for the lucre of a little money; he thought to cheat the chief priests of so much money, he would put Christ into their hands, and supposed that he would get out again, and there would be an end of it. Judas' design in betraying Christ was not so naughty as people commonly imagine; and really, sirs, abstracting from the circumstances of men, how little difference was there between Judas's going to the chief priests, and speaking a few words, and making a bargain about the taking of Christ; and Peter's denying and foreswearing that ever he knew Christ, and yet Judas stumbled and fell, and was never recovered: but when Peter fell, grace rescued him, and plucked him back, and made him again an apostle of Jesus Christ. The word is to be observed that this Apostle himself used concerning Judas, Acts i. 25. From which ministry and apostleship Judas by transgression fell. Peter might have remembered, and no doubt but he did remember, that in the justice of God, he also fell from his office by transgression, and it was only his Master's grace that prevented the same dreadful issue. So much for the first thing in these words, the author of this epistle; Peter an apostle of Jesus Christ. II. The next thing to be considered in these words is, the parties to whom this epistle is written; and they are described to us two ways: from their condition before men, and from their condition before God; in their condition before men they were strangers scattered through several kingdoms: but their condition before God was the best that could be, with respect to All the blessed Three. They were elect ac |