328 SECT. elxxviii. John But he would see them again, and their hearts should rejoice. Now Jesus, as the secret workings of their 19 Now Jesus knew hearts were open to his view, knew that they that they were desirous to ask him, and said them, Do ye were desirous to ask him for some farther expli- unto XVI.19. cation of what he had been saying, and yet that inquire among yourthey were afraid of being upbraided for the slow-selves of that I said, A little while and ye ness of their apprehensions; and therefore kind- shall not see me and ly prevented their confusion, and said to them, again, a little while and Do you inquire of one another concerning this ye shall see me ? which I said, A little while and ye shall not see me, and again, a little while and ye shall see me? Surely, if you reflect a little, it cannot be very say unto you, that ye sorrow shall be turned into joy. 21 A woman, when she is in travail, hath because her sorrow, ed of the child, she re 20 difficult to understand the meaning of that. Ve- 20 Verily, verily, I rily, verily, I say unto you, that ye shall shortly shall weep and lament, weep and lament for a while, on account of my but the world shall rebei ge taken away from you, and in the mean joice: and ye shall be time, the world shall rejoice, as if it had prevailed but your sorrowful, against me; and you shall be sorrowful at the loss of my presence, but then you have this to comfort you in that interval of distress, that your 21 sorrow shall quickly be turned into joy. Just as a woman when she is in labour, has great anxiety and sorrow because her hour of distress and agony hour is come: but as is come; but when she has brought forth a child, soon as she is delivershe forgets the pangs she endured,and remember-membereth no more eth [her tribulation no more, for joy that a man the anguish, for joy is born into the world, and added to her family that a man is born in22 for its future honour and support. And so it 22 And ye now is, that you indeed have sorrow now, in expecta- therefore have sorrow; tion of the melancholy scene which is approach- but I will see you again, ing; and it will very much increase your trouble to rejoice; and your joy and your heart shall see me in a few hours more torn away from you no man taketh from with inhuman violence, hung as a malefactor you. on the cross, and buried in the grave; but when your hopes are at the lowest ebb, I will quickly see you again, after my resurrection, and your hearts shall rejoice; and afterwards, though I am absent from you in the body, yet I will fill you with such consolation by my Spirit, that no one shall, by any means whatever, deprive you of your joy, which shall sweetly mingle itself even with your heaviest afflictions". C Ye shall weep and lament, &c.] Whatever immediate reference this may have to the sorrows of the apostles, immediately on the death of Christ, before his resurrection, I question not but it includes all their subsequent afflictions in the days of fasting, when the bridegroom was taken away from them, as it is elsewhere expressed in a parallel phrase, (Mat. ix. 15.) which must express much inore than the abstinence of And to the world. the one day he lay in the grave, supposing (which is very possible) they had then but little relish to their food. See Vol. VI. p. 373 d No one shall deprive you of your joy.] As this promise will be for ever accomplished to all Christ's faithful servants, so it is observable how the apostle Paul, in his more abundant afflictions, attests his experience of its truth, when he says, As sorrowful, 23 And in that day ye shall ask me nothing: verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. Whatever they ask in his name the Father will give it. 323 24 Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. 25 These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: the time no of the Father. 26 At that day ye shall ask in my name: and I say not unto you that I will pray the Father for you: These weighty and important things I have of- 25 ten spoken to you in the obscurity of parables, cometh when I shall which have appeared dark and mysterious to more speak unto you; but the hour or time is coming when I will you in proverbs, but I speak no more to you in parables or dark sayings shall show you plainly but I will tell you what relates to the Father with all openness and plainness of speech. In that 26 day you shall ask in my name, and shali present your supplications to the Father with an express acknowledgment of your dependance upon me for the success of your petitions; and I do not merely say to you, that I will ask the Father on your account, and plead with him for the acceptance of your prayers, though you may assure yourselves that I shall always be ready to do it; 27 For the Father But I represent it not to you in such a view, as 27 himself loveth you, if every favour were obtained and as it were extorted, merely by my importunity, from one because sorrowful, yet always rejoicing (2 Cor. vi. 10); and mentions his share in the joy of Christians as a most important and sacred oath. (1 Cor. xv. 31.) e You shall not inquire any thing of me.] We render it ask; but I thought it proper to make some distinction between spalaw, which properly signifies to make an inquiry, and alw, which is to present a request. (See Dr. Calamy on the Trinity, p. 154.) Yet I confess the former is sometimes used who almost in the same sense with the latter 330 He came from the Father, and is returning to him. that I came out from 28I came forth from the Father, and am again, I leave the world and go to the Father. 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. John 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 my 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 particularly 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 pass 29 His disciples said unto him, Lo, now speakest thou plainly, And his disciples, struck with the correspondence of what he said to what was secretly 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 doubts on this head, that thou knowest all things, not that any man and hast no nced that any one should ask thee any should ask thee: by particular questions, to inform thee of those thou camest forth from scruples which thou seest when first rising in God. the mind: on this account therefore we firmly believe that thou camest out from God. 31 30 Now are we sure that thou knowest all things, and needest this we believe that 31 Jesus answered them, Do ye believe? now 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 scattered, every man be scattered and dispersed, and every one of you to his own, and shall return 32 Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be leave Reflections on the joy that we may have in Christ. yet I am not alone, be me. 331 SECT. clxxviii. leave me alone and return to your own habitations and employments, cause the Father is with or otherwise shift for yourselves as well as you can; and to consult your own security, you shall John flee away and leave me alone; but yet am not, XVI.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 have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. tribulation: but be of These things have I spoken thus largely to you 33 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. T t be 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 always 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 converse with God, which we may enjoy in our most solitary moments, will be a thousand times more than an equivalent for what33 soever 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. SECT. clxxix. 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. Jesus; and lifted up thy Son, that thy Son OUR Lord Jesus spake these words which are THESE words spake recorded in the preceding chapters, and his eyes to heaven, then lifted up his eyes to heaven, and poured out and said, Father, the John 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 representation 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 complete 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 |