before the Lord, shewed Him that she would become the object for superstition to put its mark upon; the golden image, which bigotry should hereafter set up: and though He knew that, from the frailty of human nature, “it must needs be that offences come," He was yet determined that his word should never sanction them; and that if men chose to set up error, it should be by wilfully perverting that word, or “making it of none effect through their vain traditions."1

If the prophetic eye was fixed upon Mary, it was likewise bent on St. Peter. For on an attentive examination of his character, it is curious to see how every ingredient of Popery is detected and exposed purposely, as it were, to be neutralized by the counteracting spirit of vital Christianity, breathing from the very

"Are not (says St. Cyril) the divine Scriptures our salvation? Let us, therefore (saith he) declare, concerning the Holy Spirit, only those things which are written: but if there be any thing unwritten, let us not curiously pry into it. The Holy Ghost himself dictated the Scriptures; he also declared concerning himself whatever he chose, or we were able to receive. Let us say, therefore, those things which have been said by Him; for whatever He has not said, we dare not."-See Bishop Hopkins on the Church of Rome, p. 237.

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lips of its author. There is, we think, no character in the Gospel so instructive as that of St. Peter; there is none so faulty, none which the mass of mankind can so readily understand and sympathize with. We fear that there can be few like St. Paul; we trust there are not many like Judas: but we are certain there are numbers like St. Peter. His faults are the faults of human nature; his virtues were all the growth of Christianity; he is made up of a mass of contradictions; at one moment all courage and impetuosity, at another trembling and affrighted: his courage is the offspring of presumption, his fears a constitutional weakness of character. When he sees his Master walking upon the sea, and by this act giving a proof of his declaration, that with God all things are possible,1 he immediately thinks himself equal to perform a miracle also; but scarcely has he felt the wave undulate under his foot, when we hear him cry out, "Lord, save me.' See him again, always in extremes, at one moment refusing to allow the Redeemer to wash his feet; at another, not satisfied with

With the ancients two feet on the sea was the symbol employed to denote impossibility.

having only his feet washed, but praying that his hands and his head might be washed likewise; at one hour declaring that he would die rather than forsake his Master, and drawing impetuously the sword against his adversaries; at another, basely denying that Master, and affirming his denial by oaths and imprecations. Behold that worldliness of spirit, which could even rebuke his heavenly Master, and call down upon his own head that bitter reproof, "Get thee behind me, Satan, for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men." See the readiness with which he is willing to admit a plurality in his worship at the transfiguration, "Let us make three Tabernacles, one for thee, one for Moses, and one for Elias," and "there came a voice out of the clouds, saying, "This is my beloved Son, hear Him." See the spirit of exclusiveness in his repeated questions to his Master, "speakest thou this to us, or to all?" See a prying curiosity, the offspring, we think, of a little feeling of jealousy, which prompts him to enquire of our Lord what should become of the beloved disciple, and which draws down upon him this concise and severe re

1 Luke ix.

buke, "What is that to thee? follow thou

Now let us turn to the other side of the picture; that bright side upon which the Sun of Righteousness had arisen "with healing in his wings." We there see, amidst all his fluctuations, inconsistencies, and fallings off, a steady and sincere feeling of affection towards his Master; not sufficiently powerful, it is true, to overcome the weaknesses of his nature, but still always at work, always struggling for the mastery. Although we have seen him frequently erring, we here behold him always ready, with a frank and noble humility of mind, to acknowledge himself in the wrong. We have seen his base and cowardly denial of his Redeemer, but we must remember, that when all the other disciples, except the beloved St. John, had forsaken their Master, and fled, the affectionate Peter still followed Him, though, from the timidity of his nature, it was

It is the severity of this rebuke, which leads us to judge severely of the motives which prompted St. Peter's question, and makes us conclude, that it was not suggested by that well-directed curiosity, which seeks for useful information, nor by an affectionate solicitude for the future welfare of St. John.

but "afar off;" and in the tears of bitterness that followed his offence, we likewise see a beautiful exemplification of that "godly sorrow which worketh repentance unto salvation;" not, as with Judas, "the sorrow of the world, which worketh death."

Should we ever have had a long list of pretenders to infallibility, had those who styled themselves his successors, imitated the graces and virtues with which the true spirit of Christianity had adorned his character, instead of identifying their conduct and policy with the infirmities of his nature? Where would error have found a footing, had they said with him, "Lord, to whom should we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life?" Where would superstition have found its votaries had they listened with him to that awful voice, which spake from the cloud, forbidding that any should share in the worship due to the Son, with an exclusive command "to hear Him?" What would have become of the genuflections, the prostrations to the earth, had St. Peter's example been imitated, and his words repeated to those who thus humbled themselves in adoration, "Stand