BUT what makes thee (O blessed Convert) thus to start and turn upon the Look of thy Lord, and the remembrance of thy sin, as if the repentance for the denial of thy Tongue, had made thy Foot again to deny thy Master? Whither runnest thou, Peter, from such a fountain of Mercy? Hast thou either mistaken the Look of thy Saviour, which was to draw and reunite ⟨p. 90⟩thee unto him, not to drive or banish thee from him? or hath thy sorrow drowned thy Faith, and made thee forget that glorious profession which thou once didst make out of a happy knowledge of experience and belief that Christ had the words of Eternal Life? and whither then goest thou? Hast thou forgotten that he had balm to cure thy grief, and blood to blot out thy sin? that he could at once both comfort and restore thee, and render unto thee thy former joy and grace? ⟨p. 91⟩Why didst thou not run into his embraces, and in token of thy repentance and belief, in thy body lay hold upon him, and wash him with thy tears against his Burial? But behold the mystery of Peter's recovered Faith! see how he acknowledgeth his Saviour when he turneth from him; and is reinvested with the honour of a Disciple, though he seem still rather to forsake, than to follow his Lord. His Repentance doth in action confirm, what his Faith once did in words confess, That ⟨p. 92⟩Christ was the Son of the Living God. Behold in the departure of Peter, an Article of thy Faith, even the Divinity of thy Saviour. Had not Christ been as well without, where Peter wept, as within the Hall where the Jews blasphemed, Peter had again denied, and not returned unto his Lord: and that which is now a mystery, would have been a revolt. It is nothing but Faith that from without could still through the Walls look into the House, and there through the infirmity of a ⟨p. 93⟩buffeted and contemned body, descry the glory of a merciful and reconciled God. It is nothing but Faith that can from Earth look into the highest Heaven; and when it is absent from Christ, not only groan after him, but grasp and lay hold upon him. The Ubiquity of Christ gives unto that Believer who hath interest in him, a kind of Ubiquity also: And as he is in Earth by his Power, though in Heaven by his Presence: So a Believer, though in his Body on the Earth, yet is in Heaven by ⟨p. 94⟩his Faith.
BUT what makes thee (O blessed Convert) thus to start and turn upon the Look of thy Lord, and the remembrance of thy sin, as if the repentance for the denial of thy Tongue, had made thy Foot again to deny thy Master? Whither runnest thou, Peter, from such a fountain of Mercy? Hast thou either mistaken the Look of thy Saviour, which was to draw and reunite ⟨p. 90⟩thee unto him, not to drive or banish thee from him? or hath thy sorrow drown'd thy Faith, and made thee forget that glorious profession which thou once didst make out of a happy knowledg of experience and belief that Christ had the words of Eternal Life? and whither then goest thou? Hast thou forgotten that he had balm to cure thy grief, and blood to blot out thy sin? that he could at once both comfort and restore thee, and render unto thee thy former joy and grace? ⟨p. 91⟩Why didst thou not run into his embraces, and in token of thy repentance and belief, in thy body lay hold upon him, and wash him with thy tears against his Burial? But behold the mystery of Peter's recover'd Faith! see how he acknowledgeth his Saviour when he turneth from him; and is reinvested with the honour of a Disciple, though he seem still rather to forsake, than to follow his Lord. His Repentance doth in action confirm, what his Faith once did in words confess, That ⟨p. 92⟩Christ was the Son of the Living God. Behold in the departure of Peter, an Article of thy Faith, even the Divinity of thy Saviour. Had not Christ been as well without, where Peter wept, as within the Hall where the Jews blasphemed, Peter had again denied, and not return'd unto his Lord: and that which is now a mystery, would have been a revolt. It is nothing but Faith that from without could still through the Walls look into the House, and there through the infirmity of a ⟨p. 93⟩buffetted and contemned body, descry the glory of a merciful and reconciled God. It is nothing but Faith that can from Earth look into the highest Heaven; and when it is absent from Christ, not only groan after him, but grasp and lay hold upon him. The Ubiquity of Christ gives unto that Believer who hath interest in him, a kind of Ubiquity also: And as he is in Earth by his Power, though in Heaven by his Presence: So a Believer, though in his Body on the Earth, yet is in Heaven by ⟨p. 94⟩his Faith.
