for their bliss and glory in his eternal kingdom: "I will that they may be with me, and behold my glory which thou hast given me"-an assurance that the just who are accepted in Christ, and are meet to be inheritors of the saints in light, shall share their happiness in a state of visible society with each other, in the presence of their glorified Lord, as the consequence and consummation of this prayer, which now we read, and which may be the model of that intercession which he yet" ever liveth to make for us."

To encourage our faith therein, to teach us to have recourse to Him, to seek an interest in that prayer, upon his interest in which the salvation of each depends, was the intent of its being recorded, that we might hear his word, and receive him in all those gracious offices in which he is revealed to us as our Saviour, our Intercessor, our Mediator, and Advocate. “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 God."12 And what greater hope for ourselves than that we may be found in

12 Verse 8.

13

Him; what greater consolation with respect to the eternal welfare of others, than to know that they have believed that doctrine of salvation by Jesus Christ, (the only name which is given to man whereby he can be saved) and may be numbered among those for whom he will intercede? "I pray not," says he, "for the world," that is for the wicked, and careless, and impenitent part of it, because, never having cared for my covenant, they may not be proper objects of it; they can, as to covenanted mercy, have no part with me; but "for those whom thou hast given me, for they are thine, that they may continue with me; I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect as one, that they may be one even as we are, for all mine are thine, and thine are mine, and I am glorified in them." Another indication of the unity of will, design, and nature in the Father and the Son; of his power, who, "as the Father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom he will;" and of his willingness to "save to the uttermost those that come unto God by him."

13 Verse.9.

14-10

15 John v. 21.

With whatever difficulties, in point of our comprehending them, many of the peculiar truths of the gospel (from their very nature, perhaps, as well as ours) may be involved, they all lay but a more sure foundation for faith and hope, and afford fresh reasons for them; they are all calculated to engage our affections on the side of duty, call forth adoration, thankfulness, and love toward him who is the great and proper object of them, and shew what we owe to our Divine Redeemer for all that he hath done for us. In that nature which had offended, our Saviour offers up his solemn. intercession for lost and sinful man, praying for all the elect people of God; and through the veil of it there shines forth continually the divinity of his own. The most awful mysteries of religion are, however, connected by him with the mildest tenderness and humanity; he prays with all the earnestness with which the purest of human beings could do for another (and think, from what it was he prays that we might be delivered, to what we might be restored), and seems to consecrate the very feelings which he directs us to encourage.

With what others could the most affectionate of all human relations commend to heaven those for whose welfare he was most concerned, or by what stronger tie enforce the recollection of his precepts, when he should be no longer with them, pitying them, “even as a father pitieth his own children," and praying to God to guide them. “I am no more in this world, but these are in the world," exposed to dangers, doubts, and difficulties, passing through that path of trial which once I trod; they will want some to keep them unspotted, to protect their weakness, and who can be sufficient for it?" "While I was in the world, I kept them in thy name, and now that I come unto thee, I speak these words that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves."'16 I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world" (the purposes of thy glory, and the salvation of their own souls, may require a longer continuance in it, and their warfare of probation must be accomplished before their hour shall come), but that thou shouldest keep them from evil-nay in the believer's own

16 Verses 12, 13.

approaching end, when in that trial, he "lifts up his eyes to heaven and finds that his own hour is come," he may be able to oppose to its fearful threatenings the power, and the promises, and even the words of Him, who "when he had overcome the sharpness of death, did open the kingdom of heaven to all believers"-humbly hope that, as far as the infinite distance between Christ's all perfect and man's all deficient merits will admit, he may use his Saviour's words, and say, "I have glorified Thee on earth, I have finished the work which thou hast given me to do, and now I come unto Thee; glorify me with thine own self:"-when he leaveth those whom he can no longer live to guard, "he leaveth them not comfortless," for he can commit them to God in sure and certain hope. "Holy Father, keep, through thy name, those whom thou hast given me, sanctify them by thy truth;"-though, for a while, they "see his face no more," he can assure them, that when absent from them bodily, he will be "present with that Lord," whom here together they had loved, and served, and worshipped; and he poureth out, even in death, the fond