"I follow thee now? I will lay down my life

for thy sake." Another Evangelist has added that Peter, spake the more vehemently, If I "should die with thee, I will not deny thee in any "wise," Mark xiv. 31. See also Matt. xxvi. 35. Alas! the sequel informs us how sadly Peter kept his resolution, how he was unmanned, and unchristianed too, (if I may so speak) that thrice he denied his blessed Lord, once before a weak and harmless damsel, and once with bitter oaths and Well was it for Simon Peter that his master had prayed for him, that satan should have him not, to sift him as wheat as he desired. Hay ing premised these things, I observe

curses.

2dly. The consequences or awful nature of de nying Christ, and these are two-fold: 1st. To those so denying. 2d. To those who hear the denial.

1st. To those so denying; and this according to their general character, as first, witness Judas, he denied and betrayed his master, the awful nature of which was soon visible, for he hanged himself and his bowels gushed out, Alas! this man from a devilish principle denied his Lord: he went to his own place, to suffer for ever the punishment due to the foulest crime. 2d. Witness Peter, he went out and wept bitterly. He suffered pain of conscience, and anguish of heart, and remembered with bitterness, yet with humility and circumspec➜ tion, his fatal denial all his life; yet he could not fall into perdition, because Christ prayed for him

and determined to defeat the devilish designs of Satan, to enlist this saint of God under his banners. Oh the blessed effects of being in Christ, Satan may desire to sift us as wheat, yea he may have his will so far as to sift us as wheat, yet if we are in Christ, he can only get the chaff for his portion, and after all the wheat must be gathered into the garner of God.

2d. To those who hear the denial. If the character of Jesus were unknown to those around the judgment hall, what must they think of the religion of Jesus: that if it leads men to lie, to curse and to swear, little indeed then has it to boast; and it is to be lamented that the imperfections of God's people in all ages, have caused the wickedto speak ill of our Lord. Oh how circumspect should Christians be in their lives, and conduct, and conversation; and if the character of Christ was known, how little and mean, must a denying and blaspheming Peter look in the eyes of all around him, for observe the men of this world are the most quicksighted on the failings of the righteous; nor do they hold for the latter that charity, nor bear them that love, that would lead them to put the best construction on their unjustifiable conduct. The consequences of God's people denying Christ are awful, as they lead God's enemies more to blaspheme; more to degrade a precious Saviour, and more to shut their eyes, and harden their hearts against his gospel: and for these things God's peo

ple must meet with stings of conscience, rebukes from God's Spirit, and often persecutions from the ungodly, to the end that they may sincerely repent in dust and ashes, and learn more circumspectly to walk and to please God in all things. The consequences of God's enemies denying him, are eternal shame and confusion, more embittering the portion of their cup and heating more the flames of hell. Well, one truth this doth teach us; oh that we may humbly rejoice in it as becometh Christians: that whilst the sins of the unregenerate do more call down the anger of God's justice against themselves, the sins of God's people, cause him more to increase his loving kindness, forbearance, and tender mercy towards them, to the increase of their obligations to him, and to the furtherance of the glory of his own great name.

'14th. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheep-fold, but climbeth up some other way; the same is a thief and a robber. John x. 1.

Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. John x. 7.

If we consider the awful distance at which sin hath placed man from his God, the necessity of a return, if we value our own safety, the necessity of God's vindicating his own honor by the punishment of sin, however the sinner himself may be remitted, we must see that these things can be done con

sistently only through a Mediator. Man acknowledges the utility of a Mediator in temporal things. To avoid expence and useless litigation, to bring things to a speedy adjustment, and to enter without partiality into the real merits of a case, men refer their quarrels to arbitration. A third person called in by the joint consent of both is chosen to decide the controversy to the satisfaction of those concerned. Strange! that man can see not his interest in spiritual as well as temporal things. To avoid expence, the expence of a man's own blood which is forfeited to the law of God, and the loss of his eternal happiness as the demerit of his crimes, to avoid useless litigations with the infinite God, which can only eud in shame and confusion of face, to bring things to a speedy adjustment, so that a man may know even on this earth, how matters stand between him and his God for ever, to enter without partiality into the merits of his case, so that man may without prejudice weigh well his conduct and that of God, and condemn himself as the sole aggressor; that God on the other hand, may advance his claim against man, these are fit subjects for arbitration; for these a third person is wanting to be chosen by mutual consent, that he may decide the controversy. Behold then Christ Jesus chosen first by God, seeing he ought to have the first choice, as being the injured: to be chosen by man on the other, and this for these purposes; 1st. To prove the injury, 2d. To state the damages,

3d. To offer compensation. "Now (says God to prove how he was injured, and that in the slighting the Lord Jesus to whom as his well beloved he had given his vineyard, by which observe the Mediator between God and us, had a right to be totally against us, as being himself injured by us),

will I sing to my well beloved a song of my "beloved touching his vineyard: (here it seems also the Lord Jesus had complained of his vineyard to the father who gave it him), "My well "beloved hath a vineyard, in a very fruitful hill. "And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones "thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, "and built a tower in the midst of it, and also "made a wine-press therein, and he looked that "it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes? And now, O inhabitants

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of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge I pray

you, betwixt me and my vineyard. What could "have been done more to my vineyard, that I "have not done in it? For the vineyard of the "Lord of Hosts, is the House of Israel, and the "men of Judah his pleasant plant; and he looked

for judgment, but behold oppression; for righte66 ousness, but behold a cry," Isaiah v. 1-7. And what shall man say? Shall he disallow the complaint of the most high God against his transgressions, and deny his righteous and faithful word! "If (says the scripture) we say that we have no "sin we deceive ourselves," 1 John i. 8. Rather