the

me your Lord, you must expect no better, and all that you shall suffer must be imputed to their not believing that God hath sent me. If I had not personally appeared and done these things among them, they might have pleaded ignorance for their excuse, but now they are utterly inexcusable; for I have said and done so much to evidence my mission, that the opposing me is a malicious resisting of my Father himself. By this they have fulfilled that of the Psalmist, They hated me without a cause. But when the Holy Ghost, the advocate of my cause shall come, and whom I will send from the Father, he shall maintain my cause against all opposers, and shall constitute you witnesses of me to all, being the fittest to testify of me, because ye have been always with me. All that I have hitherto said is to fortify you, that you should not be deterred from my service by the hazards that attend it. Ye shall be ill used, and excluded from synagogues; and they that treat you thus will think it an acceptable service to God, if they put you to death; the cause of all which is the great impiety of their hearts, neither approving the commands of my Father, nor those which I bring from him. I thought it not fit to tell you these things till I was about to leave you, because while I was here, all the malice of men was levelled against me, while you were suffered to escape: but when I am gone from you, and you take the grand employment upon yourselves of revealing my Father's will, the opposition will fall upon you. I know that the thoughts of my leaving you, fill your minds with anxiety; but let this comfort you, the Holy Ghost is not to come till I have left you, and his coming will be of more advantage to you than my continuing with you; and when he cometh, he will plead my cause against the world, and charge the Jews with three sorts of actions practised in their courts. 1. With the crime of not believing me to be the Messiah. 2. He will justify my mission and innocence, by my ascension to heaven, taking me away out of the reach of human malice. 3. He shall work revenge upon Satan and his instruments who crucified me, and retaliate destruction upon them. Besides all that I have said, I have many things more to communicate to you, but ye cannot bear

them now. However, when the Holy Ghost cometh, whose title is the Spirit of Truth, he will instruct you what is to be done. What he doth shall tend to the illustration of me: for he being sent from my Father by me, shall in all things accord with me, and thereby appear to have his message from me, and to declare nothing to you, but what he hath from me. But while I say this, I mean not to appropriate to myself, so as to exclude my Father, but because all things are common to me and my Father, and that it is my work wholly to attend my Father's will, therefore whatsoever of this nature the Holy Ghost shall reveal to you, I call that mine, and the revealing of this, his taking of mine and declaring it to you. I shall shortly be taken from you for a time, and soon after I shall be with you again before my ascension, for it is not possible for me to be held by death; I must arise and go to my Father."

This latter part of his discourse his disciples could not comprehend: Jesus therefore, to remove the difficulty, explains it, by saying, "You shall have a time of mourning, and the world of joy; but your sadness shall soon be turned to rejoicing, and their's ere long into heaviness. Your sorrow at my death shall be like the pangs of a woman in travail; but when it shall appear to you, that my death doth but usher in my resurrection and ascension, as the pangs of travail do the birth of a child, then your sorrow shall vanish at the presence of this joy, which shall be lasting. When that Spirit is come, he shall teach you all things, satisfy all your doubts and ignorances, that you shall not need ask me any more questions. After my departure you shall use a new form in your prayers to God, which hitherto you have not used, make your requests to him in my name; and upon the account of your being my disciples, and my giving you this authority, and whatsoever tends to the fulfilling of your joy, or to your real good shall be granted you. My discourses among you have hitherto been obscure; but the Holy Ghost shall set all things plainly before you. And one great advantage you will gain by my ascension

* Spirit. See John xvi. 13.

and the descent of the Spirit, that you shall not need my offering up your prayers for you, but you may in my name offer them up to God yourselves; and God, out of his love and regard to those that believe on me, shall grant all that you ask. ask. I came from the Father into the world; and now I leave the world and go to my Father." This was such a plain demonstration of all that he had spoken, that the disciples scruple no more; their understandings are enlightened; and they no longer question Christ or his mission, "Now," say they, "we perceive that as thou knowest all things, so thou art pleased to reveal all saving truth evidently to us of thine own accord; this convinces us that God sent thee, and that thou camest to reveal his will." Jesus perceiving their forwardness, and knowing the frailty of their nature, tells them; "You speak a little confidently now of your belief, while you are at a distance from danger: but the time is just at hand, when ye shall all desert me; and though ye believe on me, ye will not then confess me, but leave me alone. But though you shall all forsake me, my Father will not; for he will, continue with me, will acknowledge me in death itself, and raise me up from the grave. This I have foretold This I have foretold you, that you may depend on me for all kind of prosperity, by considering my conquest over all that is formidable in the world; therefore you ought not to fear, but take courage, and hold out against all the threats and terrors of the world and the sufferings in it." The Holy Jesus having ended his sermon, offers up a solemn prayer to the Father, that he himself might be glorified; and that those who were given him, might be kept through his name; recommending his apostles, and succeeding Christians, in every future age, to the favourable regards of his Father, and praying for their union on earth, and glory in heaven. After which, he sung an hymnt with his disciples; and

After which. Our author fixes this at the time when our Lord sang a hymn with his disciples, probably because it is said, Mark xiv. 26, "When they had sung an hymn, they went out, &c." but most writers conceive that the hymn was sung immediately after the institution of the Lord's supper.

Hymn. This hymn was part of the great Allelujah, beginning at the 114th

then goes forth with them over the brook Cedron, to the mount of Olives, to a village called Gethsemane, where there was a garden,* into which he entered to pray with his disciples.

Being in the garden with them, he selects his favourite disciples Peter,† James and John, to be the witnesses of his passion, as they had been of his transfiguration; the rest being left near the entrance of the garden, to watch the approach of Judas and his band. With these three disciples he proceeded further into the garden. Then commenced his unparallelled agony, and he retired from the rest, about the distance of a stone's cast; where he began to be sore amazed, and to be very heavy. And saith unto them," My soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch," Matt. xxvi. 34. For it was on this occasion that he sustained those grievous sorrows in his soul, by which, as well as by his dying on the cross, he became a sin-offering, and accomplished the redemp

Psalm, "When Israel came out of Egypt," and ending at the 118th inclusively. It was the custom of the Jews after supper to sing verses or songs, especially over the paschal lamb; at which time they sang the Psalms abovementioned. And though it is generally thought that this was the hymn which Christ sang with his disciples, yet it is possible, that it was some other hymn more particularly adapted to this institution.

* Garden. It is probable that our Lord sought in this place that retirement which the crowded city could scarcely afford at the passover; and he might also prefer it, lest the people, on the first alarm of his apprehension should rise to rescue him.

Cedron or Kedron was, as its name signifies, a shady valley between Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives, through which the brook ran, which took its name from the place. The garden itself most probably appertained to one of the country seats situated in the vicinity of the metropolis, belonging to some friend of Jesus, who permitted him and his apostles occasionally to resort thither for privacy.

The word Gethsemane signifies the valley of fatness, a name derived, probably, from its favourable situation and excellent soil.

+ Peter. The kindness of our Saviour to Peter, in selecting him with the other two to follow him on this occasion, deserves particular remark; for it was almost immediately after he had so solemnly declared that in the course of the ensuing night he would thrice deny him.

tion of men. "And he was withdrawn from them about a stone's cast," Luke xxii. 41. His human nature being now burdened beyond measure, he found it necessary to retire, and pray that if it were possible, or consistent with the salvation of the world, he might be delivered from the sufferings which were then lying on him. For that it was not the fear of dying on the cross which made him speak and pray in the manner here related, is evident from this, that to suppose it, would be to degrade our Lord's character infinitely. Make his sufferings as terrible as possible; clothe them with all the aggravating circumstances imaginable; yet if no more is included in them but the pains of death, for Jesus, whose human nature was strengthened far beyond the natural pitch, by its union with the divine, to have shrunk at the prospect of them, would shew a weakness which many of his followers were strangers to, encountering more terrible deaths, without the least emotion: and he kneeled down and prayed, saying, "Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me," Luke xxii. 42. In the Greek it is, "O that thou wouldest remove this cup from me!" For here is a particle of wishing. Matthew says, he fell on his face, and prayed, saying, "O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.” He first kneeled and prayed, as Luke tells us; then, in the vehemence of his earnestness, he fell on his face, and spake the words recorded by Matthew and Mark. In the mean time, his prayer, though most fervent, was accompanied with due expressions of resignation: for he immediately added, "Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt," Matt. xxvi. 39. Having thus prayed, he returned to his disciples, and finding them asleep, he said to Peter, " Simon, sleepest thou? couldst not thou watch one hour ?" Mark xiv. 37. Thou who so lately boastedst of thy courage and constancy in my service, "Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation," Mark xiv. 38. In his greatest distresses he never lost his concern for the welfare of his disciples. Nor on those occasions was he chagrined with the offences which they committed through frailty and human weakness: on the contrary, he was always ready to make excuses for them: "The spirit