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"fee of the travail of his foul, and fhould be fatis"fied," If. liii. 11. faith in him, anfwering to the Father's veracity in that promife, made him "All that the Father giveth me, shall come to me," John vi. 37 However thy men were then to repair underneath the banners of falvation; the bleffed Jefus was perfuaded, that, as to all his elect feed, the veffels of mercy, his Father would draw them to him, and glorify him in them. Whence he could affure his difciples, of the defcent of the holy Ghoft, of his going to prepare a place for them, and of his feeing them again, to their unspeakable, indelible, everlasting joy.

Under whatever calumny and reproach, our Lord was laid, by the fcourge of tongues; however misconftructed and mifreprefented by his enemies, open or disguised; he rested satisfied in the Father's approbation of him, and determination concerning him; perfuaded he would make his righteoufnels break forth as the light, and his judg ment as the noon day. In this faith, the Man Christ enjoyed peace in the midst of war, ferenity in the midst of tumult, and happiness when, to the human eye, he was only a man of forrows, and acquainted with griefs. For "When he was revil"ed (fays the apoftle) he reviled not again; when "he fuffered, he threatened not; but committed "himfelf to him that judgeth righteously," 1 Peter iii. 23.

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Our Lord crying to the Father is a term, importing the fame as prayer and fupplication to God. "Ceafe not (faid the Ifraelites to Samuel) to cry "unto the Lord for us, that he will fave us out "of the hand of the Philistines," 1 Sam. vii. 8. And this poor man (fays the prophet, very pro

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bably, of the Meffiah) cried, and the Lord heard "him, and faved him out of all his troubles," Pfal. xxxiv. 6. As a praying perfon, the man Chrift fpent much of his time on earth in that exercife, thereby maintaining delightful intercourfe with his Father, and fetting an amiable pattern before his people. For, "When he had fent the "multitudes away, he went up into a mountain,

apart to pray," Matth. xiv. 23. Again, "In "the morning, rifing up a great while before day, "he went out, departed into a folitary place, and "there prayed," Mark i. 35. And again, "He

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went out into a mountain to pray, and continu"ed all night in prayer to God,” Luke vi. 12. Nor was our Lord only much employed in prayer, but his crying to God pointed out earnestness, pain and distress in it; his prayers were quite the reverse of that formality and indifference, that wandering and inattention, which accompany, stain and difgrace, the best prayers of the beft men on whom the fun ever fhone. His prayers were all expreffive of his feelings, and kept pace exactly with them. For as he did no fin, fo "neither was guile found "in his mouth," 1 Pet. ii. 22. and it was under the fevereft diftrefs that the prophet reprefented him, as "crying day and night," Pfal. xxii. 2. The earneftnefs and anxiety of the children of Ifracl, when they "fighed by reafon of the bondage, "and cried," Exod. ii. 23. or of the Ekronites, when the hand of God being very heavy upon them, " "the cry of the city went up to heaven," 1 Sam. v. 12. These and fuch inftances, though vaftly short of that holy expreffive ardour pointed out by the Redeemer's cry, tend to illuftrate and caft a light upon it.

Our Lord's prayers while on earth, were fome times expreffed in words, fuch as could be heard

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and understood by others: accordingly, we have feveral specimens of them, tranfmitted by the evangelifts; the most remarkable of which, is that whereof the whole 17th chapter of John confifts. But his cry was likeways expreffed, on fome occafions, by the effufion of tears, through which, as from other caufes, "his visage was marred more " than any man, and his form more than the fons *❝ of men," If. lii. 14. Thus we are informed of his weeping once and again, Luke xix. 41. and John xi. 35. and affured, that "he offered up

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prayers and fupplications with tears," Heb. v. 7. On other occafions, it was expreffed by fighs and groans, as what were too big for utterance: for we are told, that "looking up to heaven, he

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fighed," Mark vii. 34. that "he fighed deeply "in his fpirit," Mark viii. 12. that he groaned. "in the fpirit, and was troubled," John xi. 33. and that "he again groaned in himself," verf. 38. This, however, is not the whole. The cry of the Man Chrift was fometimes expreffed by actual crying, nay, roaring; as what his unutterable feelings extorted from him, when exercising the greateft patience that humanity, in her highest inno-. cence, was capable of. By the prophet he is reprefented as faying, "Why art thou fo far from

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helping me, from the words of my roaring?" Pfal. xxii. 1. Upon the crois, as the accomplishment of that prophecy, "he cried (once and again) "with a loud voice;" with the last of which cries he yielded up his immaculate fpirit, Matth. xxvii. 46, 50. And the apoftle bears witnefs, that "in "the days of his flesh, he offered up prayers and

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fupplications, with ftrong crying," Heb. v. 7. But why infift on thefe things? were not his needs and wants, as Man-Mediator, were they not in themfelves a continual cry, in the cars of the Fa

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ther? His hunger, thirst, wearinefs, reproach, pain and diftrefs, were all as fo many tongues, upon which eloquence, argument and perfuafion always fat. To every ftudent of the fcriptures, it will at once appear, that our Lord had fuch needs, felt fuch wants; nay, that from the manger to the grave, he was mostly, if not wholly, fuch a man of forrows and acquainted with griefs. And unless it could be imagined, that the Father had lefs con cern about his own Son, than about the irrational tribes; it is plain, thefe manifold neceffities of his came up, as in the moft expreffive language, before the throne: for infpiration affures us, that "God giveth to the beaft his food, and to the

young ravens which cry," Pfal. cxlvii. 9. and our Lord himself taught his difciples, that their heavenly Father "fed the fowls of the air, who "neither fow, reap, nor gather into bains," Matth. vi. 26.

When thus humbled, the prayers or cries of the Man Christ were put up on his own behalf.

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my Father (faid he, once, again and again) if "it be poffible, let this cup pafs from me; but if "this cup may not pass from me, except I drink "it, thy will be done," Matth. xxvi. 39, 42. "Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son alfo may glorify thee. O Father, glo"rify me with thine own felf; with the glory. " which I had with thee, before the world was, John xvii. 1, 5. "Be not thou far from me, O "Lord, O my ftrength, hafte thee to help me, "deliver my foul from the fword, my darling from "the power of the dog; fave me from the lions "mouth," Pfal. xxii. 19, 20, 21, But though our Lord prayed for himfelf, his cries, or prayers, were by no means confined to himfelf; for we find - his concern about the promotion of his Father's glory

glory on earth not only expreffed, by teaching his difciples to pray, "Hallowed be thy name, thy "kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is "in heaven, Matth. vi. 9, 10. and adjoining with them in these petitions; but by an actual, immediate, particular, addrefs to the Father, for that purpofe, by himself, faying, "Father, glorify thy "name," John xii. 28. In these prayers, or cries, his apoftles and "the men which accompanied with "them, all the time that he went in and out among "them," had a peculiar fhare. Befides the many prayers put up for them, in the former periods of his humiliation, there is a beautiful cluster of fuch petitions, in the 17th chapter of John; "Holy Fa

ther (faid he) keep, through thine own name, "thofe whom thou haft given me, that they may "be one as we are," verf. 11. "Keep them "from the evil," verf. 15. "Sanctify them through "thy truth," verf. 17. "Father, I will that they' "alfo whom thou haft given me, be with me "where I am; that they may behold my glory, "which thou haft given me," verf. 24. Nor did he only pray for his then difciples, but for all who, in every age of the Chriftian church, should, by converfion to the faith and hope of the gospel, become fuch. "Neither pray I for thefe alone (faid

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he) but for them also which fhall believe on me through their word," John xvii. 20. Nay, his prayers were extended to his enemies themfelves. In praying for them who should afterwards believe, he, doubtless, prayed for his enemies, all being by nature enemies to him, enmity against him: but he more efpecially prayed for thofe who were immediately inftrumental in his fufferings and death, at leaft for fuch of them as he had gracious defigns upon; and prayed for them, when most perfecuted by them. Father (faid he, in his laft agonies " upon

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