St. Paul in his Epistle to the Philippians:

I intreat thee also, true yoke-fellow, help "those women which laboured with me in "the Gospel, with Clement also, and with "other my fellow-labourers, whose names are in the book of life"."

In truth a supposed difference in style between the two Epistles seems to have been the sole cause why the latter was attributed to any other writer than St. Peter, and solutions coeval with the doubt appeared to explain the difficulty. More acute and accomplished critics of a later era have professed their incompetence to discover a decided distinction in the second, and have produced multiplied instances of its genuine affinity to the first.

Is there not something affecting in the consideration, that, when we cast our eyes back over a period of nearly eighteen hundred years, and fix them on the records of our faith as they then existed on their first publication, we should find that, while the empires of the world have undergone every

change which human force or policy could effect, they have descended down the stream of time unaltered and unhurt; effecting under all the forms of government, and amidst all the shades of civilization, their high purpose of converting mankind; and that the book, the sacred book, which the Evangelists and Apostles first gave to their contemporaries, was that which is now placed on our desks, and read in our Churches?

The arguments, however, by which the Epistle is proved positively to have come from the hand of him to whom it is generally ascribed are: first, the introduction to it: "Simon Peter, a servant and an

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Apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have "obtained like precious faith." Next, the declaration that the writer was one of those who witnessed the transfiguration of our Saviour on the mountain, at which only Peter, James, and John were present: "For we have not followed cunningly devised

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fables, when we made known unto you "the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eye-witnesses of his ma

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jesty; for he received from God the Father "honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am "well pleased." Next, the declaration that the writer of this Epistle had sent a former : and lastly, his affectionate mention and approbation of St. Paul: "And account that "the long-suffering of our Lord is salva

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tion; even as our beloved brother Paul "also, according to the wisdom given unto "him, hath written unto you."

I have never seen it observed, but it appears to me that this short Epistle contains one of those accidental evidences of authenticity which, not being the effect of design, are often of more force in compelling belief than the most formal proofs, and which I hasten to explain. It is very certain that the first propagators of the Gospel were informed by their divine Master that they had nothing to expect in this world, in return for the good which they were to confer on mankind, but insults, persecutions, and probably death: Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with the bap

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They

"tism that I am baptized with "." were to be ready on all occasions to lay down their lives for the truth of the doctrines which they preached; and with those fearful conditions before them they undertook the duty of converting mankind. Yet I know not that a specific and cruel death was predicted and made known to of them as his unavoidable lot, except to him to whom this Epistle is ascribed; and some of them, after a life of toil and suffering, may have expired tranquilly, and in the course of nature. "And now behold," says

any

St. Paul, I go bound in the Spirit unto "Jerusalem, not knowing the things that “shall befal me there, save that the Holy "Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying "that bonds and afflictions abide me"." With St. Peter the case was different: our Saviour, after his resurrection from the dead, at that awful season when every word must have sunk deeper into the mind than if pronounced in the ordinary state of existence, our Saviour, I say, at that awful season fore

y St. Matt. xx. 23.

z Acts xx. 22, 23.

warned St. Petert hat he was to suffer a violent death: "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, “When thou wast young thou girdedst thy"self and walkedst whither thou wouldest; "but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt "stretch forth thy hands, and another shall

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gird thee, and carry thee whither thou "wouldest not. This spake he, signifying by what death he should glorify God." Now if you will refer to the words of my text, you will find that the writer seems to claim to himself and to his own person the fulfilment of this terrific prophecy; and that therefore he could be no other than St. Peter. Knowing," says he," that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our "Lord Jesus Christ hath showed me."

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The words of my text, then, may and must be considered by us as the last words of St. Peter's life: they were spoken or written in the contemplation of his speedy execution, at a time when he knows, as he tells us, that shortly he was to put off this his tabernacle, 66 even as our Lord Jesus

a St. John xxi. 18, 19.