CXXVI. Christ prays to his Father to glorifie him, and to preferve his Apoftles in Unity and Truth. AND now our Saviour lifts his Hand and Eyes, To his Great Father, thron'd above the Skies; Then thus begins--- Father! the Hour is come, Fore-fix'd by thy irrevocable Doom, When I my dear, my glorious Crown must gain,. Decreed to fuffer firft, and then to reign. At length my Work in this bad World is done : O Righteous Father! Glorify thy Son; That those who Thee, the one Supreme believe, And him whom thou from Heav'n haft fent, receive, May, ranfom'd by his Blood, for ever live : And see the Glory I with thee pofsest, Before the Earth on its ftrong Base was laid, Before the vast Expanfe above the World difplaid. CXXVI. St. JOHN Chap. XVII. Ver. 5, to 10. 126. 5. O Father, glorifie thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. 6. I bave manifefted thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word, &c. 9. I pray for them, I pray not for the world, but for them which thou haft given me, for they are thine. 10. And all mine are thine, and thine are mine, and I am glorified in them. CXXVII. Fefus bound and examin'd by the High Prieft: BEtray'd and bound they to the Pontiff bear Our Lord, accuse him and affront him there: The haughty Caiaphas, who fill'd the Chair, Of his Disciples and his Law enquirès; Our Saviour thus--- No corners Truth defires; Nothing in fecret filence I've conceal'd, But in the Temple all my Laws reveal'd. The Jews themselves have often heard me there, if ought amifs, let them the Truth declare. One of th' officious Guards who fill'd the Place, With a rude Halbert strikes his heav'nly Face. Mildly our Lord--- If ought that's Ill you hear No Favour fhow, impartial Witness bear: If only Truth, and in my own Defence, Í freely speak to clear my Innocence, Why am I rudely fmitten thus, and why Do you both Judges and Tormentors place fupply? CXXVII. St. JOHN Chap. XVIII. Ver. 20, to 23. 12/ 10. Fefus faid, I Spake openly in the world'; I ever taught in the Synagogue, and in the temple, whither the Jews always refort, and in fecret have I faid nothing. 21. Why askeft thou me? ask them which heard me, what I have faid unto them : behold, they know what I faid. 22. And when he had thus Spoken, one of the officers which food by, ftrook Fefus with the palm of his hand, faying, Anfwereft thou the high priest fo? 23. Jefus answered him, If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil: but if well, why mitcft thou me ? CXXVIII. Christ arraign'd and scourg'd. Now OW they thofe Hands that launch the Thun- A Prelude to approaching greater Pain. Cou'd Heav'n at fuch a fight its Bolts refrain, Or, O ye Angels! were your Swords in vain ? Whose fhining Myriads preft and ready stand, And only wait your Master's dread Command. But he must fuffer now, for us was bruis'd, Nor the Chaftisement of our Peace refus'd. We by his Stripes are heal'd, and give him more By our unkind Returns, than all his Wounds before, |