Surely, it is high time for the cock to crow. Hark! The cock does crow, not only once, but twice; but all in vain. Fallen as this great man is, he must still fall lower. _Satan_ is now about to give him the last and most fatal thrust. He hath his quiver full of deadly arrows, and hath always instruments at hand, the weakest of which will foil the strongest Apostle when left to himself, “After a while (verse 73) came unto him they that stood by, and said unto _Peter_, Surely, thou also wast one of them, for thy speech betrayeth thee.” As though they had said, “How canst thou have the impudence to say thou knowest not the man, when thy very language and manner of speaking betrays thy being even one of his followers?” What says _Peter_ now? Can he withstand this glaring evidence? Yes, he not only denies it with a single oath, but (Oh, how shall I speak it!) he “began to curse and to swear,” and with a whole volly of execrable expressions, striving to act the bravado, he persists in saying (verse 74) “I know not the man.” And now, _Satan_, thou hast gained thy point. A great man, through too much self-confidence, spiritual pride, spiritual sloth, and too great intimacy with some of thy children, is fallen indeed! Thou hast sifted him with a witness.
But is he fallen, never to rise again? Is _Peter_ sunk too low for free grace ever to raise him up? Will the Redeemer suffer his truth to fail; or shall the prayer put up for him before he was led into temptation, viz. that his faith should not fail, remain unanswered? No, all the promises in CHRIST JESUS are all yea and all Amen; and having loved his own, he loves them unto the end. The enemy hath broke in upon _Peter_ like a flood, but the almighty Redeemer will now lift up his standard against him, and deliver his captive servant. Immediately, (verse 74) upon this last denial of his LORD, “the cock crew.” And what is most of all (nay, without which the cock might have crowed ten thousand times) another Evangelist tells us, that “the LORD turned, and looked upon _Peter_,” Oh amazing condescension! Oh unparalleled instance of endearing love! Our Lord was now upon a trial for his life. Fat bulls of _Bashan_ were surrounding him on every side. Yet the same love, that in the night in which he was betrayed, would not permit him to forget his disciples in general, would not, though he was himself now arraigned at the bar, suffer him to forget his poor fallen Apostle in particular. “The LORD, therefore, turned, and looked upon _Peter_.” But who besides _Peter_, and souls like him recovering from their backslidings, can tell the language of that look? Doubtless, it carried with it an “_Et tu Peter?_ And art thou there _Peter_? Is it not enough for me to be falsely accused, and condemned by my enemies, but I must be wounded also in the house of my friends! Is it not sufficient that _Judas_ betrays me, but thou must add to my grief by denying me? Deny me too with an oath, nay, with oaths and curses deny that ever thou knewest me? Is this thy kindness to thy friend? Alas! What is become of thy boasted professions now? Art thou the man that didst so solemnly declare, that though thou shouldst die with me, thou wouldst not deny me in any wise? Yes, Thou art the man.”