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(1) Father, the time of my departure is come; glorify thy Son by his death and by the wonders which will accompany and follow it, that thy Son may also glorify thee by turning many to righteousness: (2) according to the spiritual dominion which thou hast bestowed on him, that through him all the right. eous subjects of his kingdom should inherit everlasting life. (3) And this is the way to everlasting life; the knowledge of thee, the only true God, and of him whom thou hast sent to declare thy will. (4) I have spread abroad thy glory on earth by my doctrine and miracles, and by discharging thus far the office assigned me: (5) and now, O Father, do thou make me perfect through sufferings, and glorify me at thy right hand with the heavenly glory which I possessed with thee before the creation of the world. (6) I have manifested thy perfections and will to the disciples whom thou hast given me out of this evil world: they were thy creatures, and believers in thee, and thou hast given them to me as Messiah and King, and they have kept thy word which I have taught them. (7) Now at length have they known and professed that thou hast delegated to me every part of the office which I execute (8) for in truth what I have taught them is thy doctrine and they have embraced it and have been fully convinced of my heavenly mission. (9) I pray for them; I pray not

e

h

* John xvii. though they are found, I believe, in every ms. and version. xvi. 30. b Observe here the parallelism so common in the Hebrew writers: And have known of a truth that I came forth from thee; And have believed that thou hast sent me. Jer. vii. 16. xi. 14. xiv. 11. Christ prayed, Luke xxiii. 34. that God would forgive his murderers and here he prays for all future believers, v. 20. and that

f I think that the words Inoy Xgisi are a gloss; & See c.

:

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,

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 Fidanas pa, the sense will be: Keep them in the profession of my Messiahship, that name, derived from thee, which thou hast given me. There is much more elegance in the Greek έδεις ἐξ αὐτῶν ἀπώλειο, εἰ μὴ ὁ ὑιὸς τῆς ἀπωλείας, than in the English version, None of them is last, but the son of perdition.

46

"He" that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me." (13) But now I leave them and depart to thee; and I offer up this prayer in their 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 confirm 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 releas 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 (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.

sent me.

The prayer used by our Lord during his agony is 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. O my Father, if this cup may not pass from me, but that I drink it, thy

will be done."

9

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."

9 Luke xxiii 34...

P Matt. xxvi. 39, &c. and p. p ib. 46. Ilaganus 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

s Luke vi. 12. It is shewn by J. Mede, Disc. xviii. that #gwy 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 signifi cation 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. Пgos as easily signifies prayer to God, as risis 'Ino8 Xgısỡ faith in Jesus Christ. Rom. iii. 22, 26. Gal. ii. 16. iii. 22. or is e, 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.