Ver, 9. the 17thChapter of St. J O H N. 99 SERMON XII. JOHN XVIL9. I tray for them, I pray not for the World ; but for them which thou haft given me, for they are thine. H RI S T having urged feveral Arguments on the behalf of the Difciples, cometh now to limit his Prayers to them, which is a new Argument; 1 pray for none but thofe. which thou haft given me ; not for obf mate Perfe- cutors, and perverfe Rebels, hut for thine own, thy Charge put into my Hands. If I had prayed for any, which belong not to the purpofe of thy Grace, thou mighteft deny me; but I pray not for the World, but for thine, therefore hear me. In the words you have I. The Objef of Chrift 's Prayer. II. The Objea limited. I pray for them; which is amplified Negatively, by a re- fufal to pray for others, I pray not for the World. III. The Reafons. Thou haft given them me, and they are thine ; mine by Oppignora: tion, not Alienation, thy Charge put into mine Hands. I have a Charge over them, and thou haft a Right in them. Chrift was tender of his Charge, and the Father 1ä ].l loved and owned them. Thy Right and Propriety is not loft by thy Donation, but confirmed, for they are thine. It is not only a Realms of the Donation, but an Argu- ment that Chrift ufeth in Prayer. I. The great Matter, that needeth not fo much to be cleared, as to be vindicated, is Chriffs refufal to pray for the World. It needeth not to be cleared, becaufe Chrift doth exprefly limit the Perlons; I pray for them; he doth not only explain it, whom he meaneth by them, thole which than haft given me : Which Explication, if nothing elfe had been added, would have been exclufive, and would have amounted to them, and only them : But he doth himlelf exclude the World from having any (hare in his Prayers. By the World, he meaneth the Reprobate World, not only the Unregenerate Elect, who are fometimes called the World, but reprobor amatore: floculi, as the Carthu- fean, the reprobate perverfe World. But fome objea, and it is fit they fhould be heard, a. That the Apoftles only are here intended, and that there is not a diflin&ion be -. tween the Elea and Reprobate, but between the Apofles and others; for afterwards' Chrift prayeth for others, that (tall believe through their Word, Verf. 20. I Anlwer. (t.) The Apoftles are chiefly intended, but not only; ellewhere doth he pray for the Difciples and Believers of that Age ; there were more than the eleven Apofiles, and if they be excluded, they have no Name in Chriffs Prayer. (2.) All others belìdes the Apoftles, could not be reckoned to be in the World : Now here is a perfea difiribution of Men into two Ranks, thofe that were given him, and the World. 2. Others fay, that the words are not to be taken as utterly exclufive, but only that he prayed not for the World in this place. The Requefts of fatherly Proteaiorr, the Gift of the Spirit, Love and Concord, being only proper to them that did aaually believe : ellewhere they lay they find Chrift praying for the World. They bring N n n 2 that
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=