A30241:2528
CXLV expository sermons upon the whole 17th chapter of the Gospel according to St.…
CXLV expository sermons upon the whole 17th chapter of the Gospel according to St. John, or, Christs prayer before his passion explicated, and both practically and polemically improved by Anthony Burgess ...
London: printed by Abraham Miller for Thomas Underhill, 1656
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
2. The difference between his Prayer and ours. He prayed then for himself and his Church.
2. The difference between his Praier and ours. He praied then for himself and his Church.
1. Because as man he was not omnipotent, and so his humane will was not able to accomplish the things he desired, for although as God he could do all things, in which respect he wrought Miracles, and did them not by Petition, as the Apostles, but by his own power and in his own Name, yet as man, so, what he desired by his humane will, by that he could not simply accomplish it, so that in this respect it was that Christ as man did pray.
2. As man Christ was subject to the Law of God, and so was bound to give that worship and Religious Service to God which the Law did require, so that when Christ prayed he did it as fulfilling a duty, he had voluntarily submitted unto; Even as when he came to be baptized, he told John, it behoved him to fulfil all Righteousness, Matth. 3.15. It was part of his Righteousness to be baptized, because as man he was made a member of the Church; Therefore Matth. 4. he brings that command of worshipping and serving God alone, as reaching to him, intimating he was bound by that Command as well as other men: So Joh 4. he tells the Woman of Samaria, We worship, we know not what: He puts himself in the Number of Worshippers, So that Prayer being part of Gods worship, and a chief part of it, no wonder if Christ was constant in it: Hence we read of spending nights in Prayer, yea, in his Troubles, his Prayers were accompanied with strong Cries and Agonies, and the more they increased, the more earnestly he prayed.