wilt, if it please thee, let the cup pass; if not, I will drink it." The cup of sufferings we see is a very bitter and distasteful cup, a cup which human nature abhors; yet doth God ofttimes put this bitter cup of affliction into the hands of whom he does sincerely love; and when he doth so, it is their duty to drink it with silence and submission, as here their Lord did before them. Observe, 3. The manner of our Lord's prayer in this his agony; and here we may remark, 1. It was a solitary prayer; he went by himself alone, out of the hearing of his disciples. The company of our best and dearest friends is not always seasonable; there are times and seasons when a christian would not be willing that the most intimate friend he has in the world should be with him, to hear what passes in secret betwixt him and his God. Again, 2. It was an humble prayer; that appears by the postures in which he cast himself, sometimes kneeling, sometimes lying prostrate upon his face, he lies in the very dust, and lower he could not lie, and his heart was as low as his body. 3. It was a vehement, fervent, and importunate prayer; such was the fervour of his spirit, that he prayed himself into an agony. O let us blush to think how unlike our praying frame of spirit is to Christ's. Lord! what coldness, deadness, drowsiness, formality, and laziness, is found in our prayers! How often do our lips move, when our hearts stand still! Observe, 4. The posture which the disciples were found in; when our Lord was praying in his agony, they were fast asleep. Good God! could they possibly sleep at such a time as this? when Christ's soul was exceeding sorrowful, could their eyes be heavy? Learn thence, That the very best of Christ's disciples may be, and ofttimes are, overtaken with great infirmities, when the most important duties are performing; Then cometh he to his disciples, and findeth them sleeping. Observe, 5. The mild, meek, and gentle rebuke which he gives to his disciples for their sleeping; he said unto them, Why sleep ye? Could ye not watch with me one hour? "What, not watch when your Master was in such danger! Could ye not watch with me, when I was going to lay down my life for you? What, not one hour, and that the parting hour too?" Learn hence, That the holiest and best resolved christians, who have willing spirits for Christ and his service, yet in regard to the weakness of the flesh, and the frailty of human nature, it is their duty to watch and pray, and thereby guard themselves against temptations: Rise and pray, lest ye enter into, &c. 47 And while he yet spake, behold a multitude, and he that was called Judas, one of the twelve, went before them, and drew near unto Jesus to kiss him. 48 But Jesus said unto him, Judas, betravest thou the Son of man with a kiss? 49 When they which were about him saw what would follow, they said unto him, Lord, shall we smite 50 And one of with the sword? 51 them smote the servant of the highpriest, and cut off his right ear. And Jesus answered and said, Suffer ye thus far. And he touched his ear, and healed him. 52 Then Jesus said unto the chief priests, and captains of the temple, and the elders, which were come to him, Be ye come out, as against a thief, with swords and staves? 52 When I was daily with you in the temple, ye stretched forth no hands against me: but this is your hour, and the power of darkness. It was the lot and portion of our blessed Saviour here, we find, to be betrayed into the hands of his mortal enemies, by the treachery of a false and dissembling friend : and in this sad relation before us we have observable, The traitor, the treason, the manner how, and the time when, this treasonable design was executed. Observe, 1. The traitor, Judas: all the evangelists carefully describe him by his name, Judas, Judas Iscariot, lest he should be mistaken for Jude, the brother of James; and by his office, one of the twelve. Lord! now ought the greatest professors to look well to themselves, and to the grounds and principles of their profession: for a profession begun in hypocrisy will certainly end in apostasy. Observe, 2. The occasion of the treason, covetousness, or the inordinate love of worldly wealth; and accordingly the devil lays a temptation before him exactly suited to his temper and inclination, and it instantly overcame him. hence, That persons are never in such imminent danger of falling into sin, as when they meet with temptations exactly suited Learn to their master lust. O pray we, that God would keep us from temptations suited to our predominant lust and corruption. Ob Ob serve, 3. The treason of Judas, he led on 54 Then took they him, and led him, and brought him into the highpriest's house. And Peter followed afar off. 55 And when they had kindled a fire in the midst of the hall, and were set down together, Peter sat down among them. But a certain maid beheld him as he sat by the fire, and earnestly looked upon him, and said, This man was also with him. 57 And he denied him, saying, Woman, I know him not. 58 And after a little while another saw him, and said, Thou art also of them. And Peter said, Man, I am not. 59 And about the space of one hour after, another confidently affirmed, saying, Of a truth this fellow also was with him; for he is a Galilean. 60 And Peter said, Man, I know not what thou sayest. And immediately, while he yet spake, the cock crew. 61 And the Lord turned and looked upon Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. 62 And Peter went out, and wept bitterly. This paragraph of the chapter gives us an account of the fall and rising of Peter; of his sin in denying his Master, and of his recovery by repentance; both must be considered distinctly. First, touching his sin and fall; there are four particulars observable relating thereunto; namely, the sin itself, the occasion of that sin, the reiteration and repetition of it, and the aggravating circumstances attending it. Observe, 1. The sin itself, the denial of Christ Jesus his Lord and Master, I know not the man; and this backed with an oath, he sware that he knew him not. Lord, how may the slavish fear of suffering drive the holiest and best of men to commit the foulest and worst of sins! Observe, 2. The occasions leading to this sin, and they were these: 1. His following Christ afar off. To follow Christ was the effect of Peter's faith; but to follow him afar off at this time, was the fruit of fear, and the effect of frailty. Woe unto us when temptation comes, if we be far from Christ's gracious presence and assistance. 2. His being in bad company, amongst Christ enemies: would we escape temptations to sin, we must then decline such company as would allure and draw us into sin. Peter had better have been a cold by himself alone, than warming himself at a fire which was encompassed in with the blasphemies of the multitude; 56 where his conscience, though not seared, was yet made hard. Another grand occasion of Peter's falling was, a presumptuous confidence of his own strength and standing: Though all men forsake thee, yet will not I. O Lord! to presume upon ourselves, is the ready way to provoke thee to leave us to ourselves; if ever we stand in the day of trial, 'tis the fear of 'falling must enable us to stand. We soon fall, if we believe it impossible to fall. Observe, 3. The reiteration and repetition of this sin, he denied Christ again and again; he denies him first with a lie, then with an oath, and next with a curse. Lord, how dangerous is it not to resist the first beginnings of sin! if we yield to one temptation, Satan will assault us with more and stronger. Peter proceeded from a denial to a lie; from a lie to an oath; from an oath to an imprecation and curse. It is our wisdom vigorously to resist sin at the beginning; for then we have most power, and sin has least. Observe, 4. The heinous and aggravating circumstances of St. Peter's sin; and they are these: 1. The character of his person; a disciple, an apostle, a chief apostle, a special favourite, who with James and John had the special honour to be with Christ at his transfiguration: yet he denies Christ. 2. The person whom he denies; his Master, his Saviour, and Redeemer. He, that in great humility had washed Peter's feet, had eat the passover with Peter, had given but just before the holy sacrament to Peter; yet is this kind and condescending Saviour denied by Peter. 3. Consider the persons before whom he denied Christ; the chief priest's servants. O how surprising, and yet very pleasing was it to them, to see one disciple betray and sell his Master, and another disown and deny him! 4. Consider the time when he denied him; it was but a few hours after he had received the holy sacrament from Christ's own hands. How unreasonable then is their objection against coming to the Lord's table, that some who go to it dishonour Christ as soon as they come from it: such examples ought not to discourage us from coming to the ordinance, but should excite and increase our watchfulness after we have been there, that our after-deportment may be suitable to the solemnity of a sacramental table. Observe, 5. What a small temptation he lay under thus shamefully to deny his Lord and Master; a damsel only at first spake to him. Had a band of armed soldiers appeared to him, and ap prehended him: had he been bound and led away to the judgment-hall, and there threatened with the sentence of an ignominious death, some excuse might have been made better for him: but to disown his relation to Christ upon a word spoken by a sorry maid that kept the door; the smallness of the temptation was an high aggravation of the crime. Ah Peter: how little didst thou answer thy name at this time! Thou art not now a rock, but a reed, a pillar blown down by a woman's breath. O frail humanity, whose strength is weakness and infirmity. Note here, That in most of the saints' falls recorded in scripture, the first enticers to sin, or the accidental occasions of it, were women; witness (besides the first fall, that of Adam's where the woman was first in the transgression) the fall of Lot, Samson, David, Solomon, and Peter; these are sad instances of the truth of what I speak. A weak creature may be a strong tempter; nothing is too impotent or useless for the devil's service; it was a great aggravation of Peter's sin, that the voice of a poor maid that kept the door should be of more force to overcome him, than his faith in Jesus to sustain him. But what shall we say? small things are sufficient to cast us down, if God doth not help us up; we sink under any burden, if God sustain us not; and yield to the least temptation, if he leaves us to ourselves; a damsel shall then make a disciple shrink, and a door-keeper shall be able to drive an apostle before her. This is the account, in short, of St. Peter's fall, considered in itself, and with the circumstances relating to it. Now follows his recovery and rising again by repentance; and here we have observable, The suddenness of his repentance, the means of his repentance, and the manner of his repentance. Observe, 1. The suddenness of St. Peter's repentance: as his sin was sad, so was his repentance speedy; sin committed by surprise, and through the prevalency of a temptation that suddenly assaults us, is much sooner repented of, than where the sin is presumptuous and deliberate. David's murder and adultery were deliberate acts of sin, in which he lay almost twelve months, without any solemn repentance for them. St. Peter's denial was hasty and sudden, under a violent pang and passion of fear, and he takes the warning of the cock's crowing, to go forth speedily and weep for his transgression. Observe, 2. The means of his repentance, which was two-fold: the less principal means was the crowing of the cock; the more principal means were Christ's looking upon Peter, and Peter's remembering the words of Christ. 1. The less principal means of St. Peter's rising and recovery by repentance, was the crowing of the cock; as the voice of the maid occasioned him to sin, so the voice of the cock occasioned him to reflect. That God who always can work without means, can ever, when he pleases, work by weak and contemptible means, and open the mouth of a bird or a beast for the conversion of a man. But why does our Lord make use of the crowing of a cock, as a means of bringing St. Peter to repentance? There is ever some mystery in Christ's institutions and instruments; the cock was a preacher, to call St. Peter to his duty, there being something of emblem between a cock and a preacher; the preacher ought to have the wings of the cock, to rouse himself from drowsiness and security, and to awaken others to a sense of their duty; he must have the watchfulness of the cock, to be ever ready to discover and forewarn danger; he must have the voice of the cock, to cry aloud, to tell Israel of their sin, to terrify the roaring lion of hell, and make him tremble, as they say the natural lion does m a word, he must observe the hours of the cock, to crow at all seasons; to preach the word in season and out of season. Again, 2. The more principal means of St. Peter's recovery were Christ's looking upon Peter, and Peter's remembering the words of Christ. 1. Christ's looking upon Peter; our Saviour looked upon Peter, before either Peter looked upon our Saviour or upon himself. O wonderful act of love and grace towards this fallen disciple. Christ was now upon his trial for his life, (a time when our thoughts would have been wholly taken up about ourselves,) but even then did Christ find leisure to think upon Peter, to remember his disconsolate disciple, to turn himself about and give him a pitiful but piercing look, even a look that melted and dissolved him into tears. We never begin to lament our sins till we are first lamented by our Saviour; Jesus looked upon Peter, that was the first more principal means of his repentance. But, 2. The other means was Peter's remembering the words of the Lord, Before the cock crow thou shalt deny me. Now this remembrance was an applicative and feeling remembrance; he remembered the prediction of Christ, and applied it sensibly to himself; teaching us, that the efficacy of Christ's word, in order to sound repentance, depends not upon the historical remembrance of it, but upon the close application of it to every man's conscience. Observe, 3. The manner of St. Peter's repentance; it was secret, it was sincere, it was lasting, and abiding. 1. It was secret; he went out and wept, Vere dolet, qui sine teste dolet; he sought a place of retirement, where he might mourn in secret; solitariness is most agreeable to an afflicted spirit; yet I must add, that as St. Peter's sorrow, so probably his shame, might cause him to go forth and weep. Christ looked upon him, and how ashamed must he be to look upon Christ, seeing he had so lately denied that he had ever seen him! 2. St. Peter's repentance was sincere; he wept bitterly: his grief was extraordinary, and his tears abundant; there is always a weeping that must follow sin; sin must cost the soul sorrow, either here or in hell; we must now either mourn awhile, or lament for ever. Doubtless St. Peter's tears were joined with hearty confession of sin to God, and smart reflections on himself, after this manner: "Lord, what have I done! I a disciple; I an apostle; I that did so lately acknowledge my master to be Christ the Lord; I that spoke with so much assurance, Though all men deny thee yet will not I: I that promised to lay down my life for his sake; yet have I denied him, yet have I, with oaths and imprecations, disowned him, and this at the voice of a damsel, not at the sight of a drawn sword presented at my breast! Lord, what weakness, what wickedness, what unfaithfulness, have I been guilty of! O that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep all my days for the fault of this one night.' Thus may we suppose our lapsed apostle to have bemoaned himself: and happy was it for him that he did so; for blessed are the tears of a converted revolter, and happy is the misery of a mourning offender. Observe, 3. St Peter's repentance was not only secret and sincere, but lasting and abiding; he retained a very quick sense and lively remembrance of this sin upon his mind all his life after. Ecclesiastical history reports, that ever after, when St. Peter heard the crowing of the cock, he fell upon his knees and wept. Others say, that he was wont to rise at midnight and spend the time in prayer and humiliation between cock-crowing and day-light. And the Papists, who delight to turn every thing into folly and superstition, first began that practice of setting up what we call weather-cocks upon towers and steeples, to put people in mind of St Peter's fall and repentance by that signal. Lastly, St. Peter's repentance was attended with an extraordinary zeal and forwardness for the service of Christ, to the end of his days. He had a burning love towards the holy Jesus ever after, which is now improved into a seraphic flame: Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee, says he himself, John xxi. 17. And as an evidence of it, he fed Christ's sheep; for in the Acts of the Apostles, we read of his extraordinary diligence to spread the gospel, and his travels in order thereunto, are computed by some to be nine hundred and fifty miles. To end all; have any of us fallen with Peter, though not with a formal abjuration, yet by a practical denying of him, let us go forth and weep with him, let us be more vigilant and watchful over ourselves for the time to come: let us express more fervent love and zeal for Christ, more diligence in his service, more concernedness for his honour and glory: this would be an happy improvement of this example; God grant it may have that blessed effect! 63 And the men that held Jesus mocked him, and smote him. 64 And when they had blindfolded him, they struck him on the face, and asked him, saying, Prophesy, who is it that smote thee? 65 And many other things blasphemously spake they against him. Observe here, The vile affronts, the horrid abuses, the injuries and indignities, which were put upon the holy and innocent Jesus in the day of his sufferings: the rude officers and servants spit in his face, blindfolded his eyes, smote him with their hands, and, in contempt and scorn, bid him prophecy who it was that smote him. Verily, there is no degree of contempt, no mark of shame, no kind of suffering, which we ought to decline for Christ's sake, who hid not his face from shame and spitting upon our account. 66 And as soon as it was day, the elders of the people and the chief priests and the scribes came together, and led him into their council, 67 Saying, Art thou the Christ? tell us. And he said unto them, If I tell you, ye will not believe: 68 And if I also ask you, ye will not answer me, nor let me go. 69 Hereafter shall the Son of man sit on the right hand of the power of God. 70 Then said they all, Art thou then the Son of God? And he said unto them, Ye say that I am. 71 And they said, What need we any further witness? for we ourselves have heard of his own mouth. Observe here, 1. Christ was judged and tried before a court that had no authority to judge or try him, ver. 66. They led him into their council. This was their great Sanhedrim or ecclesiastical court, which, according to its first constitution, was to consist of seventy grave, honourable, and learned men, who were to judge impartially for God, according to Numb. xi. 16. But this, alas! consisted of a malicious pack of scribes and Pharisees; men full of 'malice and revenge, and over these Caiaphas now presided; an head fit for such a body. But though there was at our Saviour's trial a face of a court amongst them, yet their power was much abridged by the Romans, so that they could not hear nor determine, neither judge nor condemn, in capital matters. Observe next, The indictment of blasphemy is brought in against him: What need we any further witness? we have heard his blasphemy. Abominable wickedness! It is not in the power of the greatest and most unspotted innocency to protect from slander and false accusation. Observe farther, the great meekness of our Saviour under all these ill suggestions and false accusations: as a lamb before the shearers, so is he dumb, and openeth not his mouth. Learn thence, That to bear the revilings, contradictions, and false accusations of men, with a silent and submissive spirit, is an excellent and Christ-like temper. Though a trial for his innocent life was now managed most maliciously and illegally against him, yet when he was reviled, he reviled not again: when he suffered, he threatened not. O may the same meek and humble mind be in us, which was also in Christ Jesus, who instead of reviling his accusers, prayed for his murderers, and offered up his blood to God on the behalf of them that shed it! Lord Jesus, help us to set thy instructive example continually before us, and to be daily |