little farther.' At first he was in company with his eleven disciples; afterwards he chose three of them, whom he took along with him, leaving the rest be hind him. To these three he made known the inexpressible sorrow and anguish of his soul; and now he also left these at a distance, and went farther on in the garden, though but a little way; so that they had still a plain view of him, and by the light of the moon, they could discern how he was employed.But it is soon after said, that he withdrew from them a stone's cast.' This denotes a still farther removal, in which his design was to prevent his dis ciples taking any offence at his extreme sorrow and dread, and that he might the more freely pour out his heart before his heavenly Father. But the Greek word, by which this removal is expressed, signifies that he was carried or snatched away from them,' which exhibits a lively representation of the manner of it, viz. that he was seized by vehement anguish, overpowered, and, as it were, impelled forward, as a stone is cast by force some paces before one. privacy suited our blessed Lord's, present situation, as he now was pleading with his heavenly Father. The supreme judge, and the greatest sinner, who consented that all the transgressions of the whole world should be laid on him, were now to confer with each other. Now his most faithful friends were to stay behind; for in this important crisis no created being could afford him any assistance.

This

When

2. 'He kneeled.' St. Luke says 'that he kneeled down,' bent his knees down to the ground, as an altar on which he offered up himself to his father. the awful majesty of God displays itself in righteousness, every knee must bow. We find it recorded of other holy persons in Scripture that they prayed kneeling, as Solomon, (2. Chron. vi. 13.) Ezra, (Ezra ix. 5.) Paul, &c. (Acts xx. 36.) But what is their kneeling in comparison with this. Solomon was a

king, Ezra a priest, Paul a prophet or teacher. But he who kneeled here was at once king, priest, and prophet. They were dust and ashes, and their honour did not suffer by their kneeling down in the dust; but here the Lord of heaven and earth kneeled, to whom "every knee shall bow.'

3. He fell on his face to the ground.' Oh, what a spectacle is here! The only son of the eternal Father lies prostrate in the dust. The bread which came down from heaven, and giveth life to the world, now lies on the earth. This is an humble posture, which suits his creatures only. When David (2 Sam. xii. 16.) besought God for the life of his child, he lay all night on the ground; but here the Son and Lord of David, lying with his face on the ground, exhibits a quite different spectacle. The great Judge cannot but relent, when the accused humbles himself so low. Hence it is said, 'in his humiliation, his judgment was taken away.' (Acts viii. 33.) From this external deportment of our Saviour in his prayer we may learn,

1. That the reconciliation of mankind by Christ was to be attended with circumstances quite opposite to those, by which our fall was occasioned. The fall was occasioned by the most audacious presumption; man refusing to be any longer subject to his Creator, or be dependent on him in a blameless course of obedience: but would at once, as it were, scale heaven; and, had it been possible, would have dethroned God, before whom the holy angels fall prostrate on their faces, and have seated himself in his throne. In the commission of that crime all was arrogance and presumption: In the expiation of it nothing is seen but humiliation and abasement.When any aspiring presumptuous thoughts rise in us, let us think on the debased Jesus, with his whole body extended on the earth, and humbling himself, like an abject worm, before the Divine Justice.

2. The inward awe and reverence, with which we should be filled in prayer, must also shew itself outwardly in a reverential posture. Here the Son of God, whilst he is pleading our cause with his Father, kneels on the ground; why then are our knees so stiff and inflexible, that they do not bend before the supreme Majesty of heaven, when we are addressing ourselves to God about our own concerns? This, indeed, is not the essential part of prayer; yet, where the heart is possessed with real humility, and reverence for the Supreme Being, it will certainly shew itself outwardly. Such a one will not appear before God with that boldness, nor use such a careless and unseemly behaviour as is too common among many; especially persons of learning and rank, who seem to be ashamed of prayer. Let us not vainly imagine, that the innocent Lamb of God, by these his humble gestures, has expiated for the proud or indolent postures which men, to the dishonour of God, frequently use in prayer.

3. In following Christ we may fall into such circumstances that we must, as it were, disengage ourselves from all men, as finding no help or comfort in any creature. This was here the case of Christ himself, the head and captain of the church militant. Here was fulfilled what he had before said, 'Behold the hour cometh when ye shall all be scattered, and shall leave me alone." (John xvi. 32.) On the mount of glorification (Luke ix. 36.) Jesus only was seen at last; Moses and Elias, after talking with him of the event which he was to fulfil at Jerusalem, having disappeared. This was a type, signifying, that in his sufferings he should be destitue of all human comfort. Thus it may sometimes happen, that in following Christ we must gradually withdraw from our best friends, as Christ first withdraws from the eleven, and afterwards from the three disciples, and goes away to pray alone. But it appears from these

words, I am not alone; for the Father is with me,' (John xvi. 32.) with whom, in such solitary hours we ought to converse with the greater intimacy.

II. As to the purport of the prayer, it is said, He prayed, that if it were possible, this hour might pass from him,'

This expression, 'He prayed,' is often repeated in this history; as if the Evangelists had all agreed to induce us, by the frequent repetition, to take notice of this prayer of the Lord Jesus. The more his sorrows pressed upon him, the more he presevered in prayer to his Father, and humbled himself before the most just tribunal of God against all the accusations of the enemy, Herein was, as it were, the quintessence of prayer. Without this prayer of the Mediator, God would never have accepted of any prayer from sinners. When our Saviour at the beginning of his ministry was tempted by the devil, the last and most impudent assault was made in these words: All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down, and worship me.' But Christ, having baffled the audacious enemy with these words, 'Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God,' the tempter departed from him: but, as St. Luke very remarkably adds, "It was but for a season.' (Luke iv. 13.) He now returns again in the gloomy hour of trial, and, without doubt, with his usual effrontery renews the temptation. But Christ, in this instance also, continues true to his Father, and worships God only; and now an angel comes to strengthen him, as, after the former temptation, The angels came to minister unto him.'

But let us now enquire, What was properly the purport of our Saviour's prayer? That, if it were possible, this hour might pass from him.' He calls the suffering allotted to him, and of which he had already a foretaste, an Hour. (John xii. 27. xiii. 1.) It had before been said, (John vii, 30.) 'His hour

was not yet come.' But now it was come, as our blessd Lord himself says in his prayer, Father, the hour is come.' This was indeed an important hour, set apart in the eternal decrees of God for the sufferings of his Son; an hour, or time, which the spirit in the prophets had long before signified; (1 Peter i. 11.) an hour which our blessd Lord had before his eyes, and expected it as a woman expects the hour of her travail. This word includes likewise the whole torrent of sufferings with which his feeble humanity was to be overwhelmed, as the anguish and sorrow, the insults, pains, and death he endured: but it more particularly denotes the present hour of his inward agony, his anguish of soul; when the floods of God's wrath were discharged on him ; when he stood before the Divine tribunal as the greatest criminal, loaded with the oppressive weight of the sins of the whole world.

Concerning this hour, he prays, That it might pass from him. The desire of being freed from pain, or at least some mitigation of it, is indeed in itself a natural and blameless affection; a state of suffering being an adventitious thing for which human nature was not originally created; yet it may easily become sinful in us, by means of original sin, which dwelleth in us. But in Christ it was pure and unadulterated, he himself not being liable to suffer but from a voluntary covenant; nor had he the least taint of sin in himself. But our miseries moved him to it; and he felt the accumulated burden in such an oppressve manner, that he would fain try whether he could, in a legal way, obtain some alleviation of it. He therefore does not properly petition his Father, That all the sufferings he was to undergo may pass from him, as it is commonly expounded; but he means only to obtain, in the present hour of extreme inward trouble and anguish, an abatement and shortening of the dreadful agony he felt, which might have given of