John 17

John 17:2

According as thou hast given me power of sentencing all men, condemning or absolving them, which power is to be instated on me at my resurrection, that I may give eternal life to all, whom thou hast so given me, so inclined their hearts that they cordially and sincerely come unto me: see note [d] ch. vi.

John 17:3

And all that is required to make men partakers of this eternal life, is, beside the knowledge of the Father, the only true God, (together with obedience to his commands formerly revealed by him,) the embracing Christ, and acknowledging his commission from the Father, (and him as the only true God also, 1 John v. 20,) and so receiving and observing all that is said and commanded by him.

John 17:4

I have testified and proclaimed thy will here in this world, and so glorified thee here, and have done all which thou hast appointed me to do by way of office or ministry here.

John 17:5

And do thou now, O Father, deal with me proportionably, assume this passible, mortal, human nature of mine, wherein I have served thee, unto a participation of that honour and dignity and glory, which, before I took this nature on me, I enjoyed with thee before the foundation of the world, even from all eternity, see Phil. ii. 6, 9.

John 17:6

I have made known thy will to those peculiar disciples, ver. 18, whom thou wert pleased by thy grace to fit, and so to bring to me, to undertake my discipleship, and attend me in the nearest relation, who being servants of thine have received my word, and obeyed it as thine, (see note [d] ch. vi.,) and served me in the publishing of it.

John 17:7

These have cordially acknowledged that all that message, ver. 4, on which I was sent was committed to me by thee.

John 17:8

For that message by thee committed to me I have committed to them, and they have received it, as that which in my name they will communicate from thee to the world, being sufficiently assured that my coming and preaching was all by commission from thee.

9, 10. I now offer up a prayer peculiarly for them, which I know are most precious in thy sight, (praying for all believers, ver. 20, and at other times, though not now, for his very crucifiers,) and that prayer for that, which for others I cannot pray, a

John 17:11

And this, because now I am likely to leave them to hazards and persecutions, and whilst I am a leaving the world they tarry in it: therefore, holy Father, I beseech thee, take them into thy tuition, and protect them in the discharge of their apostleship, which after my departure lies wholly on them; keep all my disciples by thy power, (and by that declaration of thy will, which thou hast afforded me by the gospel, thy power unto salvation of all believers,) from peril and defection, that they may live to teach and preach uniformly (all agreeing in the same) what I have taught them, in like manner as I have taught (without any alteration) what I had from thee.

John 17:12

All this while of my continuing among them I have laboured, by revealing thy will to them, to confirm them, and also to preserve them from danger, and it hath succeeded well: of all those whose hearts were by thy preventing grace so prepared, as that they came to me and undertook my service, (see note

John 17:13

But now that I am to depart from them, I beseech thee, and express this request of mine publicly, while I am here, that that courage which I exhort them to, and that cheerfulness, in passing through all hazards, may, by their knowing that I thus pray for them, be confirmed in them, and that the joy, which my presence among them now maintains and holds up in them, may be continued to them completely when I am gone, by remembering what I have now done for them.

John 17:16

They will not be for the world to like or entertain any more than I have been.

John 17:17

Be thou pleased therefore to set them apart, to fit them, and consecrate them for the preaching of thy truth, the gospel. (See ver. 19, and St. Chryssostome.) 18, 19. For to this office and undertaking they are sent by me, as I was by thee, (see ch. xx. 21,) therefore I intercede, and withal I offer myself up a sacrifice, for the consecrating of them, that they may do as I do, venture their lives in the preaching thy will, and by this offering of mine, as the ceremony of their consecration, be consecrated, or set apart for that function. 20, 21. And what I beg for them I beg also for all succeeding believers, which shall by them hereafter be brought to the faith, (and succeed them in the government of the church,) that they also may accord and continue uniformly in one faith and doctrine, that which I from thee have taught, and this by obeying our example, following the copy which we have set them, by agreeing one with the other in all things, that so this agreement of all (thee, and me, and them) may be a powerful means of convincing the world that I am sent by thee, which the divisions (and dissensions) of my disciples may bring into suspicion.

John 17:22

As for my disciples, (to whom he returns again, the 20th and 21st verses being included in a parenthesis, see note [d] ch. vi.) to this end I have furnished them with the power of working miracles, (called the glory of God, ch. xi. 40, and the glorious things done by him, Luke xiii. 13,) that they may preach this doctrine. Do thou therefore sanctify them also, that as I have been able to do whatsoever works of power thou art able to work, so they may be able to do also, through the presence of our power working in them.

John 17:23

I working in, and enabling them, as thou dost me, that they may be thus fitted and consecrated to their office, in being partakers of the same miraculous power, and through zeal to thy truth, confer all their

John 17:30

Now we discern 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.

• You speak a little confidently of your belief now, at a distance from danger.

John 17:32

But the time is now at hand, that ye shall fly from me to your homes, every one of you; and so, though ye believe on me, ye will not yet confess me, but forsake me, and, as much as in you is, leave me alone: but, although ye forsake me, my Father will not, he will continue close to me, and acknowledge me even in death itself, yea, and raise me up from death.

John 17:33

This I have foretold you, that you may depend on me for all kind of prosperity, and, by consideration of my conquest over all that is formidable in the world, take courage, and hold out against all the terrors and threats of the world, and the sufferings in it.

CHAP. XVII.

• the time of my suffering is come, enable me to go thorough all that is now before me, ready to come upon me, and receive me up into thy glory, ver. 5, that in the strength of my resurrection, the gospel may be received and believed in over the whole world.