Selected quad for the lemma: love_n
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A60148
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St. Peter's sin and true repentance amplified and improved in a discourse occasion'd by the publick profession of repentance made by T.W., who after eleven years slavery in Turkey renounc'd his baptism and Christianity there ... / by John Shower.
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Shower, John, 1657-1715.
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1692
(1692)
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Wing S3684; ESTC R10197
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15,206
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39
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Thou knowest that I love thee And being asked a third time he answers Lord thou knowest all things thou knowest that I love thee Professing his Love three several times as he had been guilty of a Triple Denial Whereupon our Lord minds him of what he had formerly said That when he was converted he should strengthen his Brethren and therefore puts him upon this Evidence of his sincere Repentance and Love to Christ Feed my Lambs Feed my Sheep Though thou hast denied and disowned the Shepherd of thy Soul yet feed my Sheep Let this be the first Testimony of thy Love which afterwards thou must confirm with the loss of thy Life and seal with thy Bloud And by the History of the Acts of the Apostles we find his extraordinary Diligence to spread the Gospel For the Travels of this Apostle in his Ministerial work are computed to be above Nine Hundred and Fifty Miles 'T is an Instance of the Wisdom of Divine Providence that this Apostle should be sent principally to Preach the Gospel to the Jews and be the Minister of the Circumcision who had thus joined with the Jews in disowning Christ that he should endeavour to perswade them to join with him in Repentance as he had joined with them in Sin Dr. Jackson And the Parallel may be carried further As the Nation of the Jews had known the Lord above all other People had seen his Wonders and been favoured by peculiar Instances of his Kindness stood in special Relation to Him and made the highest Profession of Love and Obedience and expected the coming of the Son of God Yet when he came amongst them they disowned his Authority and protested against him We have no King but Caesar c. So the Apostle Peter though he had seen our Saviour and lived in his Family and been Witness to his Miracles was nearly related to him and professed more than ordinary Affection and Obedience Yet he basely disowned him when it came to the Trial. His Sin was in some respect like Theirs and therefore he is the fittest Person to Preach the Gospel to them His Diligence therein is another Argument of the Sincerity of his Repentance The Application follows For Instruction and Practice 1. From the very Relation of this Passage of the Scandalous Fall of one of the Apostles and the particular Description of it by the Apostles themselves We may learn one Argument to confirm the Truth of the Gospel History Had it been a Forgery or Humane Contrivance these things would have been concealed But the Spirit of God has left this upon Record to warn us against the like Sins and to encourage the Repentance of those that have fallen in an Hour of Temptation We may observe farther From the Sin and Fall of this Apostle What little Reason the Church of Rome has to boast of the pretended Succession of their Popes to the Apostle Peter They are his Successors in denying Christ the Glory due to him as Mediator but in vain do they pretend to be the universal Bishops of the universal Church as his Successors We read of no such Superiority that Peter had over the rest of the Apostles Not till Christs Ascension to be sure for then there would have been two heads of the Church Nor afterward For he was only the Apostle of the Circumcision And St. Paul the Doctor of the Gentiles withstood him to the Face and ordained Pastors without him Gal. 2. and 2 Cor. 11.5 and tells us he was not inferiour to the chiefest Apostles And Peter was sent as a Messenger from the rest of the Apostles Acts 8.14 And when he was accused he pleads his own Cause before the other Disciples and submits to the Judgment of the Council Acts 11. Moreover when there were Divisions in the Church of Corinth that some were for Paul and some for Apollos and some for Cephas or Peter We do not find the Apostle Paul directs them to Center all in Peter He owns no such Authority and Supremacy in him above others as the Church of Rome have invested him and his Successors in The Bishops of Rome have imitated Peter too much in the Denial of Christ but in little else that we know of Again From the Sin and Fall of Peter We may observe the Subtlety of the Devil to suit his Temptations to the particular Tempers of Men and so to season and time his Temptations as to have the greatest probability of Success He takes confident Peter in a fit of Fear at the Apprehension and Arraignment of his Master who at another time would have replied to the Devil as Christ did to him when he acted the Devils Part Get thee behind me Satan Our great Adversary the Devil knows how to assault us with suitable Temptations and in what Circumstances we are most likely to yeild we had therefore need to watch and stand upon our guard We may also observe the Justice of God in permitting the strongest Confidence to be shamed and baffled Let us therefore remember that none are so likely to enter into Temptation and be overcome as those who are least afraid of it None are more likely to fall than those who are most confident of their own standing None more ready to yeild to Temptation than such as presume they shall never yeild Moreover In that after Peter's first Denyal he heard the Cock crow and did not take warning we may learn That whoever sins against the Light of his own Mind and Conscience may be so far hardened and stupified by it as that the plainest warnings for a time at least shall be disregarged and have no influence One would wonder after what Christ had told him concerning his Denial before the Crowing of the Cock that he did not recollect it when he first heard the Cock to Crow We may further learn That there is a Mixture of Flesh and Spirit of Corruption and Grace in the best Saints I doubt not but Peter's Resolution to dye with Christ rather than deny him proceeded from a Principle of Grace and true Affection to his Lord. I question not but he verily thought he should do as he said but his Confidence of himself whereby he presumed on his own strength had a sinful mixture with it which occasioned his Fall It therefore concerns all even the best men that they watch and pray lest they enter into Temptation But considering That though the Sin of Peter was great yet his Repentance was not long delayed We may compare it with some other Instances in Scripture and observe That Sins by the surprizal of a sudden Temptation are much sooner repented of than where the Sin is presumptuous deliberate and contrived Let us take the Instance of David in the matter of Bathsheba and Uriah and compare it with this Example of Peter Peter knew so well that he should not deny his Lord that he was confident he never should He honoured his Master in his Heart and came to
is most eligible under any great Passion of Grief or shame But here is a Conjunction of both It is an Argument of his Sincerity to retire in secret to mourn He cannot well be thought to dissemble his Grief who chuses no other Witness but the Omnipresent God 3. It may be attributed to his Prudence and Discretion Considering the Malice and Fury with which they proceeded against Christ he could not rationally expect if he were known to be a Disciple of Christ by an open declaration of him to meet with much better Entertainment than his Master had and thereby he might lose the opportunity of testifying his sincere Repentance by his future Diligence and Resolution in preaching the Gospel Besides what Service could he render his Master by so bold an Action What Obligation was he under to hazard his Life when there was no apparent Necessity to warrant his doing so Especially having such late experience or his own Weakness notwithstanding his former Resolutions of Constancy He was bound both in Prudence and in Conscience to avoid Temptation and therefore to quit the Place and Company where he had met with the Temptation that occasioned his Fall He did well therefore that he went out But that is not all For Secondly There is a second proof of the sincerity of his Repentance Which is his Bitter weeping He went out and wept bitterly Not only is the secrecy and retirement that He chose for his sorrow an Argument of his Sincerity But we are likewise to consider That this his Grief was extraordinary and his Tears abundant As the Phrase of weeping bitterly does import and is so used in other Places Isay 22.14 Chap. 33.7 * You that are come here to testifie your Repentance for having denyed Christ and renounced your Faith in Turky ought to take notice of this and imitate the repentance of Peter as I hope you do Doubtless with his Tears was joyned a free and hearty confession of his Sin Bewailing his Folly Acknowledging his offence Earnestly imploring Pardon and Forgiveness For if his Grief was too big for words we may well perceive the inward Remorse of his Conscience and smart Reflections he made on himself to some such purpose as this O my Soul What have I done Have I denyed and abjured the Author of Eternal Life for fear of a temporal Death Did I not once acknowledge Christ to be the Son of the living God And have I since denyed him with Oaths and Curses and Imprecations Did I not promise to lay down my Life for his sake and though all should forsake him yet I would not And have I yet disowned and denyed him at the voice of a Damsel O what Unfaithfulness what Weakness what Wickedness Thus to deny and forswear my Lord Have I denied thee O my Saviour before the wicked * And you may say so as to the Mahometans and Turks Jews and may'st not thou justly deny me before thy Father and his Holy Angels Did I disown that I ever knew thee And may'st not Thou at the great Day bid me depart amongst the Workers of Iniquity saying I know you not Did I joyn my self in Company with thy Haters and Despisers and Murtherers And may I not be rejected condemned and punished with them O that my Head were a Fountain that I might weep continually That the Fault of one Night might be Lamented by me all the days of my Life Lord was I not warned and cautioned and expresly foretold that my Confidence would betray me and let me fall And yet so foolish was I and ignorant so heedless and unwary so unmindful of thy Friendly Admonitions so forgetful of thy Monitory Prediction as thus literally to fulfil it by my Triple Denial To this purpose we may suppose he did accuse and condemn himself and that with the deepest Remorse and Anguish of Spirit which his Tears do more than intimate owning himself an Apostate Wretch a Condemned Malefactor unworthy to live a Son of Death To whom the common Light of the World was too great a Favour and outer everlasting Darkness a deserved Portion Thirdly But this is not all For he further testified his Repentance by his Carriage and Behaviour * And you that now profess your Repentance here for having renounced Christ and Christianity ought to take notice of this afterward That in two Particulars 1. By the lively Remembrance of that Sin and Humble Confession of it upon all Occasions 2. By more than ordinary forwardness and zeal to testifie his Love to Christ and propagate the Faith of the Gospel 1. By the lively Remembrance of that Sin and humble Confession of it It is reported in Ecclesiastical History that ever after when this Apostle heard the Crowing of a Cock he would either fall upon his knees or in some other manner express his Repentance and bless God for his Recovery Others say that he was wont to rise at Midnight and spend the time between Cock-crowing and Day-light in penitent Devotion We find somthing agreeable to this in the Instance of David after his Adultery and Murther Psal 6.6 I made my bed to swim and watered my Couch all night with my Tears His Bed brought to Remembrance his Adultery with Bathsheba and his Couch revived the Thoughts of his Murther of Uriah For we find him on his Couch when he Signed the Order for the Death of Uriah The Romanists who are apt to turn every thing into Superstition began that practice of placing a Cock upon the top of Towers and Steeples to put people in mind of this Sin of Peter and his Repentance by that Signal 2. The truth of his Repentance was confirmed by his extraordinary Zeal and Forwardness afterward to express his Love to Christ and propagate the Christian Faith It is true we do not find that after he went out from the High Priests Hall that ever he saw his Master again till he was risen from the Dead But we find that he came early in the Morning on the Third day unto the Sepulcher and was the First that went down into it John 20.6 And we find him desirous to testifie a peculiar Affection to his Master John 21. begin For when Peter and the other Disciples were fishing at the Sea of Tiberias our Lord appears on the shoar The Apostle John said unto Peter It is the Lord ver 7. Then Peter to make haste to meet him only girts his Coat about him and casts himself into the Sea while the other Disciples not above Two Hundred Cubits from Land come by Ship to meet him After a short Dinner it may be past in Silence for we read in the Twelfth Verse that when Jesus said unto him Come and Dine yet none of the Disciples durst ask him Who art thou seeing they knew he was the Lord. But Jesus says unto Simon Peter Lovest thou me more than these He answered Yea Lord thou knowest that I love thee And being asked again he replies