first-born of this household; God, who is all and in all, is head of the whole: these are the beings to whom we are about to be united by death.

What a powerful consolation against the fear of death! What an abundant remuneration of delight, for the privation of persons, whose memory is so dear! O my friends, my children, and all of you, who have, during my abode on earth, been the objects of my tenderest and most ardent attachment.... you, who after having contributed to my happiness during life, come again and surround my dying bed, receive the final tests of an attachment, which should never be less suspected than in these last moments.... collect the tears, which the pain of parting induces me to shed....see, in the anguish of my last farewell, all that my heart has felt for you.

But do not detain me any longer upon earth; suffer me, at the moment when I feel my loss, to esti mate my gain; allow me to fix my regards on those ever-during connections I am about to form....on the angels who are going to convey my soul to the bosom of God....on the innumerable multitudes of the blessed, among whom I am going to reside, and with whose voices I am going to join in everlasting praises to my God and Saviour. Among the tran sports excited by objects so elating, if any wish yet remain, it is to see you speedily associated with me, in the same society, and participating the same felicity. May heaven hear my prayer! To God be honour and glory for ever. Amen.

SERMON XI.

ST. PETER'S DENIAL OF HIS MASTER..

MATT. XXVI. 69, &c. LUKE Xxxii. 61, &c.

Now Peter sat without in the palace; and a damsel came unto him, saying, Thou also wast with Jesus of Galilee. But he denied before them all, saying, I know not what thou sayest. And when he was gone out into the porch, another maid saw him, and said unto them that were there, This fellow was also with Jesus of Nazareth. And again he denied with an oath, I do not know the man. And after a while came unto him them that stood by, and said to Peter, Surely thon also art one of them, for thy speech betrayeth thee. Then began he to curse and to swear, saying, I know not the man. And immediately while he yet spake, the cock crew. And the Lord turned, and looked upon Peter; and Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said unto him, Be fore the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. And Peter went out, and wept bitterly.

IT is laudable, my brethren, to form the noble design of not being moved by the presence of danger, and to cherish dignity of sentiment and thought. This virtue distinguishes the heroes of our age, and it does not less distinguish the heroes of religion and piety. They defy the whole universe to shake their faith; amid the greatest dangers, they adopt this language of triumph: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or per

secution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword? Nay, in all these things we are more than con-, querors, through him that hath loved us. Rom. viii. 34....36.

But how laudable soever this disposition may be, it ought to be restricted; it degenerates into presump tion, when carried to extremes Many, not knowing how to proportion their strength to their courage, have fallen in the day of trial, and realized this judicious, maxim, They that love the danger, shall perish by the danger. This is exemplified in the person of St. Pe ter. His heart, glowing with attachment to his Master, every thing was promised from his zeal. Seeing Jesus on the waters, he merely solicited permission to walk like the Saviour; but feeling his feet, sink beneath the surface of the unstable waters, he distrusted either the power or the fidelity of his Master; and unless supported by his compassionate arms he had made shipwreck, to express myself with St. Paul, both of his faith and his life together. Seeing Jesus led away to the high-priest's house, he fol lowed without hesitation, and resolved to follow even to the cross. Here, likewise, on seeing the angry Jews, the armed soldiers, and a thousand terrific ap pearances of death, he saved his life by a base denial; and, unless his forfeited faith had been restored by a look from his Lord, the bonds of union had been to, tally dissolved.

In the examination of this history, we shall see, first, the cowardice of an apostle, who yielded, for the moment, to the force of temptation. We shall see, secondly, Jesus Christ vanquishing the enemy of our salvation, and depriving him of his prey, by a single glance of his eyes. We shall see, lastly, a penitent recovering from his fall; and replying, by his tears, to the expressive looks of Jesus Christ:....three inexhaustible sources of reflection.

We shall consider, first, the fall of St. Peter; and it will appear deplorable, if we pay attention to the

object which excited his fear, and to the circumstances with which it was connected.

The object which excited his fear, was martyrdom. Let us not magnify moral ideas. The fear of martyrdom is inseparable from human weakness. The most desperate diseases afford some fluctuating hopes of recovery, which diminish the fears of death. It is an awful thing for a man to see the period of his death precisely fixed, and within the distance of a day, an hour, a moment. And if it is awful to approach a death, obvious (so to speak) to our view, how much more awful, when that death is surrounded with tortures, with racks, with pincers, with caldrons of boiling oil, and all those instruments invented by superstitious zeal and ingenious malice. If, however, there were occasion to deplore the weakness of man, it is on account of the fears excited by the idea of martyrdom. Follow us then while we illustrate this assertion.

That men must die, is one of the most certain and evident propositions ever advanced. Neither vice nor virtue, neither religion nor infidelity, nor any consideration, can dispense with this common lot of man. Were a system introduced of living for ever on the earth, we should undoubtedly become our own enemies, by immolating the hope of future felicity, for a life of such inquietude as that we should enjoy on the earth. And if there had been such a life, perhaps we should have been base enough to give it the preference of religious hope. If it had failed in securing the approbation of the mind, it would, at least, have interested the concupiscence of the heart. But, whatever is our opinion, die we must: this is an indisputable fact, and no one dares to controvert it.

Prudence, unable to avert the execution of the sentence, should be employed in disarming its terrors : destitute of all hope of escaping death, we ought to employ all our prudence in the choice of that kind

of death, which is most supportable. And what is there in the severest sufferings of martyrs, which is not preferable to the death we expect from nature? If I consider death as an abdication of all I enjoy and as an impenetrable yeil, which conceals the ob jects of sense, I see nothing in the death of the martyr, that is not common to every other kind of death. To die on a bed, to die on a scaffold, is equally to leave the world; and the sole difference is, that the martyr finding nothing but troubles, gibbets, and crosses, in this life, detaches himself with less difficulty than the other, who dies surrounded by inviting objects.

If I consider death, with regard to the pains which precede and attend its approach, I confess it requires courage more than human, to be unmoved at the ter rific apparatus exposed to the eyes of a martyr, But, if we except some peculiar cases, in which the ty rants have had the barbarity to prolong the lives of the sufferers, in order to extend their torments, there are few sudden deaths, which are not attended with less pain than natural death. There are few deathbeds, which do not exhibit scenes more tragic than the scaffold. Pain is not more supportable, because it has symptoms less striking; nor are afflictions the less severe, because they are interior.

If I consider death, with regard to the just fear of fainting in the conflicts, in which I am about to be vanquished by the king of terrors, there are superabundant aids reserved for those who sacrifice their lives for religion. The greatest miracles have been achieved in favour of confessors and martyrs. St. Peter received some instances of the kind; but I will ven. ture to affirm, that we have had more than he. It was on the verge of martyrdom, that an angel opened the doors of his prison. It was on the eve of martyrdom, that Paul and Silas felt the prison shake, and saw their chains broke asunder. It was in the midst of martyrdom, that Stephen saw the heavens open, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God