Matthew 26:40,41 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

And he cometh, &c.— It was now very late in the evening; for after supper Christ had made his disciples a long discourse, from John, John 14-17. and besides they were oppressed and stupified with sorrow. See Luke 22:45. Our Lord speaks to Peter in particular, who was so forward to boast that he would follow his Master even unto death. Every one is apt to flatter himself, when he is out of danger, that he can easily withstand temptations; but without a particular care and watchfulness, the passions are generally found to prevail over reason at the sight of danger. Archbishop Tillotson very justly and beautifully observes in nearly these words, That so gentle a rebuke and to kind an apology as we read in these verses, were the more remarkable, as our Lord's mind was now so weighed down with sorrow, that we might expect that he would have had a deeper and tenderer sense of the unkindness of his friends: and alas! how apt are we, in general, to think affliction an excuse for peevishness, and how unlike are we to Christ in that thought, and how unkind to ourselves, as well as our friends, to whom in such circumstances, with our best temper, we must be more troublesome than we could wish. See Archbishop Tillotson's Sermons, vol. 2.