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Infinite love and compassion. Let us with joy and gratitude reflect, that though our Redeemer is removed from earth, he dwelleth in heaven to make intercession for us. His words, "I say not unto you that I will pray the Father for you," imply, that he will not pray for each individual in his stead; yet we may assure ourselves, that whoever prays with true faith and devotion will have the benefit of our SAVIOUR's intercession. We may, therefore, comfort ourselves, amidst the tribulations of this world, with the thoughts that they will be of short duration; but the joys that are prepared for the. faithful, eternal. Let us frequently read these inestimable discourses of our LORD, in order to animate our? love for him and our fellow-creatures.

"* And since the Captain of our Salvation has overcome the world, and disarmed death of its power, 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."

SECTION XXVIII.

OUR LORD PRAYS FOR HIS DISCIPLES,

From John, Chap. xvii.

THESE words spake JESUS, and lifted up his eyes to "heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee:

As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.

VOL. VI.

*Doddridge's Family Expositor.
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And

-And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true GOD, and JESUS CHRIST whom thou hast

sent.

I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.

And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.

I have manifested 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 word.

Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me, are of thee.

For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me.

I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine. And all mine are thine, and thine are mine, and I am glorified in them.

And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep, through thine own name, those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are.

While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the Scripture might be fulfilled.

And now come I to thee, and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves.

I have given them thy word, and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.

And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.

Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word:

That they also may be one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee: that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.

And the glory which thou gavest me, I have given them that they may be one, even as we are one.

:

I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved

me.

Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am: that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.

O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee, but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me.

And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it that the love wherewith thou hast loved me, may be in them, and I in them.

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ANNOTATIONS AND REFLECTIONS.

"In the last section we beheld * our LQRD, like a dying father in the midst of his family, mingling consolation with his last instructions. When he had ended his discourse to them, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and began that solemn prayer of intercession, which closed his ministry. He saw his mission on the point of being accomplished. He had the full prospect before him of all that he was about to suffer. Father! the hour is come. This was the hour in which CHRIST was glorified." The sublime prayer he at this time offered up deserves our most serious examination, since it shews the dignity of our LORD's character, the purport of his mission, and his love for the apostles in particular, and his church in general. It is perfectly suitable to the idea of a MEDIATOR, who had a view both to the glory of GOD and the instruction of mankind; for each petition of it reflected honour on the SUPREME BEING, and taught his disciples some important truth, therefore he offered it up publicly and it was recorded by the Evangelist, that all future Christians might know what their Redeemer was, why he came into the world, how entirely he submitted to the Divine will, and how fervently he loves all those who sincerely profess his holy religion.

Our LORD first prayed for himself, but for no private end; his motive for desiring glory was, that he might by his death, resurrection, and ascension, accomplish the Divine purposes respecting the salvation of mankind. He mentioned his performance of his part of the Covenant which subsisted between him as the MESSIAH, and GOD, that his disciples might understand the con

* See Dr. Blair's Sermon on the Death of CHRIST, in Vol. I

ditions

ditions of it; namely, that he should conform his will to the will of GOD: and GOD, bn his part, gave him. power over all mankind, to dispense eternal life to every one who should believe and confess that He was the only true GOD, and his Son JESUS CHEIST the MESSIAH.

In his hour of trial our LORD reflected, with unutterable pleasure, that he had faithfully discharged the trust reposed in him, and by his doctrines and ministry. glorified GoD on earth.

His petition, "And now, O Father, glorify me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was," relates to the pre-existence of the DIVINE WORD, who, from this text we understand, had eternal glory with the Father. Of this glory we can form no perfect idea, any more than we can of the union of the Divine and human natures; but from the Old Testament we learn (as has been already shewn,) that there was a Being who appeared from the beginning of the world as the LORD, with all the marks of omnipotence, though not in the fulness of Divine Majesty and St. John declared, that this LORD, or the WORD, who was really one with GOD, and neither a separate Deity, nor a Creature, took our nature upon him, and dwelt on earth. Our SAVIOUR proved him. self to be more than Man, and asserted, that his Divine nature was one with the FATHER: and it seems to have been with a view of establishing the belief of this mystery, that he publicly prayed THE FATHER to glorify him with the heavenly glory, which, as the WORD, he originally possessed with Him before the creation of the world.

By manifesting the name of his FATHER, our LORD may be understood to mean, that he had given clearer

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