John Trapp on Matthew 26:75

Verse 75. And Peter remembred the words of Jesus.] Here began his repentance. If we remember not what is preached unto us, ali's lost, saith the Apostle, 1 Cor 15. 2. If we leak and let slip, saith another, how shall we escape? [illegible: 1 word]. 2. 1, 3. The Spirit [non-Latin text not transcribed]. shall be the Saints remembrancer: and as the [illegible: 1 word] casts up her dead; so shall that come seasonably to minde, that was long before delivered, when Gods good time is come to work upon the dead heart. God will be found of his that seek him not. Surely [illegible: 1 word] and truth shall follow them all the daies of their [illegible: 1 word], as the Sun-beams follow the traveller that turns his back on them. He will bring back his banished, he will reduce his runagates, he will not suffer any of his to be utterly drowned, though haply they have been drenched in the waves of sinne, lain some while in them, yea and have also sunk twice or thrice, as Peter, to the verry bottome. Now then how can any either presume of not sinning, or despair for sinne, when they read of Peter thus fallen, and now thus remembring, thus rising again by repentance, and and received to mercy? The like instances we have not a few, of Origen and other primitive Christians, who recanting for a season through fear of death, were therefore utterly excluded by Novatus from all hope of mercy: but not so by Christ. Be not Jer. 17 17. thou a terrour unto me, ô Lord, saith Jeremy, and then I care not, though all the world condemn and cast me out. [illegible: 1 word], Bainham, Act. and Mon. fol. 918, 938. 1857, 1633. [illegible: 1 word], 1861. Benbridge, Abbes, Whittle, Charp, and many other Martyrs, having denied their Lord God, as they called it, for fear of the fagot, could have no rest till they had repented, and publikely revoked their much bewailed recantations. Steven Gardiner indeed, like another Ecebolius, cryed out that he had denied with Peter, but never repented with Peter, and so both stinkingly and unrepentantly dyed, saith Mr Fox. It was a saying of Ibid. 1904. the same Mr Fox that his graces did him most hurt, and his sinnes [illegible: 1 word]. of Tempt. most good. A paradox; but, by our temptations, we know his meaning. As pain easeth a Christian, death revives him, dissolution unites him, so corruption clarifies him. I dare be bold to sayAug. de civit. dei. l. 14. c. 13. (saith Augustine,) that it is good for proud persons to fall into some foule sinne, unde sibi displiceant, qui jam sibi placendo ceciderunt. Salubrius enim Petrus sibi displicuit quando [illegible: 1 word], quam sibi placuit quando praesumpsit, that they may be humbled, as Peter was, and so saved. He wept bitterly] That one sweet look from Christ, melted him; as Gods kindnesse did the heardhearted Israelites at the meet of Mizpeh. In this troubled pool Peter washed himself,Semper [illegible: 1 word] suffusos [illegible: 1 word] oculos adeò ut etiam [illegible: 1 word] cutem genarum exederint. in this red Sea the army of his iniquities was drowned. As once his faith was so great, that he leapt into a sea of waters to come to Christ: so now his repentance was so great, that he leapt, as it were, into a sea of tears for that he had gone from Christ. There are that say (and it may very well be) that henceforth he was ever and anon weeping: and that his face was even furrowed [non-Latin text not transcribed] [illegible: 1 word]. with continuall tears. He began soon after his sinne, Mark. 14. [illegible: 1 word]. cùm se proripuisset, when he had thrown himself out, as Beza renders it. He had no sooner took in poyson, but he vomited it up again ere it got to the vitals. He had no sooner handled his serpent, but he turned it into a rod, to scourge his soul with remorse. Peccatum tristitiam peperit, & tristitia peccatum contrivit, ut [illegible: 1 word] in ligno natus, sed ipsum comminuit.