those who persevere in prayer. Imagine what reasons the angel might use in comforting your agonizing Saviour. He probably represented to Him the necessity of His passion for the redemption of mankind, and the glory that would redound to His Father and Himself. All this Christ understood infinitely better than the angel, yet He did not refuse the proffer of consolation, in order to teach you to respect the advice and consolation of your inferiors.
II. " His sweat became as drops of blood, trickling down upon the ground." Imagine you see it gush from every pore of His sacred body, and beg of Him to bathe your soul in it. Detest your tepidity and coldness in prayer, and your barrenness in devotion. Ponder the causes of so preternatural an effect, I. The clear apprehension of all His future torments, as if they were present. 2. His perfect foreknowledge of the sins that would be committed, and of the general ingratitude of mankind, for whom He was on the point of suffering so much and so ineffectually. Condole with your Saviour, and grieve that you yourself have been so great a cause of His pain and sufferings.
III. "And being in an agony, He prayed the longer." From this you ought to learn, that in proportion as afflictions increase, so ought you to redouble your exertions in prayer. Christ might have prevented His agony or this conflict between the spirit and flesh if He had pleased; but He underwent it in order to show us how we ought to resist and conquer our passions. Reflect how easily you suffer yourself to be overcome by your evil propensities, and transgress your good resolutions. When temptation presses, you ought " to expect the Lord, to do manfully, and to let your heart take courage, and wait for the Lord." (Ps. xxvi. 14.)
