aid, we can at least prevent their recurrence from being very frequent or important.

I. In the first place, when we examine the character of St Peter, we shall find that it was in its original aspect more remarkable for the ardour of its affections, than for Firmness of Principle. Whenever there was an occasion for the expression of strong feeling, this Apostle was always ready to give vent to his emotions; and there cannot be a doubt that, for the time, he was quite sincere in all the warmth which he expressed. Yet there seems to have been some want in his character, (at least before this melancholy failure made him acquainted with his own infirmity,) some want, I say, of firm moral impressions. His feelings were genuine, but they seem to have left little trace upon his mind; and the same sensibility which made them come so naturally to him, likewise prepared him for the easy reception of any other emotion. It is to the same source, my brethren, that we shall, for the most part, be able to trace the more considerable failures in our own conduct, -to the want of steady and fixed principle. Examine the characters of most men, and you

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will find, that although their sentiments may often be right, and their moral notions correct, yet that they have made no very deep impression upon their minds, and are not so interwoven with them as to have become part of their existence. Accordingly, the casual impressions which they may meet with in the course of their lives-those arising from the manners of the world, from the solicitations of passion, or from any other source,-have all a tendency to displace their better sentiments and opinions, perhaps at the very moment when their influence is most necessary; so that their conduct is at all times vacillating and, insecure, and on some occasions, exposed to the most flagrant violations of duty.

The great rule of life, then, is, to aim at the possession of clear and settled principles of action; to make, in short, Virtue an object of consideration and study :-not to take up our Morality upon chance, and let it slip again whenever some other favourite object may occur; but to keep its laws steadily before our eyes-" to bind them, (as the wise man says,) about our necks, and to write them upon the table of our hearts"-to meditate upon them

when we are in retirement, and to have them always ready for action when we come forth into the world. It is, indeed, strange, that we should not perceive that the conduct of life, its moral conduct, requires at least as much study and application of mind, as the exercise of any art or profession; and that, while we know the necessity of having the rules and practice of these ever at hand for use, we should not see the greater necessity of having the just maxims of action at all times before us, in our higher department as Men, and as the servants of God. Without this steady consideration, no natural excellence or amiableness of temperament will avail us in the hour of trial; and the experience of every day, alas! may furnish us with examples of apparently the best dispositions, utterly failing and giving way before even ordinary temptations.

II. One of the chief circumstances which apparently had prevented St Peter from subjecting his mind to this salutary discipline, was, in the second place, his Presumption; and if we examine, we shall find that this defect exists commonly in the greatest degree, in those minds

which have the least reason to presume upon their own strength. St Peter had all the ardour of a Religious mind, but he was without the best foundation of all sound religion and principle-Humility. He seemed to have no kind of doubt that he could do whatever he thought fit to undertake; and he thus made vehement protestations without any reflection upon his own character. It is very evident that, while this dispostion continued to influence him, no dependence whatever could be placed upon his conduct; and it may, perhaps, be considered as a gracious dispensation, that he was permitted to fall into so very degrading a failure, as probably no other circumstance could have made him at all acquainted with himself. It seems to have been with a view to the happy effects which should afterwards arise from his Fall and Repentance, that our Lord addressed him in these affecting words :-" Simon, Simon, behold Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat; but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren."

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In addition to that want of Moral Discipline which I have before noticed as so common a

defect, certainly nothing can so readily mislead into Vice as presumptuous notions of our own ability to resist it. This circumstance renders us in one view careless about making any progress in the knowledge and practice of duty; because we suppose that we know it very well, and have no apprehension that we shall fail when we are called into action. In another view, even if we are men of thought and reflection, we are apt to be satisfied with the insecure foundations of virtue which we have laid by our own wisdom, and with the imperfect strength which we have derived from nature. The Virtue of the Philosopher, the Honour of the Man of the World, principles which they may have built up in their minds with much care and forethought, and which they may conceive as incapable of being shaken as the foundations of the Universe themselves; these principles, alas! have been known to fail, even on occasions of no very apparent temptation-and disgrace and ruin have suddenly fallen on Characters, that we might almost have thought beyond the possibility of a stain. And does Religion, it may be said, afford any exceptionand even among those who have imbibed Her