244 SIXTH SERMON have suspected that Peter, who had his name from a rock, should be so soon shaken like a reed, and after so solemn a protestation not to forsake Christ though all else should, to be driven with the voice of a maid from his stedfastness, and with oaths and curses to be the first that denied him ? Surely every man in bis best estate is altogether vanity ! Therefore it behoveth us to be always humbled in the sight of ourselves, and to be jealous of our original impotency unto the doing of any good, unto the for- bearing of any evil, unto the repelling of any tempta- tion by our own power : " In his own might shall no man be strong," 1 Sam. ii. 9. To be a sinner and to be without strength, are terms equivalent in the apostle, Rom. v. 6. 8. Nay even where there is a will to do good, there is a defect of power to perform it, Rom. vii. 18. our strength is not in ourselves, but in the Lord, and in the power of his might, and in the working of his Spirit, in our inner man, Eph. vi. 10. iii. 19. Phil. iv. 13. If but a good thought arise in our mind, or a good desire and motion be stirring in our heart, or a good word drop from our lips, we have great cause to take notice of the grace of God that offered it to us, and wrought it in us, and to wonder how any of the fruit of paradise could grow in so heathy a wilderness. We ought likewise to be jealous of our natural antipathy and reluctancy unto holy duties ; our apt- ness to draw back towards perdition ; to refuse and thrust away the offers and motions of grace ; our re- bellion which ariseth from the law of the members against the law of the mind ; the continual droppings of a corrupt heart upon any of the tender buds and sproutings of piety that are wrought within us, our aptness to be weary of the yoke, and to shake off the
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