These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee:
Ver. 1. And lift up his eyes to heaven] This and the like outward gestures in prayer, as they issue from the fervency of the good heart, so they reflect upon the soul, whose invisible affections by these visible actions, in the saints, are the more inflamed. Howbeit, hypocrites, though they have their hands elbow deep in the earth, will seem to pierce heaven with their eyes lift up in prayer. Videntur torvo aspectu caelum ad se attrahere, saith Calvin somewhere; they so fix their eyes in public prayer, as if they would leave them on the roof of the church; when all is but histrionical, theatrical, counterfeit, προς το θεα θηναι, to be seen of men,Matthew 6:1. The eagle, when she soareth highest, have ever an eye to the prey below; so hath the hypocrite to profit, credit.
The hour is come] q.d. I ask not before the time is come, I am ripe and ready for thy kingdom. Some would be in heaven ere they have done their work upon earth. But what said that ancient? Domino, si tibi sim necessarius, non recuso vivere: Lord, if thou hast any further service for me to do, I am willing to live longer. When we come to heaven, the reward will be so large, that we shall repent us (if it were possible there to repent for anything) that we have done no more work. It is not lawful, saith Capel, to wish for death simply, neither to be set free from the troubles, fears, and cares of sin, nor that we would not conflict, nor wrestle any longer (for this were to serve ourselves, and seek our own ease and ends), but in hatred to sin, as it is sin.