Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

rance, in which the greater part of you are involved, in regard to many questions as important as those which were agitated then. Will a few acts of faith in God, and love to him, assure us of our salvation, or must these acts be continued, repeated and established? Doth faith consist in barely believing the merit of the Saviour, or doth it include an entire obedience to his laws? Is the fortune I enjoy with so much pleasure, display with so much parade, or hide with so much niggardliness, really mine, or doth it belong to my country, to my customers, to the poor, or to any others, whom my ancestors have deceived, from whom they have obtained, and from whom I withhold it? Doth my course of life lead to heaven, or to hell? Shall I be numbered with the spirits of just men made perfect, Heb. xii. 23. after I have finished my short life, or shall I be plunged with devils into eternal flames? My God! how is it possible for men quietly to eat, drink, sleep, and, as they call it, amuse themselves, while these important questions remain unanswered! But, as I said of the Jews, we must neglect our business; suspend our pleasures; cease to be dazzled with the present, and employ ourselves about the future world: perhaps also we must make a sacrifice of some darling passion; abjure some old opinion; or restore some acquisition, which is dearer to us than the truths of religion, and the salvation of our souls. Woe be to us! Let us no more reproach the Jews; the causes of their indolence are the causes of ours. Ah! let us take care, lest, like them, we continue in ignorance, till the vengeance of God command death, and devils, and hell, to awake us with them to everlasting shame. Dan. xii. 2.

Jesus Christ, having heard from the mouths of his apostles what people thought of him, desired

also to hear from their own mouths, (we have assigned the reasons before,) what they themselves thought of him. He saith unto them, But who, say ye, that I am? Peter instantly replied for himself, and for the whole apostolical college, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.

St. Peter was a man of great vivacity, and people of this cast are subject to great mistakes; as ready to speak as to think, they often fall into mistakes through the same principle, that inclines them to embrace the truth, and to maintain it. St. Peter's history often exemplifies this remark. Doth he hear Jesus Christ speak of his approaching death? Lord, says he, spare thyself, this shall not be to thee, Matt. xvi. 22. Doth he see a few

rays of celestial glory on the holy mount? He is stricken with their splendor, and exclaims, Lord it is good for us to be here, chap. xvii. 4. Doth he perceive Jesus Christ in the hands of his enemies? He draws a sword to deliver him, and cuts off the ear of Malchus. But, if this vivacity expose a man to great inconveniences, it is also accompanied with some fine advantages. When a man of this disposition attends to virtue, he makes infinitely greater proficiency in it, than those slow men do, who pause, and weigh, and argue out all step by step: the zeal of the former is more ardent, their flames are more vehement, and after they are more wise by their mistakes, they are patterns of piety. St. Peter, on this occasion, proves beforehand all we have advanced. He feels himself animated with a holy jealousy in regard to them, who partake with him the honor of apostleship, and it would mortify him, could he think, that any one of the apostolical college hath more zeal for a master, to whom he hath devoted his heart, and his life, all his faculty of loving, and all the powers of

his soul: he look, he sparkles, and he replies, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Thou art the Christ, or, thou art the Messiah, the king promised to the church. He calls this king the Son of God: Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. The Jews gave the Messiah this title, which was an object of their hopes. Under this idea the prophecies had promised him, the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son: this day have I begotten thee, Psal. ii. 7. God himself conferred this title on Jesus Christ from heaven, This is my beloved Son, Matt. iii. 17. Under this idea the angel promised him to his holy mother, Thou shalt bring forth a Son, he shall be great, and shall be called, The Son of the Highest, Luke i. 31, 32. They are two very different questions, I grant, Whether the Jewish church acknowledged that the Messiah should be the Son of God; and whether they knew all the import of this august title. It cannot, however, be reasonably doubted, methinks, whether they discovered his dignity, although they might not know the doctrine of Christ's divinity so clearly, nor receive it with so much demonstration, as Christians have received it. I should digress too far from my subject, were I to quote all the passages from the writings of the Jews, which learned men have collected on this article. Let it suffice to remark, that, if it could be proved that the Jewish church affixed only confused ideas to the title Son of God, which is given to the Messiah, it is beyond a doubt, I think, that the apostles affixed clear ideas to the terms, and that, in their style, God and Son of God, are synonimous witness, among many other passages, St. Thomas's adoration of Jesus Christ, expressed in these words, My Lord and my God.

Let us not engage any further in this controver

sy now; let us improve the precious moments, which remain, to the principal design, that we proposed in the choice of the subject, that is to guard you against the temptations, which arise from that variety of opinions, which are received both in the world, and in the church, on the most important points of religion. The comparison we are going to make of St. Peter's confession of faith with the judgment of Jesus Christ on it, will conduct us to this end.

Jesus Christ assured St. Peter, that the confession of faith, which he then made, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God, was not a production of frail and corrupted nature, or, as he expresseth it, That flesh and blood had not revealed these things unto him. Flesh and blood mean here, as in many other passages, which we have quoted at other times, frail and corrupted nature. Jesus Christ assured St. Peter, that this confession was a production of grace, which had operated in him, and which would conduct him to the supreme good. This is the meaning of these words, My Father, who is in heaven, hath revealed these things unto thee. What characters of the faith of St. Peter, occasioned the judgment, that Jesus Christ made of it? And how may we know whether our faith be of the same divine original? Follow us in these reflections. Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, flesh and blood hath not produced the faith, that thou hast professed, but, my Father, who is in heaven, hath revealed it to thee. In order to convince thee of the truth of my assertions, consider first, the circumstances, which Providence hath improved to produce thy faith: secondly, the efforts which preceded it: thirdly, the evidence that accompanies it: fourthly, the sacrifices, which seal, and crown it: and lastly, the na

ture of the very frailties, which subsists with it. Let us explain these five characters, and let us make an application of them. Let us know St. Peter; or, rather, let us learn to know ourselves. With this, the most important point, we will conclude this discourse.

1. Let us attend to the circumstances, which Providence had improved to the producing of St. Peter's faith. There are, in the lives of christians, certain signal circumstances, in which we cannot help perceiving a particular hand of Providence working for their salvation. Mistakes on this article may produce, and foment, superstitious sentiments. We have in general, a secret bias to fanaticism. We often meet with people, who imagine themselves the central point of all the designs of God; they think, he watcheth only over them, and that, in all the events in the universe, he hath only their felicity in view. Far from us be such extravagant notions. It is, however, strictly true, that there are in the lives of christians some signal circumstances, in which we cannot help seeing a particular providence working for their salvation. Of whom can this be affirmed more evidently than of the apostles? They, by an inestimable privilege were not only witnesses of the life of Jesus Christ, hearers of his doctrine, and spectators of his miracles: but they were admitted to an intimacy with him; they had the liberty at all times, and in all places, to converse with him, to propose their doubts, and to ask for his instructions; they were at the source of wisdom, truth and life. St. Peter had these advantages not only in common with the rest of the apostles: but he, with James and John, were chosen from the rest of the apostles to accompany the Saviour, when, on particular occasions, he laid aside the vails, which con

« AnteriorContinuar »