positions as are approved by thee, and may, through thy mercy, be the means of procuring us all needful assistance to make us perfect in our degree, and to establish us before thee: that when we leave this world, in thy good appointed time, we may be partakers of the unspeakable happiness of thy chosen servants in the world to come, which thou hast promised us by Christ our Lord.

September 30, 1782.

SERMON

SERMON IV.

JOHN Xvii. 22.

And the glory which thou gavest me, I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are

one.

I PRESENT you here a part of our Saviour's prayer for himself and his apostles and followers before his death, in which it will appear that we are all interested and concerned : for he prefaces this part of it with saying; (ver. 20.) "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word.”

We have every reason to believe, and to be assured, that our Lord was most constant and assiduous in his more secret devotions, although concerning these we are wholly ignorant, however desirous we might have been to know in what strains of profoundest reverence, mixed with humble confidence, he

who

who always did the things that pleased him, approached the great God and heavenly Father from whom he had received all his

powers, and on whom he depended for life and happiness. We shall be able to understand the better what our Lord here utters, by attending to his situation and circumstances, to which his prayer would correspond; as all right prayer and befitting application to God will always be suited to our present condition, to the truth of our case at the time, to what we really are, what we feel, desire, and want.

As the hour of his departure out of the world was now near at hand, when he was to lay down his life in confirmation of that divine truth which he had taught, by which, by their obedience to it, mankind were to be saved from sin and death and made happy for

ever;

He could not but be above measure solicitous, that his labours might not have been in vain and as he had done his part, and finished the work which God had given him to do, that those that were to come after him might also fulfil their tasks, and his religion go on and prosper in the world.

We observe this holy Saviour, therefore, at

the

the very entrance, beginning with what thus lay uppermost in his heart;-" Father, the hour is come: glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee."

In which he prays that he might be carried through that his last severe suffering and conflict, and supported in establishing thereby the truth of his gospel for the salvation of mankind; and he considers this as not only an honour and happiness to himself, but doing credit to the heavenly Father, from whose benevolence and goodness the whole plan proceeded, and on whom its success depended: Glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee."

He then immediately after, which was very natural, and shows his great earnestness in it, repeats the same request, using nearly the same

terms;

(Ver. 4, 5.) "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 designed for me with thee before the world was.

As it is plain that the glory meant here by