could not hinder him from accomplishing the work which he came from heaven to do, and now he has power over the world, so that it cannot molest his followers any farther than he chooses to permit, for their good. He who overcame the world for them, will enable them to overcome it in him. He will make them conquerors and more than conquerors. What shall the world do against them, when he is on their side? It may rob them of fame, it may hinder their worldly advancement, it may despoil them of their goods, it may deprive them of life, but can it take away their interest in Christ, their peace of conscience, their hope of glory? shall tribulation separate them from the love of Christ? No, neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate them from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus their Lord.

SERMON LXXVI.

JOHN, XVIL 1-10.

These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee: As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. I have manifested 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. Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee. For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me. I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine. And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them.

THERE is scarcely any one thing more frequently recorded concerning our blessed Lord than his habitual devotion. But though we are often told that he prayed, very few of his prayers are preserved: and those few are all very short except the one which commences with the text, and which is continued through the whole chapter.

After teaching, warning, and comforting his disciples, Jesus concludes with praying for them. "He lifted up his eyes to heaven." As this is mentioned, no doubt there is some importance even in what we might deem a trivial circumstance. It is true there is very little stress to be laid on the posture of the body, or the direction of the eye. A proud spirit may be concealed under a bending attitude, and the eye may be lifted up to heaven while the heart is fixed down on earth. Still there is a connexion between the mind and the body. When the soul is intensely engaged in prayer, the countenance will

not be vacant, nor the eyes wandering; the strong emotion will produce a corresponding expression; and when the affections are raised to heaven the eyes also will naturally be directed thither. But though whatever was worthy to be recorded concerning our Saviour is worthy also to be considered, yet it is from the words which he uttered that our principal instruction must be derived. Attend we then to the matter of his

prayer.

"Father! the hour is come," the hour he means in which he should glorify God by his death. It was an hour of great extremity and great trial, and needed extraordinary support; it was an hour too on which the glory of God and the happiness of the human race greatly depended. He prays therefore, Glorify thy Son," glorify him by carrying him victorious through his approaching trial, by raising him from the dead, setting him at thy own right hand, and making him head over all things to the church; "that thy Son also may glorify thee," may glorify thee by his patience in suffering, by his unshaken confidence, by sending down the gifts which he receives for men, and by making known through the preaching of his apostles that gospel in which thy glory shines with its highest lustre, and in which thy wisdom, holiness, truth, and love, are eminently manifested.

God will be finally glorified in all his creatures; his justice will be glorified in those who perish, his mercy in those who are saved. And as mercy is his darling attribute, he is chiefly glorified in those who are the objects of it; and ministers who preach the gospel are a sweet savour to him in Christ, not so much in those who perish, as in those who are saved. In these therefore would Christ glorify his Father by the teachers whom he would send forth, endowed with special gifts, to turn men "from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they might receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith" in him. For he was to be the great object of faith; and to him all power was given in heaven and in earth. And this he acknowledges in his prayer, "As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.” The disciples were given to him, and he gave them eternal life.

Nor were the apostles only given to Christ, nor the children of Abraham only; but when the Jews fell through unbelief, a people from among the Gentiles were given to Christ, to whom he gave eternal life. Thus the Thessalonians were given to Christ, of whom Paul says that God had chosen them to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit, and belief of the truth. The same may be said of Christian nations at this day, they are given to Christ that he should give them eternal life. We cannot say that there may not be sons of perdition among a people whose outward privileges, in being favoured with Christian ordinances, speak them to be given to Christ by the Father. But where nothing appears to the contrary, we who know not the heart, must consider those as given to Christ who have the outward call of the gospel, to whom Christ has the power to give eternal life, and to whom he will give it, if in obedience to the call they believe in him. And in this sense God will hereafter give to Christ the heathen for his inheritance, and the utmost parts of the world for his possession? and to those who are thus given him of the Father, and who believe in him, he will give eternal life, so that they shall come from the east and the west and the north and the south, and sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of God.

In the case of others, we must hope favourably from the outward call, not being able to see the inward grace; in our own case we must not be so easily satisfied; we must give diligence to make our calling and election sure, and to prove to ourselves that we are not only called, but chosen, that we are actually given to Christ, and receive eternal life from him. And what this eternal life is we learn from himself, as he continues his divine prayer, "This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." Life eternal then consists in knowledge, but not the knowledge which merely floats in the head while it affects not the heart; such a knowledge a man may have, and know nothing as he ought to know. True knowledge always leads to love, it is impossible to know God really, and not to love him. Light in the understanding producing love in the heart, this is heaven begun, and will be the heaven of heaven hereafter.

The object of this knowledge is God in Christ, not God as he is out of Christ to sinful creatures, but as he is in Christ. Out of Christ he is unapproachable by sinners; in Christ he has reconciled them to himself, not imputing their trespasses. Eternal life then is to know the Father as our Father in Christ. It is to know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent. To communicate this knowledge, and thus to give eternal life, was the great end for which Christ came into the world; and now at the close of his life, he could look back on the whole of his unexampled course, on his humble birth, on his sinless youth, on his temptation in the wilderness, on his laborious preaching, on the miracles by which he had confirmed his word, and on the patience with which he had endured the contradiction of sinners against himself: and could say, "Father! I have glorified thee on the earth; I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do."

There remained indeed one great act, the greatest act of all to be done; it was not till he was expiring on the cross that he could fully say, "it is finished." But he was now ready to be offered, the time of his departure was at hand, the hour was come. And therefore he includes what was so soon to be done among the things already done; and says, "I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do." And it shows how fully prepared he was to endure the cross and despise the shame, when he could look beyond the suffering, as if it were already over, to the glory which should follow, and could add, "And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was." That Christ was with the Father before he was manifested in the flesh, the scripture so largely testifies, that quotations are needless. He came forth from God, and now he was going to God, he had left his glory, and now he was on the eve of returning to glory, to the glory which he had with the Father before the world was. And yet we must admit some difference between the glory which Christ had with God before he was made flesh, and the glory which he was going to obtain after his resurrection; the one the glory of his Godhead, the other the glory of his glorified manhood. The one was his essential glory as God, the other the glory conferred on him as head over all