MATTHEW

MARK.

... LUKE.

IAM

JOHN.

CHA P. XVI.

20 Verily verily I fay unto you, that ye fhall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice: and ye shall be forrowful, but your forrow shall be turned into joy.

21 A woman when she is in travail, hath forrow, because her hour is come: but affoon as fhe is delivered of the child, the remembreth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world.

22 And ye now therefore have forrow: but I will fee you again, and your heart fhall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you.

23 And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily verily I fay unto you, Whatsoever ye fhall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you.

24 Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye fhall receive, that your joy may be full.

25 These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: the time cometh when I fhall no more fpeak to you in proverbs, but I fhall fhew you plainly of the Father.

a truth, the time comes in which you fhall lament and mourn, while the Jews rejoice; but this your Sorrow thall fhortly be turn'd into joy. For as a Woman in travail no longer regards her Pains after he is deliver'd of a Son; fo alfo fhall you at my return fhake off this melancholy and fadness with which you are now opprefs'd, and be fill'd with a joy of which none fhall ever deprive you, at the certainty you will have of my being rifen from the Dead. At that time you will be fo fully inftructed in whatever relates to the Gospel, that you will no longer need my prefence among you to remove any Doubts and Scruples. If any difficulties arife, ask of God, who will grant you whatever you fhall request of him, as being my Difciples. Hitherto you have not ask'd any thing in my name; now ask, and you shall receive, and your joy fhall be perfected. These things I intimated to you before obfcurely; the time comes in which I will no longer make ufe of dark Speeches, but plainly acquaint you with the determinations of my. Hea Rrr 2 venly

JOHN T.

CHAP. XVI.

26 At that day ye shall ask in my name: and I fay not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you;

27 For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God.

28 I am come forth from the Father, and am come into the world again, I leave the world, and go to the Father.

29 His difciples faid unto him, Lo, now speakeft thou plainly, and speakeft no proverb.

30 Now are we fure that thou knoweft all things, and needest not that any man should ask thee by this we believe that thou cameft forth from God.

31 Jefus answered them, Do ye now believe?

32 Behold the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and fhall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me.

33 These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye

venly Father. Then fhall you obtain whatever you fhall request of him, as being my Difciples: I fhall not intercede with my Father for you; he himself loves you, because you have lov'd me, and believ'd that I am fent by him.

I came from my Father to Men, and now fhall return to him that fent me. The Apoftles faid unto him: Now indeed fpeakeft thou to us plainly, and without obfcurity. Hence we perceive that thou knoweft all things, and that the moft fecret thoughts of the Mind are not hid from thee, inafmuch as without any que ftion of ours thou kneweft what it was we were concerned about. For this, befides many other caufes, we firmly believe thou haft bin fent by God. Jefus replied, Have you at laft then Faith in me? alas, 'tis fuch whofe weakness fhall be very thortly manifefted; for the hour is at hand in which you shall all forfake me, and leave me alone: nevertheless I fhall not thus be alone, for my Father will be always with me. These things I have foretold you, that you may not be follicitous on my account, nor afraid of what may befal you. Malicious men fhall perfecute you,

yet

'TH

CHAP. XVII.

HESE words fpake Jefus, and lift up his eyes to heaven, and faid, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son alfo may glorify thee.

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

3 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou haft fent.

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

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

6 I have manifefted 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.

yet do not defpond, but be of good comfort, by reflecting how by my conftancy I have overcome their Malice.

Jefus having thus exhorted and comforted his Apoftles, lifting up his Eyes to Heaven, addrefs'd himself to the Father after this manner. Father, I now perceive the hour coming on in which I must fuffer all manner of ignominious ufage, and Death it felf. Grant that I may behave my felf as becomes him whom thou owneft for thy Son, and that I may hereby increase thy Glory among Men. Thou haft authoriz'd me to reward with eternal Felicity all thofe whom thou haft induc'd to believe on me; for the attaining of which everlafting Happiness there is no other way than to know Thee, who art the only True God, and Me whom thou haft fent, the Meffiah. I have all along propagated thy Glory, and fo finish'd the bufinefs for which I came Into the World. Admit me therefore now, O Father, to thofe Honors which were laid up for me with thee before the World was made. I have acquainted thofe whom thou haft caufed to believe in me, with what thou expecteft from them. They believe'd before in thee, and thou haft caufed them alfo to believe in me from the

time

time they embrac'd the Doctrin I propounded to them. Now they understand that all I have, I have received from thee; because I have expounded to them only thole Laws which thou gaveft me in charge to recommend, and which they having embraced are convinc'd that I am truly fent by thee to Men. At prefent I will not intreat thee for any others befide thofe who believe in me, and whom thou reckoneft in the number of thine. For all that have demonftrated their being my Difciples, belong to thee; and all that were truly thine, I efteem my own, and they readily acknowledg the character I ought to bear among them. Since I fhall no longer continue among men (being at the point of returning to thee) and that my Apoftles are to remain among them, O Holy Father, fecure them by thy Almighty protection against all the attempts of the Wicked, that fo they may be unanimous, and jointly propagate the one true Doctrin they have receiv'd from me. By the Power thou haft given me I have hitherto protected them from all the Affaults of their Enemies, and do lose him only who by his Treason will work his own Ruin,

that

JOHN.

CHAP. XVII.

that the fcripture might be fulfilled.

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

14 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.

15 I pray not that thou shouldeft take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.

16 They are not of the world, even as i am not of the world.

17 Sanctify them through thy truth thy word is truth.

18 As thou haft fent me into the world, even fo have I alfo fent them into the world.

19 And for their fakes I fanet fy my felf, that they alfo migl be fanctified through the truth.

20 Neither pray I for thefe alone, but for them alfo which

that the Curfes predicted against him by the Prophets may be accomplished. Now my departure to thee is at hand, and I fpeak thus in the hearing of my Apostles, that their joy may be increas'd, and their minds not overwhelm'd with Melancholy. I have expounded to them the Laws thou gaveft me in charge to tender unto men, they have embrac'd them, and the obftinate hard-hearted Jews for this reafon hate them, whom neither I nor my Difciples refemble in our Actions. I do not defire thee to take them out of this World, but to defend them against their Enemies. while they continue in it. They know how much my way of living is different from that of the generality of men, and herein they follow my example: Grant they may be fo fincerely affected with the truth of thy moft holy Doctrin, that their Actions may be always conformable to it, fince this Doctrin contains only thofe Precepts which I have published by thy Authority. This is neceffary, that they may rightly discharge the truft I have repofed in them: for as I have bin.commiflion'd by Thee to invite men to render themselves capable of enjoy ing the Rewards annext to the obfervance of thy Laws, fo have I fent my Apoftles on the fame defign, for whom I offer up my felf a Victim to thee, that by their obedience to thy Commands they may become confpicuous for Integrity and Probity. Thefe hereRequests I make not only for my cleven Apoftles, but for all thofe alfo who fhall

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