I.

Our Lord speaks in some commendation of his disciples, when he says; "The spirit is willing."

It is a good beginning, a necessary foundation, without which nothing can go on well, to have a willing mind, to entertain sincere resolutions to do our duty and what God requires of us. And this is a thing that we may be certain of, if we will deal honestly with ourselves. For what can a man know, if he cannot know his present intentions and disposition? And if we are thus sincerely and honestly disposed, we may be assured that we are under the protection and care of Almighty God, and shall not be rejected by him.

This, we may not doubt, recommended our Lord's disciples to him; that, amidst their many faults and imperfections, they were men of pious minds, willing to be taught, and addicted to no vice whatsoever.

Persons like these are they whom our Lord calls given to him of the Father; i. e. persons fitted to be put under his tuition and direction, to be taught by him, and advanced in virtue and happiness for ever. Of whom he thus speaks in one place, (John vi. 37.) “ All that

the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out."

And this, we may presume, made the dif ference betwixt these men and their fellowdisciple, the unhappy Judas, that they were not lost as he was, though they have behaved most shamefully all of them very soon after; because they were sincere, well-intentioned men,

that had resolved not to forsake and disown their Master and his cause; but were surprised into it by the sudden unexpected fear of suffering and death. Of whom, therefore, and of the like upright characters, he says, a little after in the same place: (ver. 39.) "This is the Father's will, who hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing." But Judas had no purposes or reso lutions of good. He wore an outward mask of piety and virtue, so as to deceive the other disciples; but he was a dissembler. His intentions were selfish, and base, and interested. There was nothing of good in him, by which to lay hold of him; to such a pass of wickedness had he brought himself. Concerning whom, our Lord, giving an account to his heavenly Father before his death, of his dis

charging

charging his trust towards all his disciples, thus speaks; (John xvii. 12.) "Those that thou gavest me, I have kept; and none of them is lost but the son of perdition."

We are, therefore, all to see to it that we be sincere and upright, that we have that willing spirit here commended in our Lord's disciples; for that is the groundwork on which every thing is to be built, both for present virtuous improvement and future happiness.

II.

But it is not sufficient for us to be sincere in resolving to do our duty and to keep ourselves from evil. Had the warmest and sincerest resolutions been sufficient, the apostle Peter had never with oaths denied his Master Jesus, that he ever knew him or belonged to him. There must also be constant care and circumspection used to put in practice our purposes of good.

For such is the frailty and weakness of our nature, and so hazardous our situation, surrounded with and exposed to continual seductions and allurements, to draw us aside from the line of virtue and our duty; temptations which meet us in solitude and in company, in all states and conditions, and at every period

of

of life, and in all our actions and enjoyments; that there is a continual demand of watchfulness upon us, to keep us from falling. And therein lies our security. For when we are off our guard and suspect no danger, then we have the most to apprehend. Through want of this, Lot, Abraham's nephew, was drawn into drunkenness and the shocking consequences of it. And thus David was surprised into the commission of the horrid crimes of murder and adultery: both of them, we have grounds to believe, before this, men that were free from vice.

We must always take care to have the powers of reason and the counsels of divine wisdom ready, and present with us, so as to be always recollected, and without hesitation to say, upon any sudden assault of evil; "How shall I do this great wickedness and sin against God?"

And we find we have given to us ability to resist the temptations to pride, ambition, covetousness, and every bad passion, and to follow that which is good; we are to exert ourselves to the utmost, for without this we cannot expect to overcome them.

It is with this view, to call up our own

powers,

powers, that our Saviour here, and at other times, exhorts his then disciples, and all others, to watch.

In seasons of absolute quiet and security, men might be careless, and indulge themselves in sleep and idleness: but no such season presents itself in the life of man here below, which is one continual struggle and warfare against many enemies; and in one unguarded moment, in a delirium, you may be betrayed into the commission of wickedness, which you would have trembled at the thought of. So that there is a loud and necessary call to all of us, to watch always.

III.

Happily, however, we are not left to ourselves and our mere natural powers, (though these are God's gift,) in this hard contest for virtue and eternal life, against sin and evil, our most powerful and fatal adversaries; but are authorized and encouraged to go to the God of heaven and earth for his help, and to seek it constantly. For our Saviour commands here, not only to watch but to pray, that we enter not into temptation.

Men may sometimes fall into gloomy doubts

and