CXLV expository sermons upon the whole 17th chapter of the Gospel according to St.…

¹Fourthly, Consider the respect and relation Christ stands in towards God the Father, And then you will still say, his prayer is of great concernment to […], Now his relation is, the only Son of God, and dearly beloved by him, This is my well-beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased, Mat. 3.17. So that his prayers are heard unquestionably upon a twofold ground, the one of justice because infinite in worth, the other of love because the only begotten Son; This Heb. 5.7. He is said, while he prayed, to be heard in what he feared, and Joh. 11.12. Christ thanks the Father that he heard him always, and often doth he profess ⟨p. 11⟩that the Father loveth him the Son, and that the Father and the Son are one. This also is very comfortable to meditate upon, Thou hast the prayer of him who is the only begotten of the Father, whom the Father heareth always, and to whom he denieth nothing, if we are able to say, Lord, this is not my prayer only, This is not my desire only, but its the request of Christ so beloved of thee, then thou mayest justly believe thou shalt be accepted of; O Lord, though I have no loveliness, no comeliness, yet Christ hath; Some have doubted whether Christ was heard in every thing he prayed for,² and they instance in his prayer, that the cup might pass from him, but that was only conditional▪ If it be thy will, and therefore he added, Not my will but thine be done; That which he absolutely prayed for, was Gods support and preservation of him, as also the raising him out of the grave. That which seemeth to have great difficulty is his prayer, Luke 23.34. Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do, but of the efficacy of this we need not doubt of, because the Pharisees and others they sinned against their knowledge and conscience, and for such Christ prayed not, but others that knew not what they did, many of them were converted afterwards, and did believe in him, whom they had pierced, so that we need not doubt of speeding, when we bring Christ with us. Hence