for the world, for the wicked Jews who reject thee and me, and who have too much hardened their hearts to be capable of believing and acting as they ought: but I pray for those disciples whom thou hast given me and their relation to thee, as thy servants, is one ground of my supplication for though thou hast given them to me, as subjects of my mediatorial kingdom, they are still thine (10) and whatever is mine is thine, as the original giver; and whatever is thine is mine, by thy unbounded communications; and by these thy gifts I am glorified as Messiah. (11) And since I can be no longer in the world to instruct and support my disciples, and these will remain exposed to its trials, and I depart to thee; I beseech thee, holy Father, to keep in the profession and practice of thy religion those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one in co-operation and affection, as we are one. (12) While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy true religion : I preserved those whom thou gavest me, and none of them has fallen from duty so as to be everlastingly destroyed, but Judas who deservedly inherits destruction, and whose conduct has fulfilled the scripture,

m

the world might believe that God had sent him, v. 21. So that this passage does not argue a want of benevolence in our Lord; but is an evidence of his resignation, and knowledge of human nature.

* See John xvi. 20. If we read & Sidanas μu, the sense will be: Keep them in the profession of my Messiahship, that name, derived from thee, which thou hast given me. m There is much more elegance in the Greek έδεις ἐξ αὐτῶν ἀπώλετο, εἰ μὴ ὁ υἱὸς τῆς ἀπωλείας, than in the English version, None of them is lost, but the son of perdition.

"Hen that cateth bread with me hath lifted

up his

in their

heel against me." (13) But now I leave them and depart to thee; and I offer up this prayer presence, that I may give them abundant joy on account of my departure to thee, who wilt grant my petitions. (14) I have taught them thy doctrine; and the evil world hath hated them, because, like me, they are not of the world, nor conformed to it. (15) I pray not that thou wouldest remove them ° out of the world; but that thou wouldest make them instruments of the greatest good to mankind, and heirs of salvation, by preserving them from the power of the evil one. (16) Grant that they may persevere in their present dispositions: for now they are not of this evil world, even as I am not of this evil world. (17) Sanctify their minds by thy true doctrine: for thy word, as delivered by me, is true doctrine. (18) They are commissioned by me, as I was by thee: 19) and for their benefit I offer myself a holy sacrifice, that they also may be holy by my doctrine thus enforced. (20) But I pray not for these only: I pray also for all believers in me through their doctrine : (21) that they may be all united in love and good works; as thou, Father, art united with me, and I with thee that they, being thus in union with us, may be also in union among themselves, and may coufirm men in the belief of my divine mission, (22) And I have given to them the glory of spiritual gifts, of that preternatural knowledge and power which thou hast communicated to me, that they may be

:

John xiii. 18.

He guards against a misconception of ix ra xique in the preceding verse.

See Grot.

united, as we are; (23) I dwelling in them, and thou in me that, I say, they may be in perfect union; and that mankind may know that thou hast sent me, and hast shewn them the distinguished love which thou hast shewn me. (24) O Father, I desire of thee that these whom thou hast given me may be with me in heaven, to see my glory which thou hast bestowed on me; for thou lovedst me of old before the foundation of the world. (25) O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee; but I have known thee, and these also have known that thou hast sent me. (26) And I have made known unto them thy perfections and thy will, and shall further make them known by the effusion of the spirit; that thy love towards me may rest on them, and that I may be always with them.

is

The prayer used by our Lord during his agony recorded by three of the evangelists: PO my Father, all things that are fit and right are possible with thee: if it be agreeable to thy will and wisdom, remove from me this bitter and deadly cup: "nevertheless, not my will but thine be done. my Father, if this cup may not pass from me, but that I drink it, thy

will be done."

O

While the nails were piercing Jesus's hands and feet, he thus prayed for his crucifiers: "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do."

And on the cross he thus addressed God with a loud voice, immediately before he expired: "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit."

P Matt. xxvi. 39, &c. and p. p.

9 Luke xxiii. 34.

ib. 46. Izgabiroua is the future for the present, in the Hebrew manner.

Our Lord's perseverance in prayer is observable. St. Luke records of him that, before he chose the twelve, he "went out into a mountain to pray, and ⚫ continued all night in prayer to God." And when he had sent away a great multitude whom he had fed with a few loaves and fishes, we likewise read that he retired to a mountain, and continued in prayer from the "evening to the fourth watch of the night. Thus did our Lord converse with his heavenly Father when he could no longer converse with men, when he had no infirmities to heal, no errors to correct, no vices to reprove; and make an entire dedication of himself to the service of God and of man, by gloriously running an unwearied course of piety and benevolence.

Chiefly occupying such large portions of time in prayer were acts of the holy and heavenly Founder of our religion in extraordinary and peculiar circumstances; and can very rarely be the duty of his disciples. In general, as the pious and admirable Bishop Taylor justly observes, his piety was "without affrightment of precedent, or prodigious instances

W

Luke vi. 12. It is shewn by J. Mede, Disc. xviii. that age-wy is sometimes used for locus Judæorum ubi orant, as the Scholiast on Juv. iii. 296, explains it. But I think that the word has not this signification Acts xvi. 13. or elsewhere in the New Testament. I doubt whether a proseucha would have been erected on a mountain; because it could not conveniently be frequented in such a situation, and because high places were formerly infamous for idolatrous rites. Ilgoreux De as easily signifies prayer to God, as visis '18 Xgis faith in Jesus Christ. Rom. iii. 22, 26. Gal. ii. 16. iii. 22. or misis, faith in God, Mark xi. 22. That is, from between our sixth and ninth hour of the night, to between the third and sixth hour of the morning. w Life of Christ, Introd. p. iii. iv.

OUR LORD'S MORAL CHARACTER.

The

of actions greater than the imitation of men. instances of it were actions of a very holy but of an ordinary life; and we may observe this difference in the story of Jesus from ecclesiastical writings of certain beatified persons, whose life is told rather to amaze us, and to create scruples, than to lead us in the evenness and security of a holy conscience."

I shall conclude this subject with observing that our Lord's life not only furnishes an eminent example of piety, but a great incitement to it. Signal instances of divine interpositions were vouchsafed to him during the time of prayer. At his baptism, as he prayed the heavens were opened, the Spirit visibly descended on him, and a voice from heaven pronounced him the beloved Son of God, in whom he was well pleased. And on mount Tabor while he prayed, his countenance was changed and shone as the sun, Moses and Elias appeared to him, and a voice from the excellent glory again bare him testimony. And when he prayed, " Father, a glorify thy name;" there came a voice from heaven, “ I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again."

×❝ We read of his retiring into the wilderness, and abiding there forty days. But this was once for all, by an extraordinary impulse of that spirit which had newly anointed him to his high office, and in order to the preparing of him for the due discharge of it; and therefore, as in this instance he is not proposed to us as our pattern, so, in all that part of his life in which he is so proposed, we meet with nothing like it; but, as his instructions and rules of life were plain and intelligible, so the instances of his piety and virtue were natural and imitable." y Luke iii. 21. z ib. ix. 29. Bradford's Boyle's Lectures, fol. i. 487. John xii. 28.

a