330

John

He came from the Father, and is returning to him.

that I came out from

281 came forth from the Father, and am come into the world;

SECT. who has himself no regard for your happiness; because ye have loved clxxviii. for, on the contrary, I assure you, that the Fame, and have believed ther himself most tenderly loves you, and there- God. XVI.27. fore will be ready to grant your requests, and to watch over you with paternal affection and care; because you have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God, as the messenger of his grace to men; and have accordingly relied upon me with such stedfastness, that you 28 have ventured your all upon that belief. And you have therein acted a very prudent and happy part; for I indeed came out from the Father, and am come into the world to scatter a Divine light upon it, and to conduct men into the paths of life and peace: and now again, having dispatched my errand, I am leaving the world, and am going back to the Father; where I shall keep ny stated abode, and whither I will shortly conduct you to a more glorious kingdom than you ever expected here. This is the sum of what I have been telling you, and was particuJarly my meaning in what I have said before (ver. 16), "Yet a little while, and ye shall see me again, because I go to the Father."

29

again, I leave the world, and go to the Father.

29 His disciples said unto him, Lo, now

30 Now are we sure

And his disciples, struck with the correspondence of what he said to what was secretly pass-speakest thou plainly, ing in their own minds, said to him, Lord, Be and speakest no prohold, now thou speakest very plainly to us, and verb. usest no parable, or obscure form of expression; so that we clearly understand thy meaning, and 30 rejoice in it. And now we know by this farther token, even thy discerning our inmost that thou knowest all things, and needest doubts on this head, that thou knowest all things, not that any man and hast no need that any one should ask thee any should ask thee: by particular questions, to inform thee of those this we believe that scruples which thou seest when first rising in the mind on this account therefore we firmly believe that thou camest out from God.

31

Jesus answered them, Do you now at length believe? and do you apprehend your faith to be so firm, that nothing shall be able any more to shake it? Let me advise you not to be too confident; for I assure you, that in a very little time you will be found to act, as if you had not any faith in me: pray therefore, that God would fortify you against those trials of which I have 32 warned you once and again. For behold, the hour is coming, yea, is so near at hand, that I may even say, it is now come, that you shall all be scattered and dispersed, and every one of you

return

thou camest forth from

God.

31 Jesus answered them, Do ye now believe?

Reflections on the joy that we may have in Christ.

yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me.

331

SECT.

leave me alone and return to your own habitations and employments, or otherwise shift for yourselves as well as you clxxviii. can; and to consult your own security, you shall John flee away and leave me alone; but yet I am not, XV1.32. properly speaking, alone, for the Father is with me, and he will comfort and support me, in the absence of all human friends.

33 These things I

that in me ye might

have peace.

tribulation: but be of

These things have I spoken thus largely to you 33 have spoken unto you, that whatever difficulties may arise in life, havIn the ing been thus warned, and furnished with such world ye shall have consolations as these, you might have lasting good cheer, I have peace and serenity of soul by the exercise of your faith in me. In the world indeed you shall have and must expect affliction; but be courageous and cheerful in your combat, for I have myself overcome the world; and, being possessed of a power infinitely superior to it, I will make you partakers in my victory over all its terrors and its

overcome the world.

snares.

IMPROVEMENT.

WE are, perhaps, often regretting the absence of Christ, and Ver. looking back with emulation on the happier lot of those who 16 conversed with him on earth in the days of his flesh: but if we are true believers in an unseen Jesus, it is but a little while and we shall also see him; for he is gone to the Father, and will so successfully negociate our affairs there, that whatever our present difficulties and sorrows are, they shall end more happily than those of a woman, who after all the pangs and throes of her la-21 bour, through the merciful interposition of Divine Providence, is made the joyful mother of a living child.

In the mean time, we have surely no reason to envy the world 20 its joys and triumphs: alas, its season of weeping will quickly come! But our lamentations are soon to be turned into songs of praise, and our hearts to be filled with that solid, sacred and peculiar joy, 22 which, being the gift of Christ, can never be taken away.

While we are in this state of distance and darkness, let us rejoice that we have access to the throne of grace through the pre-23 vailing name of Christ. Let us come thither with holy courage and confidence, and ask that we may receive; and so our joy may be full. With what pleasure may we daily renew our visits to 24 that throne, before which Jesus stands as an Intercessor; to that throne, which is possessed by the Father, who himself loveth us, 26,27and answers with readiness and delight those petitions which are thus recommended! May our faith in Christ, and our love to him,

VOL. VII.

332

clxxviii.

Christ prays to the Father that he may be glorified.

SECT be still on the increasing hand; and our supplications will be more and more acceptable to him, whose loving-kindness is better than -27 life! (Psal. Ixiii. 3.)

Surely we shall be frequently reviewing these gracious discourses 33-which Christ has bequeathed us as an invaluable legacy. May they dwell with us in all our solitude, and comfort us in every distress! We shall have no reason to wonder if human friendship -32 be sometimes false, and alw..ys precarious: the disciples of Christ were scattered in the day of his extremity, and left him alone, when they were under the highest obligations to have adhered to him with the most inviolable fidelity. May we but be able like him to say, that our Father is with us; and that delightful con verse with God, which we may enjoy in our most solitary moments, will be a thousand times more than an equivalent for whatsoever we lose in the creatures. In the world we must indeed have tribulation; and he that has appointed it for us, knows that it is fit we should: but since Jesus, the Captain of our salvation who was made perfect through sufferings, has overcome the world, and disarmed it; let us seek that peace which he has established, and press on with a cheerful assurance, that the least of his followers shall share in the honours and benefits of his victory.

33

SECT. clxxix.

John XVII.1.

SECT. CLXXIX.

Christ offers up a solemn prayer to the Father, that he himself might be glorified; and that those who were given him might be kept through his name. John XVII. 1—12.

JOHN XVII. 1.

JOHN XVII. 1.

thy Son, that thy Son

OUR
UR Lord Jesus spake these words which are THESE words spake
Jesus; and lifted up
recorded in the preceding chapters, and his eyes to heaven,
then lifted up his eyes to heaven, and poured out and said, Father, the
a most affectionate and important prayer to his hour is come; glorify
Father; an excellent model of his intercession in also may glorify thee.
heaven, and a most comfortable and edifying re-
presentation of his temper both towards God and
his people. And, that it might more effectually
answer these great ends, he uttered it with an
audible voice, and said, O my heavenly Father,
the appointed and expected hour is come in which
I am to enter on my sufferings, and to com-
plete the work for which I came into the world;
and therefore I pray, that thou wouldest glorify
me, thy Son, in those signal appearances for my
honour and support in death, in my recovery
from the grave, and mine ascension into heaven,

which

And pleads his having glorified his Father on earth.

flesh, that he should

333

clxxix.

John

which thou hast promised to me, and which I SECT know that thou wilt punctually fulfil; that thy Son also in the whole series of his conduct, both in this world, and in that to which he is now XVII. 1. returning, may successfully glorify thee, and ac2 As thou hast given complish the purposes of thy saving love; Ac-2 him power over all cording as thou hast, by the engagements of thy give eternal life to as covenant, given him that power over all flesh, many as thou hast that absolute dominion over all the human race, given him. which he will ere long receive and exert; that he may give eternal life to all that thou hast given him by that covenant to be redeemed and 3 And this is life saved. And this is the sure way to that eternal 3 eternal, that they life, even that they may know thee, who art the only true God, and only living and true God, in opposition to the Jesus Christ, whom idols they have ignorantly worshipped; and may

might know thee the

thou hast sent.

know also and believe in Jesus Christ, whom thou
hast sent into the world as the only Saviour: and
to this therefore thou wilt bring them, and wilt
make use of what I have already done, and shall
yet farther do, as the means of effecting it.

4 I have glorified It is with unutterable pleasure that I now re- 4
thee on the earth: Iflect upon it, O my Father and my God, that
have finished the work
which thou gavest me
have eminently glorified thee on earth during the
to do.
whole of my abode here; that I have been faith-
ful to the trust that was reposed in me, in all that
I have said and done through the course of my
ministry and greatly do I rejoice, that I have
now gone so far, as to be just upon the point of
having finished, by my sufferings and death, the
important work which thou gavest me to do.
And now therefore, my heavenly Father, do 5
thou glorify me with thine own self, with the ori-
ginal glory which I had with thee before the world
was created, and which for the salvation of thy

And now, O Father, glorify thou me with the glory which I had with thee before

with thine own self,

the world was.

a Glorify thy Son.] All the circumstances of glory attending the sufferings of Christ; as, the appearance of the angel to him in the garden, his striking down to the ground those that came to apprehend him, his curing the ear of Malchus, his good confession before Pilate, his extorting from that unjust judge a testimo ny of his innocence, the dream of Pilate's wife, the conversion of the penitent robber, the astonishing constellation of virtues and graces which shone so bright in Christ's dying behaviour, the supernatural darkness, and all the other prodigies that attended his death: as well as his resurrection, and ascension, and exaltation at God's right hand, and the mission of the

people

Holy Spirit, and the consequent success of
the gospel; are all to be looked upon as
an answer to this prayer.

b This is eternal life.] Christ might in-
sert this clause (though neither a petition,
plea, nor any other part of prayer) on
purpose to remind his apostles of the im-
portance of their office; as they were sent
to spread that knowledge which he here calls
eternal life, because the eternal happiness
of men depends upon it.

c The glory which I had with thee before the world was.] To suppose, with the Socinians, that this refers only to that glory which God intended for him in his decrees; or, with Mr. Fleming, that it refers only, or chiefly, to his being clothed with the SheTt2

kinah

334 He had faithfully instructed those that were given him ;
SECT. people I have for a while laid aside, that I might
clothe myself in this humble form.

clxxix.

John

and

6 I have manifest

ed thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world:

thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy

Now they have known that all things

whatsoever thou hast given me, are of thee.

I have manifested thy name, and revealed the XVII. 6. glory of thy power and grace, to the men whom thou gavest me out of the world: they were originally thine, the creatures of thine hand, and the happy objects of thy sovereign choice; in consequence of thy gracious purposes thou word. gavest them to me, that they might be instructed and sanctified, and formed for the kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world: and such accordingly has been the influence of my doctrine on their hearts, that they have readily embraced it, and hitherto have resolutely kept 7 and retained thy word and gospel. And, notwithstanding the mean appearance I have made to an eye of sense, their faith has owned me through this dark cloud and even now, in this my bumble state, they have perceived and known, that all things whatsoever which I have said and done, and all the credentials which thou hast in fact given me, and which so many overlook, are indeed of thee; and that I am truly what I profess myself to be, a Divine Messenger to the children of men, and the Saviour that was pro8 mised to come into the world. This plainly appears to be their firm persuasion; for the words which thou gavest to me, I have given to them, I have revealed already much of my gospel to ed them, and have them, and begun to deposit it in their hands; came out from thee, and in the midst of great discouragement and and they have believed opposition, giving attention to the words Ispake, that thou didst send me. they have received [them] with faith and love, and made it manifest by their embracing and adhering to my doctrine, that they have known in truth the divinity of my mission, so as to be fully satisfied in their own minds that I came out from thee with a commission to reveal thy will (compare John xvi. 27, 30); and while I have been rejected by an ungrateful world, they have regarded me as the true Messiah, and have shewn they have believed that thou didst indeed send me on the great errand of their salvation.

kinah, seems to sink and contract the
sense far short of its genuine purpose. See
Fleming's Christology, Vol. II. p. 247, and
Whitby in loc.

d They were originally thine.] There
can surely be no reason to imagine from
the sacred story, that the apostles were cho-

I

8 For I have given unto them the words

which thou gavest me; and they have receiv

known surely that I