not fail to recognise Him who, exactly in the same place and under the same circumstances, had bid them once before quit all and follow Him. But the eagerness with which they would attend to his present call must be considered greater than that, by all the love, respect, and worship, which had arisen from the intimate intercourse of his three years' ministry; from the touching scenes of His agony, His trial, and His death; and from the glorious certainty of His resurrection, of which they were already witnesses.

Moreover, as the last call had summoned them to a course of ministerial duty, so they could hardly fail to expect that this one, though as yet they did not know its full meaning, was intended to invite them to some active line of service, some duty which once more should make them fishers of men.

"So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto Him, Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs." As though He had said, “Once, when I called thee to leave all and follow me, thou obeyedst me with readiness and zeal. For three years thou wert with me, and, by many instances of love and affection, thou didst testify thy devotion to me. Behold, the same alternative is now once more before thee. With the knowledge which thou now possessest of my nature and my doctrine, I ask thee once more solemnly, Lovest thou me and my service, more

1

than thou lovest these thy old habits and occupations? Peter answered and said unto Him, Lord, thou knowest that I love Thee. He saith unto Him, lambs."

Feed my

But the pastoral duties of an Apostle were too important to be entrusted even to St. Peter, without the most emphatical and repeated warnings: “He saith unto Him again the second time, Simon son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto Him, Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep. He saith unto him the third time, Simon son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved, because He said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep."

The point which, rising out of this remarkable and beautiful passage, I would at present suggest for reflection, is this, that it is the love of Christ alone which forms the real ground, and motive, and qualification, for the pastoral office. The alternative was at this time open to the Apostles, to return to their fishing, to go back to the world which they had left, or to become the teachers and the pastors of the flock of God. Jesus offered the choice

1 ПλεTOV TOUTWV. The position of the words, and the connexion of the story, seem to indicate that the contrast intended by our Lord is rather between the words μè and roúrwv, than between où (which is not expressed) and roúrwv. See Whitby on this

verse.

to Simon, "Lovest thou me, or lovest thou these ?" Simon answered, "Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He said unto him, Feed my sheep." A useful and important reflection this to all those who have succeeded to any portion of the apostolic commission, but eminently important to those who are now, for the first time, undertaking that sacred office, and are anxious that the frame of mind in which they enter upon it shall be such as it requires. Let us then first inquire, what that love of Christ is which St. Peter professed, and which we are thus bound to feel, that we may thereby ascertain how truly it is said to be the only real motive and qualification for the pastoral office.

First, it contains all that gratitude for the blessings of creation and preservation, all that humble and contented satisfaction at the course of temporal events, all that willing homage and worship, which is generally due from man to God. For Christ and the Father are one; and He therefore challengeth that full amount of love, which man is generally bound to pay to his Maker.

Secondly, it contains all that more specific and particular love which is due to the second person of the Holy Trinity, for that portion of the divine dealings with us which Holy Scripture more expressly assigns to Him. Such are the actual creation of this world, the glorious scheme of our redemption, the mission of the Holy Spirit, the interçession at His Father's right hand, the prospect of

His coming in judgment: mighty claims these upon our love, and such as we cannot hope to satisfy as they deserve; such, indeed, as would be likely to excite, in weak and trembling beings like us, awe and terror, and slavish fear, rather than a frank and confiding love, if there were not,

Thirdly, contained within the due love of Christ all that more close, and, if I may so speak, more human attachment, which His appearance in the flesh, as the elder brother of our nature, the firstborn among many brethren, on many accounts suggests to us. Our debt of love to Him, as God, is overwhelming. We find it difficult, and we fear it is presumptuous, to entertain any warmth of feeling towards the High God that inhabiteth eternity. His perfections are represented to our minds so abstractly, that they scarce invite, and His majesty is so tremendous that it terrifies the approach of any thing like love ;--love, the very essence of which is in sympathy and resemblance; which is as much cast out by perfect fear, as fear itself by perfect love; -love, which, while it has a glorious capacity of being pure, of being perfectly worthy even of the Godhead, is still sadly conscious that its feelings are too generally mixed, and its objects too generally earthly.

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Yet wherein the idea of the spiritual God abasheth and discourageth our love, the "mystery of god

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Collect in the Communion Service, "that we may perfectly love thee, and worthily magnify thy holy name."

liness, God manifest in the flesh," doth most marvellously encourage and allure it. Our feelings, which did weary themselves to reach the distant object of their duty, and which strove in vain to be warm towards abstract perfections, are at once attracted by the mercy, the goodness, and the meek sufferings of a perfect human benefactor. The scattered rays of Divinity are collected in a single point, and brought within the range of our natural sight; and, while the object thus presented to us is clothed in the most engaging human virtues, those human virtues are themselves ennobled by being seen to be akin to divine perfection. The same object attracts our love, affords us an example, and encourages a hope in us of approaching towards it.

It is in this the third sort of love towards Christ, that the principal motive for entering upon the pastoral duties may be said to consist,-at least, it was this which was probably the strongest in the mind of St. Peter, when he girt his fisher's coat upon him and leaped into the sea, and when he answered three times to the thrice repeated inquiry of our Lord, "Simon son of Jonas, lovest thou me ?" It is a love to be produced, strengthened, and perfected, by the study of His life; by the minute examination of His behaviour amid the trials of His three years' ministry, the scenes of His later sufferings and death. To the Apostles, indeed, it was a love which there needed no history or study to excite: circumstances of behaviour, and words of precept, more