prablically improved. flrengthen thy brethren. We need only add, S E R M. in flating the fad, that Peter's denial of his V. mailer was attended with high aggravations, '1-4 not only by the premonitions given him, and his own contrary purpofe declared with great vehemence, which have been already taken notice of; but by its being often re- peated, three times, in a very fhort fpace. The occafion does not feem to have been fo (hocking, but that the fpirit of a man might have fuftain'd it, if he had not been thrown into a pannic, for fcarcely could one in a calm fiate of mind believe, that the accufation of being Chrift's difciple, if it had been prov'd and even confefs'd in judgment, could have expos'd him to death ; which yet he had undertaken to endure, rather than deny his Lord : and, finally, the temptation, Will the farther it proceeded, grew the harder for him ; and his fin increas'd from a flight de- nial at the firfi, to a paffionate abjuration of his Mailer ; for he denied with curfing and fwearing. From the fail thus hated, as it plainly appears in, there arife very important in- ftruaions to us, which we may profitably confider, concerning the fallibility and weak - pefs of human nature ; concerning the dan- ger
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