Looking unto Jesus a view of the everlasting gospel, or, the souls eying of…

Let us learn hence, to think modestly and soberly of our selves; yea,¹ let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall! If Peter could first dissemble, and then lie, and then forswear, and then blaspheme and curse, O let not us be high-minded, but fear; —And in case we fall indeed, as Peter did, yet let us not despair, as Judas did; but still upon our repentance let us trust in God. When Christ looked on Peter, he wept bitterly: notwithstanding our sins are great, yet one look of Christ is full of virtue, and enough to melt us into tears: O let us not sink in despair, but look up to him, that he may look down on us. Pliny tells us of some Rocks in Phrygia, ²that when the Sun doth but shine upon them, they send out drops of water, as if they wept tears; Peter signifies a Rock, and whilst Peter persisted in his sin of denying Christ, his heart was hard as the Rock; but when Christ the Sun of Righteousness looked upon him, his heart was softened, and he dropped tears continually. Such is the virtue of Christ's look, it turns the Rock into a standing Water, and the Flint into a Fountain of Waters. ³—Lastly let us not decry repentance, but rather be in the use, and practise, and exercise of it: Is not here a Gospel precedent?^† Clement, an ancient Writer, of whom Paul makes mention, Phil. 4.3. expresseth Peter's repentance to have been so great, that in his Checks he made (as it were) furrows, in which, as in certain Channels, his tears run down; the Text tells us he wept bitterly; and Clement adds, that while he lived, as often as he heard a Cock crow, he could not but weep, and bewail his denial. David is another like example; All the Night, said he, I make my Bed to swim, I water my Couch with my tears, Psal. 6.6. David makes mention of his Bed and Couch, because there most especially he had offended God: It was on his Bed that he committed Adultery; and it was in his Couch, that he designed and subscribed with his own hand, that Uriah must die; and hence is it that he waters his Bed and Couch with his tears; the very sight of his Bed and Couch brings his sin into his remembrance; as the very hearing of the crowing of the Cock, ever after awakened Peter to his task of tears: that Repentance is a Gospel-Duty, we have spoke elsewhere. O take heed of decrying it! as we are often sinning, so let us often repent;