(r) SERMONS UPON T H E Seventeenth Chapter O F st. 1 SERMON I. JOHN XVII. i 7hefe words fpake Plus, and lift up his Eyes to Heaven, and faid, rather, thé Hour is come, glorify thy Son, that thy Son a fo may glorify thee. Shall, in the following E.xercifes, open io you Chrift's folemn Prayer recorded in this Chapter; a Subjc& worthy of our Re- verence, and ferious Meditations. The Holy Ghoft feemeth to put a Mark of Refpe h upon this Prayer, above other Prayers which Chrift conceived in the Days of his FleIb. Elfe- where the Scripture telleth us, That Chrift prayed ; but the Form is not expreffed, or elfe only brief Hints are delivered, but this is expreffed at large. This was, as it were, his dying Blaze. Natural Motion is fwifter and Itronger in the end ; fo was Chrift's Love hotteft and ftrongeft in the dole of his Life ; and here you have the Eruption and Flame of it : He would now open to us the bottom of his Heart,and give us a Copy of his continual Interceffion. This Prayer is a Banding. Monument of Chrill's Affe &ion to the Church ; it did not pats away with the external Sound, or as loon as Chrifi alcended into Heaven, and fat at the right Hand of the Father; it retaineth a perpetual Efficacy; the Virtue remaineth, though the words be over. As the Word of Creation bath retained its Vigor, thefe five or fix thoufand Years ; Increafe and Multiply, and let the Earth bring forth after its kind : So the Voice of this Turtle is ever heard, and Chrift's Prayers retain their Vigor and Force, as if but newly fpoken. In this Prayer, he mentions all Blefftngs and Privileges neceffary for the Church He prayeth for himfelf, for the ApoBles, for all Believers. He beginneth with his own Glorification, as the Foundation ; and goeth on to Peek the Welfare of the ApoBles, as the Means ; and then the Comfort of Believers, as the Fruit of his Adminiftrations in the World. ChriB's Merit, the ApoBles Word, the Believers Comfort, are three Things of the highell confederation in Religion. I fhall open there in the Order and Method in which they are laid down.
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