thou art Christ the son of GOD.-Now, if we look into the gofpel, we find what our Saviour pronounced on this very confeffion.

Bleffed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. -That our Saviour had the words of eternal life,-Peter was able to deduce from principles of natural reafon; because reason was able to judge from the internal marks of his doctrine, that it was worthy GOD, and accommodated properly to advance human nature and human happiness. But for all this,reafon could not infallibly determine that the meffenger of this doctrine was the Meffias, the eternal Son of the liv ing GoD:-to know this required an illumination ;-and this illumination, I fay, feems to have been vouchfafed at that instant as a reward,-as would have been fufficient evidence by itself of the difpofition of his heart.

I have now finished this fhort effay upon the character of St. Peter, not with

a loud panegyric upon the power of his keys, or a ranting encomium upon fome monaftic qualifications, with which a popish pulpit would ring upon fuch an occafion, without doing much honour to the faint, or good to the audience ;but have drawn it with truth and fobrie ty, representing it as it was, as confifting of virtues the most worthy of imitation, and grounded, not upon apocryphal accounts and legendary inventions, the wardrobe from whence popery dreffes out her faints on these days, but upon matters of fact in the facred Scriptures, in which all christians agree,-And since I have mentioned popery, I cannot better conclude than by obferving, how ill the spirit and character of that church refembles that particular part of St. Peter's which has been made the fubject of this difcourfe.-Would one think that a church, which thrufts itself under this apostle's patronage, and claims her power under him, would prefume to exceed the degrees of it which he acknowledged to poffefs himself?-But how ill

are your expectations answered, when, instead of the humble declaration in the text,-Ye men of Ifrael, marvel not at us, as if our own power and holiness had wrought this;-you hear a language and behaviour, from the Romish court, as opposite to it as infolent words and actions can frame.

So that instead of, Ye men of Ifrael, marvel not at us,-Ye men of Ifrael, do marvel at us,-hold us in admiration : Approach our facred pontiff-(who is not only holy-but holinefs itself)-approach his perfon with reverence, and deem it the greatest honour and happinefs of your lives to fall down before his chair, and be admitted to kiss his feet.

Think not, as if it were not our own holiness which merits all the homage you can pay us.It is our own holinefs,the fuperabundance of it, of which, having more than we know what to do with ourselves,-from works of fupererogation, we have transferred the furplus in ecclefiaftic warehouses, and, in pure

zeal for the good of your fouls, have established public banks of merit, ready to be drawn upon at all times.

Think not, ye men of Ifrael, or fay within yourselves, that we are unprofitable fervants; we have no good works to fpare, or that, if we had,-we cannot make this use of them ;-that we have no power to circulate our indulgences,and huckfter them out, as we do, through all the parts of Christendom.— Know ye by these prefents, that it is our own power which does this ;-the plenitude of our apoftolic power operating with our own holiness, that enables us to bind and loofe, as feems meet to us on earth;-to fave your fouls or deliver them up to Satan, and, as they please or displease, to indulge whole kingdoms at once, or excommunicate them all;binding kings in chains, and your nobles in links of iron.

That we may never again feel the effects of fuch language and principles,may GOD of his mercy grant us. Amen.

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